New interview with contemporary romance author Liza O'Connor

I have a return guest today, author Liza O’Connor, to tell us a bit about her new novel, a contemporary romance titled Ghost Lover. 

You can read her first interview, about her YA novel Saving Casey, here.

Liza will be awarding a digital copy of "Worst Week Ever" to a randomly drawn commenter at every stop, and a grand prize of one $50 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her review-only Virtual Book Tour. To enter, use the form below. And if you’d like to increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and enter there, too.

Welcome back, Liza. What would you like readers to know about you?

I’m tired of my Liza behaves bio. I’m an adventurous nut with a bizarre sense of humor that a surprisingly large quantity of people actually gets. The others don’t think I’m funny at all. That hurts my feelings by the way. No matter, it does not stop my muse from writing more silliness. In fact, it only encourages her to be sillier.

Please tell us about your newest release, Ghost Lover.

Two sexy English brothers. One irresistible ghost. Who would you choose as your lover? (I know, that’s not telling, that’s asking. Okay, here’s telling:

Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him, and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart.

As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran, is going to let his brother marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him--beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother…

The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon, and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done.

CONTENT WARNING: Allergy warning: Ghost cat in book.  

What inspired you to write this book?

I had a dream where a ghost made love to me. I sort of fell in love with him.

Excerpt:

Brendon moved to the window and stared out. “I don’t think you realized how bad things became for me when Nan died. I’d lost the only person who cared for me. I had no one left. The million dollars I lost on a roulette wheel wasn’t done just to get rid of the cook. I did it to get your attention. While you didn’t give a shit about me, you’ve always loved money. And it worked. You finally noticed me.”

“And sent you away,” Gar said with remorse.

“Yeah.” Brendon turned and gave him a faint smile. “Not exactly the response I’d hoped for, but it turned out all right. I met Senna and since then life keeps getting easier with each day. Now I find I even like you most of the time.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual. You’re still eccentric, but you’ve a good heart and good intent, and I’m proud you’re my brother.”

Suddenly the door opened and Senna walked in looking at both men with concern. “Are you two having a fight?”

“Not at all.” Brendon smiled. “In fact, Gar told me he’s proud I’m his brother.”

Senna’s eyes filled with appreciation as she grinned at Gar.

Her smile almost broke Gar’s heart. God help him, but Brendon had nailed the truth. He did love Senna, and more than anything, he wanted her to be his wife.

What’s the next writing project?

The next book to be published is the last of the A Long Road to Love series, in which things get serious and Carrie finds her true love. Coming in Feb 2014. Then comes a delightfully funny Late Victorian Mystery series. It’s rather a comic version of Sherlock Holmes meets Victor/Victoria.

But if you really meant ‘writing’ and not ‘publishing’ then the next book I’ll write will occur in Iowa where one of the characters will be a blind man who acts upon the law they recently passed allowing blind people to carry and discharge firearms in public. I’m going to have so much fun with that real law. Thank you Iowa!

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

Names are my biggest challenge. If I had my way all heroes would be named Xavier and all women would be named Senna. But alas, that would confused the dickens out of my readers. So I have a First published rule. Whichever book is first published gets dibs on the names and all the other books waiting to be published have to give them up.

I also have a problem with not keeping track of minor character’s names. Once I named three characters in the book Davy. Fortunately, I noticed before I sent the book off for submission.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

I do research on the spot. My characters are happily going along when I question something. Sometimes a google will resolve the issue, but sometimes I have to send questions to lawyers and doctors. (I’ve used 5 different lawyers in one book—my characters get into a great deal of legal trouble.) Then during editing, sometimes an editor will question something that I hadn’t and I’ll research further. In one case, I was right, but the editor insisted I change it anyway because it sounded wrong to her. I removed the whole topic instead. I didn’t like the idea of knowingly stating something wrong.

However, my biggest problem lies with legal issues. Different states have different laws, thus I need lawyers for the state in which the situation takes place, which means I need to start searching for a lawyer in Iowa now.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

I have a home office, but the chair hurts my butt, so I moved to the living room where I sit in a giant recliner with my feet up and type on a laptop all day. There’s a huge TV screen on the wall I face, but it’s on only when I’m eating lunch or when I’m thanking Tweeters late at night. Which means I watch mostly recorded shows.

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

For Contemporaries, Kary Rader’s A Taylor Made Life is one of the best love stories you’ll ever read. (Buy an economy size of tissues, because you’ll cry your eyes out.)

My favorite Werewolf/Shifters novels are Rebecca Royce’s.

My fav vampire novels go to Annie Nicholas’ Angler series, starting with Bait.

For Regencies, it’s Ella Quinn’s Marriage Mart series.

Westerns go to D’Ann Lindun.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

Just that the book I’ll be giving away today, Worst Week Ever, is my best seller and the funniest book I’ve ever written. It is the first book of three book series, so you may feel compelled to read to the end. Book 2 is available, and Book 3 will release in mid February.

Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!

And thank you for having me.

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Buy links:

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