This week I'm hosting Susan Page Davis with Always Ready and K.M. Daughters with Rose of the Adriatic. If you want to enter the drawing for the book, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don't want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (Aug 2nd) evening.
Interview with K. M. Daughters:
1. What made you start writing?
Reading has always been a passion for us. The ambition to write novels started while reading those first library books and thinking, “wish I could write like that.” To dreaming, “I want to write like that.” To deciding, “why not try?” We each completed manuscripts separately. One day while on a walk Kathie suggested a book title that she had created. We started brainstorming characters and a story line. We had so much fun our “why not try” decision to start writing became why not together?
2. How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?
We have been writing a little under five years as a team. By the time we sold our first book, Jewel of the Adriatic, on January 26, 2008, we had completed three and a half manuscripts together.
3. How do you handle rejections?
Oh, at first there’s a dive of disappointment and maybe a blood pressure spike at the bitter pill to swallow. Perhaps because of our shared faith in God and an unquestioning belief that He will lead us where we’re supposed to go, we accept rejection as part of His plan – after a little grousing.
4. Why do you write?
It feels so necessary to write. Even when we weren’t writing fiction together, we communicated by writing all the time: old fashioned snail mail letters, now long newsy emails, always thank you notes for gifts and kindnesses, our original sentiments in home made greeting cards. The inclination to write and the allure of creating fictional worlds we can live in for a while seem imbedded in our bones.
5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
If the budget is healthy, traveling. These days, walking on the Illinois Prairie Path, an amazing free luxury.
6. What are you working on right now?
We also write a romantic suspense series, The Sullivan Boys, and we’re working on the fourth book in that series.
7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
Yes, definitely on an emotional level. Overcoming loss and pain whether it’s caused by death of loved ones, divorce, abandonment, or emotional abuse are central issues in our stories. Our inspirational books strongly reflect our personal beliefs. We’re not present in any of our books on a physical level at all.
8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.
We are so excited to tell you about Rose of the Adriatic, sequel to our inspirational romance, Jewel of the Adriatic. This book is deeply special to us and we hope readers agree with our opinion that it’s emotional, prayerful and uplifting. It releases July 31st in digital and print from White Rose Publishing. Sr. Editor, Nicola Martinez, acquired both books for the publisher and worked with us to edit them, a joyful experience. She also is the cover artist for both. Although we love both covers, Rose of The Adriatic’s cover is stunning and we are delighted to acknowledge her talent.
Set again in the fictional Adriatic village, Valselo, Rose of the Adriatic is about the quest of a research scientist, Dr. Matt Robbins, to test the visionary, Anna Babic.
Wounded and faithless, Matt arrives in Valselo determined to discredit the visionary who claims to see the Mother of God. Matt believes only proven facts, and he's sure Anna is either lying or delusional. But, despite all his unpopular testing, he can’t disprove Anna’s visions--and what's worse, he finds himself falling for the beautiful visionary who speaks with the blessed Virgin Mary.
Anna has experienced skeptics in the past, and they've never left a lasting effect. But Matt is different. Despite his open disbelief and vehemence to discredit her, she finds herself hoping he'll change his mind.
Drawn together as if by a heavenly hand, can Anna choose a life as the wife to her unlikely match? Can Matt believe on faith alone that God loves him enough to heal him and free him to love Anna?
9. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Have faith that you were given the talent to write as part of God’s life plan for you.
10. How important is faith in your books?
Faith is extremely important in everything we write and everything we are. Regardless of genre, our heroes and heroines are God centered people or struggle with faith based issues toward God’s healing power.
11. What themes do you like to write about?
Love heals, is the central theme in all our books.
12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
Rose of the Adriatic is our favorite book. Inspired by our visits to historic and contemporary Marian sites like Fatima, Lourdes and Medjugorje where messages have been imparted to visionaries, this book is a blend of supernatural occurrences and miracles associated with these sites. We believe in miracles and this book particularly celebrates that belief.
13. What is your writing schedule like?
Our writing schedules are very erratic and compete with our “day job” business responsibilities. We try to produce two chapters a week for an ongoing WIP and orchestrate trips to each other’s homes to coincide with developing each new book. We have to be together to do that. We also try to be together to work through the first round of edits in a finished book. We write independently, one in New Jersey, the other in Illinois, alternating chapters.
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