Welcome, we are talking with Anne Carter! First of all, I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy writing schedule to answer a few questions.

What made you decide to become a romance writer?

Romance was always my favorite genre to read, so became the easiest to write. Plus, there is a big, hungry market out there for romance and its many sub-genres.

What did you do before romance writing?

Before romance, I wrote mostly literary short stories, essays and poems. I started writing in the 8th grade, while taking a creative writing class at school. Many more writing and literature classes followed, leading me to the short fiction arena.

What is a typical writing day for you?

I wish I could say I had a “typical” writing day. I am not a full-time writer, so I must balance my days with parenting, running a business and marketing my existing works. That being said, I do get in some writing every day. I prefer to write after my other obligations are met, so that I won’t get that writer’s guilt that often plagues those of us with a long list of responsibilities. But it’s not always possible if I have a hot story line going and it just can’t wait. I journal every night as well.

Can you tell us about your story Point Surrender?

Point Surrender is a romantic mystery with paranormal elements. While reluctantly working on the restoration of an abandoned lighthouse for her injured brother, Amy Winslow finds the journal of the last keeper, dead some forty years. Marine veterinarian Case McKenna, helping at the lighthouse while on vacation, isn’t so sure the contents of the journal should be made public, but Amy is bound and determined to find out just what happened to the keeper and his missing family. Complicating matters are the secrets both Amy and Case harbor, baggage from their pasts they cannot completely shed. Helping to solve the mystery is a benign ghost or two…

Your writing creates a tangible atmosphere and reveals a depth of the subject; did this require a great deal of research?

Actually, Point Surrender didn’t require a lot of research. I did have the incredible opportunity to stay in a real lighthouse while writing the last few chapters of the book, which added a great degree of authenticity for me. To sit in the lantern room and watch passing ships and ferries was very inspiring. The muse was definitely there, too.

Where can readers find your novel?
 
Point Surrender is available at Amazon, BN.com, and a variety of on-line booksellers. It is also stocked at some Barnes & Noble stores, and is available to all bookstores through Ingram’s. Digital (ebook) versions are for sale, along with all my books, at Fictionwise

Do your characters live with you when writing? Have you ever had them take over for awhile when writing?

I think this is a sign that a book is really solid. I have had characters continue conversations while I am driving in my car, going to sleep at night, etc. To know your characters that well is a blessing. The characters from my first full-length romance, StarCrossed Hearts, lived with me for years. Still do, as I’m muddling through the 3rd and final book of that series.

Since your book Point Surrender, are you working on any projects now? Can you give us any “brief peeks” of them?

Even before I finished Point Surrender, I was thinking about a follow up book. Now, the first draft of Cape Seduction is nearly finished. This is a new experience for me, as half ofCape Seduction takes place in 1948-49, half in 2008. Research for this book is fascinating and will qualify it as historical fiction. It, too, will have paranormal elements. And what’s exciting is that the idea for this book came to me fully formed.

What is on tap for you in 2008?

Currently, I am promoting the anthology THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT, in which I have a short story involving the characters from StarCrossed Hearts. All of the stories in this Echelon Press anthology deal with fire and survival, and the proceeds are going to aid fire victims in Southern California. (see my website for more details.)

Also, I am celebrating the release of my middle-grade-to-t’ween reader, LOCKER SHOCK!, about a boy who finds a gun in his school locker. This book, and its follow up work-in-progess OLD ENOUGH are written under author name Pam Ripling.

Once again thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and I hope you will stop by again soon to see us here at Coffee Time Romance.