Interview with Dani Collins

Good morning, Dani and welcome to Coffee Time Romance. Please grab a seat in our cozy recliner, and be sure to get some delicious baked treats off the table. They are all calorie free. Karenne made sure to take all the fattening stuff out. Be sure to slip on the relaxing fuzzy pink slippers. The readers are very eager to learn more about Dani Collins.

Thanks for having me here at Coffee Time Romance and the slippers are amazing, but I brought my own. They’re like gloves for me feet. See? All my toes are individually wrapped. I wear them all the time.
Thanks, Dani, they look nice.

Tell us, Dani, if you were to invite some of the readers over to spend a day with you, how would the day begin?

I live in a very small town. Very, very small. So our options are limited. Summer is better so we can walk down to the bistro for coffee and the best eggs benedict you’ve ever had. (Small does not mean we are completely uncivilized!) From there we could walk to the beach. The lake is the warmest tree-lined lake in Canada. After that, well, we’ve pretty much done all there is to do here, lol.  

Now, why don’t we spend time discussing your latest The Sheikh’s Sinful Seduction? 

I’d love to! It will be on shelves March 1st. It’s my tenth full length manuscript for Harlequin.

Where did you get the premise to write this story?

The initial idea came from my editor at Harlequin Mills & Boon. The team in London wanted to take on the seven deadly sins as seven SEXY sins. My editor asked if I would do ‘lust.’ I said YES.

Was it difficult to come up with the right characters for the story, or did you already have them in mind?

It was a small challenge. I wanted to make the characters feel exotic to each other, so I thought a redheaded bookworm and a worldly sheikh would do it. Initially I wrote the hero as the English half-brother of a sheikh and my editor said, What if the hero is a sheikh? She was so right. Once I made the hero a half-English sheikh with baggage because of his mixed parentage, I was away to the races.

I also wanted to address the ‘sin’ part of the premise, so I made Fern the product of the sin of lust. Her mother never let her forget that lust had ruined her life by making her carry and care for Fern. It makes Fern very cautious when she feels the stirrings of that sinful temptation of lust for Zafir.  

Tell us what is in the future for Dani, and any upcoming books?

I’m excited to tell you I have four more books scheduled for 2015:

Mar 13 – The Bachelor’s Baby (Montana Born)
May 11 – Untitled – bride theme (Montana Born)
These are linked to my first two Montana Born books Hometown Hero and Blame The Mistletoe. It’s a four book series.

Jun 1 – Seduced Into The Greek’s World (Harlequin Presents)
This is the fourth book in my Makricosta Dynasty, following No Longer Forbidden?, More Than A Convenient Marriage? And An Heir To Bind Them.

Finally:
Sep 1 – Vows of Revenge (Harlequin Presents) 

What does your writing place look like?

We have a large attic that was converted by the previous owners to accommodate their twin boys. It’s a big space, but has a slant ceiling so it can be painful if you stand up too fast in the wrong place.

It’s large enough that I had it sectioned for a guest room and my writing area for years. Once I published, however, I began accumulating author copies and giveaway goodies and stuff. My parents took the guest bed and it’s now mostly my writing room and occasionally used for storage.

The house is thirty years old so it’s due for upgrades. Every time we tackle a project, I wind up with a bunch of furniture and boxes in here, but at this precise moment, it’s pretty tidy.

Even my actual desk is okay. As I write, the closer I grow to deadline, the more messy I leave my desk. Then, once a book is finished, I spend a day sorting out everything, taking care of tasks I’ve ignored while I pushed to The End, then I start a new book and start a new mess.

If you could meet three authors, past or present, what three authors would you love to spend a week with?

I have had the good luck to meet two authors whose work I adore: Linda Howard and Elizabeth Lowell. Actually, I enjoy and have met Jenny Crusie, too. I would love to meet Laura Kinsale. Her books are amazing and I’m sure Jane Austen would be fascinating.

I think I’m really lucky because I do spend a week with a couple of thousand authors every year at RWA’s National conference. It’s really cool when you’re with people who think and act like you do.  

Do you write on a schedule or as inspiration hits?

My greater problem is stepping away from the computer. When I was writing around my day job, I made it a habit to write before I went into work and now that writing is my fulltime job, I still go immediately to my computer every morning including weekends.

I drink my herbal tea (Sweetfern Detox) and check social media first, then read email. By the time I’m eating breakfast and switching to coffee, I’m starting to do real work.

I do have a bad habit of letting the promo side of publishing eat into my real writing. I’m beginning to think that I should make it a habit not to let myself get into those sorts of tasks before I get my daily quota of pages. I find it’s really easy to fall into designing bookmarks or a new Facebook banner and suddenly it’s eleven o’clock and I haven’t written any new words.

As for waiting for inspiration, I don’t have the luxury. Not anymore. I’m on deadline and this is my job. When I get the books in, I get paid, so I’m motivated.

If you could travel anywhere in the world for a couple of weeks and vacation, where would you go?

My husband and I have friends in Spain we have wanted to visit for years. That is definitely top of list, but I keep seeing pictures from Iceland, which is where my mother’s family hails from. My husband wants to see Ireland and my daughter has a friend in Finland, which is where my Dad’s side is from. This makes me want to do a big circuit there and we might as well drop by St. Petersburg if we’re in the area, right?

Name three things you look for in a companion or friend.
Sense of humor, compassion, intelligence.

Is there a certain food or dessert that you could eat over and over again?

Watermelon. I can’t make myself stop once I get started and my daughter is the same. We demolish them on a regular basis. Oh, and I eat blueberries every morning. I never get bored of those either.

Dani, is there anything else you would like to share with us?

I love hearing from readers. Please contact me through any of my social media links and join my newsletter if you’d like to be notified of my new releases. I always draw from my subscribers for a signed print copy of my new release and I regularly post giveaways on my blog and Facebook. I hope you’ll check in when you have time.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Thank you Dani for being with us today. I look forward to reading all your wonderful stories. I wanted to mention that the picture of you, and your daughter, when you received the award from Romantic Times is nice. Your daughter is very pretty. And congratulations. It has been fun getting to learn more about you and your books. 

Thank you so much! I have a son, too. They’ve both helped me brainstorm different stories at different times. I’m so very proud of both of them.

Thanks for having me today. It’s been a pleasure.