Interview of RBRU Member Author Jean Hart Stewart!

Today it's my pleasure to present an interview of fellow RBRU Member Author and fellow Cerridwen Press author, Jean Hart Stewart!

Latest Book: The Third Rose
Buy Link: Red Rose Publishing
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/jswriter7

BIO:
I feel I’m very much a Californian although I was born in Ohio. California has been home for a good many years. Life changed drastically when I was six and my father died, incredibly from an errant golf ball. A dishonest insurance agent left us with little income and forced my sheltered mother to seek work, and she became a teacher. Her hours required me to be alone in the house most of the afternoon, and since I was forbidden to leave till my mother got home, I became an avid reader. The local library supplied most of the books and I fell in love with both Jane Austen and King Arthur.

Reading is still one of my favorite activities, although I often have to push it aside to make room for my compelling love of writing. My journalism degree wasn’t much use to me until recently. Marriage and raising two children pleasantly got in the way. After twenty years of being a real estate broker and with the kids raised I could finally devote my time to writing, my first love.

Few things in my life have been so satisfying, especially when all my books have a happy ending. Wonderful to make that happen. It only gets more interesting when a secondary character demands his very own book. Sometimes a new character is so noisy I just have to give in. Shouting inside my head gets my attention, believe me, and those guys usually turn out to be fun to write about.

Q: What’s the first thing you did when you received word you’d sold a book?
A: I was stunned for a good two minutes, then ran to tell my husband. I did keep my presence of mind long enough to e-mail my editor and say the sequel to Druid’s Daughter was already written and would she like to see it? She said yes, I e-mailed it and so sold my first two books in two days. Then I REALLY couldn’t believe it.

Q: What part of the book is the easiest for you to write? Why?
A: The opening chapter generally pops into my head, almost in its entirety as soon as I get the idea for the book. Not to say I don’t write and re-write it, but that first chapter is a joy. I put on the computer as fast as I can right. The rest of the book is never half that easy.

Q: What part of the book is the hardest for you? Why?
A: The blasted soggy middle. Beginning and ending are easy. The advice that helps me the most is some I got from Mary Balogh. “When you’re stuck, make it worse”. That eventually works, although it’s sometime a sloggy path.

Q: Do all your heroes and all heroines look the same in your mind as you “head write”?
A: No, not at all. I generally sketch out the characters, both their physical and personal traits as part of my preliminary research. I sometimes do several weeks of research on the time period I’m writing in as well.

Q: What genre would you like to try writing in but haven’t yet done so? Why?
A: I’d dearly love to write pure erotica. While my stuff comes close, as it’d rated highly sensual. Would like to do erotica just for the fact I haven’t, I guess. I’ve tried and it’s not easy, at least not for me.

Q: Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Chats, or Twitter. Which do you like best and why?
A: I like them all, but am not as faithful as I’d like to be. If I have to pick I’d say chats because I sometimes learn a little about what a reader is thinking. I love to interact with my readers. They’re invaluable in learning what they like best… Or worst! Next would be blogs, and I try to follow a lot of those of my fellow writers, as well as the romancebooksrus blog.

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
http://www.jeanhartstewart.com
Red Rose Publishing
Romancebooksrus blog
Jswriter@earthlink.net at Facebook, Twitter, myspace.
jswriter@earthlink.net, e-mail
Alternate e-mail address is jeanthedruid30@gmail.com

BLURB:
Sara accosts Lord Wolverton in his bedroom late at night with the intent to shooting him in the groin so he’d never again rape an innocent girl. Fortunately Wolf overpowers her, since she finds he is not the villain she seeks. They embark together on a hunt to find the real rapist. Then the spy Wolf is also seeking turns his vengeance on Sara. Wolf needs her help to decode a cryptic message about ‘the third rose’ and track down the spy. He fears for her safety and yet knows he needs her help.

The spy hunt turns desperate and Sara and Wolf find themselves hurrying to Brussels to join Wellington and save the General’s life. Matters come to a head at the Battle of Waterloo, with both Sara and Wolf proving their courage and their love. But will even extraordinary love and courage be enough to save them both?

The villain is unusually nasty. They can stop him, can’t they?

EXCERPT:
At last. The bastard had come home. He must have lit more candles, as the room became brighter. She could see a large man, elegantly dressed, stride across the room. Double drat! He moved out of her vision, and she did not dare part the draperies any further. She waited, breath suspended, as he re-appeared and sat on the bed. He arched one long muscled leg, bending over to tug at his boot. His face was in shadow, but his build was powerful, that of a more than adequate sportsman. His size didn’t worry her. A gun was a great equalizer.

He meant to take his boots off himself? She was surprised he didn’t require his valet to wait up for him. An unusual bit of consideration for a servant, one she’d not expected. She’d thought she’d have to stay hidden until the valet had come and gone. Perhaps this was better, since at least he was decently clothed. Not that she’d let any missish tendencies deter her. Actually seeing a large nude male might be educational.

Now was the time.

She cocked the gun and stepped out in front of him, the barrel pointed directly at him.

“You will please rise, my lord. I do not intend to shoot a seated villain.” She felt pride in the composure of her voice. She’d worried a little about that.

Wolverton did not appear unduly upset, although his eyebrows arched upward. He bent the long leg stretched on the bed and clasped both hands around his knee.

“A woman. How interesting. I admit you make a very fetching young man dressed in those breeches, but your voice is definitely female. Might I inquire why you have your gun pointed at me?”

She had to give him his due. His tone seemed as cool as hers, and she certainly must have been a nasty surprise. Although come to think of it, he probably often found women accosting him in his bedchamber. But surely for more pleasurable purposes, cad that he was.

“Stand up, my lord.”

Neither her voice nor the hand holding the gun on him wavered, as Joshua Sinclair, Earl of Wolverton, slowly placed both his boots on the luxurious Aubusson carpet and rose to his feet.

“Is there anything I can do for you, madam?” he inquired, as politely as if he were asking her if she took milk with her tea.

She shook her head slowly, carefully lowering the gun a trifle. What a shame he was such a handsome devil, but then she should have expected no less from a despoiler of virgins.

She was pleased to see him blanch a little as he realized where she aimed.

“Can I persuade you to raise your gun a little? I don’t mind being shot in the chest nearly as much as if you hit the most valued part of my anatomy.”

Anything else you’d like to add?
Just thanks for asking me. I love any interaction I can get with readers and other authors. So write me at one of my e-mails.