Interview of Author Meg Benjamin

Today it's my pleasure to present an interview of romance author Meg Benjamin.
Latest Book: Don’t Forget Me
Buy Link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/dont-forget-p-6561.html

BIO:
Meg Benjamin is the author of the Konigsburg series for Samhain Publishing. Book #3, Be My Baby, won a 2011 EPIC Award for Contemporary Romance. Book #4, Long Time Gone, received the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Indie Press Romance. Book #5, Brand New Me, was a Long and Short Reviews Best Book. Meg lives in Colorado with her DH and two rather large Maine coon kitties (well, partly Maine Coon anyway). Her Web site is http://www.MegBenjamin.com. You can follow her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/megbenj1). Meg loves to hear from readers—contact her at meg@megbenjamin.com.


Q: What part of the book is the easiest for you to write? Why?
A: I think dialogue is the easiest part of writing for me. Part of this is due to the rather uncomfortable fact that my characters talk to me. I hear their voices and it’s fairly easy to figure out what they’d say to their Significant Others. The only trick is to make sure I don’t fall into a predictable pattern. If I find my characters saying kneejerk, obvious things, I sometimes draw back and ask myself if they really have to say that. Or, more interestingly, what would happen if they said the opposite of what’s expected.

Q: What part of the book is the hardest for you? Why?
A: The sex scenes, no question. You want them to be hot and you want them to be appropriate for the characters and you don’t want to do the exact same thing you did last time. And since my books aren’t quite in the erotica category I’m limited in the vocabulary I can use. Whew!

Q: Who is your favorite character in your book and why?
A: Probably Docia Kent, the heroine in my first book Venus In Blue Jeans. Docia shows up in all the other books too just because she’s sort of the emotional and psychological center of Konigsburg. I just finished a draft of a Konigsburg book where Docia didn’t appear at all, and I missed her!

Q: What is your favorite romance book that you’ve read?
A: Probably Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. It’s funny and moving at the same time. And it has the great virtue of setting up your expectations for one thing and then delivering something entirely new.

Q: What genre would you like to try writing in but haven’t yet done so? Why?
A: I’d love to write mysteries—I read almost as many of them as I do romances. But in the kind of mysteries I like (by people like Susan Conant and Margaret Maron) there are couples but not a lot of romance. If I were to do it, I’d want both—mystery and sex!

Q: Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Chats, or Twitter. Which do you like best and why?
A: I like them all (well, not MySpace, I guess—their last revision lost me), but for different reasons. I like Facebook because you can follow a discussion there a little more easily than you can on Twitter, and I like Twitter because it’s fast and frequently funny. My blog (http://megbenj1.wordpress.com) gives me a chance to talk at length about things I’m interested in or ticked off about. And chats are fun because they give you a chance to talk, sort of (I usually do mine with my friends at Nine Naughty Novelists).

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
http://www.megbenjamin.com
https://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1
https://twitter.com/#%21/megbenj1
http://megbenj1.wordpress.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/megbenjamin
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2869971.Meg_Benjamin
Samhain Publishing: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/meg-benjamin-pa-416.html

BLURB:
Once they said goodbye forever. Now they want to walk it back.

Konigsburg, Texas, Book 6

Eighteen months ago, Kit Maldonado was so over Nando Avrogado, she left Konigsburg without a backward glance. With the family restaurant in San Antonio sold out from under her, though, she’s back to manage The Rose, an exclusive resort eatery outside town.

Dealing with a stingy boss, an amorous head chef, an understaffed dining room and planning her aunt’s wedding should have kept her hands full. But she realizes she might not be as over Nando as she thought.

As the town’s new assistant chief of police, Nando’s got enough trouble without sexy Kit fanning embers he thought had long ago turned to ashes. Every time he turns around, she’s there—and it doesn’t help that everyone in town wants to see them back together.

One incendiary kiss, and there’s no denying the force of their attraction. But there’s a mysterious and oddly familiar burglar who’s been lurking around Konigsburg, someone who isn’t above a little mayhem—maybe even violence—to cover his tracks.

Product Warnings:
Contains hot makeup sex, wedding madness, a hot chef, vengeful burglars, and unlawful abuse of a wedding cake.

EXCERPT:
It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the early evening light. People still strolled down Main, ducking into the few open stores. Mid-March wasn’t a great tourist time in Konigsburg, but they got some families who filled up the motels and bed and breakfasts for Spring Break. He settled his Stetson on his forehead and started up the street toward the Faro.

Ahead of him the crowd parted for a moment and he saw a swing of long dark hair reaching down below a woman’s shoulders. Nice. For a moment, he concentrated on her as she walked up the street in front of him, wondering what she’d look like when she turned around. You could never predict exactly how attractive someone’s face would be based on her back side.

Nando grimaced. He really needed to stop ogling women. Particularly if he wanted to take the whole celibacy thing seriously. Besides, if anyone ever heard him talking about faces and back sides like that, he’d be banned from the female sex for life. Which you would richly deserve, and which might not be such a bad thing.

A couple walking in front of him turned in to one of the candy stores and he got a better look at the woman up ahead. Silken dark hair, slender waist, long, long legs that showed off well in her white Capri pants. Nando finally gave in and checked her behind. More than respectable. The whole package was superlative, in fact. Always assuming the face matched.

What the hell are you doing? You’re supposed to be giving this up. You know it won’t go anywhere.

Nando shook his head. Going cold turkey was going to be a lot harder than he’d thought. On the other hand, he couldn’t go on indefinitely moving from woman to woman like some deranged honey bee, could he? Time to start being selective. Time to learn how to pace himself.

Time to grow up. More than time, if he were honest. He grimaced. That one hurt, largely because it was true.

Ahead of him, the woman slowed alongside Docia Toleffson’s bookstore. Slowed and then stopped, staring in the window. After a moment, she waved at someone inside. Nando let his own pace slow down so that he wouldn’t pass her just yet. He really wanted to see her face.

The door to the bookstore flew open, and Docia Toleffson herself stepped out, all six feet of her—maybe seven feet if you counted that pile of red hair on top of her head. She grinned at the stranger and then extended her arms to give her a hug. As she did, Nando got his first look at the woman’s face.

His heart stuttered and then promptly dropped to his shoes. Oh god, of course. I really had this coming.

“Kit,” Docia was saying. “Kit Maldonado. Where have you been keeping yourself? Allie said you were coming back this week. Oh, it’s so good to see you!”

Kit said something back, but Nando didn’t hear it. He was too busy stepping backward into the doorway of another shop where he’d have some cover. The last thing he wanted right then was a conversation with Kit. Hell, he didn’t even want her to see him just yet. Not until he figured out what exactly he was going to say to her. And how he was going to say it. And what it would mean.

Kit Maldonado. Here. Back in Konigsburg.

For a moment he swore he could almost hear Esteban laughing. The force of karma had just sunk its teeth firmly into his ass.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you so much for having me!