Interview of Author Angela Smith

Today I'm pleased to present an interview of romance author Angela Smith.

Latest Book: Fatal Snag
Buy Links:
Crimson Romance
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iTunes

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y74gUd4EIGs

BIO:
Angela Smith is a writer and paralegal who lives in Central Texas with her husband, a handful of animals, and a gathering of books. Learn more at www.loveisamystery.com or on Twitter @angelaswriter.

Q: Your novel is being made into a TV series/movie. Who’s in your dream cast?
A: This is a hard question because I see my characters so vividly and have a hard time matching them with a real person. But I’d choose Jared Padalecki for Chayton, Jensen Ackles for Garret (Supernatural anyone?), Kristen Bell for Naomi, and Leighton Meester for Reagan. Took me a while to figure that one out, especially because my first thought was Chris Hemsworth for Garret. He’d work, too!

Q: What’s your writing schedule like? Do you strive for a certain amount of words each day?
A: I’d love to strive for certain words a day, but I can’t do that anymore or it will keep me from writing at all. Since I have a full time job, I try to write in the morning and the evenings. I admit, I do skip a few days, but I’m happy as long as I’m writing something, even if it’s only a couple hundred words. Lately I’ve been writing a lot during November’s National Novel Writing Month, and then I spend a lot of time revising and editing.

Q: How much of yourself is hidden in the characters in the book?
A: Many of my characters have different aspects of my traits, maybe a nervous habit or a hobby or something I’ve always wanted to try or even a trait I’ve always wanted to have. As crazy as it sounds, it’s like a child having some of their mother’s traits. They are their own individual with some of my traits.

Q: If you could change something about your first book, what would it be?
A: I’m going to talk about my first book, under a pseudonym, that I published back in 2006 and where the rights were reverted back to me, only because I would love to change the fact that I stopped writing, I started worrying too much about my career in prosecution and what everyone in my career would think, and I let fear ground me in not pursuing my goals for many years. If I could change that, I would, although I do believe things have happened for the best and at the right time.

Q: How do you choose names for your characters?
A: I think long and hard about my character names. I research the meaning and how it fits with the character I’m creating. Chayton, for instance, is a name derived from the Sioux Indians. Since he has some American Indian in him, I fell in love with that name and it was perfect for him. Even my secondary character names get researched a lot before I decide. I always know when a name is right for my characters.

Q: Give one advice tip to an aspiring author.
A: Write what you love, what speaks to you, and what you enjoy reading. Don’t ever give up and don’t waste your time on projects better spent writing (how clean can your house get, anyway? Oh, the books I could have written if I hadn’t been wasting my time and being too tired from my full-time job!) Read a lot! Oh, you asked for one tip. That would be to read for pure pleasure (a lot).

Q: If you could give a younger version of yourself advice, what would it be?
A: Stop waiting for that perfect opportunity, that perfect inspiration to write. Just keep writing. And learn to open yourself up and share your dreams with others.

Q: What genre would you like to try writing that you haven’t yet tried?
A: I’ve always wanted to try writing a young adult and have a story idea brewing.

Q: Have you ever used an incident from your real life into one of your books?
A: Absolutely! I work in a criminal law prosecutor’s office and though I have never written about anything that has happened there, it is a constant source of knowledge and inspiration for me. And people I have met over the years serve as inspiration for characters.

Q: How many stories are swirling around in your head? Do you keep a mental list, a computer file, or a spiral notebook filled with the ideas?
A: I have so many stories swirling around in my head and most of them I do have a computer file of something, even if it’s just one line. I have so many spiral notebooks they are starting to take over and I’ve upgraded my computer to have a hard drive just with my writing files. I don’t delete anything, ever.

Fun Stuff:
Q: What is your favorite holiday and why?
A: Christmas Eve. The memories, the joy, the magic, the family gatherings and just everything that leads up to the next morning.

Q: What are two things people might be surprised to know about you?
A: Most people would be surprised that I wrote and published six years ago before I took a very long break, and that I live with Type I Diabetes.

Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?&
A: A published author of a popular novel.

Q: Favorite food.
A: Avocado.

Q: Favorite happy memory.
A: Camping with my family in the summer.

Q: Favorite drink.
A: Water, only because I can’t do without it and love to sip on it all day, and because I can’t (shouldn’t) drink wine all day!

Q: Hot summer days or chilly winter nights?
A: Ugh, tough one! If we are talking Texas hot, then I’d have to choose chilly winter nights. Curling up near a fireplace with the wood popping and a glass of wine in one hand, a book in the other. But I’d take an eighty degree day anytime.

Q: What is the top thing on your bucket list?
A: An RV trip with a Jeep and couple of dirt bikes on the back. The 5200+ mile route is already planned. Now just need the means to do it.

Q: If you could have a super power, what would it be?
A: Do I only have to pick one? Invincibility, because I’d never be too scared to try the many things I’d like to try. Invisibility would be nice, too, because I’d love to be a fly on the wall at certain times. Super speed, because then I could go travel all the places I’d love to see, but I’d need invincibility for that, too.

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAngelaSmith
Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelaswriter
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173505.Angela_Smith
Website: http://www.loveisamystery.com/
Blog: http://www.loveisamystery.com/my-blog
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/authorangelasmith
Email: angela@loveisamystery.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/104911226706379689979/posts?partnerid=gplp0
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/asmithauthor/
Crimson Romance

BLURB:
Hollywood fashion consultant Naomi Fisher is happy to use her obsessive-compulsive planning to assist with her cousin's wedding, but her history with the sexy and sullen Chayton Chambers, the groom’s brother, terrifies her. When the groom is kidnapped at his own wedding, Chayton and Naomi rush to find an important relic to satisfy the ransom before her cousin becomes a widow before a bride. Naomi trades garters for guns as survival, and love becomes a deadly game impossible to resist.

EXCERPT:
Surprise flashed through his brain, but he narrowed his eyes before it had a chance to erupt on his face. He edged closer. In her heels, her nose usually touched his chin, but now the top of her head came under his chin. Her breath curled around his cheek, exerting an agitated pull on his hormones that left him shaky and hesitant. He camouflaged that hesitation with cockiness and confidence.

She inched her nose higher. He leaned down to look at her, his face a fingerbreadth from hers. “Maybe that’s your problem,” he grumbled. “Maybe you can’t get over the fact that I never tried to kiss you.”

He closed in on her, pinning her against the wall as he settled his hands on the wall near her head. She couldn’t move with him so near and he made a point to trap her.

He remained that way for several seconds, staring into blue eyes of defiance as they breathed in each other’s breath. His pulse hinged precariously close to plunging overboard and disrupting his steady poise, but for now he held on.

Then he kissed her. Hard. Briefly. Fervidly. Heat traversed from his toes, agitating his shaky thighs and roosting in his loins only to explode behind his eyes.

She deepened the kiss, a slight brush of her tongue against his. He held on another brief moment then dropped his hands and backed away before his point became futile. Swiping a hand across his mouth, he pinned her with a hard gaze. “Is that better?”

“I’m not here to ask your forgiveness.”


Anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you so very much for having me on your blog. I had a great time!