Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have three books published, Santa Takes a Wife, The Frog Kiss and Her Puzzle. I have two books accepted for publication, and a third with an editor. I have been writing for thirty years, so I have a large backlog of books to submit.
I have two grown daughters and 5 grandchildren. There are two demanding cats, and an English bulldog who acts as a great distraction to my writing, in that he snores really loudly, and every time he snores, I get sleepy and think I should be napping. Not good.
I collect dragons, and at last count had about 300+. There is not a square inch in my house that doesn’t have a dragon. I also collect nativity sets and grow house plants. For years I thought my goal in life was to find the perfect brownie recipe, but I’ve decided there is no singular perfect recipe, it all depends on what I’m in the mood for, but to be honest, I haven’t given up looking just yet.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Dragon’s Tea. It will be coming out April 15th and is the first in a trilogy. It takes place at the Dragon Roost Bed and Breakfast, an Inn which spans several vortexes leading to different worlds. My hero is a dragon who can be a handsome man or a teapot. When he is a teapot he is extremely vulnerable for he cannot change back to his other forms when held in mortal hands. My heroine isn’t sure she believes in dragons, but she runs to the B&B escaping an old boyfriend who she discovers is a murderer. She falls in love with Byron and together they work to defeat an evil wizard.
As for what inspired it, I have always been interested in writing a romance novel where the hero is a dragon. And the book takes place in Au Sable New York, a small tourist town in upstate New York, high in the Adirondack mountains where there is streams and forests and lots of places for elves to hide and wizards to plot. Also there is without a doubt the best chocolate store in the country. The candy store doesn’t play a big part in the novels, but it helps me to stay dedicated to the task, thinking I should go back…do some research.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write when I can. Life is so busy and time goes by so quickly that waiting for the perfect time is never going to happen. But I have some unusual experiences.
When I write I get deeply involved with my characters. My husband has been known to come home and say “How did your day go?” to which I’ve responded, “Lousy, Bryce got picked up at the middle school for selling marijuana.”
And after he agrees how awful that is, he’ll say something like “Do we know a Bryce?”
And once I got published, I asked my adult (married) daughter to read one of my books. She turned a little green and got twitchy. “I can’t read a romance novel from my MOM!”
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’d love to dedicate a book eventually to my sixth-grade teacher Mr. Herman who taught me how to love reading. I can’t remember if he read out loud every day or if it was only once a week, but I hung on every word of those books. Years later I learned they were all Newberry books, but It’s like This, Cat, and Dorp Dead, and books like that are what really got me to feel alive within a story.
As for other authors influencing me, my sister S.L. Kotar is a published author with 6 non fiction books and one fiction (many more coming). Always she was there to support me when it looked like I would never be published.
And there are literally hundreds of books that I have read that I’ve loved, work of other authors, who have inspired me, entertained me, and kept me a firm believer in romance.
What are you working on now?
The book I am working on now is called Yes, Virginia, and is a sequel to Santa Takes a Wife. My hero in Santa Takes a Wife, is Santa. I think I’ve always been in love with Santa. What’s not to love about that? He adores children, he has elves to do much of his work and he always has the exactly perfect gift for each person. Nicholas St. Noel and Beth his bride have a daughter, Virginia, who is the next Santa. Ginny is not sure she’s up to the task, especially when she gets caught delivering presents one Christmas eve by a naked man with a very large gun. Not only does he think she’s in his home to steal, he very much believes she’s involved in a kidnapping.
In order to find out more about her, he invites her to stay in his home for a week to entertain his family. It is then they discover the feelings they have for each other are love.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am very new to this. I have to say this is my first attempt at self-promotion. I like the comprehensive questions and the ease of using this website. I hope all the rest are this easy.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am not one for giving advice, as I said, I am new to this, but given the opportunity, two things immediately come to mind.
The first: Never give up. Never give up. Never, ever give up. (Winston Churchill?)
The second, writing the best book you can and getting lucky enough to get it published is only half the job. If you want your book to be in the hands of readers, then you have to learn the business side of being published. You have to use social media to promote your work.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Again, I don’t find this an easy question, but a few things come to mind.
Taking about showing not telling: Don’t put tears in your character’s eyes, put them in your reader’s eyes.
About finishing a book: Don’t be afraid to write a ‘bad’ book. The important thing to do is to get the story down. A scene that doesn’t work can be fixed. A blank page cannot.
On procrastination: Pour yourself a cup of hot coffee (tea, chocolate) and get started writing your scene before you finish.
And obviously, take the time to learn how to self-promote your work if you want it to sell. Writing can be a hobby, but if your a writer, it’s a business and you’re self-employed (even if you have a publisher). Learn the ropes.
What are you reading now?
I finished Dark Witch by Nora Roberts this morning, and I’ve got about a dozen books in my to be read pile, Laurell K. Hamilton, Marjorie M. Liu, Christina Dodd, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Robin D. Owens, to name a few. I also read a lot of YA fantasy/paranormal fiction. There is a lot of great stuff being written for that market.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve set a self-goal to finish a novel by August, which shouldn’t be too hard if I can keep butt in chair and work, but my priority now is to learn the ins and outs of self-publication. I would like to learn enough to have my Amazon rankings go up. I’m not quite thinking I’ll make the NY Times best seller lists in this lifetime, but I would like to see some of my books sell.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
This sounds like a nightmare to me. I’d rather have a hundred books, or my kindle and a good internet connection to download whatever I want. 3 or 4 books would probably take me less than a week.
How long am I going to be stranded?
Actually, if I have my laptop, and a good power source, 3 books might do it, as I find it far easier most days to lose myself in someone else’s writing than my own.
On this desert island.. can I bring a tall dark and handsome man? If that’s the case, I probably won’t need my laptop either.
Author Websites and Profiles
Betsy J. Bennett Website