Author Spotlight - Alexia Adams

Happy 4th July to all our blog supporters in the US!

We have Vancouver-based author Alexia Adams in the Minxy Spotlight today. Alexia was one of my Nano team mates last year, so I have her to thank for Waking up in Vegas! (And Alexia's Nano novel will be releasing through Entangled Indulgence early next year.)

1. Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.
I’m a trophy wife (also known as a stay-at-home-mom) with four “delightful” children. Before I married and settled down, I was an avid traveller and backpacked around the world twice. I’ve lived in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, England, and France and spent three months in Panama and two months in Russia. I used to speak English, French, Spanish, some Russian and a little bit of Icelandic but my linguistic abilities have disappeared as I don’t use them anymore. I started writing three years ago and finally believe I’ve found my niche in life.

2. What number book is this? First? 100th? 200th?(Nora only!)
Singapore Fling is my debut novel. But I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just signed a two book deal with Entangled Publishing so I won’t be a one-book wonder.

3. Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?
This will probably get me drummed out of the sisterhood, but I hate shopping, although I do have a weakness for ridiculous shoes. On tough writing days I read over what I’ve already written and tweak that until my characters speak to me again. I also try to be content with just 250 words or so on those days—anything to get me past the rough spot and on to an easier scene. I most often hit these problems when editing, I know a scene needs something but can’t figure it out.

4. What is your top promo tip for other authors?
I’m going to answer this question as a reader, because I’m not sure my promotion has been particularly effective. I am more likely to buy a book from an author that is personable on social media. I ignore authors that only tweet about their book, their reviews and buy links. But I’ll auto buy books by authors that engage others in conversations and with whom I feel some personal connection. Sure, let me know your book is available, just don’t hit me over the head with it every hour.

5. How does writing fit into your day? Or does your day fit in around your writing?
I fit my day around writing. I have the luxury of not having to work outside the house, so as long as the children are mostly clean, somewhat dressed and adequately fed, then the majority of my work is done. I try to write for an hour, then do housework for an hour, which seems to refresh my creative juices. I’ve had many an epiphany cleaning the bathroom, must be the chemical fumes. Then once the children are all in bed, I concentrate on writing for two hours. Now that I’m published, I feel less guilty about the time I spend writing—it’s a paying gig which will help me support my family (or my ridiculous shoe fetish).

6. Do you write every day?
Yes. At the moment I’m addicted so if I don’t write or do something writing related, I get jittery.

7. Any craft books you recommend?Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation and Conflict was the most helpful to me to get my head around this vital component to any story. And I found Stephen King’s On Writing to be very motivational. I’ve got most of the other recommended books but haven’t finished them all.

8. What was the most fun part of writing this book?
The research. I sent my couple to a lot of exotic locations and got to check out places I’d go if money was no object. My husband used my laptop once and asked why ads were popping up for hotels in Manila and resorts in Indonesia. I think he thought I might be running away.

9. Could you be friends with any of your heroines?
I could be friends with all of my heroines. Although most are alpha women with money of their own, they’re all down to earth and consider personal relationships more important than money or looks.

10. Have you ever written a hero you'd be happy to run off with?
I love all my heroes, but not as much as the one I married. He loves and supports me and still thinks I’m sexy despite the ravages that time, four children and cancer have wreaked on my body.

Blurb:

Lalita Evans has always instinctively sensed that she is not the biological child of John and Julia Evans. So she has done everything she can to be the perfect daughter, the perfect future CEO of the family business. Her focus only slipped once in the past five years, when she met Jeremy Lakewood. Now her father has appointed Jeremy as Director of Marketing, and the one man who can melt her mind with a single kiss is to accompany her on a tour of the Asian offices. 

Jeremy Lakewood is not afraid of a challenge. Rising from an impoverished childhood to the upper echelons of the corporate world has allowed him to live up to his vow to support his widowed mother and disabled sister. The one crater in his road to success is Lalita Evans, the one that got away and the only woman who has ever turned his blood to molten lava. She’s not only the woman he can’t forget, but also his boss’s daughter. Sent to Asia with her on business, her father’s warning echoes in his ears—seduce Lalita and his career is over. 

Eight countries in three weeks, a quest to find a birth mother, and a mutual attraction as intense as it is inconvenient, leaves both Lalita and Jeremy questioning what they really want in life—love or their careers?

Singapore Fling is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

You can connect with Alexia on her website (where she has loads of pictures and stories from her extensive travels), Facebook, Twitter and on Pinterest.

Leave a comment on this post and you can stand a chance to win a copy of Singapore Fling.