Author Spotlight - Louisa George

Today we're delighted to welcome new medical romance author Louisa George, one of Harlequin's 'new voices'. Originally from Yorkshire in the UK, Louisa now lives in New Zealand in a testosterone-filled household - it's no wonder she writes romance!

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Thanks so much for inviting me here!

What is your writing process?

I wish I knew! Before I got The Call I dithered and plotted a little and pantser-ed (is that a word?) a little. But now I’m on deadlines I try to plot out the conflict and motivation at very least. I start with an image usually. For One Month to Become a Mum it was a car crash scene. For my second book, Waking Up with His Runaway Bride it was as simple as a stain on the ceiling. For the one I’m writing now it was a lone man standing on a jagged outcrop staring out to sea. Then I build from there. I usually write a synopsis before I start, but often veer away. I write a dirty first draft, and am constantly adding layers.

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?

It’s a constant struggle. I force myself into my office from 11.00-4.00pm every week day. But that doesn’t mean I use that time well – and there is always internet shoe shopping! Lately I’ve discovered Freedom for Mac, which is a dinky little app for my Mac which disables the internet. I set it for 2 hours and am surprised how many more words I get done. I also read that spending five minutes at the beginning of the writing session just planning, longhand, what you are going to write helps. And it really does!

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?

Absolutely. At least three times a week I do a very intense zumba class (I am a total addict and have been known to do 6 classes in a week). I try to do kickboxing once a week too.

Do you believe in writer's block?

Yes. And no. (should I get off the fence now?). Yes, I think it is possible to get stuck in a hole. But I find that forcing myself to write just anything helps, another scene, from a different POV... Who was it that said you can’t fix a blank page?

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

Not an incident, but snippets, settings. And so far I’ve been trouble free!

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

It’s harder than I thought! It’s more than a full time job! I write from 11-4 but there are a lot of other things that need doing too – promo, edits, plotting next book, research….But it’s such fun, better than I ever dreamt!

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

I’m on most of the social networking sites – facebook, twitter, goodreads, pinterest, I am about to start writing for two blogs – Love Cats Downunder and Medical Romance Authors, so I am trying to raise my profile. I’m also fairly active on the New Voices Facebook page.

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

Oooh, good question – tricky….write a damned good book. Your book is your brand, if it isn’t good it won’t sell regardless of how much promo you do. Or at least, your first one might sell, but the rest won’t.

What did you learn while writing this book?

So, so much. How conflict has got to be deep rooted and consistent. No matter how deep you go, you can go further! How fabulous my editor is!

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

The first kiss scene where Luke dares Jessie to kiss him…such fun to see the fireworks!

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

Vietnam appears in the book so possibly there. Lots of culture, yummy food and spectacular beaches.

One Month to Become a Mum

Some things in life are worth waiting for…

Jessie Price has lost her only chance at motherhood – it’s a constant hurt, until she meets sinfully sexy single dad Dr Luke McKenzie and his gorgeous little girl. Luke’s intoxicating kisses and his daughter’s adoring hugs have Jessie longing for the impossible. But she's a temporary locum, the clock’s ticking – and there’s only a month to make all her wishes come true…

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I'm happy to give one copy of my debut release, ONE MONTH TO BECOME A MUM which is in a 2-in-1 book with Margaret McDonagh on each blog stop plus a $50 US amazon voucher to whoever visits me the most on the tour!

One Month to Become a Mum is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, Mills & Boon and The Book Depository.

You can find out more about Louisa on her website, at her blog, on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

Author Spotlight - Connie Cox

The Minxes are pleased to have with us today debut medical author Connie Cox. And as a medical fanatic, I can tell you that this debut is a winner!!


What is your writing process?

I’m a morning writer. I have breakfast with my husband, check email, play on facebook, twitter and pinterest until he leaves for work. Exert GREAT willpower to stop visiting with my friends via social media and then I get down to work. I write 5-6 hours a day, with a walk or two and frequent facebook breaks thrown in.

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?

I bribe myself by online shopping. Today, I have a brand new crochet pattern book as my reward for working really hard last week—but I can’t start a new project until I get the book turned in. Carrot and stick works best for me.

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?

I wish I was more disciplined here. My husband and I have started walking in the mornings and evenings but it’s been raining this week I need to break out the Richard Simmons Dancing to the Oldies DVDs, I guess.

Do you believe in writer's block?

Sadly, yes, I think writer’s block is real. I don’t think we give our sensitive psyches enough credit for the stories that come from our subconsious so we don’t take care of our mental health as much as we should. Creativity and imagination need nurturing and encouraging. We should take care of our own brains as carefully as we take care of our children’s brains: worry-free rest, good food, stretch out into learning new things and have plenty of fun. Also, my doctor just talked to me about the chemical reality of estrogen and creativity being linked. So, us writers we’ve got to take care of our feminine sides, too. To me, that means taking note and enjoying the sensuous around me, the scent of a sweet olive bush, the orange on an oriole’s wing, the texture of bamboo yarn as it slides through my fingers. Everything can feed the writer’s soul. But if we don’t pay attention, if we don’t celebrate all the wonders around us, our ideas will be as dull as our days.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

Yes, I use real incidences all the time. My recent release, The Baby Who Saved Dr Cynical, features two diagnosticians. I needed something that was difficult to diagnose so a friend said she knew someone with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. When I started writing the book, less than 500 cases where identified.

Thankfully, I did my research and was able to include the Syndrome accurately in the storyline. Last weekend, I was asked to sign The Baby Who Saved Dr Cynical at a 5K fundraiser to raise awareness for the syndrome—and I got to meet Dr Phelan, herself, who asked me to sign her book, To Katie! What an honor!

I haven’t heard back from Dr. Phalen yet, so hopefully, I’m not in trouble.

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

For some reason, I thought publishing a book would make me taller and thinner—better put together, more organized, all the things I’m not. Instead, being published has made me very proud to say I make my living writing novels. I have become more disciplined about my writing schedule. Knowing my editor is waiting for my book, instead of knowing a bottomless slush pile is groaning under the weight of my submissions is a great motivator. For all you struggling to make that first sale—all the isolation from family and friends while you write, the angst while you wait for acceptance, and the heartbreak of getting those ‘not right for us a this time’ letters is worth it the day you get The Call where the editor says, ‘I love your book and want to buy it’.

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

I’m lucky that the things authors do for promotion are things I like to do anyway. I LOVE conversing with people, face-to-face or via internet. So I speak to readers and writers groups and I play on all the social media. I keep my website up-to-date with news about my newest release and what’s in the future. I don’t make bookmarks, although I do have cute little cards with my website, facebook, twitter and goodreads URLs on them—but that’s mostly so I can make new friends.

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

Only do what you like to do. Listening to someone speak that doesn’t like to is painful for all of us. If you’re only on social media to beg people to buy your books—don’t bother. The rest of us are looking for connections, not advertisements. 

What did you learn while writing this book? 

Wow! This book is so chockful of research, although carefully hidden, I hope! I learned about Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and the foster care system in Colorado and I learned how to deliver a baby in my living room and make an incubator from a salad bowl, tin foil and a hair dryer (although that invention didn’t make the book.) I am so grateful to all my friends who share their expertise with me. The incubator came from a rural EMT friend who actually had to make one a couple of times.

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

The most fun I had with this book was the dialogue between Stephanie and Jason. I felt like I was taking dictation as they verbally sparred with each other. Of course, love won in the final round.

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

I can imagine them there, right now….They are hiking and camping in the mountains. These are hands on, physical people who would go crazy sitting still on a beach, no matter how beautiful the sunset.

What’s the book about?

To the outside world, Dr Jason Drake is a brilliant diagnostician, but completely lacking in emotion and bedside manner. He is the genius everyone turns to when they have been unable to find the answer to a child’s medical problem, and his methods are unorthodox, his manner brash. Yet his boss, Dr Stephanie Montclair, understands his burning passion for medicine – and over the last months has also been the recipient of his incredible passion in bed! But what was meant to be a no-strings fling has just turned complicated… This book explores: the foster care system and Phelan-McDermid Syndrome also known as 22q13 Deletion Syndrome.

The Baby Who Saved Dr Cynical is available now in the UK in paperback and on Kindle 

And will be available in the US for pre-order on the Nook and on Kindle

Author Spotlight - Amy Andrews

Today I'm pleased to welcome one of my favourite medical authors. Amy writes smoking hot medicals that have me turning the page long into the night. It was no surprise for me to hear that Amy's next release is going to be a Riva. I'm so excited to read it!! Here's Amy talking about her current release.


Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

I had about four or five books out and was just dabbling in my first ST. I was writing fast back then – I’ve been getting slower and slower. Sob!


Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?

My latest medical – Waking Up With Dr Off Limits - is the fourth in a linked series and came about from a few of my medical writer friends talking about wanting to do something together and then approaching one of our eds about it. We were given some very loose guidelines by editorial but essentially all the characters and setting came from us. We set it in Coogee so at the conference there in 2010 we were able to meet and discuss our characters and go looking for local Coogee landscapes that we could put in the book. We hadn’t decided who was going to do what book but as our plotting chat expanded on a little loop we’d set up, we kept talking about how there was going to be a TDH character that also lived at the house, maybe a brother of one of the heroines, to give the books a bit of eye candy and comic relief but then he grew and grew and grew and I knew I wanted my heroine (who hadn’t even really come to me by that stage) to be hopelessly in love with him. So I volunteered to go last so that Jess’s (really must stop choosing heroines names that end in an s!!) unrequited love could be well chronicled and then I could give her, her HEA at the end.


Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

In five years I hope to be closing in on my 50th Harlequin. I’m now also writing for their RIVA line (Innocent Until Proven Otherwise is out in Feb next year) so the magical 50 will be split between two lines. I also hope to have a thriving ST career. Last year my sister and I co-authored a contemporary women’s fiction novel (with romantic elements – of course!!) which Harper Collins Australia picked up in a 2 book deal. Sister Pact, a story about two estranged sisters forced to play nice, is out in time for Mother’s Day next year.

Our second book tentatively titled Sister Napped is out the following year and continues the story of Joni and Frances. It’s great to see so many Australian publishing houses now realising what we Aussie romance authors/readers have known all along – romance rocks. And most importantly romance sells. It’s great to see so many Aussie authors being picked up by our local houses. And it was even better to hear one of the editors (can’t remember who) on the editor panel in Melbourne this year say that the RWA conference is now THE industry conference to attend in Australia. That can only be good news for ALL of us.


Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

I have two actually. I just finished On The Loose by Tara Janzen, a new author to me. And also Susan Sey’s Money Shot. I highly recommend both of them. Tight writing. Great one liners. Zingy dialogue.


Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?

No. But there was one that made me want to be a different writer  Getting Rid Of Bradley changed my life. Until I read this fabulous Crusie category romance I thought I knew what a romance was. She blew that away. She showed me that you could be funny and snarky and sassy and irreverent. Yes perhaps I should have already known that  but to that point I wasn’t really reading any ST romance and my category choices were along the lines of Ann Mather and Carole Mortimer – great books but very different to Crusie’s.


What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?

Well it’s not going to sound very romantic I’m sure but a few years back my husband and I went to the Amalfi Coast in Italy sans children and one day we ended up at a little beach side shack (literally on the beach) that served basic food and cold local wine and we just watched the ocean together for a few hours – talking and eating amazing local cuisine and absorbing the ambience. It was bliss!


What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?

That getting the call isn’t the prize. It’s just the beginning of the journey and beyond that tantalizing, frustratingly out of reach door is another bloody huge mountain to climb!


What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?

Don’t give up.


How do you go about researching the medical detail that needs to go into your books?

I’m a terribly lazy researcher - I really don’t like it (would never make an historical writer!!) so I tend to chose medical situations that I know a lot about either through personal experience or just plain osmosis from having worked in the industry for over two decades. If I need to research I have a swag of medical people I know or work with that can usually answer most questions. If not it’s the www. But I think it’s also important to stress that any romance is first and foremost about the relationship – the medical stuff mustn’t overshadow that so I urge anyone out there trying to write for the line not to tie themselves in knots over medical detail.


Tell us about your book.

I’m excited about Waking Up With Dr Off Limits because it’s my first ever virgin book. I can’t believe it took me 25 books to get here  I guess though this series of four linked books is called Single Free and Fabulous in Sydney because it involved much younger heroines. I usually write my female leads in their 30’s so it seemed a good fit with Jess’s young character and her three year obsession/adulation/crush on Adam. I should perhaps add a warning here—my editor said she had to fan herself when she was reading it  Jess may have waited til she was 24 but she caught up fast! Jess is a newbie theatre nurse and Adam (Ruby from book 1’s brother) is a hotshot highflying surgeon working for an international surgical charity. He’s away a lot but that doesn’t stop Jess pining for him and imagining what could happen! Then one day she comes home from work after an all nighter in the OR to find Adam very much home and sleeping in her bed. And he’s coming to work in her theatres on a major case and wants her to help! Suddenly Adam isn’t looking at Jess as his little sister’s friend anymore. And Jess knows it’s now or never….


What’s next for you?

I’m writing my second RIVA next – not that I currently have a clue about any of it. But that’s okay, I know it’ll come. I have a title – the rest will follow 

Waking up With Dr Off-Limits


Jess's Diary: At least catching my housemate Dr Adam Carmichael--bachelor, sex-god, and my secret crush extraordinaire--in my bed {!} means he finally knows my name! For years Adam's been 100% off-limits {if ever a man needed a revolving door on his bedroom ...}, but there's no harm in dreaming of more ... is there?


Available from Mills & Boon UK, Mills & Boon Australia, Amazon UK




Thanks for being with us today, Amy, I'd be interested to know when you sleep with medicals, Rivas and Single Titles!!