Author Spotlight: Autumn Piper

It's always treat when we Minxes do author spotlights with authors who are special to one or all of us. Today, I'm very honoured to welcome Autumn Piper, a fabulous writer and one of my CPs. Autumn and I "met" at our first crit group and have been through a few more together ;) She's a fantastic CP and I'm very thrilled to welcome her to the Minx blog today. Take it away, chica!

1. Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

5 years ago, I’d composed most of my first (still as-yet unpublished because it’s entirely too long) manuscript. I was on a roll writing, but completely oblivious to the “rules” of publishing—e.g. Books don’t market well when they are 186,000 words long…

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

Ever hear the mantra, “Write what you know”? Well, I was inspired to write Trouble Under Venus because of what I don’t know. My father disappeared from Miami when I was 4 years old, never to be seen again. His involvement with the Cuban Mafia is highly suspect. And since we’d never met, he’s a huge mystery in my life. So I wondered: What if I could travel back in time to just before he disappeared, meet him, and perhaps learn something about the circumstances regarding his disappearance? And voila, I had this daredevil heroine willing to sacrifice anything to join an experimental timetravel program in order to go back and meet her father. Didn’t take much for me to throw in a troublesome (if hunky) FBI agent trying to pose as a geeky geologist in her timetravel group, and a couple of suave, sexy Cubans in Miami, along with lots of intrigue and danger. The hardest part was accepting the ending, which really broke my heart…

3. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

Well, if it’s August, I’d think we should be at our new place on Maui, heading over for dinner at Oprah’s… Oh. You mean real-life goals? I’d certainly like to have a few more releases under my belt by then, and maybe catch the eye of a bigtime agent. But mostly I’m hoping ebook sales go crazy and my publisher, Lyrical Press, grows by leaps and bounds. That’ll help me both as an author and an editor there.

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

Any of the Outlander books, or the Harry Potter series. Diana Gabaldon and JK Rowling truly own my admiration!

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

I grew up reading romance from Jude Devereaux and Kathleen Woodiwiss, and continued to be inspired by Nora Roberts as an adult. Also, Stephen King has always impressed me.

6. Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy?

I actually love writing love scenes. It’s a toss-up whether I like them more than fight scenes, though!

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

When Valentine’s Day, 2003 rolled around, my hubby had been working out of state for about 6 months, and was only home for a weekend every 4-6 weeks or so. He made it home that weekend, in time to assist with delivery of his fabulous order of flowers. Twelve dozen red roses! The independent florist had almost passed out on the phone six weeks before when he’d ordered them. They were lovely, and I’ve still got boxes of dried roses saved.

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

It took me a long time (at least to my thinking) to get published, so I knew about all the hard work of revising and self-editing. Also got lots of experience with queries and rejections. Probably the biggest eye-opener for me was learning how many acquaintances would be excited to hear about my books, so if I could do it over, I’d announce my success a little sooner and a lot louder.

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

That would be about avoiding those “ly” words—and I got it first from Stephen King’s On Writing.

10. Tell us about your latest release.


Trouble Under Venus is my most recent release (although I do have another Trouble book coming out in September - click here to read about Fallen Star Trouble).

Here’s the cover copy for Trouble Under Venus:

For some love lasts a long time, for others a lifetime. Can theirs outlast space-time?

Randi’s summer vacation plans? Attending Professor Sudo’s Time Travel Academy so she can blast back to 1980 Miami and figure out where her father disappeared to. She’s the head of her class until hottie Mitch arrives disguised as a geeky geologist and totally messes up her meditation. Goodbye Soulful in Sedona, hello Yearning in Yoga. So long solo time-travel, hello pushy partner--who happens to be a buff tri-athlete, a sympathetic listener, and an ace FBI agent on a top-secret mission. With his help, she’ll conga her way into the Cuban mafia, try not to destroy the delicate fabric of the space-time continuum, dodge a few bullets, and solve The Mystery of the Missing Dad. And maybe fall just a little in love…
Content Warning: A new adventure in women’s fiction, with a heroine who boldly goes where no chick has gone before, tons of danger and intrigue, a roller-discoing Granny, life and death betrayal, steamy Miami nights and one hot FBI agent.

11. What’s next for you?

I’m still writing Trouble books, and working on another series, and have also recently been promoted to EIC at Lyrical Press, so I’m really trying to immerse myself deeper in the publishing biz and get farther from “real life”. And maybe closer to Maui…

You can keep in touch with Autumn via the following links:
http://piperpatter.blogspot.com/
http://www.autumnpiper.com/

Great to have you visit us today, Autumn!