Living the Laws of Love… Interview with author Lisa White

Hi Folks I’m pleased to have on ye old blog today another fellow Crimson author Lisa White. Her contemporary romance: The Laws of Love is currently available from Crimson Romance.

Welcome Lisa!

Kwana, thank you for hosting me!  It is an honor to be here today.

Can you tell us a bit about The Laws of Love?

THE LAWS OF LOVE is set in a small, Virginia town where fly-fishing is the favorite pastime, Hampton Steel is essentially the only employer and Associate General Counsel Livi Miller believes she has reached the top rung of Hampton Steel’s corporate ladder. With her alcoholic boss retiring soon, Livi is the presumptive heir to Hampton Steel’s general counsel position. However, in the midst of proving herself promotion-worthy, Livi’s high school sweetheart, Jake Cooper, returns from Iraq and causes long-lost butterflies to alight in Livi’s emotionally charged stomach. The resulting loss of her promotion to slimy newcomer Edward Winston combines with her rekindled feelings for Jake to place Livi on track to choose between her career and her heart.
If she chooses Hampton Steel, she saves her hometown. If she chooses Jake, she saves her butterflies as well as herself.

What made you choose doing a hometown romance?

First, I love small towns, especially small towns in the South.  There is nothing like that old hometown feeling and I think that feeling is important to Livi in THE LAWS OF LOVE.  The familiarity of her small hometown is really the only stabilizing force in her life.  She would not be the same person if my book was set elsewhere – and I don’t think I would like that.  The small town setting helps make Livi who she is in the book.

Second, I love a lost love story.  You know, about the ones that got away.  Everyone has someone from high school or college that they remember fondly – or they think “What if?”  Jake is that for Livi – the one that got away.  He makes her feel young again – a high school sweetheart.  But lost loves always carry baggage and it is interesting to see how couples get past all that baggage.  And in small towns – there is always a lot of baggage!

Tell us about your hero, I see he’s a vet. Is there a special story there?

A few years ago a father in my son’s preschool was deployed to Iraq.  I remember seeing the mother drop her boys off each morning and we were all counting the days until the father shipped out.  When that day finally came and he left for Iraq, I was so shocked to see the mother doing what she did every other day – bringing her boys to preschool and going to work like it was any other day.  No tears from the mother.  No tantrums from the boys.  Now, I am sure many tears were shed at their home early that morning, but by the time I saw them, they were back in their same routine.  When I asked her about it, she told me that was her job – to take care of her family while her husband was away, to make sure his home was intact when he returned.  That amazed me and taught me that military life is a family affair.  The entire family signs up and has a sense of duty and honor.  I wanted Jake to have that same sense.  He takes care of his parents, his sister and he wants to take of Livi if she would stop being so stubborn.  It was easy to give Jake that sense of honor – of doing what is right – if I simply made him a soldier.  All I had to do was state that Jake was a vet and readers automatically know what kind of person he is.  They automatically identify him as a good guy, a guy with integrity – a guy that wants to take care of the woman he loves – if she would just let him.

Now from your bio I can see you are a lawyer as well as a busy mother. When do you have time to fit in writing?

I reluctantly became a night person.  From 9:00 p.m. to whenever, I am writing or reading or marketing my books.  As you know, writing is a full time job with little to no pay, so you really have to love what you are doing – and I love it!  It is a nice way to end the day and I look forward to hitting the computer each night after my family goes to bed.  A working mom can get a lot done if everyone is asleep!  Now, where did I put the Nyquil…? (just kidding!)

That’s so funny and don’t think I haven’t thought of it. LOL. Now please, tell us what’s next for you?

As everyone knows, I just finished the first book in The Council of Powers trilogy, Discovery.  It is a young adult romantic suspense with some paranormal elements.  The heroine, Grace, thinks she is normal, a little shy maybe, but no less normal than any other seventeen-year-old.  But she does not know about the secretive Powers world.  She does not know she is the last person on earth with the DNA needed for the Powers’ survival.  And she certainly does not know her newest boyfriend, Gregory, is an Anti-Powers prince who intends to break her heart and her bones in no particular order.  But when she discovers that Ben, her best friend and unrequited former crush, is actually her secret Guardian with superhuman powers, Grace’s normal turns a little wacky.  And when she learns that she has The Gift, the rare power to heal the injured and resurrect life with her touch, it is official – Grace is a weirdo even in the Powers world.  But what freaks Grace out more than all that is the fact she has feelings for Ben again – and he has feelings for her – which makes Grace’s new normal a lot more complicated.

Unfortunately, Crimson Romance only handles adult romances – so I am once again going through the query process to find a YA publisher.  Frustrating, I know, but we writers don’t choose the book to write – it chooses us!  And I love the characters Ben and Grace – flawed teenagers who simply want to have their first kiss – unfortunately life keeps getting in their way and that first kiss is quite elusive.  Hopefully, Ben and Grace will make their public debut soon!

Best of luck with your YA. And that is so true. We don’t choose the book, it chooses us. Thanks so much for being here. It was truly a pleasure.

Thank you!  It was fun!

The Laws of Love can be found at:

www.crimsonromance.com

http://www.amazon.com/author/lisawhite

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-laws-of-love-lisa-white/1111808971?ean=9781440552298

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

And Lisa can be reached at her website here:  www.lisawhiteauthor.com

And on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-White-Author/345773668818384?ref=hl

Best,

K.M.

aka

Kwana