Author Spotlight: Andrea Downing

Andrea, please tell us about yourself and your writing.

I've been writing for as long as I can remember—it's being published that is recent.  I started writing stories when I was a child, moved into longer works of fiction, poetry, and then travel articles before coming back to fiction.  I never had the guts to send my work off to a publisher until I got to an age where I felt I had nothing to lose.  I'm still rather shy about people reading my work.  Crazy, isn't it?  Though I did have some poems published…

What does your writing space look like?

Depends where I am.  I move around a lot, but at home in NYC I have a study which doubles as the guestroom and that has the most wonderful, ginormous desk and a view out onto Columbus Ave. and Central Park beyond. But most other places I am relegated to a dining table or whatever I can get.

Do you have a process for coming up with character names and book titles?

I'm reasonably good about finding titles—they just sort of come to me on the basis of something in the book.  I do have to occasionally change my first title, however.  I'm shopping a contemporary romance at the moment and my first title was Texas Twostep, which I thought was so very clever.  Then I discovered there are like a dozen books with that title so it went bye-byes…  Character names just usually come to me.  I get very strong feelings as to the names of the characters and can't change them because they're real people to me.

Tell us about your current book. What is it about? What inspired it?

Loveland was inspired by my return to live in the USA after spending most of my life in Britain.  But I'd always loved the west, spent most of our family vacations on ranches out west.  Then, when I returned to live here, I discovered that many of the great ranches were owned by British cattle companies run by remittance men—younger sons of the aristocracy.  Well, the story just evolved from that and here I am.

 

Blurb:

When Lady Alexandra Calthorpe returns to the Loveland, Colorado, ranch owned by her father, the Duke, she has little idea of how the experience will alter her future. Headstrong and willful, Alex tries to overcome a disastrous marriage in England and be free of the strictures of Victorian society --and become independent of men. That is, until Jesse Makepeace saunters back into her life...

Hot-tempered and hot-blooded cowpuncher Jesse Makepeace can’t seem to accept that the child he once knew is now the ravishing yet determined woman before him. Fighting rustlers proves a whole lot easier than fighting Alex when he’s got to keep more than his temper under control.

Arguments abound as Alex pursues her career as an artist and Jesse faces the prejudice of the English social order. The question is, will Loveland live up to its name?

Buy Links:

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon Kindle                Amazon Print

Barnes & Noble Nook

Quick quiz:

Favorite food?

I've said this before and I'll say it again:  CHOCOLATE

Favorite color?

Haven't really got one but I'm drawn to bright colors, especially reds and royal blue, despite the fact I almost exclusively wear black…

Favorite animal?  Horse of course!

Biggest pet peeve? Well, at the moment it's not having people in business phone me back.  I have an insurance claim with a company which has the worst customer relations I've ever encountered—they NEVER phone back despite all their friendly voicemail messages saying they'll reply in one business day.  Oh, dear; it's so draining chasing people!

Name one person, living or dead, you'd most like to meet.  I was thinking just the other day how I would have enjoyed meeting Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain.  I think he would really be a most delightful man with whom to spend some time.

Where can we find you on the web?

Website and blog

Email: andidowning@gmail.com

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