Saturday, June 15, 2013

Author Spotlight: Leanne Davis



Leanne, please tell us about yourself and your writing.

I live in the Seattle area of Washington State and my husband, kids and I spend a lot of our time trying to get away from this rain infested area by chasing nicer weather to different parts of the state. We do a lot of camping, boating, swimming, horseback riding and fishing. After too many hours in a chair writing…nothing feels better then to get outside. We have acreage I take care of (along with my young kidsJ ) so for me, it’s a balance of getting outside and making myself sit in my chair to write! 

I write contemporary romance.  All of my fiction could happen. I love the chemistry that romance adds to any story, and the emotions that get stirred up. I bring in a variety of subjects and dramas to my novels and enjoy writing how my characters deal with them. There is some humor, some drama, and hopefully a reader can easily relate to who my characters are in the lives I have created for them.

What does your writing space look like?

I have an office upstairs in my house, with no windows but one skylight over me. I can see the trees above me and get some sun, but nothing to distract me while I’m supposed to be writing! I keep everything meticulously organized. I can’t work unless everything is in order; otherwise I do nothing but feel the itch to clean the chaos before I can clear my mind to write.

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

Book titles come to me while I’m planning what my novel or series is going to be. Usually it’s something that reveals itself from the text I’ve written or a place/setting the novel is in. It seems to be obvious to me once I start writing. It’s rare I change them either.

Character names are trickier for me. I try out names until something sticks…but I’m never sure why some names stick. It’s like the character simply has to be a certain name when I find it. I have even not particularly liked my character’s name before. But when I tried to change it was like changing my kids names, I couldn’t do it. The character didn’t feel right anymore.

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

I am working on Book #2 in my River’s End Series, with the working title, River Ranch. The Rydell River Ranch is a thousand acre horse ranch owned and operated by four brothers. Not all of them want to stay…and others have no choice. And each has a story to tell. It is set against a fictional, rural town in Eastern Washington. 

It was inspired by a place that I spend most of my summer. It is vacation acreage that has been in my family for thirty plus years. The setting of the series is based on the land/scenery from this beloved spot of mine. The horse part came in from my love of horseback riding. My dad has ten horses and I spend as much time as I can riding them, and much of the technical information for the novels is based on this. 

Blurb:
On the run from her violent ex-husband, Cassie Reeves will do anything to keep her son safe, even if it means turning to a man she betrayed a decade ago. John Tyler now hates her as much as he once loved her--but Cassie has no choice.

John's quiet life as a small town doctor in Seaclusion, Washington has no place in it for the woman he turned his back on ten years ago. But when Cassie and her son land on his doorstep, he can't turn them away. The longer she stays, though, the harder it is to remember why he stopped loving her.

With her ex-husband closing in, Cassie soon realizes that only she can end what he has started. And as John and Cassie's mutual attraction reignites, she vows to do anything to protect her son and grab the happiness that has escaped her for so long.

Excerpt:


He stepped closer. He looked down into her eyes, and then wrapped her tightly in his arms. He put a hand in her hair, letting the short strands feather through his fingers and land back on her skull. He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth.
“What do we tell everyone?” she asked when they finally parted and she’d rested her cheek against his chest.
He stroked her hair. “I don’t know? The truth.”
“Which is what? You haven’t really said.”
“That I have a new girlfriend, and only an hour after I dumped my last one. Must be some kind of record.”
“Are you sure? You’d call me your girlfriend?”
He looked down into face. The knot in her throat was suffocating. Could he really accept her? Forgive her? Date her? It seemed impossible to imagine. Not after everything she’d done to him, and brought into his life.
But… that’s exactly what she longed for.
“I’m sure,” he said quietly.


Quick quiz:
Favorite food? Chocolate
Favorite color? Green
Favorite animal? Dog
Biggest pet peeve?  Being late
Name one person, living or dead, you'd most like to meet.
Malala Yousafzai – the young girl who was shot point blank in the head by the Taliban for her beliefs girls should go to school. I can’t imagine having the courage she has and at such a young age. And it makes me appreciate the chances my daughter has that many across the world don’t.

Where can we find you on the web?
Leanne Davis- Author
Romance you can relate to


3 comments:

  1. I can relate to the need for getting outside every now and again, Leanne. Now that the weather is getting better, I will be out on my deck swing doing revisions.

    Good luck with Book 2!

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  2. I do a lot of my revisions outside too, on our front porch:) Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. Thank you Melissa for hosting me today!

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