Elizabeth Goddard Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. I’m a home schooling mom with three sons at home still (my daughter is grown and out on her own) and I live in Minnesota with my husband who is a pastor and potter.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A. I’ve always made up stories from an early age. Often I’d write something that my mother would want to send in for me. In high school, I competed in UIL creative writing contests, and knew I could write but didn’t actually consider writing for publication until I was in my early thirties and stayed at home with my daughter. I had written marketing literature, letters and proposals in my corporate America job. I also battled a little with God on whether or not to pursue publication. It’s a long journey that I’m still on.

Q: What do you write and why this genre?
A. I started my journey for publication writing historical romantic suspense. As things worked out, my first published novel, Seasons of Love, was a contemporary sweet romance, and of course, I added mystery and suspense. I’ve always loved reading romantic suspense, even historical romantic suspense, and as Providence would have it, this genre is where I’ve landed the contracts.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?
A: I try not to use people I know, but of course, little things slip in here and there.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Backfire?
A: This is the third book in my Mountain Cove series set in southeast Alaska. A beautiful place. Think Seattle, Washington. Here’s the blurb.

NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE

Tracy Murray had thought she’d be safe disappearing in the wilds of Alaska after her testimony put away a gang leader. But the gang symbol tattooed on an attacker’s arm means the clock has run out. She’s been found—and she knows the killers won’t let her escape alive again. She can’t fight an entire gang alone—she needs help. But when she finds herself relying on widowed firefighter David Warren, a new struggle emerges. Fleeing Alaska and cutting all ties could be the only way to survive…but it would mean leaving her heart behind.

Q: Where did the idea for this story come from?
A. I knew SAR hero in this story would also be fireman. There’s not a lot for him to do in southeast Alaska, either, because it’s temperate rainforest. So I had to develop the story fro there. I thought it would be fun for my heroine to be a SAR volunteer who works with a search dog. Starting with those elements, the ideas just began to flow.

Q: Tell us a little about your main character and how you developed him/her.
A: So far readers love the hero best and have said he’s the epiphany of a real hero. But that’s as it should be, right? We love to read a good romance, and for me, the most important character is the hero. Yeah, yeah, I do need to relate to the heroine as well. So I took a fireman with a traumatic past who can’t fail again and set him up to fail. Lots of fun!

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I just signed a six-book contract with Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense to write two more Mountain Cove books and four books in an entirely new series set in the Wild Rogue Wilderness in Oregon. I just turned in book five in Mountain Cove, with a working title of Tailspin. This is my bush pilot’s story. It was a lot of fun. As of this interview, I’m getting ready to finally start on book 6, the last book that I know of, in Mountain Cove. This will be Chief Winters and Jewel’s story. If you read Backfire, you’ll get a closer look at these characters.

Q: What are some ways that readers of your books can help you as an author?
A. Thanks for asking! If you love the book share that news with your friends, neighbors, church and spread the word on your blog, Facebook and Twitter. We can’t keep writing if people don’t hear about our stories and buy our books. Book sales are key.

Q: What one thing about writing do you wish other non-writers would understand?
A. Professional writers put more hours than you can imagine into their work. They pour blood, sweat and tears, literally, into writing a story. Sit in a chair (unless they have a tread desk) for twelve or more hours in a day. And their health suffers. At least that is my experience. People who don’t write novels don’t understood how much time and effort it takes. Often, readers will write a review, willy-nilly (for lack of a better word) and complain about one word in a book, and not consider the other 60 thousand words.

Q: Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
A. I used to play the cello. My sketch of a cowboy won first place in a county contest. I love to bake bread, gluten and all.

Q: Milk or dark chocolate? Coffee or tea?
A. I love them both! It depends on the mood. I’m a major coffee drinker, but only in the morning, then I switch to green tea for the rest of the day.

Q: Favorite TV show or shows?
A. I start the morning with the news. Don’t want to miss anything. I don’t get back to TV until the evening and it’s usually movies. I love the old episodes of Seinfeld.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?
A. Start with Elizabethgoddard.com. From there they can connect with me on my Facebook link and Twitter, sign up for my Great Escapes newsletter and for email updates.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?
A. Thanks for having me. I hope you get a chance to read Backfire and please let me know what you thought!

Enter to win a copy of Backfire here!