Laura Scott Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. I’m a Registered Nurse by day and an author by night. My area of expertise is critical care nursing but as much as I love being a nurse, I like writing even more. My husband and I have been married for 33 years and we have two adult children, our daughter Nicole who just got married and my son Jonathan who is also an RN. We live in Milwaukee Wisconsin where the winters are long, but the other seasons are wonderful.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A. I began writing as a child, wrote my first fill length novel at 13 and my first romance novel at 17. (I still have them and they are awful and hilarious!) My parents encouraged me to be a nurse so I would always have a job, but after I finished my master’s degree in business, I decided to go back to my first love of writing! Many rejections later, here I am. I didn’t sell my first book until 2003 but have written 50 books for Harlequin since then.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?
A. My first books were medial romance because they happened to be looking for US authors to write medicals and with my nursing degree, the editors were very interested in me. I met with one of the editors at RWA in New York (2002) and told her I had a suspense book that featured a nurse heroine and a cop hero. She told me to take out the suspense and add more romance, so I did. She bought the book four months later with very few revisions. My next book had many revisions so that ended up being a fluke but at the time I was so excited. However, I still loved writing suspense and mysteries so I switched genres to focus more on the suspense angle.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release To Love?
A: To Love is the first book in my new McNally Family series. It’s a contemporary romance with a mystery. Jazz and Jemma McNally are opening their own Bed and Breakfast located on the shore of Lake Michigan. There will be six books in the series each featuring one of the McNally siblings. I love writing books about families and this series is extra special as I’m introducing some Irish ancestry into the story. I visited Ireland last year and loved it so I’m planning to use the experiences I had in Ireland in these books.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for To Love?
A: I wrote a family series featuring the Callahans and received lots of positive feedback from my readers. I wanted to do another family series and decided to incorporate my trip to Ireland into the stories. I love writing family dynamics laced with mystery and danger. The McNallys became my way of honoring my Irish background.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: One of the themes of To Love is forgiveness. My hero, Dalton O’Brien is carrying a lot of guilt with him over the loss of his wife and young son. He spends his life drifting from one job to the other because he doesn’t think he deserves anything. When he meets Jazz McNally, he learns not only to forgive himself but to open his heart to having a second chance at love. That’s a theme I hope will resonate with my readers.

Q: What inspires you to write?
A. Good question. I love writing, I often use it as a way to escape some of the stress my day job brings me. But it’s the reader letters that truly inspire me. I’m honored and blessed to have fabulous readers who enjoy my work.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I’m finishing up the third book in the McNally series, To Laugh. (To Cherish is available for pre-order now and is releasing November 1st.) This series is so much fun to write, as soon as I’m finished with To Laugh, I’ll start working on To Honor which is book 4 in the series.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?
A. Usually I do a fair amount of reading, watching Netflix and running at least three times per week, but these last few months have been all about wedding planning! Now that Nicole and Mike are married, I’m hoping for grandchildren so I can add babysitting to the list. 🙂