Welcome again to Duck Chat!

It’s here. The day all of you Connie Brockway fans have been waiting for! So Enchanting hit the shelves yesterday.  I was lucky enough to win one of the first copies off the press back in December and just finished reading it.  So I thought what better way to celebrate this momentous day with you than an interview with Connie to go along with our first review of her newest historical.  She graciously agreed to talk with us in the midst of a deadline, so I thank you very much, Connie.

So let’s get down to business!

This is mostly for new fans who haven’t met Connie yet. You hard-core fans can skip on down if you’d like! Connie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author with eighteen full-length novels and four anthology novellas, most of which have been published in thirteen different countries. Her first book Promise Me Heaven, was published in 1994. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including two RITAs for her historical books.

Minnesota is where Connie calls home with her physician husband David. When not writing, Connie enjoys reading, gardening, tennis, and cooking.

Now let’s chat!

Duck Chat:  All of your fans are excited about your return to writing historicals. Was there a specific “something” that happened to lead you down that return path?

Connie Brockway:  Not really. I took a hiatus from romance because I was having a hard time getting excited about the way historicals were heading and I had some contemporary ideas that I wanted to explore.

DC:  Did you have the idea of So Enchanting in mind when the decision to write another historical came about or did that come later?

CB:  So Enchanting was plotted about 8 years ago when paranormals started gaining popularity. I’ve always been interested in stories about people who fashion their lives to popular perception so I did the same with SE, starting with “What if you lived in a town where everyone thought you were a witch but you weren’t?” When I decided to write an historical I wanted to do something a little different than my former titles, so that’s where I went.

DC:  Your next book is also an historical, The Golden Season. Any chance of a good sneak peek for our readers? Please?

CB:  LOL! If I gave you a peek now you’d only be crying foul when the real book got published. I’m not what you’d call a clean writer. Characters changes or drop out, subplots recede or take on a greater role, motivations get axed and replaced… And the typos! OH, Lord, the typos… As soon as I have a clean enough excerpt I’ll put it up on my website www.conniebrockway.com, but don’t expect for a couple months

DC:  What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

CB:  The question should be what won’t distract me??? And if you can figure it out, tell me.

DC:  How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

CB:  Well, I hope I write a cleaner story and the hero/heroine’s motives, goals and, most importantly, their interactions with one another far more honest. I can’t imagine writing a heroine now who would get in a snit when she sees the hero in the company of another woman. My past heroine would have probably left the room, while my current heroine is much more likely to go up and ask, “So, who are you?” and discover it’s his sister. In other words, the reaction is more mature—maybe not more dramatic—and honest.

DC:  Do you ever use characteristics of friends or family when creating your characters? If so, can you give us an example?

CB:  Sure. “Bill” the rotten little dog from Skinny Dipping was actually my father’s rotten little dog. Amelie in So Enchanting shares certain romantic notions with my daughter. Generally it’s the secondary characters who assume some familiar traits.

DC:  After so many books over the years, how does writing still challenge you?

CB:  I was just taking about this with a group of friends of mine (the old SQUAWK RADIO group? We still email each other dozens of times a day) lamenting the fact that each book just gets harder. You want a story that moves along at blinding speed, rockets with action, sizzles with emotion and yet at the same time speaks about, again, honest emotions and real issues.

DC:  What advice would you give to your younger self?

CB:  “Stick with the dark and edgy romances and leave the light-hearted humor behind!” Not that my younger self would EVER have listened…

DC:  If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

CB:  Doing something with animals— working at an elephant sanctuary, as a behaviorist, in some program that matches dogs with special needs kids…

DC:  Okay, I had to include this question because of a comment you made to me when we communicated about doing this interview: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

CB:  “How do you get your ideas?” Because I don’t know. I’ve never known. If I ever said I knew, I was lying.

DC:  Who’s your favorite author?

CB:  It changes. I tend to love the last author that made me forget I was sitting in a chair reading a book. The most recent of those would be Ariana Franklin.

DC:  Favorite book?

CB:  Going on the same path, Mistress of the Art of Death— though I’m halfway through Bone by Bone by Carol O’Connell and it’s really terrific. Great characters. She puts the “irk” in “Quirk”

Lightning Round:
– dark or milk chocolate? milk
– smooth or chunky peanut butter? chunky
– heels or flats? slippers
– coffee or tea? coffee
– summer or winter? summer
– mountains or beach? beach
– mustard or mayonnaise? Mustard
– flowers or candy? flowers
– pockets or purse? pockets
– Pepsi or Coke? coke
ebook or print? print

And just because they’re fun:

1. What is your favorite word? lurk
2. What is your least favorite word? “y’know?”
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? music
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally? alcohol
5. What sound or noise do you love? surf
6. What sound or noise do you hate? Mucous-y sniffing (which I am currently doing)
7. What is your favorite curse word? I don’t curse (and for anyone who has ever heard me speak—that wasn’t me)
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Chef
9. What profession would you not like to do? Animal cruelty investigator –unless I had a gun
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you
arrive at the Pearly Gates? “Welcome home, kid.”