I was introduced to Kathryn Shay back in 2002 when I was assigned to review Practice Makes Perfect. After finishing the story with a contented sigh, I e-mailed the editor I was writing reviews for at the time and asked her, “Where has Kathryn Shay been all my life?” To which she replied, “Oh Wendy! You must read her America’s Bravest series!” What resulted was one of my more serious author gloms, and Shay is now not only my favorite SuperRomance author, but one of my favorite romance authors. Period. As part of TGTBTU’s continued spotlight on Harlequin SuperRomance this month, Shay graciously agreed to sit down for an interview. Enjoy!

Wendy the Super Librarian: Certainly your first few novels were well-received and regarded, but I think it was the arrival of your America’s Bravest series for SuperRomance that really put your name out there for many romance readers. At the time, writing about firefighters wasn’t exactly old hat, and female firefighters? Talk about different! How did you hit upon the idea for this series?

Kathryn Shay: I decided to write about firefighters because I’ve always respected and admired them. They wake up every morning knowing they’re potentially going to put their lives in danger, knowing they may not make it home that night. (Truthfully, I don’t know how their spouses live with that, although I’ve tried to investigate it in my novels.) But I knew very little about their daily lives, their thought processes, their hopes and goals. As you might guess, SuperRomance loved the idea, and wanted a trilogy instead of the two books I proposed. This turned into a total of five firefighter books (so far!) for them.

To expound a bit, I was able to find out about these brave men and women mostly through primary research. I met with them at the fire houses, ate lunches and dinners with them, talked to them until the late hours of the night and heard remarkable stories: how it feels finding a dead victim; how the wear and tear of the job is hard on their families; how devastated they all were during 9/11; how not one of them considers himself or herself a hero. I also got to ride the trucks to fires, stabbings, EMS calls and flooded basements. Though it all, my respect and admiration for them deepened immensely.

WtSL: Your background is in teaching, which I think shines through in many of your stories. How has your work with adolescents shaped your writing?

KS: Definitely. I’ve written several books with heroes or heroines in the teaching profession. My favorite SuperRomance is Cop Of The Year, where the heroine is the kind of teacher I was. Some of the incidents in the book happened to me. But more so, I think my job helped me to really know adolescents, which serves me well when I create teenagers in any books. My lastest Super, Be My Babies, has a great teen in it and I think you can see how much love I have for that age group. By the way, I can always tell when someone writes a book and doesn’t have first hand experience with adolescents. You gotta know those kids to write about them!

WtSL: Like many writers, you went through your fair share of rejections before you sold your first book to SuperRomance. Did you intentionally set out to target that line or was it happenstance?

KS: No, I intentionally set out to get published by anybody! Though it only lasted three years, enduring all those rejections was tough. You have to understand, too, that I was in unusual circumstances. I was older, married with two kids and had a job I loved. My life was great-and then I went and wrote a book. The process of getting published took over our lives and I began to wonder why on earth I had started this. My family was supportive and, when I sold my first book, they were elated. But the process itself was excruciating for a forty year old with a near-perfect life.

Readers should know I received about 60 rejections from publishing houses and agents until a now-retired editor from Super pulled my first successful manuscript out of the slush pile.

WtSL: You have since branched out into contemporary single titles, but have routinely returned to SuperRomance. What makes you keep coming back to the line? What do you enjoy about writing for them?

KS: I love SuperRomance and always have. I feel like I grew up there as a writer. First they give me freedom to write what I want, though I did hear my editor say once in a while, “You want to do what?”

Second, I think the line is varied, allowing readers many different types of stories. I write primarily family drama with lots of emotion, but I’ve also done some romantic suspense for them. And finally, my editors have been wonderful there. I became good friends with Zilla Soriano, now retired, and I love my new editor, Wanda Ottewell, who became senior editor shortly after I was assigned to her.

WtSL: I’m a librarian, so I have to ask – what do you like to read? Any favorite authors?

KS: Absolutely! Nora Roberts, Linda Howard and Susan Elizabeth Philips. I also enjoy John Irving, Margaret Atwood and Jodi Picoult.

WtSL: The latest book in your single title O’Neil series is out this month. Can you tell us a little bit about it, and do you have any HSR titles currently in the works?

KS: Taking The Heat is about widower Liam O’Neil who lost his wife three years ago to cancer and is ready to date again. He meets Sophie Tyler, rough and tumble female firefighter from the FDNY, and is attracted to her. But his sons are still suffering over the loss of their mother and Liam feels he can’t risk getting involved with someone in a dangerous profession. Too bad, though, because they can’t help themselves and sparks fly, emotionally, physically and on the line.

I have two Supers in the works which will be out in January and August of 2009. The first is completed, tentatively titled A Twist Of Fate. It’s the story of a woman who has a car accident and wakes up without her memory. There are two men in her life, the one she dates and her best friend. But as the story unfolds, it becomes unclear who she’s really in love with.

Right now, I’m writing After The Fall, the story of an architect who’s responsible for the collapse of part of a building, and goes to the small town of Carson City to spend time with her college roommate and his family who loves her. There she meets a contractor who, quite frankly, wants to run her out of town.

My editor and I are also planning a trilogy for 2010, but you’ll have to wait to hear about that one!

WtSL: Wow! Lots of exciting stuff in the works! Thanks so much for joining us Kathryn!