Luanne Rice is one of those authors who can pull emotion after emotion from a reader. I just went through that experience in reading her latest release, The Lemon Orchard.

With thirty-one books on her backlist and five movies and mini-series adapted from her stories, one can understand why readers love her work.

If you’ve not yet read her books, or even if you have, take a few minutes to get to know Luanne in our Duck Chat with her today.

And be sure to pick up a copy of The Lemon Orchard. You’ll be glad you did.

DUCK CHAT: Welcome to The Good, the Bad and the Unread, Luanne. Instead of a tell-us-about-yourself question, how about giving us something even your most hard-core fan doesn’t know.

LUANNE RICE: I was the queen of the junior prom—it shocked me at the time, and years later a classmate told me they voted for my date and me because we were both so shy and they wanted to see us blush.  A slightly Carrie moment.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

LR: To write is to enter the characters’ world.  They tell the story.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

LR: The characters.

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

LR: Not enough coffee—having to stop and make more.

DC: Congratulations on your latest release, The Lemon Orchard. Can you give us a look inside the book: the genesis of the storyline and characters?

LR: The Lemon Orchard is about a man and woman from different worlds, meeting in a mountain garden and finding common ground through shared grief.  The bond begins because they’ve both lost daughters but becomes so much more: people are the same at heart, and everyone speaks the language of desire.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

LR: I’m so lucky; I love all my book covers.   I appreciate the artists who created them.

DC: How about your least favorite book cover?  Why?

LR: Well, there was one very early in my career—but it was rejected and never made it onto the book.  I won’t mention the title, but the jacket was a soft-focus photo of a woman who looked very uncomfortable, to put it mildly.  Later we saw the same photo in a feminine product ad.  My agent and I still chuckle about it.

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?

LR: I don’t know—my readers will have to answer this one.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

LR: I’d like to write a graphic novel, but I can’t draw.

DC: Which fictional character would you like to hang out with?

LR: Franny from Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.

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

LR: That is a book in itself, with many chapters.  One thing for sure, I’d be more forgiving and gentle with myself.

DC: What book would you like to read again for the first time?

LR: Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

LR: Her story kept me up all night!

DC: What would your “voice’s” tagline be?

LR: She loves love.

DC: What book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run?

LR: Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman.

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

LR: I’d be a crazy lady telling my stories to the stars, stray cats passing by, fish in the sea…

[Ed. We’re giving away a copy of The Lemon Orchard, so leave Luanne a meaningful comment to be entered! U.S. only please.]