Hi Amy! Thanks so much for coming in to talk to us in the lead up to your new book release!

“Hi and thanks for having me here today to talk a bit about His Shock Valentine’s Proposal and Craving His Ex-Army Doc which are my books in the Sealed by a Valentine’s Kiss mini series.

Writing has always been a dream of mine. Ever since I read Laura Ingalls Wilder On the Banks of Plum Creek and my father told me that Laura was a real person, that she actually existed and wrote the books, I knew I had to be an author. I wanted to write books.

My day is pretty schedule oriented because I have three kids and now a new puppy. I’m a little bit crazy. So once I get the kids off to school, I get home and walk the puppy. She’s a cockapoo and gets very argumentative if I don’t walk her. Then I play with her for a while, usually an hour before she’s bored of me and more interested in her treat ball. It’s in this moment I can sit down and write.

I try to write 2500 words a day. Bare minimum. Anything above that is great! When I start a book I always try to keep my editor’s voice in my head and what’s she’s said to me several times, “What internally/emotionally keeps the hero and heroine from finding their happily ever after?” And that’s how I start my plotting. I do an outline, chapter by chapter so I can keep on task and meet my deadlines.

During the plotting process I do up a visual storyboard on Pinterest that I keep secret until I know the book has been accepted. It’s just a little quirk I have. I also create a playlist on my iTunes. Each book has a particular playlist and I can’t really get into the flow of writing until I have figured out the perfect songs for the book.

Some songs I listen to over and over again, especially if it fits a scene.

For my Sealed by a Valentine’s Kiss series I listened to a lot of Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.

I also drink a lot of coffee and some Diet Coke (trying to cut back) when I write.”

What was the inspiration for your latest book?

The inspiration for this book was the setting. Montana. I love Montana. I had the pleasure of driving from Broads to Billings and Billings to Great Falls on an epic road trip to Alberta that my family and I took in the summer of 2012. I fell absolutely in love with Montana and knew that I had to set books here. When I was plotting out these books, the fictional town of Crater Lake sprung up in my head. It was a mixture of Montana and Alberta. I knew it was the perfect place for the Ralston brothers.

Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

I would love to travel more *grins*. I was lucky enough to go to Montana on a family trip. I really didn’t think much of Montana when I was planning the trip out west. I thought it was just going to be a state we passed through. I was pleasantly surprised to fall in love with the State. I try to set my books in places I’ve been to. Melting the Ice Queen’s Heart was set in San Francisco and I was there in 2008. Dare She Date Again? is set in my current city and a book I just finished writing was set in Nashville and that’s another place I love so much. I would like to see the locations of some of the places I’ve written about, but have never been like Okinawa Japan or Las Vegas.

How much of yourself is reflected in the book, and how?

I would like to think that my voice is uniquely me. I’m a bit quirky and my heroines tend to be a bit quirky. I’m also a tad bit sarcastic which can come out in my heroes. I do have a quirk that I’m trying to be conscientious of because my editor points it out every time and teases me. My heroines punch the hero in the arm. All. The. Time. So my dear editor will always mark it “There’s the Amy arm punch”. I’m trying not to do the arm punch so much.

If you could turn the book/series into a movie, who would be your dream team?

Oh this is easy to answer, because when I plot out a book I do a visual story board on Pinterest. For Carson Ralston (His Shock Valentine’s Proposal) I pictured John Krasinski and for Esme Petersen I was inspired by Elisha Cuthbert. Luke Ralston (Craving His Ex-Army Doc) was completely and utterly Jamie Dornan, but when he was the huntsman/sheriff in Once Upon a Time. I loved that rugged look about him. His heroine Sarah Ledet is Natalie Dormer. I loved her in the Tudors.

What is in store for your readers next?

I’m part of the Hollywood Hills continuity and my book PERFECT RIVALS comes out in May 2016. I also have Tempting Nashville’s Celebrity Doc coming out in the near future and I’m currently working on a Duke who is a heart surgeon!

Thanks so much for talking to us Amy! Don’t forget to check out Amy’s new books here!

By The Mills & Boon team