Release Party! Ami Weaver’s An Accidental Family
Hey everyone! It’s PARTY TIME!!!
I’m so thrilled to be hosting Ami Weaver’s release party today! Ami and I have been on parallel paths to publication for a looooong time. We were both Mills&Boon New Voices finalists, winners in Harlequin’s SYTYCW contest (which landed us both our first contracts) and finally Golden Heart sisters. Whew! It’s been quite a ride and I’m so happy I finally got a chance to read her debut novel for Harlequin Romance, An Accidental Family. It was quite simply awesome. I had to know more about the author behind the book.
Ami, is An Accidental Family your Golden Heart finaling manuscript? Yes, it’s my 2012 Golden Heart finalist (under the title Second-Chance Bride) and my 2011 Mills&Boon New Voices finalist. It ended up in front of the same editor both times, so it sold as result of both contests. 
As a self-confessed contest Queen, tell us how your life has changed as a result of all the wonderful things that have happened to you over the last year. I love contests! I almost didn’t enter SYTYCW (which resulted in my very first sale) but at the last minute I was like, what the heck. I did the same with the Golden Heart and New Voices. It’s about taking a chance, putting the work out there and seeing where it takes you. Now I’m writing full time and loving it and the opportunities it’s given me. It just floors me.
Being a full-time author must be so great–but have you found parts of it challenging? I’ve had to make a very concerted effort to make the time. I’m very good at procrastination, and once you are under contract that’s not a possibility anymore (at least not without making things very hard as the deadline approaches!). I usually write away from home, to minimize the distractions but now we have less laundry done and more dust bunnies. No one seems to care.
How did you come up with the idea for An Accidental Family? This one I had the first line first. It just came to me one day. The rest of the book came later–very slowly. Like years slowly. This is the book that almost made me quit writing, it was so hard to write.
But it reads so smoothly! You did a great job weaving it all together. Speaking of things that you do well, the sexual tension in this book is off the charts! I was riveted—but this Harlequin line is closed door. Was that hard to balance? Yes! It had a love scene originally but I had to take it out. The line has a closed door, but the sexual tension is allowed. It’s hard to find where to draw that line.
Which makes it all the more interesting that the heroine, Lainey, is pregnant on page one. I thought you did a marvelous job depicting this. Did you use your own experiences or did you have to do research? Nope, I remembered what it was like. When I started this book, my youngest wasn’t that old, so I wasn’t too far off from it myself.
Lainey has a difficult relationship with her parents, which wasn’t helped by the pregnancy. In a lot of ways, that was her core conflict and every time they tried to interfere, Lainey found a way to grow. Very well done! It felt very organic to her character. Did you start out with this in mind or did it evolve? I’m asking because I want to learn how to do it! It evolved. I knew in theory what I wanted to happen, but I did not have it mapped out. I ask myself constantly, “What’s next? This happened, so what’s next?” That question brings me back and helps me figure out the path I need to take. I am not a plotter. So that’s as close as I get.
Let’s talk about Ben. Pardon me while I swoon…Okay, I’m back. Ben is one part tortured hero, one part reluctant knight and one part regular guy. And 100% to-die-for. His backstory is realistic and heart-wrenching. How did you come up with him? Thank you! I love Ben, too. Ben went through a lot of transformations. He started out the father, then a doctor, then her neighbor, until finally I got him right. I didn’t want him to be the bio father, and I wanted him to be hurting. I wanted him to be kind of dark to Lainey’s light. (Sorry, Ben!) Once I hit on firefighter, that felt right. If he was hurting so bad, something awful must have happened and it just kind of went from there.
What was your favorite part about writing An Accidental Family? Finishing it! Hah. This book was so hard to write. For a long time, I felt like I had the right people, but I had their story wrong and I couldn’t figure out where I’d gone wrong. I did make the right changes, and once I did, the book flowed. That took several years. (Three?) But I believed in it enough to come back to it. If I can write this book, I can write any book!
And I can’t wait to read the next one! When can I get it? IN THE LINE OF DUTY, my next (and last) Romance is out in September 2013. THE NANNY’S CHRISTMAS WISH (my first Harlequin Special Edition) is out in November 2013.
Ami has generously agreed to give away either a print or digital copy of An Accidental Family to one lucky person!! Comment to win.
Run and get your copy of An Accidental Family. Click to buy.
A bump in the road…
The moment the stick turns pink Lainey Keeler’s life is turned upside down. She’s still aching from past hurts, and single parenthood wasn’t planned, but, marveling at the tiny life fluttering inside her, Lainey knows she’ll do anything for this baby—on her own.
Firefighter Ben Lawless is tormented by memories of the friend he couldn’t save, and a pretty pregnant woman living on his land is an unwelcome distraction. Still, as Lainey’s determination and spirit tempt him out of the darkness, he wonders whether he can have the family he’s convinced himself he doesn’t deserve….
BIO: Two-time Golden Heart Finalist Ami Weaver has always been a writer, but once she started penning ‘romances’ in middle school she never looked back. She’s come a long way since then–and learned what romance really is. Now she is an award-winning author of warm contemporary romances for Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Special Edition. Ami’s manuscripts have won the Maggie, the Marlene, and been finalists in Harlequin’s SYTYCW and Mills and Boon’s New Voices contests, among others. Ami lives in Michigan and balances writing around four great kids, three crazy cats, and one very supportive husband.
