Banking On Temperance author Becky Lower is on Meet the Neighbors
Meet the Neighbors is pleased to welcome Becky Lower, fellow Crimson Romance author. Becky lives a few states over from Missouri, where her new release is set in the town where I spend my days. Please welcome Becky.
Tell us about your release.
Banking On Temperance is the third book in a proposed 9-book series about a large New York family during the decade prior to the Civil War. This particular story takes place exclusively in St. Louis in 1856, where two of the Fitzpatrick children have settled. It was great fun to write for a variety of reasons. First is the setting. St. Louis is one of my favorite cities to visit. On my latest visit, I found a part of town that I had previously not seen. There were cobblestone streets and roundabouts at the intersections so the trolley cars could turn around. And the bookstore at the Arch is beyond compare! I think I got a good sense of what the town looked like in the 1800s. The second reason I liked working on this project was because it was set in St. Louis, the rules of conventional society were removed. Women could, and did, live alone, get around town alone, and there was a real division between respectable women and the ladies of the night. Great fodder for a book. My third reason was because it was written from a male perspective. Basil Fitzpatrick is the family Lothario, until he meets his match in Temperance Jones.
Since I work in St. Louis, I’m looking forward to reading and finding out more about my new hometown’s history. What’s your writing must have snack? Or drink?
This one is funny to me. When I take a road trip, my choice of snacks is totally different from what I normally eat at home. My latest project is a contemporary romance, about a woman on a road trip, so she’s got packed in her car the food that I would take. When her car breaks down, she pulls out the bag of Cheetos and begins to consume them while she reads a book. When I’m working on the story, I must have a bag of Cheetos by my side. Can’t tell you how much orange Cheeto dust has been removed from my computer keyboard.
How long does it take you to write a book?
It totally depends on the genre. I write a lot of historicals, and it’s awfully research-intensive. Those books take, on average, four to six months to write. I like to intersperse a contemporary in between the historicals, just to give myself a break from the research. Those take about two to three months to complete.
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
With the release of Banking On Temperance, I’m now standing at four books published. I still have one under the bed that will stay there, probably forever. As to which is my favorite, I’ll always have a soft spot for the first one, The Reluctant Debutante. But I love Banking On Temperance. The heroine is so feisty, and Basil’s a dreamboat.
If you could give the younger version of yourself advice what would it be?
To not let the EDJ (evil day job) get in the way of your dreams. I used the day job excuse to not buckle down and get serious about my writing for more years than I can count. I always felt something was missing from my life but it wasn’t until I started writing seriously that I figured out what it was.
I so understand this. The day job can be consuming. Is your muse demanding?
Again, it depends on the story. The fourth book in the historical series is about Jasmine. She’s a twin of Heather, who was featured in Book 2. She is a vital part of the plot in book 2, which I won’t spoil here, but I had readers write to me saying they hoped Jasmine never got her own story, because she was so mean. However, Jasmine wanted me to tell the world that there really was a reason for what she did, and kept me awake nights until I told her story. I could hear her stomping around in my head until I got her story done. And the time I had to interrupt her love scene to go to work? Jeez, I thought I’d never hear the end of it.
What do you hope readers take with them after reading your work?
For the historicals, I’d love for them to get a sense of how the big events that shaped America also affected the citizens who were here, living through it. So often, the slave trade, abolition, the westward expansion and the reason for the Civil War is lost in the history books. I hope to shed some light on that.
As for my contemporaries, I love to write about small towns, where the town is every bit as much of a character as the hero and heroine. I want my readers to relate to these fictitious towns and see themselves walking the same streets as my heroine and hero do.
Banking On Temperance—Book 3 in the Cotillion Ball Series
http://www.amazon.com/Banking-Temperance-Crimson-Romance-ebook/dp/B00CA9DEX4
Basil Fitzpatrick was born into a life of privilege. In 1856, at 23 years of age, he is the owner of the St. Louis branch of the family banking business. He has his pick of the ladies and life by the horns. Temperance Jones and her family are far from privileged. Her father is a circuit-riding preacher from Pennsylvania. But the rumblings of a war between the North and the South force the preacher to move his family to Oregon rather than to take up arms against his fellow man. However, hardship and sickness have slowed their pace, and they are forced to spend the winter in St. Louis, waiting for the next wagon trains to leave in the spring.
Basil is drawn to the large family the moment they roll into town, partly because they remind him of his own big family in New York. But also because of the eldest daughter, Temperance. She is a tiny, no-nonsense spitfire who is bent on fulfilling her father’s wish to get the family safely to Oregon. Basil is only interested in finding a mistress, not a wife. He knows if he allows Temperance into his heart, he is accepting the obligation of her entire family and their quest to settle in Oregon. He wants Temperance like he has wanted no other, but the burden of her family may be too much for him. And he can’t have one without the other.
