Clean Romance: Harlequin Heartwarming discussion
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Interview with Catherine Lanigan Part 1
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I love reading Harlequin Heartwarming books and I can't wait to read this one!rita.navarre@yahoo.com
I enjoyed the interview. Catherine Lanigan is a new author for me but I love Harlequin Heartwarming romances.
interesting interview. thanks for sharing!amanda.parry3@gmail.com
I really enjoyed the interview. This sounds like a wonderful and fascinating series. I'm looking forward to reading it from the beginning. Putting it on my TRL. Sophie's Path sounds like a great read.Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Great Interview Looks like a Great Book iamabho (at) gmail (.) com
I loved the story about the first book she sold.tlcmom582 (at) aol (dot) com.
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Very enjoyable interview. Happy to meet you.
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Whata amazing interview! The questions were perfect! I enjoyed readingthe answers!!
Great interview! Thank you for sharing. I love meeting new to me authors :)jlipayer (at) charter (dot) net
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Great interview and new to this author! I love reading Harlequin books!donnasquaw52@aol.com
What a wonderful interview, I have read Sophia Path and totally loved it. This was the first I have read from this author. She is one I will enjoy reading in the future.
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So happy you enjoyed Sophie's Path and the interview Cynthia. ( :
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donnasquaw52@aol.com"
Thank you Donna. So glad you enjoyed the interview and reading Harlequin books. ( :
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So glad you enjoyed the interview Carol.
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jlipayer (at) charter (dot) net"
So glad you enjoyed the interview. I love meeting and learning about new authors too. Thanks for reading. ( :
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I enjoyed Catherine Lanigan's answers as much as you did!! Thanks so much for stopping by Jessica. ( :
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Thanks everyone for participating, and we hope to see you back for future interviews and giveaways.
I am so pleased to be interviewing the lovely Catherine Lanigan today. She is the author of Sophie’s Path, book 6 in the Shores of Indian Lake series, a Harlequin Heartwarming July release. Her full bio can be found at the end of this interview. So, let’s get started.
1. Catherine Lanigan, how many Harlequin Heartwarming books have you written and tell us a little about your newest release.
SOPHIE’S PATH is #6 in my “Shores of Indian Lake Series”. I began devising this series, which I hope to write 26 in total, over five years ago. I wanted a small town with heart and conviction, but with problems and a lot of romance going on. My town of Indian Lake is not tiny. It’s twenty-five thousand people and though many people know each other or “think” they know about someone, it’s possible to spend your entire life in this town and not know the family not quite a mile away.
Sophie’s Path is the beginning of a mini-series within the series dealing with drugs, addicts, drug dealers and the police who risk their lives to keep the citizens of Indian Lake from harm’s way. The second book, coming in February, DANGER ZONE will deal with law enforcement. But for SOPHIE’S PATH, I wanted to come at the issue from the aspect of how the over-use of drugs affects both the addict and his family, but even strangers. People the addict is not aware of. The tentacles of drug addiction are long and deadly. All addictions are torture for the addict and their loved ones. Too often drunk drivers or drug addicts cause accidents in which innocent people are hurt for life and often killed. I wanted the hero to be just such a victim. Sophie is the ER nurse the night Jack Carter and his business interns are brought into the ER. Because of Sophie’s decision to treat the dying drug addict who caused the accident, rather than Jack’s young, sweet intern, Aleah, who dies in the ER that night, Jack cannot forgive Sophie.
2. Regarding your above mentioned release, which character is your favorite and why?
This one is tough because actually my favorite character is Frenchie, the most darling, intelligent Yorkie Poo in the world. But I digress. Sophie was my inspiration years ago. I wanted to create a character that everyone in town thought they knew. They’d labelled her the “Town Flirt” when she was in second grade and kissed Scott Abbott (the hero in the third book of this mini-series within the series) on the playground when they were in the second grade. Sophie is featured in HEART’S DESIRE. And she makes a startling “play” for the hero, handsome Nate Barzonni, a cardiac surgeon and her boss. Sophie is considered a “Saturday Night Girl”. She’s never had a serious relationship with a man in her life. Others think she’s shallow and easy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sophie is as deep as the ocean. She is passionate about her career as a cardiac surgeon’s nurse. She has cared for her cancer-ailing father for the past several years. She’s carried the burden of paying bills for her mother, father and grandmother since she left nursing school. The truth is, Sophie doesn’t have time for more than dinner and a dance and then it’s back to work. In A FINE YEAR FOR LOVE, she flirted with Gabe, Nate’s older brother, but he flatly told her he wasn’t interested. Gabe knows her well enough to know, Sophie isn’t relationship material. Sophie has been an outsider all her life because of her reputation and doesn’t have girlfriends or few friends at all. She is fascinating.
3. What comes to mind first when you get a story idea: the characters, setting, situation?
Nearly always it’s the characters. They wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me their names first. Then they start telling me their story. There actually have been times when they were so forceful I HAD to get up in the middle of the night and write down all they were telling me. I see the settings in my head as they talk to me. Their situations many times are the product of brainstorming with my brilliant and talented editor, Claire Caldwell. I usually devise some of the conflict, both external and internal, however, the fine-tuning is where I beg for help.
4. Are you always on high alert for story inspiration? When an idea presents itself, how do you capture the moment?
If any of you have seen the movie ROMANCING THE STONE, where Joan Wilder is crying in the beginning of the film and then goes around to her apartment to find a tissue. There are two points being brought out in that scene. One is that she emotes over her own work. The second is that she’s used every scrap of paper to write down her ideas…not just on 3x5 cards.
When I had finished the novelization of ROMANCING THE STONE, Michael Douglas flew me out to Hollywood for a week of photo shoots. His idea was to have photos of the Joan Wilder of the movie, Kathleen Turner and the Joan Wilder of the book, Catherine Lanigan to use for publicity.
When I arrived I was taken to the sound stage where they were doing re-shoots. Kathleen, luminous, I might add, was sitting on a stool having makeup put on. The man who was my escort as well as another PR woman, introduced me to Kathleen. She burst into a smile and jumped off the stool. “I’m so happy to meet you!” she gushed. “First they told me you were coming last week. Then they said you weren’t coming till next week. I’ve been dying to meet you. I’m having a fight with my director and only you can settle this.”
I thought, “Great. I fly across the country to come between the leading lady and the director. Leaving now would be good. “Gosh, what’s the problem?”
“He wants me to cry at the beginning of the movie and I don’t want to do it.”
“Why ever not?” I asked.
“Because I don’t believe a romance author or any author gets so involved or carried away with their story they would …CRY!”
I said, “Gee. I cry all the time. Just last night I was sobbing because I had to kill off Karl in my book and he was my favorite character. My family is always saying there isn’t any tissue or toilet paper in the house because I’m crying over something my character did.”
Later over lunch, she asked me if I used 3x5 cards to write down my ideas when I get inspired.
I said, “I’m not that organized. I have a blizzard of post-it notes and scraps of paper taped and thumb tacked to the walls. Backs of bank deposit slips are handy when I’m in traffic and God forbid there be a paper towel or paper napkin around that I can use to write on during a meal. Like I said, there’s no tissue, toilet paper or paper towels in the house.”
ERGO….that was my one and only contribution to the movie.
5. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I was about six when it really formulated in my mind. When I was young my mother was ill…a lot. My father didn’t believe in television, so to entertain my younger brothers and sister, I created fairy tales and stories I told them. I didn’t write anything down until I was in high school. My teachers thought I had talent.
Actually, I wanted to be a journalist. A foreign correspondent. I dreamed of being like Brenda Starr from the Sunday Chicago Tribune newspaper. When I went to college, my second semester of my freshman year, the head of the English Department recommended me for a special creative writing class by a “travelling professor” who had taught at Princeton and Yale.
After a month, I’d written a short story. The night before class when the class (all senior women) would critique my story, the professor called me into his office. I just knew he was going to praise my work. Instead, he said, “Frankly, Miss Lanigan, your writing stinks. I have no idea how you weaseled your way into my class. You have no concept of structure, characterization or dialogue. I will give you that your description is nice.” By this time I was in tears. I’d announced to the entire college that I expected to graduate Summa Cum Laude. (Big mistake.) He told me that he’d caught me at the crossroads of my life. That my parents were spending a lot of money on my education, but I would never earn a dime as a writer.
He went on further to say that he was mindful of my desire to graduate Summa. To that end, he promised to be my “crutches” to get through his class and he would give me a B on one condition. That I promise never to write again.
I said, “It’s a deal.” That night I burned my manuscript and promised God I would never believe in dreams again. If I could not chew it, taste it, spit it out, it wasn’t real and it wasn’t for me.
I didn’t write for 14 years until I met a research journalist who encouraged me to write. I sat down and wrote 400 pages of a WWI romantic spy novel. I sent the unfinished manuscript to him. A month later he called me and said he thought it was “damn good and I’ve sent it to my agent. She’s going to call you in half an hour.”
Thirty minutes later a woman from New York called me and asked me questions about whether I wanted to go trade, soft or hard. I had no idea what she was talking about. She told me she would send a contract for me to sign with her agency. She asked if I had any questions. I said, “Only one. Does this mean you like the book?”
6. Do you ever make significant progress writing a story before realizing that you have a better idea for your book? Do you stay with the original idea, or do you go in the new direction?
Usually, I go in the new direction. However, I’ve learned to run this by my editor if the book is under contract. If I’m self-publishing, I’m not writing for guidelines, so I run with it.
7. Do you edit as you go along, after each chapter, or when the book is finished?
I have always printed out my chapters and edit that night or the next day at the latest. Then after I’ve written about 100 pages, I edit again. I keep doing this till the book is finished. Then I read the entire book again, new print out. I know…all that paper and toner, but it’s the only way I can see it. Feel it.
Thank you so much Catherine Lanigan for being my guest today, and for sharing such delightful information about yourself with us. This is the end of part 1 of Catherine Lanigan’s interview. Want to know more? Then come back on July 20th to read part 2.
**GIVEAWAY** Comment on Catherine’s interview to be entered to receive an autographed copy of Fear of Falling. Please leave a valid email address so that you can be contacted should you win. Winner will be chosen on July 30th.
CATHERINE LANIGAN BIOGRAPHY
www.catherinelanigan.com
Catherine Lanigan is the international bestselling and award-winning author of forty published titles in both fiction and non-fiction, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, as well as over half a dozen anthologies, including “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living your Dream”, “Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul”, and more. Ms. Lanigan’s novels have been translated into dozens of languages including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. Ms. Lanigan’s novels are also available in E-books on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com, Apple Store, Mobi and Kobo. Several of her titles have been chosen for The Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs. Her Vietnam war-based novel, The Christmas Star, won the Gold Medal Award Top Pick from Romantic Times Magazine and has also won Book of the Year Romance Gold Award from ForeWord Magazine as well as Book of the Year Romance from Reader’s Preference.