Cate: Please welcome Rachel Brimble. Rachel, will you please share a short bio with us?Rachel: I am married with two young daughters and live in near the famous Georgian city of Bath in the UK. I work part time for my husband who is a financial adviser and spend the rest of my time writing or reading. I love to watch BBC costume dramas and a lot of US drama shows like True Blood, Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives!
Cate: Tell us about your latest release and where it's available.
Rachel: My latest release is The Sharp Points of a Triangle and it is available at Eternal Press. It is a story of re-united lovers, Hannah Boyd and Jamie Young. Their journey is set in the UK and full of fun, frolics and lots of sexy romance! I loved writing this book and hope the readers sense my love for these characters as they discover their story.
Cate: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Rachel: Hannah Boyd has been crowned the youngest Independent Financial Adviser in the UK. She has kicked out her boyfriend whose idea of romance is leaving a present of skid-marked boxers on the bedroom floor, or sharing a chilli-kebab in front of the football on a Saturday night. She is successful, single and about to secure the one of the wealthiest men in England as a client. But then the one person she never wanted to see again reappears as her biggest competitor…and temptation.Jamie Young never stopped loving her but is now competing against Hannah in the cut-throat business world. He has to find a way to secure both the lucrative client and her. Will she agree to work to him so he can keep her close and let him mend the heart he broke so badly? Or has he lost her forever?
Cate: Love it! You've gotten great reviews, too - congrats. What inspired you to write about the theme?
Rachel: It was inspired by a newspaper article I read about where two reunited lovers got married just six months after meeting again. Romantic? Yes. But such a quick and happy ending is very unlikely to keep a reader riveted so I came up with lots of conflicts to keep them apart. Including two exes, a flatulent boss and a huge dose of rivalry.
Cate: Any specific inspiration for your characters (an actor/actress or personal hero)?
Rachel: No particular inspiration because most, if not all my characters start talking to me first of all and then I write their story – but having said that, I do tend to pick an actress’ and actor’s picture to stick on my office wall and attribute their physicality to the hero and heroine.
Cate: How do you pick the character’s names?
Rachel: It depends – sometimes the name comes to me once I start writing the novel outline, sometimes I close my eyes and point at a spot in the phone directory and sometimes I give them my friends names. Hannah is my youngest daughter’s name and Jamie is my husband’s best friend’s name (who actually likes to think I gave him the raw material for hunky Jamie, the character….not true at all!)
Cate: Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?
Rachel: They certainly live with me – they talk to me mostly when I’m ironing or walking my black Labrador, Max. Their story is constantly in my head – plot changes tend to come in the bath and sex scenes when I’m cooking!
Cate: What's next for you?
Rachel: My next release is due out July 23rd – an historical romance entitled The Arrival of Lily Curtis and published by The Wild Rose Press. I also have a contemporary women’s fiction novel under consideration with a UK agent, which I hope to receive some good news about soon!
Cate: Best of luck! At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story. Rachel: I written from a very young age but started writing with a view to publication when both my children start school full-time in 2005. My first novel, a romantic suspense entitled Searching For Sophie was published by The Wild Rose Press in January 2007.
I was told by email and I cried and cried like a baby, drank a few glasses of wine with my hubby and ended up dancing around the kitchen. Yes, I was kinda happy!
Cate: Describe your writing in three words.
Rachel: Emotional, comic, sexy
Cate: Do you have a writing routine?
Rachel: I write every day without fail – I like to aim for 5,000 words a week rather than a daily amount. I often exceed that amount but refuse to put myself under pressure because past experience has proven I become a bit of a basket-case if I fail, LOL! I write around the day job and looking after the kids so my writing tends to be done in short sharp bursts of creativity that I go back and re-write or edit when I have a good two hour spell on a Saturday and Sunday.
Cate: Wow-every day’s NaNoWriMo for you! That’s great.
What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Most rewarding?
Rachel: The most challenging for me is the actual plotting! The characters usually come into my head fully formed and chatting incessantly but then it’s the problem of what to do with them and what their conflicts are.
The most rewarding is seeing my book released in print – nothing beats holding my own book in my own hands. Fantastic!
Cate: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
Rachel: Mmm, hard one. I haven’t really had any comments that are off-the-wall or strange but I have had lots of comments and each of my books has received five star reviews so I’m keeping quiet in the hope that my success continues in the same vein, LOL!Cate: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Rachel: My favorite romance authors are Nora Roberts, Nicholas Evans, Jodi Picoult but I read straight across the genres. At the moment I am reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Cate: What impact do electronic readers create on the bottom line for authors? Or in people/the environment in general?
Rachel: Even though I love holding my print copies in my hands, I truly believe that e-reading can only be good for the future of the environment and also spreading an author’s name around the globe. E-books are convenient, cheaper and so accessible that it has to be a win-win for both author and reader.
Cate: Where can you be found on the web?
Rachel: www.rachelbrimble.com
Cate: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Rachel: Which sub-genre of romance is your favorite? I’d love to gauge what readers enjoy the most and why. I write across the romance genre but each story depends very much on my mood when the idea strikes, is that the same for what makes a romance reader pick up a certain book?
Cate: Readers, Rachel is giving away a book to a random commenter... so start commenting. She'll pick a winner on 1st April 2010. Be sure to leave your email address so Rachel can contact you!
