Cate: Please welcome Lila Munro. Lila, will you please share a short bio with us?Lila: Absolutely, I write contemporary romance with a realism twist. I’ve recently coined my own term for my style: realmantica, which is realistic erotic romance. I’m very much in favor of a believable story. Being a military wife, I tend to move a lot and currently live on the coast of North Carolina in the heart of Marinetown, USA—east coast. I take much of my inspiration for my heroes from the marines I’ve lived around for the past fourteen years. When I’m not writing, I enjoy reading everything I can get my hands on, trips to the museum and aquarium, taking field research trips, and soaking up the sun on the nearby beaches. And, I must confess, I have a weakness for caramel frappe.
Cate: Mm, you're making me thirsty. :) And I like that, realmantica. Tell us about Bound By Trust and where it's available.
Lila: Bound By Trust is my latest contemporary romance. It released October 1 through Whiskey Creek Press—Torrid. It’s an emotionally charged story that revolves around a war widow, Madi Melbourne, and her savior, Rafe McCarthy, career marine.
Cate: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.Lila:
The Widow
After her husband Gage is killed in combat, Madi Melbourne finds out just how hard being a widow can be. She’s been left destitute piecing together a life she never knew Gage was living, and as the puzzle takes shape she begins to fall apart.
Her Savior
Rafe McCarthy has always been known as the unit playboy. Having never married and childless he finds himself examining his life and looking at the what-ifs, then a beautiful widow moves in next door and he begins to discover something he never knew existed inside of him.
Learning to trust…
How can he convince her to trust again and place that trust in him? Will he be able to live up to the responsibility he has taken in teaching her love again?
For an excerpt, please go over to my website at www.lilamunro.weebly.com. Or feel free to join in my virtual release party I’ve got going on over at Facebook. I’m having a great give away over there for a $25.00 ITunes gift certificate.
Cate: What a fun idea! What inspired you to write about the theme?
Lila: I have a habit of finding the most difficult problems for my characters to overcome anyone can possibly fathom, but they also have to stem from realistic issues. Living in a military community, I’ve actually seen how devastating the loss of a spouse to war can be. There have been romances written about such circumstances, but none I’ve read really did the theme justice in my mind. They only hinted at the problem, they didn’t attack it head on. Anyone that grieves goes through a process that includes a myriad of emotions. Most novels I’ve read only dealt with two—depression and acceptance. I felt I could do a better job of addressing the other three stages, and I believe I was successful. Madi rides the emotional roller coaster and I allowed her to display all the stages of grief to include anger and bargaining. There’s a point in the book that her anger explodes off the pages.
Cate: Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?
Lila: My characters sit on my couch and tell me what’s been going on in their lives. We are the closest of friends, and yes, they haunt my dreams. I cannot tell you the times I’ve been shaken by them in the middle of the night only to have to get up and write down what they wanted to tell me.
Cate: What's next for you?
Lila: I actually have several projects simmering away on my little literary stove. I have an untitled piece ready for submission as soon as I figure out what it’s called. It’s a story of two estranged lovers who are tossed back together by some unassuming family members. They think they’ll make it, then he pulls a Houdini and enter left his older brother. Who will get the girl? My other projects include a piece for an anthology I’m working on with three other terrific romance writers that we hope to put out in the spring, a stand alone novel entitled Language of Love about a grad student and a linguistics expert, and a series I’ve dubbed The Sergeants of Lima Co. I’m very much in love with the series I’m working on as it revolves once again around the lives of three marines all in the market for six months of lovin’. What they don’t plan on is actually falling for the three women they wrangle who have more baggage than a Coach outlet.
Cate: Any other published works?Lila: August 10 marked the release of my debut novel, The Executive Officer’s Wife. It is published through Wild Horse Press and is available at www.amazon.com , www.allromanceebooks.com, and www.1romanceebooks.com. On November 30, just in time for the holidays, I will be co-released in an anthology through Wild Horse Press called All I Want for Christmas is Redemption. It’s a paranormal wonderland and was a blast to write.
Cate: Sounds great! Describe your writing in three words.
Lila: Realistic, emotional, sensual.
Cate: Where can readers find you on the web?
Lila: I can be located at my own website, www.lilamunro.weebly.com or at my collaborative effort site that I share with three other wonderful authors, www.wickedmuses.webs.com . Readers can also follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Lila_Munro or they can email me directly at lilasromance@gmail.com I love to hear from readers, good or bad comments are welcome.
Cate: Thanks for being my guest Lila! Best of luck to you.
