Books-n-Kisses is pleased to welcome back Shana Galen to the blog today to talk about her newest release Lord & Lady Spy.

Shana, can you please share with us a little about yourself

I’m a wife, mother to a three-year-old romance heroine in the making, and writer of fast-paced historical romance novels.

Find Shana here: Website  Facebook  Twitter

Have you always wanted to be an author?

Not at all. I wanted to be an opera singer and a psychologist and half a dozen other professions over the years. I don’t think I realized “author” was a profession. I did always love to tell stories.

Can you share with us your typical writing day.  Is there anything you have to have while writing?

A typical writing day has me up early (like 4 a.m. ) and at my computer working. My daughter gets up about 6:30, and then I spend most of the day with her. In the evening, I’m back at the computer. I definitely try to send some time with my husband too. I have to have silence to write. There’s nothing I have to have. I can work through anything. I do prefer silence, a Diet Dr. Pepper, and a box of Milkduds, but the days when I have any or all of that are few and far between.

Most challenging or rewarding part of writing?

The most challenging part is finding the time to write. The most rewarding part is when a reader tells me she enjoyed one of my books.

Can you please tell us about your latest book?

The Spy Wore Blue is a digital novella. Please don’t buy it thinking it’s a full-length book. That said, I really do give the reader a complete love story. This one is about Blue, a spy I introduced in Lord and Lady Spy. He’s in Naples looking for an assassin. While he’s there he has to work with his estranged wife. She’s an opera singer (wonder where that idea came from, right?), and during the course of Blue’s investigation she becomes a target of the assassin.

How did you come with the idea for this story?

I never envisioned Blue as a hero, but my readers kept asking for his story. I didn’t think I could write a 90K book for him, so I proposed writing a novella. Turns out I probably could have written a 90K book for him, but I really enjoyed writing the novella. It was a fun length and challenging for me to complete in a way I thought would satisfy readers. So I didn’t actually come up with the idea for the book, my readers did. I had to figure out the plot, though. That’s always the way of things!

Can you share with us your current work in progress?

Absolutely! I’m working on the third Lord and Lady Spy book, Love and Let Spy. It will conclude Adrian and Sophia’s story from Lord and Lady Spy and True Spies, and it introduces a new couple.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Marsha Canham, Julie Garwood, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Kiera Cass, and JD Robb.

Do you feel that any of your favorite authors have inspired your writing style? 

I’m the most inspired by Marsha Canham and Julie Garwood. I could never write as well as either of them, but I definitely aim for the bar they’ve set with each novel I’ve written. JD Robb also inspires me. Not all of my heroines are tough, but when I write one, I like to channel a bit of Eve Dallas.

Open your book to a random page and please reads us a few lines. It’s an ebook, so I have to open the document…

“So not everyone finds you charming.”

His fingers stilled, and the coin appeared. Blue looked at her and smiled. “There are a few who still resist my charms.”

“God knows I was never one of them.” She didn’t know why she said as much. Perhaps because he had revealed something to her—information about this Maîtriser group—and she felt obliged to repay in kind. He rose now, and she took a step back.

“You can’t resist me?” he said quietly. She did not like the seductive tone in his voice.

“I’m certain I could now.”

He moved closer, and she felt the heat of him, felt the solidness of him. He was really here, in the flesh, his body all but touching hers. She felt a wave of dizziness at being this close to him.

“Shall we test that theory?”

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?

I’m looking forward to Katharine Ashe’s I Married the Duke, The Ruin of a Rogue by Miranda Neville, Lily Dalton’s debut, Never Desire a Duke, and Theresa Romain’s first book with my publisher, Sourcebooks, It Takes Two to Tangle.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you so much for having me!

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