Interview & Giveaway with Natalie Anderson

Books-n-Kisses is pleased to welcome Natalie Anderson to the blog today.  Natalie can you please share with us a little about yourself

Firstly thanks so much for having me here!  Hmmm, what can I tell you about me… I live in New Zealand, in a city called Christchurch (you may have heard of it in recent times as we’ve had a series of devastating earthquakes). I love New Zealand (it really is Lord of the Rings beautiful). And I love Christchurch especially—it’s my home town, and while it’s hard to see it in its current state—most of the central city/CBD is being demolished, there are just acres of empty spaces now where whole blocks of buildings once were—I want to stay and see it rise strong again. I live here with my husband and four kids. The kids are under ten years and include a set of twins. They’re all gorgeous and maddening and delightful. We’re pretty busy but it’s lots of fun. I travelled a bit in my early twenties (met the Hubster in London actually) – and I still have the bug really… it’s just in hibernation while we get through the ‘school’ years! I love writing, I love reading, I love the movies and I love my regular coffee date with my best girlfriend—we’ve been best buds since we were six… so that’s a fair number of years of friendship now!!!

Have you always wanted to be an author?

Pretty much! I wrote stories as a kid, was sent to a young authors conference when I was eleven or twelve, got waylaid by the ballet bug for a while, then mucked around at university not knowing what I really wanted to do (or thought I could). So I studied my favourite subjects (English Lit, Music, Art History) and ended up doing a Masters in Library & Information Systems – and then worked in law libraries and corporate banks. But the yearning to ‘create’ always, always burned—and it was always going to be writing.

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

Peace! I have four young children and I really can’t write with them around (not awake anyway!). This year has been so great because for the first time in the five years since I sold my first book I finally have my own office!!! We’ve put a small ‘shed’ in the garden (across a tiny creek we have). It was a kitset shed from Sweden and it’s the cutest thing. It looks like a gingerbread house or something. All wood and lovely. And it’s all mine! The neighbours thought we were putting in a playhouse for the kids but actually it’s MY playhouse! The kids are banned 😉 And happily our wireless internet connection doesn’t extend that far from the house so I cannot get distracted!!!

Most challenging or rewarding part of writing?

I love the days when I’m sitting there grinning at the screen like an absolute loon, with the words just flowing and being fun and … easy! I can get such a high from that. But some days, the real slog days where the story just isn’t going where you want it to, or it all seems flat… they can be so hard. But you just have to push on through! And this last year has taught me how much external things—things going on in other parts of your life—can really effect your writing and what you’re able to write. So that’s definitely been a challenge for me in recent times.

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?

WAKING UP IN THE WRONG BED – is a Harlequin Presents Extra, out in August. Here’s the blurb:

When film location scout Ellie Summers sneaks into a colleague’s hotel room with seduction in mind, she’s thrilled by her own daring!



But the smug morning-after glow morphs into red-faced mortification when she wakes in the arms of a total stranger! Ruben Theroux might be fine with the situation, but a flustered Ellie most definitely is not.



Ellie’s only defence against this very attractive guy is to insist they’re friends only–strictly no benefits! But Ruben isn’t a successful businessman for nothing–they’ll be good together, and he’s happy to play dirty to get what he wants….

How did you come with the idea for this story?

I really wanted to do a ‘wrong bed’ story—it’s such a fun and ‘naughty’ trope and I really wanted to see if I could get it to work in a believable way. I really wanted to figure out a way where she wouldn’t realise that it was the wrong guy—so she couldn’t know the guy’s body already (but then why is she jumping him in the middle of the night?), maybe they don’t talk much, and why does he let it happen? There were just so many delicious challenges to work through—and I had such fun doing it. And I loved flipping things around in the ‘morning after’ scene. And what happens after she’s walked away? Yeah, it was a lot of fun J

Can you share with us your current work in progress?

I’m working on a couple of things at the moment but I think my next release (hopefully it’ll be out very soon) is a novella featuring a heroine who’s desperate to ‘do the right thing’ for an important client, only she falls in the path of her client’s very sexy but skeptical older brother. Said brother will do whatever he thinks is required to protect his family and that includes bargaining with our beautiful heroine. This is the first in a trilogy of novellas that’ll eventually be out in an anthology titled FLIRTING TO WIN.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

I always find this question SO hard!!! My absolute fave ‘comfort read’ author is Georgette Heyer—I never tire of her Regencies no matter how many times I read them. She wrote some fabulous heroines—great, strong, witty women. And then those guys she created?! Yeah. I can never go past Heyer.

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

I guess my style is naturally influenced in a way—because we often write what we love to read. I love to read dialogue and that’s something I’m always working on. I love really getting to know the characters through the things they say and how they say them.

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

I’m very lucky to have a couple of wonderfully supportive writing buddies—Nicola Marsh and Soraya Lane—both of whom also write for Harlequin. Both have released other projects recently. Nicola has a contemporary romance out with Entangled called “Not the Marrying Kind” while Soraya has a YA that she’s put out called “Change”. I can’t wait to read both these books as soon as I get my current wip into shape!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you so much for having me here today! And I’d love to give away a signed print copy of WAKING UP IN THE WRONG BED to one commenter—so please say hi to go into the draw!!!

You can find out more about my other releases on my website http://www.natalie-anderson.com  and be sure to sign up for her newsletter there as I love to give away subscriber only eTreats!

I’m also on Twitter @authornataliea and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authornataliea

Waking Up In The Wrong Bed is available from

Amazon  | Barnes & Noble

And will be on the shelves in bookstore from Mid-August

To Enter:

Please leave Natalie a comment or questions along with your email address

*giveaway ends Aug 7th*