Interview with Rebecca Clark

I am so excited to have one of my favorite people on the blog.  I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Rebecca and she is a total doll and super funny.  So please welcome the wonderful Rebecca Clark to that blog

Bec, can you please share with us a little about yourself – I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my husband, two kids, a German shepherd beast, a rat that comes when he’s called, two cats that plot to kill the dog and eat the rat, and a dead gecko. When I’m not writing, I work as a personal fitness trainer and group exercise instructor—I teach Zumba, Pilates and yoga. With all this exercise, you’d think I’d be the perfect size 2 or something, wouldn’t you? Well, you’d be wrong. I like Cheetos. A lot. Enough said.

Have you always wanted to be an author? – Yes, since I was 11 years old and read my first Harlequin romance. (Before that, I wanted to be Nancy Drew.) I didn’t start writing for publication until I was about 30 though. All good things to those who wait, eh?

Can you share with us your typical writing day.  Is there anything you have to have while writing?  — I don’t have a typical writing day, because I don’t have a typical work day. Some days, I work a single shift, but on other days I might work a split, triple or quadruple shift, where all I’m doing is commuting back and forth to work. But on a “normal” day, which I’m trying to schedule more of, I try to write between 1-3 p.m. I’d love to be a morning person so I could get up early to write, but I’m not. I’d love to be a night person so I could stay up late to write, but I’m not. I’m a day person, so I write during the day.

Most challenging or rewarding part of writing? – Man, every part is challenging for me right now. Sheesh. Back when I started writing and didn’t know what I was doing (ah, to be young and dumb again), it was so easy and so much fun. The words just seemed to spew from my brain into a fairly clean first draft. Now, not so much. Every single word is like pulling teeth and my first drafts are so hideous I wouldn’t let my dog read them (assuming, of course, he could read).

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)? – I just released my fourth book, SHAMELESS. It’s the “book of my heart” – the story that just had to be told. It’s a sexy contemporary romance about forgiveness and redemption. Here’s the blurb:

Haunted by a tragic accident 20 years ago, John Everest knows he doesn’t deserve a family of his own, so he spends his days building the most successful fitness franchise in Seattle…and his nights alone. But that all changes when Samantha Rossi storms back into his life.

Happily single, Samantha feels there are only two types of men in this world: those who are good for nothing and those who are good for one thing. Now she needs that one thing desperately, because she wants a baby. John, a man from her past, is the perfect donor. He doesn’t want children. He doesn’t want a wife. He just wants her body. She can deal with that.

John agrees to Samantha’s no-strings-attached proposal, never expecting to fall for the fiery beauty he’d wronged so many years ago. It’ll take more than a shameless proposal to overcome their tragic past, but with a little luck and forgiveness, anything is possible.

How did you come with the idea for this story? – I read a newspaper article about a man who’d been driving recklessly and killed a pedestrian, and the story talked about how that event changed his life. That little tidbit got me wondering how such a tragedy would affect a person’s life. Thus, John’s character was born.

Can you share with us your current work in progress? – I always have several works in progress, which is probably why it takes me so long to finish a project. But the main project I’m working on is a contemporary romance series about weddings and baseball. I’ll finish it…someday.

Who are some of your favorite authors? – I have to give a shout out to my sister, author Laurie London, and my first critique partner and good friend Candis Terry (Avon author). Both of them are such fabulous writers I almost hate to read their latest books because it depresses me. I’ll never be that good. But as their sometimes critique partner, I will take full credit for their brilliance and successes. Other authors I love are Kevin O’Brien (not romance, obviously), Cherry Adair and Gayle Roper. Yes, I have very eclectic taste.

Do you feel that any of your favorite authors have inspired your writing style?   — I’m sure they have, but I read such a wide variety of styles and voices, I could never point to one favorite author and say, “I write like her/him.”

Open your book to a random page and tell us what’s happening. – Well, what do you know? A sex scene. This is the first time John and Samantha made love. They’ve had sex before, but it hasn’t meant anything beyond trying to get her pregnant. Until now.

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for? Well, it’s not a romance. It’s not even fiction. It’s a nonfiction book called The Hunger Fix by Dr. Pamela Peeke. I have major emotional eating issues (yes, even personal trainers deal with this LOL), and one of these days I’ll figure out why. Maybe this book will help. In the meantime, where are my Cheetos?

Is there anything else you would like to add? – I once drove naked on Strange Road.

Twitter: @RebeccaJClark

Facebook: Rebecca J. Clark

website: http://RebeccaJClark.com

Amazon | B&N |  Kobo 

Haunted by a tragic accident 20 years ago, John Everest knows he doesn’t deserve a family of his own, so he spends his days building the most successful fitness franchise in Seattle…and his nights alone. But all that changes when Samantha Rossi storms back into his life.

Happily single, Samantha feels there are only two types of men: the ones who are good for nothing and the ones who are good for one thing. Now she needs that one thing desperately because she wants a baby. And John, a man from her past, will make the perfect donor. He doesn’t want kids. He doesn’t want a wife. He just wants her body. She can live with that. 

John agrees to her crazy, no-strings-attached proposal, never expecting to fall for the fiery beauty he wronged so many years ago. It’ll take more than a shameless proposal to overcome their tragic past, but with a little luck and forgiveness, anything is possible.