Interview & Giveaway with Isabel Cooper

Books-n-Kisses is excited to welcome Isabel Cooper to the blog today .

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

Isabel: I grew up as a faculty brat in a variety of boarding schools: first in Pennsylvania, then in southern California, and finally in Maine.  Now I live in Boston and take the subway everywhere, which means I get to read a lot. No kids, boyfriends, or pets: I shun responsibility.

 Have you always wanted to be an author?

Isabel:  At least since sixth grade.  The teacher read one of my essays aloud in class, everyone seemed entertained, and I thought that was pretty cool. Plus, I heard you could work in your bathrobe. I’m still hoping for that part one day.

Can you share with us your typical writing day.  Is there anything you have to have while writing?
Isabel: Other than a computer, not really! I try and do at least a thousand words a day when I’m on deadline, 500 when not. I actually do most of my writing during downtime at work. J Life with roommates has left me able to tune out most distractions.

Most challenging or rewarding part of writing?
Isabel:  The most rewarding moments are those when I’m really in the zone and words come easily—especially when dialogue is working, as that’s my favorite part. The most challenging is anything to do with physical details: sex, fighting, or geography. Lord, do I hate geography.

Can you please tell us about your latest book?
Isabel:  She’s a late-Victorian secretary with ambitions beyond her East End roots! He’s a two-hundred-and-some-year-old shapeshifting Scottish dragon with a curse! They…fight crime? Kind of? They definitely fight one really awful guy.  And they make out a lot.

How did you come with the idea for this story?
Isabel:  My former editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, actually suggested dragons. I was all “Ooh, cool!” and started brainstorming, and settled on trying to do a version of “Beauty and the Beast” that made the Beast less of a jerk. (The instinct to do this is in like eighty percent of romance novelists, as far as I can tell—it’s like getting a tattoo in college. One can only hope to do it well, in both cases.)

Can you share with us your current work in progress?
Isabel:  I’m tackling the story of Stephen’s sister Judith, who’s being all kinds of weary-quasi-mortal-veteran out in Scotland, and the spy who loves her. Only he doesn’t love her yet: they’re in the stage where neither trusts the other and each is pretending to be way less badass than he or she is. As one does.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
Isabel:  Robin McKinley, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Mercedes Lackey, Candace Camp,  and Georgette Heyer. This is a very abbreviated list. J

Do you feel that any of your favorite authors have inspired your writing style? 
Isabel: I can only hope! I really love how both McKinley and King, each in their own very different ways, mix fantasy or horror and romance, and I expect I’ve tried to imitate that a little in my own way.

Open your book to a random page and tell us what’s happening.

Isabel:  I’m actually at the office as I’m writing this, so it’s more Google Docs Pointer Roulette, but: okay, so Stephen and Mina have just cast this spell to keep Bad Stuff out, only it’s triggered his transformation, and he’s all “RUN NOW” and starts Hulking out. She runs, because she’s a sensible girl. He starts angsting in a paragraph or two.

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

Isabel: I’ve promised myself Doctor Sleep to read when I travel this December.  Otherwise, I tend to see what’s at the library when I go.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Isabel: Thank you very much for having me on here! I hope you enjoy the interview and Legend of the Highland Dragon.

LEGEND OF THE HIGHLAND DRAGON 

by ISABEL COOPER

IN STORES DECEMBER 2013 

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million  | Chapters/Indigo | IndieBound | iBookstore | Sourcebooks | Discover a New Love

He Guards a Ferocious Secret…

In Victorian England, gossip is often as precious as gold. But the Highlanders are a more mysterious bunch. And if anyone found out that Stephen MacAlasdair really was, he’d be hunted down, murdered, his clan wiped out. As he’s called to London on business, he’ll have to be extra vigilant—especially between sunset and the appearance of the first evening star.

Mina just wanted to find out more about the arrogant man who showed up in her employer’s office. Some might say it was part of her job. She never thought the stranger would turn into a dragon right in front of her. Or that he’d then offer her an outrageous sum of money to serve as his personal secretary. Working together night and day to track a dangerous enemy, Mina comes to see a man in love is more powerful and determined than any dragon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Isabel Cooper is the author paranormal historical romances No Proper Lady, a Publishers Weekly and a Library Journal book of the year in 2011, and Lessons After Dark. Both titles were also nominated in the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Awards. During the day, Isabel maintains her guise as a mild-mannered project manager working in legal publishing outside of Boston. For more, visit www.isabelcooper.org.

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