Today’s a very, very special day, my friends. First of all, it’s my one-year anniversary of being published. Yes, Knowing the Score came out a year ago today. Hurray for Spencer and Caitlyn!
Secondly, my amazingly talented friend Lia Riley has her debut book coming out today. For the rest of our lives, we can toast each other every August 5th. How cool is that?
Lia’s one of the funniest, cleverest people I know. That’s why I asked her to be my date to the RITA awards. I’m so freaking excited for millions of readers to discover her. And, just to show you how creative she is, I’m excited to say she decided to turn things upside down here on my blog and is interviewing me instead of me interviewing her. She’s also giving away by far the most amazing prize pack I’ve ever seen. You WANT this prize!
Take it away, Lia!
Lia: Kat, thanks so much for letting me ramble onto your lovely blog, turn the table and put YOU in the interview hot seat. KNOWING THE SCORE came out one year ago (congrats, and LOVE that book). Today is my debut. Outside of eating my feelings, what would be the single best piece of advice you could give a newly published author?
Kat: Hoo boy. Never read your reviews when you’ve had a couple glasses of wine? Actually, I’d probably have to say two things (I know, I’m cheating): 1. Read the bad reviews only if you think you can learn from them. Otherwise, try to forget they exist. 2. Make sure your readers know how much you love them. One nice email from a reader really, truly makes all of the bad reviews fade away.
Lia: What’s one thing your readers would be surprised to learn about you?
Kat: That’s really tough. I think my blog and books give readers a pretty good idea of who I am. Maybe that I wrote a paranormal romance when I was about eight? If only I’d published it, I would’ve been ahead of the trend by about fifteen years! The hero was Frankenstein’s monster, and I remember that he picked up the heroine for a date in a Corvette, but poor Frank had to put on his “nice young man” mask before the heroine would go out with him.
Oddly enough, I still tend to write about people who wear masks in public.
Lia: If you had to be stranded on a desert island (stocked with coconut trees and fresh water, I’m not a torturer), what fictional hero would you take along?
Kat: That’s easy. Sheridan Drake from Laura Kinsale’s Seize the Fire. Partly because he’s one of the hottest, most tortured heroes I’ve ever read about, but mostly because he gets stuck on a desert island in that book and proves that he can not only help the heroine survive but also have lots of sexy times without getting her pregnant. That’s gotta be a big bonus on a desert island.
Lia: What new author has grabbed your interest?
Kat: Besides you? Jamie Wesley. (And I’m really happy that I get to host her on my blog next week to celebrate her debut!) I love that her novel Tell Me Something Good is about two radio show hosts. It sounds unusual and fun.
Lia: If you had to choose, who would you consider as an author role model?
Kat: Oh, damn. Well, I’m not a very fast writer, so probably authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Julie James who put out one really amazing book every year or two. Or Courtney Milan, who has blazed trails in publishing. Or Jane Porter, who’s so creative and savvy. Can I have all of them?
Thanks so much for being here today, Lia, and for letting us all celebrate with you! I hope you have an amazing release day and hit the bestsellers lists! *muah!*
Book #1 in the OFF THE MAP series
New Adult Contemporary RomanceIf You Never Get Lost, You’ll Never Be Found
Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past-and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she’ll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.
Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He’s never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart.
About Lia Riley
After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, LIA RILEY scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c’mon, who doesn’t love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.
Find Lia on her website | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
Congrats on your 1 year anniversary
thanks for bringing this to our attention
and for the great contest!!
Great post and fascinating give-away. Thanks to both of you!
Thanks for all your kind words, Kat. Happy Pub-o-versary. And I had to swoon over your “Seize the Fire” comment…Sheridan is a TOP choice. xoxoxo
Woohoo! Happy first year anniversary of being published Kat! And happy release day for Lia too~ You two will definitely be partying on this day for the rest of your lives! How fun is that!
Plus, I got a new author to look forward to now. 🙂