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Welcome to your New Faces columns, where we are delighted to introduce new romance authors to our readers. This time we're visiting with Esri Rose, whose debut novel is Bound to Love Her, from Zebra Books.
Esri, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself. I'm the only child of a family of characters. We cuss a lot, laugh at the universe, particularly our parts in it, and are nosily interested in everything and everybody. Because I have no siblings and my grandmother lived with us, I'm used to a lot of attention. Are you paying attention to me? (Writes book.) How about now? (Promotes the snot out of book.) Now are you paying attention to me? It's a handy trait for an author. The only downside is that my ego is almost visible, like a goiter. Are you coming to romance writing from another job? For a while, I used my college degree and wrote ads for radio and TV. Then I kicked over the traces and opened a skin-care salon. This sometimes involved smearing soothing goo on women and other times involved ripping hair off of them. In situations like that, it helps to have a fund of amusing anecdotes. It was a great job, but all the bending and gripping takes a toll on your body. I'd been writing a fan-fiction piece when I realized it could be a stand-alone book if I changed all the names. So I started looking for a buyer for my salon. When I told one of my clients that I would get someone who was a good waxer, she said, "Oh, I probably won't keep up with it after you leave. I mostly come to hear your stories." Knowing nothing about the book world, I naively assumed that I would be on the shelves in a year. It was six years and five books before I sold. What led you to write romance? Are you a long-time reader? I started reading romance in high school, when I consumed my library's entire stash of Barbara Cartland. I've been fighting an overuse of ellipses ever since… Those were great books, full of longing and the occasional stuttering heroine. I read a lot of mysteries during college. Now I write romantic suspense, which is a hybrid of the two. And I read just about everything. My first book was a sci-fi romance, but science-fiction publishers weren't very interested in it because it was all mushy. Plus, it needed a lot of work. In researching markets, I discovered that romance fiction has tons of subgenres. I was very taken with Legolas in the first Lord of the Rings movie, so I wrote a paranormal romance featuring elves. Then I wrote several other things, but the elf book sold first. Tell us about your road to publication. I took the usual route of discovering RWA and entering contests. My family is very close, very socially self-sufficient. We're not big joiners of outside groups, but I owe a lot to organizations. The elf book finaled in the Golden Heart in 2003, and I was fortunate to become a member of the Wet Noodle Posse. I have to say, those women have taught me the benefits of a supportive community. I'm more of a joiner because of how wonderful it is to be part of that group. I got my agent through the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I won their mainstream contest with a book called Telling Lies, and the judging agent took me on as a client. Telling Lies is essentially mainstream fiction. Either that's a very tough sell in general or I was not what they look for in an author. Here's a representative example of one of my rejection letters for that book: "Telling Lies was utterly clever and fun and often startlingly truthful. Thanks for the read, which was completely unforgettable." And then the editor went on to say thanks but no thanks. Finally Kensington read it and essentially said, "We like it, but we're not sure how to sell it. Does she have anything else?" I said I had a paranormal romance, and I understood those were selling well (pause for laughter). So they gave me an elfy two-book contract and I hope I'm on my way. What kind of research was involved for your first book? Aside from things like determining exactly where a woman's head rests when she sits on a man's lap, almost nothing. I had a cultural consciousness of what elves were, which I built on very arbitrarily. "Hey, let's have them travel through the ground! And fight with energy! And each one should have a cool artistic talent!" I purposely didn't read a lot of elf literature, because I wanted to make my own world. And then I set it in Boulder, Colorado, where I live. This was not just laziness on my part. Boulder is one of the New Age hubs of the world. If we don't have elves, I don't know who else would. Plus, it worked with the whole environmental angle of the book, 'cause we like to shop for organic clothing while we're out in our Lexus SUVs. You have to have a sense of humor about yourself in Boulder, or no one outside the city will be your friend. Tell us about your debut book. Bound to Love Her is the story of Erin, who owns a New Age shop but doesn't believe in the supernatural, and Galan, a supernatural creature who doesn't trust humans. When Erin accidentally saves Galan's life, the two are bound to each other in a mysterious way. Can they defeat the dark elf Fellseth, who wants to finish Galan off and turn Erin into a mindless slave? Probably they can, but you'll have to read the book to know for sure. The beginning of it is on my site. Who are your influences as a writer? I've come to believe that romance is the hardest thing in the world to write. What other genre imposes the limitation of having two people on the page almost all the time, with a relationship building between them in addition to whatever other plot you might have? Jo Beverly and Jane Feather make it look effortless, and I love their strong heroines and wry, flexible heroes. When I read romance, it's almost always historical, but it's not in my make up or voice to write those books. Plus, I don't want to work that hard, with all the research. My other influences are the humorists who poke fun at the inherent tragedy in life. David Sedaris, Bill Bryson, Terry Pratchett. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Marion Chesney, in all her various incarnations (except for her Agatha Raisin books). What does your family think of having a published romance author in their midst? My parents are so supportive that if you criticize my books, they will set your house on fire. Plus, they're both tremendous proofreaders and editors. I don't know what I'd do without them. Daddy reads romances and mysteries to Mom every night before they go to sleep. They're far more in touch with market trends than I am. Plus, Daddy gets teary every time he reads the end of Bound to Love Her. Every. Time. My husband, Angel Joe, is the one who makes it all possible. He told me to keep writing long after I went through the money from the sale of my skin-care business. He recently took Bound to Love Her as his airplane read en route to a geek conference in Vegas. He was going to take copies of my book to his team of Chinese engineers, but he passed on going to Beijing because the trip conflicted with my book signing. I am soooooo lucky in my family, I'm grateful every moment of every day. Tell us about plans for future books. I'm finishing up Bound to Want Him right now, which will come out in May 2009. This time the lurrve is between a female elf and a human male, and the Boulder elves have to deal with a mysterious forgetting sickness in addition to a villain out for revenge. Almost all of the characters in the first book show up in the second book. Note to self: Never have seven characters in a room at the same time. Writing a fantasy series is tremendous fun, so I'll keep writing the elfy books as long as someone pays me. Before Bound to Love Her sold, I had just completed the first book in a humorous mystery series. When I have time, I'm going to polish it up and write a second before having my agent pitch it. Promoting a book is so time-consuming. I wouldn't want to start another series without the first two books already completed. Word to the wise, kids. How can readers get in touch with you? They can come to my ever-expanding website, ElvesAmongUs.com, and use the "Contact me" field to validate my existence. I LOVE to hear from readers. You have a great site here. Thanks for having me! Esri, thanks for joining us, and best of luck!
June 8, 2008 |
