We would like
to welcome Kathryn Shay to The Author’s Lounge.
Thank you,
Kathryn, for giving us this interview.
I am
currently reading your book “Taking the Heat”; I have to
admit that I am falling in love with all the characters in
the book. Can you tell our readers more about the book?
Answer:
TAKING THE HEAT is the third in a series about the O’Neil
family. The four brothers own a pub in Greenwich Village and
their sister is married to the vice president of the United
States. Liam, the third oldest,
lost his wife three years ago
to cancer and is ready to date again. He meets Sophie Tyler,
rough and tumble female firefighter from New York City, and
is attracted to her. But his sons are still suffering over
the loss of their mother and Liam feels he can’t risk
getting involved with someone in a dangerous profession.
Too bad, though, because they can’t help themselves and
sparks fly, emotionally, physically and on the line.
The
book talks about different types of fires and the causes of
them. You also talk about how hard it is for women to become
a firefighter, and the risk firefighters have when it comes
to bearing children. Can you tell us what kind of research
you did when writing “Taking the Heat”?
Answer:
When I decided to propose some firefighter books to
Harlequin SuperRomance, and then later to Berkley, I decided
I needed to research their professional lives. Thus began a
several-year odyssey of riding fire trucks and ambulances,
having meals at fire houses, interviewing many of America’s
Bravest, and reading everything I could get my hands on
about firefighting and EMS, included a 700 page recruit
training manual. I also spent countless hours at the local
fire academy training with the recruits. The highlights of
this time were: my very first ride along was going to a
stabbing where, over the radio, the dispatcher kept saying,
“Firefighters must not go into the building without the
police;” being led by a cute lieutenant into a mist-filled
room which simulated smoke and showed how blind firefighters
work; talking into the early hours of the morning about 9/11
with one guy as tears came into his eyes for his fallen
brothers; meeting their friends and families, doing book
signings with Joe, the guy who helped me the most. There
are hundreds of memories like this that I cherish.
What made you
decide to write a romance where the roles are reversed and
why a firefighter?
As it
turns out, all of the O’Neil men have significant others who
are in risky jobs, or who’s seemingly safe job turns out to
be dangerous. And these guys are very protective and some
of them macho, so it’s an interesting dynamic. Also,
integrating women into the fire service is an issue for fire
departments across the country. I enjoyed bringing this
chauvinism to light. Finally, what fun it was to “put the
shoe on the other foot.”
You have
written many books since 1995, out of all the books you have
written, do you have a favorite?
COP OF THE
YEAR for Harlequin is my favorite SuperRomance. Everything
fell together there, and I love those characters. Also, it’s
about a teacher very much like I was, and the students who
need her. Her teaching methods and lessons were mine!
TRUST IN ME,
the story of six kids who were delinquent teenagers and what
happens to them 15 years later, is my favorite Berkley. The
plot of that one was my best, I think.
According to
your bio, before you sold your first book to Harlequin
Superromance, you went through 2 years of rejections. What
made you keep trying, and what advice would you give new
authors who are currently going though the same thing?
I kept trying because I knew my writing
was good, though I always had doubts, until I sold my first,
that I would actually get published. I remember feeling
very discouraged after each rejection. But I plowed on. My
advice to new writers is to be persistent. You miss a
hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.
When you found
out that your first book was accepted how did you feel and
how did you celebrate?
On
December 1st, 1994, at 2 p.m. in the afternoon,
when the editor called me to say she was buying THE FATHER
FACTOR, I started to cry. She told me to go fix myself a cup
of tea, and she’d call back tomorrow. I didn’t—I called my
husband at work and got him out of a meeting to tell him. I
was stunned that it had finally happened. As I recall, we
celebrated that night in typical romance novel fashion.
J.
What do you
think is the hardest part to writing a book, and have you
ever had writers block?
I never have writers block and I think it’s
because for the first ten years of my career, I had limited
time to write (at 4 a.m. when I got up before going to
school at 7, at a swim meet, for an hour on Sunday
morning). So I trained myself to use the time wisely. The
hardest part of writing a book is when editors’ revisions or
line edits or copy edits come back and I don’t agree with
them.
What is your
favorite genre to read, and who is your favorite author?
My favorite genre to read is romance
and the authors I love best are Nora Roberts, Linda Howard
and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I’m afraid that I gushed when
I got to meet them.
Can you tell us
about your next book?
I have two Supers in the
works which will be out in January and August of 2009. The
first is completed, tentatively titled A TWIST OF FATE.
It’s the story of a woman who has a car accident and wakes
up without her memory. There are two men in her life, the
one she dates and her best friend. But as the story unfolds,
it becomes unclear who she’s really in love with.
Right
now, I’m writing AFTER THE FALL, the story of an architect
who’s responsible for the collapse of part of a building,
and goes to the small town of Carson City to spend time with
her college roommate and his family who loves her. There
she meets a contractor who, quite frankly, wants to run her
out of town.
My
editor and I are also planning a trilogy for 2010, but
you’ll have to wait to hear about that one!
Hopefully, I’ll be doing Dylan O’Neil’s book after that for
Berkley.
You
retired from teaching in 2004, did you find it hard to quit,
and do you miss it? Did you quit, to have more time to
write.
Retiring from teaching was
bittersweet. I loved that job and did it well, I think, for
a lot of years. It shocked me to discover I didn’t miss it
at all. That was because I’d done all I wanted to at the
school and was ready to write full time.
Before we close
Kathryn, is there anything you would like our readers to
know?
Yes—that being a published writer
happens to ordinary people like me. One day I was a regular
wife, mother and school teacher. The next, I was a
published author, which changed my life dramatically. Thank
God for a supportive husband and great kids!
I want to thank
you again for taking this time to do an interview with us. I
look forward to reading your next book.
Thanks for
inviting me to The Author’s Lounge.
Want a chance to win an
autograph copy of "Taking the Heat"? Visit our
TAL
Blog and leave Kathryn a comment or ask her a question and
you will automatically be entered for your chance to win a
personal copy of her book.
