Author Interview: Wendy Vella + giveaway

Today we are welcoming brand new author Wendy Vella. Wendy writes historical romance and her debut book The Reluctant Countess comes out this month. We thought it would be fun to get to know Wendy. So grab your favorite warm beverage and get to know Wendy.

 

TBRG: Thank you so much for coming on today Wendy, we’re excited to get to know you.

WV: It’s great to be here and thanks so much for inviting me.

TBRG: Ok I’m going to start with the three most important questions we have for an author in NZ…

WV: Fire away!

TBRG: Can you please send me Sunny B. Williams?

WV: Who? Just kidding, yes he’s certainly a fine specimen but unfortunately he’s moved to Australia for a while to play league so I can’t grab him for you, but I promise to do so when he returns. I saw him with his shirt off once and he’s ruined me for every other chest.

TBRG: Are you a LOTR and Hobbit fan? If so what was your favorite part of the movies?

WV: I love them and my favorite part is in The Lord Of The Rings was when Arwen rescues Frodo from the Black Riders and takes him to safety, it’s a great scene with lots of action and bravery.

TBRG: Can you torture fellow Kiwi author Nalini Singh into revealing the hero of her current wip?

WV: Haha, I could do that with the right amount of incentive! But not really, Nalini is a friend and also a pretty special person so unfortunately I would feel terrible if I tortured her. Maybe I could trick her into it? No again she’s too smart to fall for that…I’ll give it some thought and get back to you.

TBRG: Now that we’ve had some fun, let’s get down to the real questions. 😀

WV: Hit me with them!

TBRG: Who has been the biggest influence on your writing?

WV: Probably Romance Writers of New Zealand. I joined about 8 years ago and my writing started to improve from there. I entered contests and began attending conferences and there is just so much knowledge available from other writers in these organizations they’re great if you’re just starting out.

TBRG: What is the one thing your readers would be the most surprised to know about you?

WV: I like to have matching pegs both shape and color on my line lol, but seriously I guess my writing habits are a bit different to most. I don’t start until about 8 in the evening and I write on a lap top in the lounge with my family watching T.V. around me. I have my head phones on and rock music blaring so I’m in my own little world. I’ve always written like this because it means we’re all together and if they want to get my attention they just throw something at me!

TBRG: Where is the one place you have always wanted to go, a place on your bucket list?

WV: EileanDonanCastle, it is on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and is where Robert the Bruce got refuge when he was out of favor with some of the clans and being hunted by the English in the fourteenth century.

TBRG: What was the first romance book you read?

WV: I can never remember the name of it, my mother gave it to me and it was a M & B about an arrogant Greek bastard who needed to be taught a lesson in manners. But I remember my first historical romance, These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer.

TBRG: Who are some of your go to authors, and what are you reading right now?

WV: I have a group of writers that I read as soon as they write something new. Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn and Amanda Quick. At the moment I’m reading the Nightengale Legacy by Catherine Coulter, she has some outstanding books too.

TBRG: If you weren’t writing and keeping us in books (thanks for that by the way), what would you be doing?

WV: I would probably be a policewoman. I nearly got there when I was younger but I decided to travel the world and fell in love instead.

TBRG: What is your guilty pleasure?

WV: Watching the same clips on Utube over and over again. Like the end scene in Persuasion (2007) with Rupert Penry-Jones. I will replay them constantly just because they have that emotional pull that I want to get in my books and I like to analyze what makes them that way. Plus Whittaker’s almond nut chocolate slabs, I can eat three of them in one sitting.

TBRG: Who is on your playlist when you are writing?

WV: Jason Mraz – I won’t give up.

TBRG: Where do your ideas/characters come from?

WV: Strangely the characters just turn up in my head telling me to write about them and the story comes next. I’m big on names, they have to be right from the start or nothing works property.

TBRG: Are you a planner or a fly by the sear author?

WV: Fly by the seat of my pants author. It means I have to do more drafts but I have tried to plot a book and get frustrated that I’m doing all this work and not actually writing anything.

TBRG: How did you come up with this story?

WV: I was going to enter a competition and the entry conditions were that you wrote the beginning about an Earl, a mysterious Countess and a ballroom scene and The Reluctant Countess came from that. I never entered the competition but the book worked out well.

TBRG: Is this book going to be a part of a series or a stand-alone book?

WV: This is a stand-alone book but I haven’t ruled out using the characters in other books at a later date.

TBRG: Tell us about Sophie and Patrick?

WV: They were born into different worlds but both came from parents that left them with internal scars. Patrick is austere and seems a bit arrogant but he masks a soft side that he lets few people see and Sophie is living a lie that forces her to behave out of character. She has a weakness for dolls and like Patrick hates to see servants treated badly. They’re great characters, full of angst, humor and frustration.

TBRG: What do you want us to know about their love story?

WV: I think it’s a feel good kind of Cinderella story about overcoming your past to secure your future with the person you love, your soul mate.

TBRG: Using 3-5 adjectives describe Sophie and Patrick.

WV: Contained, honest, noble, lonely.

TBRG: What are you working on now?

WV: I have a few works in progress at the moment and am trying my hand at another contemporary so we shall how that works out. I’m also working on another historical set in the Regency period.

TBRG: Thank you Wendy for coming on and being a good sport about our questions? We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

Wendy Vella is a lover of all things romantic. She started reading her first Georgette Heyer book at a young age and instantly fell in love with the Regency era. Writing is something she has always found time for; she penned her first novel at eighteen though she says it will never make an appearance further than the closet in which it currently resides.