Please start by telling us a little about yourself (education,
jobs, significant other, children, pets, etc.) 
My name is LaVerne Thompson, I
write contemporary, fantasy and sci/fi romances. I also have an alter ego.
Ursula Sinclair, and under this name I write romantic suspense and New Adult.
I’ve been married for 24 years. I have two girls in college, which is why I
love NA, two pets, a cat and a dog. And in another life I used to be a lawyer.
Tell us about your latest New Adult book and what inspired
you to write it.
It’s a series about a ballerina as
the heroine, the first two books in the 3 book series are finished. The
Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) and Maze- The Ballerina Series Book 2.
It’s the story of a professional ballerina, Ivy, who meets a MMA underground
fighter, Maze. Now his type of fighting isn’t the modern day MMA fighting
styles where there’s just as much wrestling going on as boxing. His is much
more traditional styles. Maze and Ivy come from very different worlds but
opposites do attract. My youngest is a classically trained ballerina and I was
immersed in that world for 15 years, she no longer dances. I still cry over
that. Lol But I always wanted to write a story that gave a nod to those
wonderful athletics and thought the perfect partner for my good girl ballerina
would be of course another athletic. Someone just as dedicated to his craft as
my heroine, so Maze is a bad boy through and through capable of doing whatever
he has to protect those he loves. And he loves Ivy above all.
The New Adult genre is fairly new. What's your definition
of it? How does it differ from Young Adult or just regular Adult books?
There is a difference. For me in a
NA book the protagonist are between the ages of 17-25. And they deal with
mature issues but from a lack of experience. At times YA themes do encroach
into the NA arena and the lines there can and do become blurred, especially
when the YA themes might be one of abuse or making adult decisions before they
are perceived age wise as an adult. And of course sex. If it has sex it’s NA,
but not all NA necessarily has descriptive sex. No such blurring exists on the
older end. I think most would agree that 25 is the cut off even 26 is pushing
it. You’re too close to 30 and by then you can no longer use youth as an excuse
for behavior. Also while traditionally NA seemed to focus on contemporary
college settings I’m glad to see it branching out into any and all genres
attracting more readers.
Do you belong to any critique groups and/or do you have
other people read your work as you're writing it? Who's brutally honest and
who's a cheerleader? Which do you prefer?
I do have several critique
partners. My work does go through at least 2 critique partners, 2 beta readers
and gets professionally edited. And still we miss things. It’s cause the work
is constantly changing. I’d much rather brutal honesty. I tell people when they
ask about finding critique partners if the work doesn’t come back with red all
over, that person either couldn’t be bothered or you didn’t move them enough to
even make a positive comment. Either way find someone else. Cause your readers
won’t all be cheerleaders and will be quick to point out errors. And not always
in a constructive way.
What are your all-time favorite authors/books?
That’s a touch one I have enough
to take up two pages. But I’ll just list a few stress few here. Pride and
Prejudice, The Wheel of Time Series, Tolkien, Honor’s Splendour, A Place To
Call Home.
Do you outline before you write or just dive head-first
into a manuscript? Do you maintain a schedule for writing, or is it
more haphazard?
Dive head first. I write whenever I can as much as I can.
Where do you do your
best writing? (Ex: desk in your office, public library, under a tree in the
park, in front of a Real Housewives
TV marathon, etc.) Do you like music or some other background noise, or do you
need quiet?
I usually have the TV on as back ground noise. When I was
writing both Ballerina books I listened to a lot of the music I named in the
books, but mostly it was Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise to reach the darkness I
needed to create Maze’s dilemma and his solutions.
What are the best and worst parts of writing a book?
Time to finish it. There’s never
enough. LOL
When you're driving
and you have a sudden, brilliant idea for the new manuscript you're working on,
what do you do? (Ex: pull over and fire up the laptop, keep driving while
scribbling on a McDonald's bag, tell Siri, etc.)
I have been known to rush home and get it written down. LOL
If I’m not on my way home I will jot a note in my phone while at a red light or
once I get to my destination. I once got an idea on the way home from the store
and ran a red light to get home and to get it down. I did the first 3 chapters
in about an hour and finished the story in a month. It will be re-released next
month. Hold On a contemporary romantic suspense.
Imagine you have a whole day free for shopping. Where do
you go? (Mall, unique boutiques, flea market, antique shops, bookstore, home
improvement store, etc.)
Easy. Mall. And I am a firm
believer in shopping therapy. When the going gets tough the tough go shopping.
What are the top 5
titles in your Netflix queue? (Be honest.) Or if you don't have a Netflix
queue, which books are on your bedside table? (Again, be honest.)
In my queue to watch are: Lore, War Witch, Soloman Kane, Invasion
Earth, Timeline
Do you prefer to read
ebooks or print?
Nowadays ebooks.
Where is your favorite
place in the world?
The lounge
chair in my bedroom. LOL
Do you have any advice for people who want to write a book?
Find a favorite spot open up your
laptop and write the down the first thing that comes to you and go from there.
No comments:
Post a Comment