Author Spotlight Week - Q&A with Toni Noel

I'd like to welcome Author Toni Noel to the blog this week for the spotlight. Toni's latest release is called "Law Breakers and Love Makers." Enjoy! Steph

***


STEPH: I don't know much about Law Breakers and Love Makers. Can you tell us a little about the book?

TONI:
Here's a blurb:

Take one resolute wisp of a woman, one conscientious deputy, add some single-minded pets and a few crimes-in-progress and you have a situation that would be funny if the couple falling back in love was not so darn scared. Law Breakers and Love Makers takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride that starts when a house sitter accidentally sets off a silent alarm.

STEPH: What was the inspiration behind the book?

TONI: A lovely, rambling house in a secluded rural neighborhood inspired this novel. I visualized bad guys climbing the lower wall and approaching the house unobserved and when I got home from the party at that house started plotting a romantic suspense.

STEPH: I see that it's a romantic suspense. What attracts you to that genre?

TONI: I'm more of a suspense fan than mystery fan. I enjoy figuring out who-dun-it and sometimes being right. I guess you could say I like light mysteries, so that is what I write about, characters with a problem to solve, and very little violence.

STEPH: Do you have a series planned? What's next on the horizon for you?

TONI: No, so far I have no series planned, although the friends of the sexy business owner in Temp to Permanent, my June 1, 2011 release from Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc., would lend themselves nicely to a series. Who knows? There just might be a series in the works.

I've just signed another contract with Desert Breeze for the release of Decisive Moments, a dark romance, in time for Halloween, 2011. I don't usually write about dark heroes, but I frequently write about ghosts, and as long my hero and heroine find a safe haven for their hearts in the end I'm pleased, and in this novel they do.

STEPH: Do you have a certain process to develop your characters? Do you cast your characters? If so who are the leads?

TONI: Not always with movie stars, but yes, I do cast the characters for my novels because I like to have a firm image of each one in my mind. Michelle Piper and a younger George Clooney were the models for Zoe and Jon. Her sweetly innocent look was exactly the image I wanted for my quirky heroine.

STEPH: How long did it take you to write Law Breakers and Love Makers?

TONI: Six weeks. Once the writing started, the words just came pouring out because my characters took over the writing and I had no choice but to go along for the ride. As for Boomer and Pete, the friendly dog and talkative parrot, I had no idea they were going to show up on about page eleven and steal the scene. I'd stop writing each night, exhausted, but anxious to see what the next day would bring.

I did lots of revision once I'd typed "The End," but I didn't change much in their scenes, since those pets hadn't tried to take over my love scenes.

STEPH: Do you have any hobbies you'd like to share with us?

TONI: I did a lot of gardening before promoting my books took over my life, but I don't want to change a thing, unless it's to have my gardener come more often. I hired him and a cleaning woman when I developed that deep vein thrombosis and had to keep my leg elevated for the better part of a year.

We like to camp, and I knit while watching football more than I should. And you say one of my hobbies is avoiding the kitchen until after we eat. Since his first retirement, my husband has become a very good gourmet cook. Not me. Our now-deceased dog used to hide when my husband went out of town and left me to cook.

STEPH: It's paranormal month. What are you going to be for Halloween?

TONI: The door-opener for the trick-or-treaters who ring our bell. I have a "wrong-way-witch on my security door and hide behind it to pass out treats. My pleasure comes from seeing the imaginative costumes of the little ones. Even the babies in strollers are in costume, and parents bring children in cars to scare the residents of my street.