Hi, Becky and readers! Thanks so much for inviting me to join you on your blog today. I, too, love to read (as well as write) but I also share your love of quilting—so I feel as if I’ve found another home away from home! I hope everyone enjoys The Bride Wore Starlight as well as the answers to your fun questions!
Thank you so much for coming today, Lizbeth! What 5 things should readers know about you?
- I am a procrastinator – I rarely do anything early, but I almostalways get things done on time. This includes book deadlines, projects, and getting ready for events and parties I’m planning. This is a very stressful way to live—but if I don’t have a deadline to push, a task won’t get done at all!
- I’ve lived in Germany, Toronto, and Alaska. My husband’s job as a computer analyst brought us to northern Germany twice, for a year each time. During the second in 1991-92, my children went to German schools and became very fluent German speakers. We lived in Toronto, Canada for a year and my daughter went to kindergarten and first grade there. In 2006 my husband and I left our college-aged kids home and went to Anchorage intending to stay a year—and we stayed three. These experiences have given me lots of fodder for stories!
- I need to go into rehab for sugar abuse. Not much more to be said. This is sadly true.
- In 2012 I walked across northern England with my husband. 192 miles in 16 days. It was challenging but a very spiritual experience—and we’d do it again in a heartbeat!
- I love to write, but I really don’t like the first draft process. I prefer editing and making the words pretty. (I have a journalism degree and worked for six years as a magazine managing editor.)
I’m with you on #1. If it weren’t for the last minute, I’d never get anything done!
Where did the inspiration for this book come from?
My series “Seven Brides for Seven Cowboys,” centers around seven sisters who left their family home to find successful careers. None of them ever meant to come back to the ranch their father ruled with an iron will, but when he dies unexpectedly they all have to return, only to learn Paradise Ranch is in financial trouble. The girls must decide if keeping the family legacy alive is what they want.
My original plan was to write a modern-day Bonanza (like the old TV series) but with women instead of men. When I flippantly said to my agent I should write something based on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, she encouraged me to do it! That’s how I ended up with Amelia, Harper, Joely, Cami, Raquel, Grace, and Kelly—the sisters (and one cousin).
In the very first novel, the third sister Joely was involved in a serious car accident. With “The Bride Wore Starlight,” the time has come for Joely’s story to be told. How does a girl who’s been a beauty queen all her life, deal with a future of imperfection? That was the question I started with when I began working on “Starlight.”
What a great origin story—I like it!
How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?
I started making up stories and telling them to myself at night in bed when I was very young—four and five years old. Later I started writing down these stories in what would now be called fan fiction. I had lots of fun affairs with all my favorite pop stars in story form! Eventually I started writing “real” short stories and then novels. In the 80s and 90s I fell in love with the romances of LaVyrle Spencer, and ever since then I’ve tried to live up to what I still believe was the highest standard of romance story telling.
Wait—Fan Fiction isn’t “real” fiction? (Not that I’ve written any. Lately…)
What are you working on right now? What can readers look for from you in the next year?
I have several projects in the works that I’m really excited about. Of course I’m working on Book #4 of the Brides/Paradise Ranch series—the first of the triplet sisters’ stories. I’m also working on a really fun series book that will come out in May from Kindle Worlds—a crossover story that will take a character from my Seven Brides series and send him to Sapphire Falls, the amazing town created by NYT Best-selling author Erin Nicholas. Watch for more info online and on my website about my story “Going Out on a Limb.”
Awesome! Can’t wait 🙂
If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?
Joely Crockett always could always rely on her beauty—now she has to rely on true love. Smart, sexy/sweet contemp. romance by @LizbethSelvig
Great job! Thanks again for stopping by, Lizbeth!
Keep reading to find out more about Lizbeth and THE BRIDE WORE STARLIGHT!
Lizbeth Selvig lives in Minnesota with her best friend
(aka her husband), and a gray Arabian gelding. After working as a newspaper journalist and magazine editor, and raising an equine veterinarian daughter and a talented musician son, she won RWA’s prestigious Golden Heart® Contest in 2010 with her contemporary romance The Rancher and the Rock Star. In her spare time, she loves to hike, quilt, read, horseback ride, and spend time with her new granddaughter. She also has four-legged grandchildren—more than twenty—including a wallaby, two alpacas, a donkey, a pig, a sugar glider, and
many dogs, cats, and horses (pics of all appear on her website www.lizbethselvig.com). She loves connecting with readers—contact her any time!
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at her sisters’ wedding. Scarred and wheelchair-bound, the former beauty queen has lost more than the ability to walk—she’s lost her fire. But when one handsome, arrogant guest accuses her of milking her injuries and ignites her ire, Joely finally starts to feel truly alive again, and soon it’s impossible for her to resist her heart’s desire.
something of a normal life, even if it’s not the one he always imagined. Encountering stunning but damaged Joely, he sees a kindred spirit who can learn from his mistakes.
The contact with Alec’s strong, long-fingered hand didn’t do anything to quell the annoyance dancing in her stomach. Or was it attraction? Or just a very long time since a man had taken her hand?
He tugged gently and braced his feet so she could stand and get her solid leg beneath her.
Her eyes came level with his tie. That put him at roughly six feet, she thought inanely, although, in truth, no thoughts but inane ones filled her head. Up close his eyes shone a dark, rich amber, and his full, upturned lips made him appear prone to smiling. His hat looked so natural on him he might well have been born with it on.
He held out his right elbow. “Just think of me as a human hiking stick.”
He hadn’t said “cane.” He hadn’t said “crutch.” She offered a tentative, grateful smile, took a deep breath, and nodded.
What could have been horribly awkward turned out to be an easy partnership. Alec seemed to know instinctively how to step where she needed him for support, and his arm offered a perfect grip that she could lean into as firmly as she wanted. It took a dozen or so strides to get the coordination right, but slowly she figured out how to step firmly with her right leg and use Alec’s weight to help swing and step quickly with her left. She’d walked like this with crutches, but this felt so quasi normal—she almost enjoyed it.
Almost.
They came to the stairs, and she froze. A flat path was easy. Going up stairs was awkward but doable. But going down threw her weight forward, and she didn’t have the strength or balance to keep from pitching headfirst down the flight.
“We’re doing great,” he said. “There are only six.”
“We’re doing fine,” he’d said. She didn’t know this man from any random person, and yet he knew how to speak as if they’d been doing this forever.
“I really should have a body on the other side, too,” she admitted reluctantly. “I suck at stairs.”
“Here’s the deal.” He removed her hand from his elbow and held it, then wrapped his right arm loosely around her waist. “It’s your balance that’s got you spooked. You haven’t practiced with it, but your left leg is strong enough. Trust yourself. You know the drill: bad leg—”
“First,” she finished. “Yes. But it doesn’t hold my weight.”
“Eventually it will, but for now we’ll step together, and you lean into me when you’re using that leg.”
How did he know so effortlessly what to do? He’d probably had plenty of bangs and bruises when he’d been on the rodeo circuit—maybe this was second nature for him.
They navigated the stairs like they’d been doing it for years. She’d never have made it on her own, and such an exercise had been clunky at best with a physical therapist. When she stood at the bottom without aid of a crutch or two side walkers, her satisfaction had to rival that of any successful mountain climber’s.
“Wow,” she said, unable to keep the pleasure from her voice.
“Why are you surprised? You’re a ranch girl; you’re tough.”
Great interview! Thank you for hosting THE BRIDE WORE STARLIGHT today!
Crystal, Tasty Book Tours
Thank you 🙂 Happy to!