Interview with Crimson Romance author Becky Lower

Can you tell us a little about your latest book? 

The 7th book in my Cotillion Ball Series is far removed from the lush ballrooms of New York City. Expressly Yours, Samantha, takes places on the plains of Missouri and Kansas, at the edge of civilized America, at a time when the Pony Express is being formed. Both the hero, Valerian, and the heroine, Samantha, are part of this page from history.

What inspired you to write it? 

I was very lucky to have so many wonderful events to pick from when writing this series. The first book locked me into the timeframe–mid 1850s, when the Cotillion was first introduced into New York society. But each book takes place in a different year, and I’ve been fortunate to find a myriad of significant and insignificant events to draw from. This particular book focuses on one of the most colorful events in America–the Pony Express. I created a timeline for each book and the sibling to be featured, so I knew I’d be writing about Valerian and his love for horses many books ago. Whenever I could, I inserted Valerian into my previous stories and spoke of his love of horses, setting the stage for this book.

How did you come up with the idea for the cover? 

The cover took some time to get right. My publisher wanted a gorgeous woman leaning up against a horse, but I wanted the woman to have a more haunted look about her. Her circumstances are so bad she has to masquerade herself as a boy after all. We finally settled on an image we both liked, and, for the first time, I have a horse on my cover!

What is it about this genre that appeals to you so much? 

American history is what I grew up with. I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a child, and often thought, if I’d been living in her time, my dad would have done the same as Pa Wilder did. My dad moved us frequently, every time we got neighbors on both sides of our house. When I became an adult, I read all the Zane Grey westerns and watched every western TV show and movie I could find. If American History classes had included some of the old west instead of mere memorization of significant dates, I would have gotten so much more out of them.

What made you want to become an author? 

Like most authors, I’ve been writing ever since I picked up a crayon. I wrote volumes in my diaries as an angsty teenager, then drifted away from it for many years. Instead of writing stories, I became a vocal storyteller. When my good friend suggested I take up a pen again instead of telling these stories, I decided to get serious about it.

How do you come up with character names? 

The Cotillion Ball Series is similar to Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, except it’s set in America rather than England. But like Julia, I wanted my characters to have names that had a common thread. Julia went through the alphabet–A through H, so that clever tactic was out. I finally decided to name them after herbs and spices, once I found the name Halwyn, which is an Anglo name for salt. So the children in this series are Halwyn, Pepper, Basil, Ginger, Jasmine, Heather, Rosemary, Valerian and Saffron.

Where is your favourite place to write? 

I’m fortunate to have a dedicated office to write in. I take my coffee and my little dog in every morning and spend the early hours checking emails, my stats, and getting in my word count for the day. Afternoons are spent working on guest blogs, completing freelance writing jobs, and catching up on my reading.

Name two of your favourite authors. 

I’m so old school here. Give me an afternoon with Nora Roberts and Julia Quinn and I’ll be in heaven.

If you could have a dinner party with any authors from any time in history, who would you choose and why? 

I’d have to choose Thomas Jefferson and Jedediah Smith. I love American history and these two men were living it and were prolific writers.

Tell us a random fact about yourself. 

I have a perpetual case of wanderlust. I’ve lived in nine states so far, and there are only 4 left of the 50 American states I have yet to see.

Tell us an interesting fact about where you live. 

I am lucky enough to have found the small college town of Oberlin, OH to live in. Oberlin College was the first college in the United States to admit women and people of color, in 1833. It was part of the abolitionist movement, and lays claim to being the small town that started the Civil War. I could not have landed in a better place to write my American historicals.

What are your (writing) plans for the future? 

I have two historic books I want to write once I’m done with the Cotillion series. One is about Jedediah Smith, my favorite explorer. The other is about a secondary character from the first book in the series. Raoul was an angry brother who was half-Ojibwa, and went off to Canada to be with his grandfather and learn the Indian ways. He needs to come back to the states and meet his destiny.

Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the country looking for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it on a covered wagon headed west or in present day small town America. Historical and contemporary romances are her specialty. Becky is a PAN member of RWA and is a member of the Historic and Contemporary RWA chapters. She has a degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. She loves to hear from her readers at beckylowerauthor@gmail.com. Visit her website at www.beckylowerauthor.com

Expressly Yours is available from Amazon.