Friday Feature: Chatting with Romance Author Donna Simonetta

Hi Donna! I'm so happy to have you here as my guest today. Tell readers a little bit about yourself.

Like Katie, I’m a New England girl. I was born and raised in Connecticut, went to college in Massachusetts and then moved back to Connecticut and later to New Hampshire. But like Magda, in my new release A Sweeter Spot, I fell in love with a man from Virginia. We ended up in Maryland, because it plopped us in between our two moms, and it’s where we stayed. I worked in the business world for a long time, but my love of reading led me to get my MLS, and now I work part-time in a school library, in addition to my writing. Although, it’s getting harder to find enough time in the day to do everything I need to do for my writing and the library. Something’s gotta give, and it won’t be my writing!

I like a cozy mystery, and I love to read romance! I love the happy endings in romance novels. Real life gives us plenty of stuff to worry about, and reasons to be sad. When I read, I want to escape to a world where I know the mystery will be solved, and true love will triumph. I prefer contemporary romance with some humor…like Katie’s My Kind of Crazy, what a fun book! It’s what I try to bring to my writing as well, humor and heart.


What's your favorite part of being an author?
 
The actual writing! On a good day writing, I can get lost in my work, and forget about everything else. I’ll suddenly realize it’s almost time for my husband to get home and cross my fingers that frozen pizza will be okay with him for dinner – lol! I’ve really liked some aspects of my library work, but that has never happened to me there. You could interrupt me at any point in my day in the library, and I could tell you, to the minute, how much longer I have to be at work.

What's your approach to writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?

I do a little of both. I figure out where to start, where to end, and what the high point is in between those two points. And I spend a fair amount of time before I start, thinking about my characters, their appearance, background, and what motivates them. So when I do start writing, things can flow. And sometimes, they flow in a direction I didn’t anticipate!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?

It would be teleportation. My family and friends are scattered all over the place, and it would be great to be able to just teleport to wherever they are for a visit. I hate the hassle of traveling, but love the opportunity to see loved ones. It would be great to pop to Ireland for a cup of tea with my best friend, and then zap to California for cocktails with my brother-in-law.

I've gotta say, that's one of the more popular superpowers that all of us busy authors would love! Now, let's get to the good stuff... Tell us about your new release!

I’m really excited about A Sweeter Spot! It is the first book I wrote that has no fantasy elements, which was a challenge for me, but I am so happy with the result. It’s set in a fictional small town called Rivers Bend, on the Virginia-Maryland border. The heroine moves there to help her best friend run the library, but also to get away from her wealthy, controlling grandmother back in New York. She expects to be a fish out of water, and just stay until her friend is back on her feet, but ends up falling in love…with the quirky little town and with its favorite son, former NFL player and hunky single dad, Jeff Braden.

A Sweeter Spot is the first book in a trilogy about Rivers Bend and the Braden family. Some exciting Rivers Bend news …I just signed a contract with the Wild Rose Press for book 2 of the series! It’s going to be Heather Braden’s story, and whether or not she finally gets her HEA with her first love, and Jeff’s former NFL teammate, Mick Evans.  I’ll keep you posted on all the deets about it, title, cover, release date, as soon as I know them!

About the Book:

Magda knows a 28-year-old shouldn’t run away from home, but Rivers Bend is the ideal escape. Helping out her best friend will get her away from her uber-wealthy, controlling grandmother and duplicitous ex. She doesn’t expect the quirky little town to feel so much like home. Add in hotter-than-the-sun Jeff and his daughter, and leaving seems as unthinkable as it is inevitable.

Raising Sam alone, Jeff knew he wanted her to grow up in his supportive hometown. The arrival of a feisty new tenant sends Jeff's world spinning. Magda fills a void in his life that he’d like to make permanent.

Will love triumph over the most powerful woman in the country, and can they figure out how to make this happy-for-now in Rivers Bend into their happy-ever-after?

Wow, I love the sound of this story! Think I need to add it to my read/review pile right now! Okay, you’re casting the movie version of your novel – who would you choose for the main characters? We’re talking dream cast.

Fair warning to visitors, I’m going to have a boring answer to this one. As a reader, I never picture characters as movie stars. I always see it in my mind when I read, and it’s vivid and clear. I didn’t realize until fairly recently that not everyone reads that way, but that’s another story. When a movie is made of a book I love, I’m frequently disappointed, because the world looks different. Wrong. At least to me! And the actors don’t look like anything like the characters I’ve come to know.

When I began writing, it sort of happened the same way for me as reading. If you dropped me on Main Street, in totally fictional Rivers Bend, I would be able to find my way anywhere, because it’s that real to me. So, to me, Jeff just looks like Jeff. I really tried to come up with some hot actor’s name to answer this question,  but I honestly can’t think of anyone who looks like Jeff does to me.


Hey, that's fine! We'll cast some hunky unknown and start his career with a bang, lol. Tell us where can readers find your book and where can they find you online?

I’m all over the place online, and would love to connect with my readers there! Here are some links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnasimonettaauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/donna_simonetta
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15422407.Donna_Simonetta
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Donna-Simonetta/e/B06X415TWW/

And my books are available from my publisher, the Wild Rose Press, and from all the usual places…here are some links to A Sweeter Spot:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sweeter-Spot-Rivers-Bend-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B01N1S1K06
TWRP: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4862-a-sweeter-spot.html
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-sweeter-spot-donna-simonetta/1125338511?ean=2940157374921
Amazon UK: http://amzn.eu/14pwrnP

And here are the links for  Angels Fly:

Amazon: https://amzn.com/B01G46DQQ8
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/angels-fly-donna-simonetta/1123842226?ean=2940158160998
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angels-Fly-Donna-Simonetta-ebook/dp/B01G46DQQ8/
The Wild Rose Press: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4409-angels-fly.html


I would love it if your readers wanted to pick up one of my books, and if they do, and like it, I would really appreciate it if they could leave a short review of it where they bought it, or on Goodreads. Before I was published, I didn’t realize how important that was to the author!

Thanks so much for letting me visit today, Katie!