{Book Spotlight} Kiss Me Katie by Monica Tillery

I'd like to welcome my friend and fellow Crimson Romance author, Monica Tillery, to my blog. Her new release, Kiss Me Katie, is available now! See the buy links below.

Book Blurb:
Talented fiddler Katie McCoy finds out that her band, Sterling, will join the very famous, extremely handsome, Blake Jackson on his Country Summer Nights tour. Her career is taking off, but after dating too many guys who let her down, her love life is going nowhere.

Blake is America’s biggest country star, and he can date a different beautiful woman every night of the week. After years on the road, each woman starts to seem the same and none of them ever want more than the experience of dating a celebrity. In Katie, he finally finds a woman who is interested in who he is as a man, someone who loves him for his true self. Being on tour together is a bit like being in a relationship pressure cooker, and things get serious. Everything moves faster than outside in the real world. Theirs is a match made in music heaven, but in three short weeks, Katie’s band leaves the tour and she’ll be out of his arms.

Katie wants true love more than anything else, but her tour bus is heading back to Texas with or without her. Sterling’s new level of success means that her career must take top priority and any man she’s with will have to respect that. She’s done with guys who don’t take her career seriously, and Blake can’t leave his own tour. How can they stay together when their paths have them moving in opposite directions? Will they find a way to make it work or say goodbye?

BUY LINKS: 
B&N: bit.ly/12k4PIY 
Amazon: amzn.to/10KfAg1
iTunes: bit.ly/10O0ozX
Kobo: bit.ly/12mvzZv

Author Bio:

Monica Tillery has been a social worker and a massage therapist, but is now living her dream as a romance novelist.  She loves nothing more than to get lost in a beautiful love story, holding her breath as the hero and heroine fight their way through obstacles to get to their happily ever after.  Monica lives in Texas with her own real-life romance hero, her husband of over a dozen years, and two wonderful sons.  When she’s not reading and writing romance, Monica loves playing bunco and bingo, hanging out with friends, and wasting time online.  Monica loves hearing from and connecting with readers.  Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/monicatilleryauthor, on Twitter @monicatillery, or visit her website www.monicatillery.com.  Monica maintains her website on her own, so she warns you that it’s very basic and rarely changes, but all the pertinent information is updated.

We meet Monica below with a few writing questions. 

When you have writer's block how do you break free?

I try to end my writing day with an idea of what’s coming next, so I never sit down and stare at a blank screen.  Sometimes I just don’t know what to write though, so I’ll either skip ahead and write a later scene or go back and add layers to previous scenes.  That way, at least my word count is increasing and the story is getting finished.  I tend to write really lean to begin with, so I always need to go back and fill in actions in dialogue-heavy scenes or add emotional reactions or something.  There’s always something that needs to be done!

What is your writing process? Do you outline, fly by the seat of your pants or a combination of both?

I am a combination plotter/pantser.  I can never complete a detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline, but before I write a story, I know where it’s going.  I know the characters, I know the conflict, I have a few key scenes in mind.  I always try to identify the main characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts, and I have a general sense of what’s going to happen. 

What was the first romance novel you read that made an impression on you?

I’m actually fairly new to romance, but once I began reading them I jumped in with great enthusiasm.  A classic example that I just love and would recommend to anyone is Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught.  I don’t know what it is about that one, but it grabbed me and didn’t let me go until the HEA.  A more modern category romance that I just adore is Not Fit for a King? by Jane Porter.  That one was so great that it had me find her on Facebook to tell her how much I loved it. 

How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do they read your books?

My family is incredibly supportive of my writing.  My husband was the one who encouraged me to write, and he has been wonderful through all the stress and emotion that come with trying to get published.  He read my first book, and though I don’t think he’s going to become a romance fan, he enjoyed it.  My mom has read my first book, and I’m sure plenty of other relatives will do the same.  Everyone has been wonderful, really supportive and enthusiastic.

Do you write full time? What did you do before you became a writer? Or Still do?

My degree is in social work, and while I haven’t done that full time in years, I still occasionally do contract work.  I also have a massage license, which I use infrequently.  I identify as a writer for the most part.  I’m at my desk first thing in the morning and I try to get words down every day. 

THANK YOU, MONICA, FOR A GREAT INTERVIEW! Can't wait to read Kiss Me Katie!