PostsLet It Snow Books: Interview with Heather Snow + Giveaway
Today's guest was another big surprise (of the wonderful kind) of 2012. I started reading her debut novel and I was spellbound, I devoured the pages and fell in love both with the characters, the story and Heather Snow's writing. Ever since I'm a loyal fan and supporter of Heather and am counting back the days 'till the release of the 3rd book in her Veiled Seduction series! But until that day comes, join us for some gingerbread lattes as we discuss the holidays and Heather gives away books, yes people bookS ;-)
Stella: Aw, thank you Heather, well I tried what I could, world domination is still a step ahead, but we"ll get there, never fear! lol ;-) So now that the holidays are approaching tell me, is there anything special you usually do for the holidays? Any special family tradition?
Heather: Funny you should ask, as I’ve been thinking a lot about how to create Christmas memories for my boys. You see, my own childhood memories of Christmas are still very vivid in my mind, and I think part of the reason for that is that my family lived in the same city and we did the same things every year.
But times are different now. I no longer live near my family. Not only that, but I married a man whose family isn't close by either. Our Christmases are always spent traveling, either to my family's home or his and therefore our children have never spent Christmas eve in the same bed, much less their own.
My husband and I are really feeling the urge to create traditions for our boys, which may mean telling our families we intend to spend Christmas Eve at our own house so that our children can open presents under their own tree, even if that means a 4-8 hour drive on Christmas Day to be with our families.
Heather: I love the old claymation Christmas specials, like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with Burl Ives or The Year Without a Santa Clause. Remember the Heat Miser? We also watched A Charlie Brown Christmas every year when I was a child. My husband and I were just saying that we need to introduce the boys to these soon. Of course, I’m a sucker for Love Actually and don’t tell anyone this, but I laughed uproariously through Jingle All the Way, too.
Stella: Could you share with us your favourite holiday meal/dessert/candy?
Heather: My favorite holiday treat is peanut brittle! I love it… I also adore my grandmother’s short bread cookies with maraschino cherry centers. It’s a very simple recipe, but surprisingly easy to get mess up, as I’ve done more times than naught. It’s all in the technique, I suppose!
Stella: What’s your favourite thing about the holidays?
Heather: Aside from family, it’s the music. I love Christmas carols. I adore them all, but my favorites are the traditional ones, sung either by a full choir, or by the old crooners like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. But please, please don’t start playing them before Thanksgiving. I hate when I’m out in a store and they are playing Christmas carols right after Halloween!
Heather: I grew up in Kansas City, MO and still live nearby (it was my parents who moved away). There’s a 15 block are in the center of town call the Country Club Plaza that has an incredible Christmas light display that starts on Thanksgiving night and runs through January. It really starts to feel like Christmas to me the first time I drive through the Plaza when it’s lit up.
Stella: What’s one of the best gifts you ever received/gave for Christmas?
Heather: One year, my husband was changing jobs and we happened to have a month off just before Christmas and before his new job started in January. Rather than buy each other gifts that year, we decided to drop everything else (this was pre-kids, of course!) and take a 3 week driving trip across the country to the West Coast. We went through Colorado up to Washington State, then down the Pacific Coast Highway to L.A. and back home again, skidding into my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. It was a magical trip. Apart from the mountains and the redwoods, we really just felt like we were exploring something together. Oh, and that was the trip that I discovered Hearst Castle…AMAZING.
Stella: Please complete: Christmas/the holidays wouldn't be the real deal without...
Heather: ...family.
Heather: I’m sorry to say that I haven’t gotten to read much this year. Between the two boys (4 and 1) and writing two books, reading time has been scarce. However, I loved Tessa Dare’s A Week to Be Wicked and Erin Knightley’s More Than a Stranger. My TBR list is toppling over with books to be read. Since I just turned in the third book in my series, I am planning to catch up on as much 2012 reading as I can squeeze in before the new year!
Stella: We all love Christmas holidays, but I was wondering if there’s anything about them that you find annoying?
Heather: Guilt. I feel so rushed anymore, and while I don’t like admitting this, sometimes I feel that I’m buying gifts just to buy them. I don’t seem to have the time to be as thoughtful in my gift-giving as I once was, and I hate that.
Heather: I really really really want a Harry Potter time turner. Not a pretend one, mind you. A real one. I need it, badly. I’d use it first to go back and start the holidays over again so I could actually get everything done. Then, I’d use it so that I could get all of the writing and promotion stuff in without taking away from my family.
Stella: Let’s say you have the chance to spend the holidays with a fictional character, who would that be and what would you be doing?
Heather: After writing three books in three years with two boys under 4, I’m going to say I would like to spend the holidays with Rip Van Winkle. We’d be sleeping, of course… Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Stella: What would be your (bookish or not) New Year’s resolutions, if you make any?
Heather: I’d really like to find balance this year. I always feel like I’m neglecting something to make another thing work. (That’s why I need the time turner, Santa. Got it?)
Heather Snow is a historical romance author with a degree in Chemistry who discovered she much preferred creating chemistry on the page, rather than in the lab. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two rambunctious boys and one very put upon cat. Find out more or connect with Heather at:
Book #1 in the Veiled Seduction series
Geoffrey Wentworth, the Earl of Stratford, is a war hero focused on affairs of king and country rather than affairs of the heart. Nevertheless, his mother is playing matchmaker and has invited potential brides to visit the family estate. Geoffrey resigns himself to playing host to a gaggle of husband-hunters more interested in his title than in him—until he unexpectedly meets one notable and intriguing exception.
Miss Liliana Claremont has no interest in being an earl’s wife, least of all Wentworth’s—the son of the man she believes murdered her father. Liliana is determined to find evidence of the crime, but her behavior rouses the earl’s suspicions as well as her own undeniable attraction to a man she thought was her enemy. As Geoffrey and Liliana explore their growing passion for one another, the truth behind their fathers’ enmity threatens to destroy their newfound love…
Buy at - - Book Depository
Book #2 in the Veiled Seduction series
In the dark, the greatest lover can become the most dangerous conspirator...
Lady criminologist, Miss Emma Wallingford, unknowingly finds herself tangled in the dangerous mission of Lord Derick Aveline, a spy who also happens to be her long lost first love.
But when deception is the name of the game, no one can be trusted. And every love--and every life--is at risk.
GIVEAWAY: RULES
Heather has very generously offered winner's choice of either or to THREE lucky readers!
To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway is open worldwide and ends on 5 January 2013!
Good luck!
