Heather Woodhaven Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.

A. I love to laugh. This is probably a blessing given the amount of embarrassing moments I experience. (A lot of them work their way into my stories. It’s cathartic.) I also love to try new things. For instance, this month the library is offering a class on sculpturing with chocolate. I’m there! Irish dancing will be next on my list.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A. Third grade. My mom, a fellow voracious reader, made sure I had no shortage of books… predominantly Christian fiction. My dad would tell hilarious stories and my mind would run with possible details and backstories. I couldn’t wait to start writing my own tales.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?

A. In college I pitched a feature story to a small magazine and they were interested. I was thrilled to get a response and thought if I could get a response from magazines why not agents and publishers? It was a long road of submitting and getting rejections so I set it on the back burner for a while (the submitting, not the writing) and began writing for magazines and websites. Fast forward sixteen years, and I was dying to start submitting fiction again. With encouragement from Lisa Phillips, I entered the Happily Editor After contest, was rejected, but revised, resubmitted and received the happy call in a dressing room. The store employees thought I’d found the perfect jeans.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Calculated Risk?

A: Accountant Victoria Hayes never would have thought discovering fraud in her office would put her life at risk. When her house catches fire, destroying the evidence she’s collected, it seems the mastermind will do anything to keep Victoria from disclosing what she knows. Unsure what to do, she turns to her charming supervisor for help. But without much evidence, Jeff Tucker is reluctant to believe Victoria…until they both become suspects. Now they must work together to prove their innocence…and stay alive. With an unpredictable—and deadly—criminal after them, each step could be their last.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for Calculated Risk?

A: Stock-market scandals. I wondered about employees—like victims from the ENRON scandal for instance—that had lost everything they’d invested. How would their children approach investing? Or what if those children grew up to become accountants or financial consultants on a mission to stop others from experiencing what their parents had?

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?

A: That the Lord cares about your dreams for your life. Sometimes when you think the dreams are dead, He asks you to pick them back up again—only this time it looks very different than what you imagined.

Q: What is your favorite scene/chapter from the book?

A: The scene that was cut. Ha! Isn’t that always the case?

But after the rewrite, I fell in love with the skydiving scene, the pepper spray scene, the fire rescue scene, and the romantic end! That’s not very specific, is it? Okay, there’s a point where the hero tries to gallantly pick up the heroine but it doesn’t go like he planned. (Cue embarrassing moment)

Q: What inspires you to write?

A. I love the tension between two characters who are supposed to be together but just can’t yet. The “what if” questions and scenarios that pop in my head make me run to the computer. If I can make myself laugh or get scared for my characters then it’s a successful writing day. I find that the spiritual issues/questions/challenges that I’m pondering always work their way into the story as well.

Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession?

A: Way more work but also way more joy! It’s a fight to keep anxiety and worry at bay even after the contract. Will readers like it? What if they don’t? I also had no idea there would be so much camaraderie among authors. It’s so much fun to do text challenges for daily word counts, discuss marketing together or taunt each other about the best computer platform (It’s Mac. Stop arguing with me, guys.).

Q: What advice or tips do you have for writers who are just getting started?

A: Follow the editors of the genre you love on Twitter. They often remark on their acquired books—then read and study those books so you know what the editor loves before submitting. And, don’t give up!

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A. A few books simultaneously. My next Love Inspired Suspense, Surviving the Storm, is set on the Oregon Coast. A foreman and an architect get trapped with killers due to a tsunami. It’s due for release in August. I’m also doing line edits for a humorous women’s fiction novel, The Secret Life of Book Club.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?

A. Read! Try (and never succeed) at getting a higher score on JustDance or WiiSports than my children. Date my husband.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?

A. TeamLoveOnTheRun.com, WritingHeather.com, Twitter @HWoodhaven, or Facebook under Heather Woodhaven.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?A. Twenty years ago, I sang at a wedding and a hunk of a piano player struck up a conversation. Eight months later we were married. Romance and true love still exist and I thank God for that every day.