Half-Way Point! Please welcome today’s guest and fellow TUESDAY TALES member, SHERRY GLOAG to talk about her book The Brat.

SHR: What makes this particular book your favorite?

SG: While this wasn’t the first book I wrote it was my first published book.  I was standing by my kitchen sink when the opening scene plopped into my head.  It was so vivid and the opening lines so clearly ‘audible’ I had to grab a piece of paper to get it down. I wasn’t sure when I started it whether I could handle such complex characters, but it soon became clear I was simply there to get their— Gina and Ben’s— story onto the page.

The story begins with the funeral of a woman who played a huge part in Gina and Ben’s childhood.

Gina Williams has a secret and prays it is buried with her childhood persecutor, Anna Kouvaris as discovery will ruin her reputation as a famous children’s author.  Can she trust him when Ben Kouvaris discovers her secret?

SHR: Who published it? When?

SG: The Wild Rose Press in October 2010

SHR: Tell us a little about what you went through to get it published.

SG: I was very fortunate in as much I had one major rejection from a UK publisher before I applied to The Wild Rose Press.  Again it was turned down with advice to go away restructure it and then submit it to another line of The Wild Rose Press. For me, third time lucky proved to be a truism. 🙂 I can’t begin to tell you what a wonderful editor I had. I owe Cindy a lot.

SHR: On writing in general: What’s the hardest part for you? Why?

SG: I am a ‘pantser’ writer, so have no set plot laid down, so when the story flows I can hardly keep pace, but when it stalls it can be very hard to find the right path/lead to get back on track.  When that happens I’ll start a fresh page and simply write.  Sometimes I strike lucky and find the piece I’ve written will work in the story, and then it usually frees the writing block. At other times I struggle and will try to interview, or have been known to argue with my characters and threaten to walk away from them if they refuse to co-operate. 🙂 In The Brat, it didn’t happen.  In fact I was stuck on another story and when I sat down in front of my ‘blank page’, I ended up with the hairdresser scene and found just the right place to insert it into the story.

SHR: Unrelated: What’s your favorite color?

SG: Red because it’s warm and yellow because it’s cheery.

ABOUT THE BRAT:

GENRE:

Contemporary Romance

BLURB:

Gina Williams has a secret and prays it is buried with her childhood persecutor, Anna Kouvaris, as discovery will ruin her reputation as a famous children’s author. She soon discovers the son, Ben Kouvaris, new owner of her publishing company, has uncovered her past and is making demands. Will he ruin her career if she doesn’t comply?

Ben kouvaris is blown away by the unknown beauty at his estranged mother’s funeral, and when his father demands he marry, immediately, to secure the family business, he knows just who he wants as his temporary bride. But can Ben persuade Gina to trust him?