INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR LAURA SCOTT

 

JR: Laura, I've read your contributions to a pair of Love Inspired Suspense K-9 series, and just a couple of weeks ago you released Tracking Stolen Secrets in this year's Alaskan K-9 Unit collection (part 4 of 8). You also have recently written Dogged by Death, a cozy mystery. You don't like dogs, do you? Do you have any dogs? Any favorite breeds?

LS: Hi Jeff, thanks so much for chatting with me. I LOVE dogs, ha ha. I dog-sit a chocolate lab, Moose and have Otis a red fox English lab retriever. If you follow my Facebook author page you’ll see Moose on Monday posts and Otis on Tuesday posts. I honestly can’t say I have a favorite breed, although currently labs are high on the list. We’ve had Westies, Beagles and a boxer lab mix. I will say that loving dogs makes it so much more fun to write K-9 stories, as well as my cozy mystery series.

 

JR: The first story I read by you was Blind Trust. My wife and I both loved how you dealt with a heroine who was going blind. What was the inspiration for that novel, and if you can without spoilers, what was it like writing that book, both with the research and with creating the character?

LS: Blind Trust was one of my favorites. I wore super dark sunglasses in a poorly lit room to get the feel for what Eva was going through in that story. It was incredibly difficult and gave me appreciation for how those who are suffering from partial or full blindness. I also felt certain Eva wouldn’t want to be a burden to Finn, so that was also a great conflict for the story.

JR: I've read some of the K-9 series, and enjoy how a group of different writers can collaborate with tales strong enough to stand by themselves, but also moving a story line or two through out the series. How do you authors work together? Is the big story structured, or is it more seat of the pants writing?

LS: This is a great question! These multi author continuity series take a lot of structure. We have a fifty page series overview that we’re given and from there, we as authors must be in constant communication because one change impacts all of our stories. We create an author loop where we chat, and sometimes commiserate, LOL. We also brainstorm ideas. It’s much harder to write these books because of the close collaboration, but that also makes the outcome so rewarding. I was super thrilled that my latest release Tracking Stolen Secrets hit the USA Today bestseller list. I’m so blessed to have wonderful fans like you!

JR: I mentioned Dogged by Death, released July 13th, and Tracking Stolen Secrets which came out July 27th. Neither are your most recent novel: that honor goes to Cooper’s Choice, book four of six in your Smoky Mountain Secrets series, hitting the stands on August 3. How do you manage on working on different stories at the time? Do you ever take a day off? Also, does it help when one is in a different genre (I believe Dogged by Death is a cozy mystery, while the other two are romantic suspense), or does it make keeping the stories apart more challenging?

LS: I’m a glutton for punishment, huh? Ha ha. I do take Sundays off, sometimes Saturdays too, if there are family things going on. I prefer writing one book at a time, but that isn’t always possible when writing for two different publishers and my own indie series. The publishers set the deadlines so I use those as my guide. I have never missed a deadline (thankfully) and I write my own indie books in between those publisher deadlines. Writing in different series also helps keep my creativity flowing, I think if I was stuck writing one type of story, I’d probably get bored. This way, I’m always excited to get to work each morning.

JR: You mentioned you’re working with two different publishers: Tracking Stolen Secrets is the most recent you’ve written under Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense, and Dogged by Death by Crooked Lane Publishers (distributed by Penguin Random House). You also are working on two independently published series (the previously mentioned Smoky Mountain Secrets series and the three part International thriller Security Specialists trilogy (unless the fourth in the series will be out tomorrow). How does it differ between working with a traditional publisher and self-publishing? Is self-publishing more relaxing, or are you harder on yourself than editors and publishers of an organized country?

LS: Okay, its kinda hilarious that I’m currently outlining a fourth book for my Security Specialist’s Inc series, Target for Treason. How did you know? Are you looking over my shoulder, or spying on my computer camera? You may not realize that suspense authors are somewhat paranoid. LOL Other than the cozy mystery, I’ve tried to stay in one genre to encourage my readers to cross over to all my books. Self publishing is a little more stressful, because I have to work on the story, and do my own cover art and do all the formatting and uploading to all venues. I hire out the editing for my indie books because I am terrible at grammar, and I have a great editor who seems to like my stories and helps me by picking up on details such as using the same name several times in the same series or other inconsistencies. In the traditional world the editors pick up on that stuff more often than not, so when I write my own books I tend to read over them several times before they get published.

JR: Hope you don't mind one more question. Your self-published books identify themselves as being for a Christian market. Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense series fits that bill as well. Do you see any challenges ahead in our changing culture to produce faith based novels?

LS: It’s interesting but the two biggest selling markets are Christian and super sexy. Quite the dichotomy, isn’t it? I really enjoy writing for the Christian market and I really hope that we can encourage our younger readership to turn to more faith based stories. Or at least stories that focus less on the physical and more on the emotional journey. Could that change at some point? Maybe, but so far, these two markets have remained strong for at least the past ten years. I hope that trend continues.

JR: Thank you very much for your time. I know you have two more Smoky Mountain Secrets books coming out (Trent’s Trust and Jayme’s Journey) and you mentioned working on the fourth Security Specialists novel. Any other projects? How can we keep up with what you're writing?

LS: I really think you must be connected to my computer camera. I’m just in the early phases of writing Target for Treason and don’t really have a firm deadline yet. It’s been fun so far to meet up with the other characters while still writing an international thriller. I am hoping to have this book up for publication early next year, maybe February or March.

Thanks again for having me! It’s been wonderful chatting with you.

You can keep up with Laura on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LauraScottBooks (which includes pictures of her dogs Moose and Otis) or on her author page https://www.laurascottbooks.com.