Get Lost in a Story Readers:
We've hosted Angel Smits a few months ago with her debut novel A MESSAGE
FOR JULIA hit the stands. She’s back
today to talk about her second release, SEEKING SHELTER. Seeking Shelter is Jace Holmes’ story. Jace’s brother Linc was the protagonist in A
MESSAGE FOR JULIA. But Jace comes into
his own in SEEKING SHELTER. Please
welcome Angel Smits to Get Lost in a Story.
A Place to belong
For Amy Grey, home has always been Rattlesnake Bend,
Arizona, population 423. It’s a safe
place to raise her daughter, Katie. Then
free spirit Jace Holmes rides his motorcycle down Main Street, rumbling through
Amy’s carefully ordered life with news about the father she never knew and
stirring up questions about her family’s past.
The best thing for all would be if Jace kept on riding.
Too bad Katie immediately tags Jace as a potential
daddy. Sure, there’s no denying the
attraction between Amy and Jace, but her life is here and his, well,
isn’t. Yet the longer Jace is in town,
the more her visions of tomorrow match Katie’s.
But can Amy open herself up again?
Because opening herself to change is the one way to convince Jace to
stay.
EXCERPT:
“I feel like I know you.” Jace moved closer, carefully.
She could
see the heat in his eyes. She saw every
whisker along his jaw.
He reached out and took a curl of her hair between his
thumb and forefinger, rubbing gently before letting go so the strands could
curl down her back. “You had white-blond
hair when you were two.” His laugh was
soft. “You’re a hard worker.”
He was so close.
His touch seemed innocent yet intimate.
He didn’t scare her, which she tried to analyze, but couldn’t.
“You’ve raised a beautiful little girl.” His gaze burned into hers and she couldn’t
look away. “What do you do for yourself,
Amy?”
Nothing,
she wanted to say, but bit her tongue.
He’d never believe her. No one
was that altruistic, and certainly not her.
So many people did so much for her.
Caryn let her cook in her kitchen.
Rick fixed her car when she needed it.
Hank helped at the ranch and with everything else she needed. She owed them. She helped pay them back by keeping the store
going. Without it, they’d have to drive
over fifty miles for survival, for food.
But it wasn’t enough, not nearly.
How could she ever be selfish and think just of
herself?
But looking at Jace right now, feeling the heat of
his body reach out and engulf her, she knew she wanted this, wanted to touch
him. For so long she’d kept herself shut
away and distant. For once she needed to
do something just because she wanted
to.
GLIAS FUN QUESTIONS FOR ANGEL SMITS:
DONNELL: Angel, thank
you for joining us again at Get Lost in a Story. Seeking Shelter is about a young woman who is
cautious and who lives an orderly existence.
How much is Angel Smits like Amy Grey?
ANGEL: I’m not sure how honestly I can answer that as I’m sure
there’s more of me in her than I’d like to admit. I do know I’m cautious in relationships in
the beginning. I hold back, like Amy
does, though not for any of the same reasons.
I might have to think a little more about that one. I do know that my parents commented that they
saw a resemblance in how Amy treated her daughter to how I treated my kids when
they were younger. I guess I said the
same phrases and had some of the same actions.
DONNELL: I was
fortunate to read Seeking Shelter and loved Jace Holmes the minute he walked on
the page. I believe you pictured an
actor in your mind to play Jace. Which
actor was it? And here’s a follow-up
question. After the book was finished,
did Jace come into his own, or did you still see the actor’s face?
ANGEL: I wonder if I tell you who he is, if somehow I’ll get to
meet him…just wishing. Actually, I
struggled with Jace when he was a secondary character in A MESSAGE FOR JULIA,
but readers really liked him and wanted his story. It wasn’t until I saw the music video “Let Me
Go” by Christian Kane that he came to life.
It just clicked. It helped that
he’s riding a motorcycle through the desert in the video, too. Christian’s Album HOUSE RULES became the
sound track for this book. I write to
music, so I’m sure my family was well and truly sick of hearing me play that
album over and over in my office, but it got my muse to going. So, whatever works.
That’s a good question about him changing, because he did
morph a bit as I wrote. He was a whole
person, though he still resembles Christian Kane in my mind. After all, he is a great looking guy.
DONNELL: In Seeking
Shelter, Amy does many things well.
However, she’s not a great cook.
Are you a good cook, Angel?
ANGEL: Yeah, Amy is a pretty lousy cook, isn’t she? I had fun with that. I like to think I’m a pretty good cook, but
my kids were a lot like Katie, so sometimes feeding them was a challenge. My husband’s solution was and still is to put
sauce on it, so my kids do that, too.
When I was first married and still trying to learn to cook,
I went to the masters. My mom, my
mother-in-law, my grandmothers, my aunts and a lot of the older women I used to
work with. That generation can
cook! I gathered up their recipes and
let them teach me. It was one of the
smartest moves I ever made. And it made
learning easier as I had a teacher to call up whenever I made a mistake or
needed direction. It also helped keep us
close and I really appreciate that closeness with my family. Now I’m the aunt who has all of grandma’s
recipes and I share with my kids, nieces, and nephew when they ask.
DONNELL: Feeding off
of that question, what’s a recipe you serve time and time again?
ANGEL: My son frequently asks me to make him meatloaf when he’s
home. Yes, I make a mean meatloaf. Mrs. Brown was an elderly lady I helped care
for one summer in college who taught me how.
She was determined that a young woman should know how to cook properly
to get a good man. J Also, I make BBQ pork that is amazing. I use my mom’s BBQ sauce recipe, that is to die for, and throw the ribs in the
Crockpot. Easy and delicious!
DONNELL: You do
emotion so well. As a matter of fact,
readers, Harlequin obviously agrees.
ANGEL just received an offer for her 6-book series from Super Romance.
and is this upcoming series fantastic! Hard question, but why do you think you do
emotion so well? Is it intrinsic? Do you have to work at it?
ANGEL: Thanks for the compliment.
You’re so sweet. I want my
characters to be real, and I believe that unless you’re feeling life, you
aren’t experiencing life to its fullest.
I’m not sure exactly why I write emotions so well, but I do
know that empathy is one of my stronger talents and I try to cultivate it. As a social worker, I couldn’t help but feel
all the hurt, joy and struggles that my clients experienced. It helped me help them better, but after
awhile, I found I was building up emotional walls to protect myself. I was shutting off my own feelings. I felt flat and disconnected from all of my
life and theirs. I didn’t like that
much. I wanted to get back to
experiencing life, so I quit. I want to experience
life. We only get one shot at it.
Our society doesn’t really encourage emotions. We try to “cheer people up”. We tell them not to cry. We try to calm people down who we think are over
exuberant. I don’t like that and so I
write books that give people a safe place to feel and release those
emotions. It’s healthy to cry and to
laugh out loud. I know I feel better and
I hope my readers do too.
DONNELL: In Seeking
Shelter Amy and Jace take a trip to the Grand Canyon. You recently took a trip to some place
interesting. Tell us about it?
ANGEL: Well, I have been to the Grand Canyon. It was amazing, but I bet you’re talking
about my most recent trip. ;) For our anniversary, my husband took me to
Ireland. I’ve always dreamed of going
there and we spent two weeks roaming around.
We stayed in Dublin and saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral and all the tourist sites. We stayed in a castle up near Galway
Bay. We went to Cork and on our
anniversary kissed the Blarney Stone! (And
each other…TMI?) Two places that really
left an impression on me were the Rock of Cashel, a castle ruin and the Cliffs
of Moher. Both were breathtaking. And yes, before you even ask, I have story
ideas already set in both places. I’m
thinking a trilogy of three brothers--but I have to wait on them. That’s okay.
I took tons of pictures for our trip, so I won’t forget.
DONNELL: One of the
things you do really well is put your characters into uncomfortable positions –
you make your protagonists suffer. Is
this hard, easy, matter of fact?
ANGEL: Several speakers I’ve heard give the advice to torment your
characters, and just keep tormenting them.
It’s a great plot device, but more than that, it’s the way we live
life. None of us come out of it
unscathed. We all have losses and pain,
as well as successes and joys. How we
handle those tough times is a big part of making us who we are. We grow and learn by succeeding, by trial and
error. Most people are basically
strong, but even stronger when they’ve made it through life’s battles.
The hardest part is always figuring out what my characters
have been through. Once I learn that,
it’s really quite easy to torment them.
I’ve experienced some pretty rough things in my life. Early in our marriage my husband was in a
serious motorcycle accident, which resulted in him losing his left leg. I was 22 at the time. But we made it through that. Then our son was born 3 ½ months premature
and we made it through that. While they
were awful to go through, I learned from those experiences and I’m proud of
myself for making it through.
I learned who is important in my life, and who isn’t during
those times, and that type of growth is what I like to show in a
character. Without the trials, they are
the same at the end as they are at the beginning. So who wants to read that?
I write to connect with people and by putting my characters
in situation other people have gone through, we connect. I may not have been stuck in a coal mine, or
lived on the streets of LA like my heroes have, but I know what fear and
loneliness feel like, and I know what it’s like to love someone who is
suffering. So it may not be the same
experience—yet it is.
DONNELL: You also
have an interesting way of writing called IMPROV. It stems from a Thursday night group. Tell us about this group, and why does
writing in this manner work for you?
ANGEL: Ah, Improv. I’m not
sure I’d still be writing, much less published, without it. How it works is very simple (and that may be
the secret of why it works so well.)
There’s a group of us that meets each week to write. One of us brings prompts, which can be
anything, pictures, objects, phrases, to kick things off. We do three writings. A short warm up and two longer one. Timed. Then when the timer goes off, we go around and
read aloud what we just wrote. There’s
no critique, no editing, just put it out there.
All of us. We joke that you get
one pass a year, but if you try to use it, we’ll harass you unmercifully.
It can be very scary and yet incredibly freeing. It isn’t as if any of it is best seller
material. It’s all, always, rough draft,
but man do you know when you get it right.
It feels right and just flows, and though we don’t critique, it’s nearly
impossible to hold in a laugh or a sigh or a nod of appreciation. Nothing feels better. I’ve been doing it for thirteen years, so I’m
really comfortable with it. It’s my
go-to mode to create. My last three
books were written largely at improv.
Plus the whole stream of consciousness writing that this process
requires makes it easy to write when I have just a few minutes, no matter where
I am. It’s a great skill to have.
DONNELL: You’re
about to become extremely busy.
Full-time job, family and six books to write. What’s going through your head right now?
ANGEL: Panic. Pure
panic. :)I’m thrilled
to death that they want my series, but it’s a bit daunting at the same
time. I see it as a challenge, though
and I know I can do it. I’ve started to
map out the next six months of my life, trying to figure out all the
particulars, number of chapters to do each week and when I have to get them
done to send to my critique group, etc.
I just keep telling myself, one step at a time. I can do this!
That and I’m totally blown away by how this happened. I still wake up and wonder if it’s true. So far every morning I’ve woke up and it’s
still real.
ANGEL’S QUESTION FOR READERS.
I’m just embarking on writing my first series. A MESSAGE FOR JULIA and SEEKING SHELTER are
related in that the heroes are brothers, but that’s the only real
connection. Do you like connected books
or a series, where there’s some storyline running through all the books? Thanks for your input and I’ll be giving away
a book to a lucky winner from all the people who comment and answer my
question!
I love to hear from readers.
My website is www.angelsmits.com
and you can reach me at angel@angelsmits.com Also, I’m on Facebook as AngelSmitsAuthor and
on Twitter as Angelwrite. Thanks for
inviting me Donnell, and for everyone coming out to visit. It’s been fun!!
