Hi Jamie, welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Check out Jamie’s books at her website www.jamiesobrato.com/.


Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in and around Louisville, Kentucky, graduated from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a degree in English and certification to teach secondary school English, and I’ve lived all over the US and Germany with my husband, who is an army officer. We have two kids, Alexander (4) and Annabella (1), and we live in the Southern California desert for now. My favorite pastimes are reading, photography, scrapbooking, shopping, and watching reality TV shows.

How did you get started in the romance business? What finally inspired you to sit down and write your first book?

I’ve always been a fan of the romance genre, and when I decided to get serious about writing, there was no doubt for me that I’d write a romance. During my senior year of college, I was doing some teaching practicums, and it was becoming clearer and clearer to me that I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher. Fear of having to earn my living at a job I was so bad at convinced me to give my real dream a try--writing a novel. The day after finishing my last college class, I started writing my first book and finished it two months later. It sucked the big one, but finishing it gave me the confidence to keep trying for almost five more years to make my first sale.

Your website states that Too Wild is your last Harlequin Temptation. What’s in the works for you?

I’ll be writing more Blazes, I’m happy to say. I’ve got three Blazes already written that are scheduled for release in 2005, and I’ve got lots more proposals in the works that I’m hoping to sell.

My next Blaze, As Hot As It Gets, comes out in January, and it’s the sequel to my first novel, Some Like It Sizzling.

Tell us a little about your newest release Too Wild.

Too Wild is a story I wrote long before I’d made my first sale to Harlequin. I’d written it with the defunct Harlequin Duets line in mind, but I loved the wild heroine and crazy plot so much that I took out the manuscript and rewrote it from scratch for Temptation.

It’s the story of a journalist on the run from a stalker, and the gorgeous businessman who hires her to impersonate her twin for two weeks. Impersonating her identical twin sister seems like an odd but perfect way to hide out, until things get a lot more complicated when the temperature heats up between the heroine and the brother of the man she supposed to be acting like she’s engaged to.

I also read on your website that your husband is in the Army. How has being a military spouse affected your writing, if at all?

Well, every time we move, I lose a few months of writing time in all the moving preparations, traveling, and unpacking. On the positive side though, being a military spouse has given me the chance to travel, broaden my perspective by living in Germany and getting to know Europe intimately, and live in different parts of the US. This is such a help when I need new story settings!

So you’re a mom of two small children, a full time author and a military wife. Describe the typical day for you.

I spend my days trying to balance mom duties with my writing career. I’m awakened daily by my daughter, then I feed the kids breakfast while I read and answer email. The rest of the day, I squeeze in little blocks of work time while the kids are playing or napping, and by evening, I give up and make dinner. Sometimes after dinner, if I’ve had a very unproductive day, I close myself off somewhere with my laptop for an hour while hubby watches the kids. Once the kids are in bed, if I still have work to do, I’m back at the computer, sometimes writing for an hour, or sometimes throughout much of the night, depending on how close I am to deadline.

How do you develop your stories? Do you write start to finish or skip from scene to scene until the story is complete?

I start with a one or two paragraph story idea. From there, I start writing the synopsis. Sometimes I need to dive in and start writing the first few chapters at the same time to get a feel for where I’m going with the story, but most of the time, especially if I’m selling on synopsis, I plod my way through the synopsis before I’m doing any actual writing. Once I have that map of the story to follow, I tend to skip around a lot, writing whatever scene is clearest in my head at the time. When I’ve got a big horrible mess of a first draft, I put all the scenes in the correct order and fill in what’s missing. It’s a messy way to work, but I’m not much of a linear thinker!

What has been your most rewarding experience as a writer?

Earning a living doing my dream job the ultimate reward. I also feel very fortunate to be able to pursue my dream while also staying home with my kids--though this particular reward drives me crazy some days. :-)

Inquiring minds want to know…if you were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing you would take with you?

Ooh, just one thing? That’s cruel. I’d probably have to bring my Norton Anthology of American Literature, just because it would give me lots of good reading material in one volume--and it’s all the difficult stuff that I’d finally have the patience to sit down and read since there’d be no distractions on a desert island. American Lit was my favorite in college, but I never got a lot of pleasure from reading it back then since I usually had to write some kind of analytical paper on it afterward.

Is there one particular person or author who has inspired you?

I’m inspired by so many authors, it’s hard to name just one! Janet Evanovich is a big inspiration for me, because she was the first author I ever read whose work showed me that I could really let loose in my own writing and do all the things I was afraid I’d get rejected if I tried.

What is your favorite movie and why?

My current favorite is Love Actually, because it had such an uplifting message, and because I found it fascinating they way it illustrated love in so many different forms.

If you could pick any man to be the leading man in one of your books…who would it be and would you want to be leading lady?

Hmm…Interesting question. For Too Wild, I didn’t really have a specific actor in mind. Now that I think about it, Jude Law, with his hair lightened, would be a good pick for Travis in that book. And would I want to be the leading lady? LOL, not really. I’m a horrible, horrible actress, and I’d like the movie version of the book to make lots of money. I might pick Nicole Kidman to play the female lead instead.

Is there a question that I didn’t ask that you wish I would have?

No, I think you covered everything really well!

Is there anything you’d like to add to this interview?

Readers who sign up for my newsletter at www.jamiesobrato.com will automatically be entered in my monthly website contests to win lots of cool stuff. Plus, they’ll always know when my next release is in stores.

Jamie (still feels like I’m talking to myself, lol) thanks again for chatting with me.

LOL, yes, you have a lovely name, :-) and it was a lot of fun chatting with you!

Interviewed:
Jaymi