Welcome to FAR, Sydney. Sydney Somers is the author of Masquerade, When Lightning Strikes, Uninvited, and Trust Me.


Was Masquerade inspired by anyone/anything or did it present itself to you?

I’ve always wondered what it would be to be swept off my feet by a masked stranger. I’d say Zorro started it all once upon a time, but I wanted to give it a little twist and have my hero know exactly who my heroine was.

I love the idea of Nigel as a mysterious man. How did Nigel develop?

Actually when I plotted Masquerade, Nigel was intended to be more of a beta hero. Less, “Me Tarzan and You Jane” mentality that a lot of alpha hero’s have in them somewhere, which is part of their charm. Nigel was going to be much more subtle, maybe even a little goofy, but the more I wrote, the more he dug in his heels and refused to cooperate until I wrote him the way he ended up in the book.

When Lightning Strikes tackles second chances. How did you use this theme differently from other Romance writers?

In a lot of ways I’m not sure I did. It’s fun to take two characters who have this undeniable spark and try to get them back together again. I love reading stories where the hero and heroine already have a history. With When Lightening Strikes… my hero Seth, screwed up, because hey, men do that sometimes (shhhhh don’t tell my husband he thinks he’s perfect) and the only way to get Emma to listen to him for more than five seconds was to put her in a position where she was forced to listen to him. Being stuck in an elevator accomplished that I think :-)

The teaser for Trust Me is enticing. How do you develop your teasers?

Um… blood, sweat and tears? The blurbs for my books are actually a hit and miss thing for me. If I can’t sit down and condense the book into a paragraph fairly quickly, then I put it aside and try the next day. And if I can’t get it that day… then the next. So for some stories, the blurbs came to me with an hour or so of playing with ideas, or they took me a couple weeks. It’s a week later and I’m still working on my blurb for Watchtowers Book One: Air. As for the excerpts, those are easy because they’re already written and I just have to pull scenes out of the story. I usually pick the ones I had the most fun writing.

How did you create Detective Maxine Walker? Did she suddenly appear and demand her story? Was she inspired by something you witness/experienced?

What can I say about Max? She’s a handful and damn feisty. She came about after I decided I wanted to do a heroine on the run story. I would have to say she’s my representation of my favorite butt-kicking heroines. Think Sydney Bristow from Alias, Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even Xenia. I love writing about powerful women that stand up for what they believe in and aren’t afraid to either kiss the guy standing in their way, or kick his ass.

Uninvited dips into the paranormal. What was that like? How is it different/similar from your previous Contemporary Romances?

I have always loved vampires. I’ve been a huge fan of Maggie Shayne’s Twilight series and have recently discovered Angela Knight. There is just something undeniable erotic about falling for a guy that lives forever and knowing he can’t live without you. And then there is the biting on the neck thing  As for comparisons with my other contemporary stuff… It doesn’t make a difference if the hero is a vampire, a cop, or a business executive… the connection between the hero and heroine still has to be there. If the characters don’t have chemistry, then it doesn’t make a difference if it’s paranormal or not. But writing paranormal is a lot of fun. It lets you get outside the box and take something in a different direction than you’ve gone before. I’m already looking forward to writing the next book in my vamp series.

Would you be able to give us a tidbit about Watchtowers: Air? How is it different/similar from Uninvited?

Watchtowers Book One: Air, is the first book in a continuity series about four women each with an ability to control one of the elements. The next book in the series is Water, then Fire and finally Earth, in which all four women come together with their soul mates to defeat the villain, Amidurah, determined to remake the world.

With Air, my heroine Jade becomes determined to track down Amidurah after the hurricanes he unleashes tears her world apart. The only person she believes can help her is the one man she’s most attracted to and the one man she fears may stand in the way of defeating the Amidurah. Black Lightning, Thunder God by birth, mercenary by choice, likes to keep things simple, and Jade is more complications then he’ll ever need, and yet he can’t stop thinking about her.

With both books I was able to write incredible stories with a little extra something. The paranormal aspect of any story can give the characters an edge, and it definitely did with Watchtowers. With Uninvited, my hero was the paranormal aspect to the story, with Watchtowers Book One: Air, both the hero and heroine had special abilities as does the villain, so it puts them all on the same playing field and makes it more interesting.

How is futuristic paranormal different/similar from contemporary paranormal?

I get to make more stuff up! :-) With Watchtowers, the series is set in the year 3033. You aren’t as limited as to what can happen or where you characters can go or how they’ll get there. If can dream it up, chances are you can work it in there. At the same time its not easy trying to figure out what people are using for communication in the future, and coming up with a name for it that doesn’t make it sound like it comes straight out of Star Trek.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your books?

Only that I have plenty more to be written :-)

Are there any other genres you would like to explore?

I have a more fantasy related series stirring around in my brain. I love historicals, but I’d get lost in trying to keep the details historically accurate if I ever attempted to write one.

Is there any music that inspires the different genres?

All the music I listen to when I write - and I always have some playing – is contemporary. I usually make up a play list or soundtrack on my pc to listen to when I’m working on a specific project. I tend to have at least one “theme” song that fits each book. Kind of like the song that I could imagine being part of the promotional movie trailer if it were ever made into a screen play. :-)

For Uninvited the theme song was “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling
For Trust Me it was “Hanging By A Moment” by Lifehouse.
For Watchtowers Book One: Air there were actually two songs “I Don’t Want To Be” by Gavin DeGraw and “You And Me” by Lifehouse.

Whenever I get stuck on a scene I replay the theme song and think the scene through until it works itself out.

Do you have a specific routine before you write? Do you write in one area only or everywhere?

I have two little boys (3 and 1) so night times are when I do the bulk of my writing. I’ve recently discovered coffee so that helps on the nights when I’m close to deadline and need to stay up past midnight. Because I’m a horrible sloucher in front of the pc, I usually do my writing on a laptop on the bed so I can prop myself up and not end up with a very aggravated muscle in my shoulder.

As a fellow mother, I am in awe of the fact that you have written four books. How do you do it? And any tips for fellow mothers?

Yeah, don’t sweat the small stuff. I think a lot of mothers are under the illusion that they need to be perfect, myself included. Being a mother is hard and we’re gonna screw up sometimes, there are gonna be good days, and there are gonna be bad days. Know what’s important to you, not what was important to your mother or your best friend. Oh, and organization is highly overrated. I recently saw a motto that works for me “My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy”. As long as my family has food to eat and clean clothes, I don’t stress about the other stuff. Life is too damn short to agonize over whether or not my mother-in-law might notice the dust on the baseboard behind the couch.

I love your About Me page, especially the “A Few Things That Drive Me Crazy.” What prompted the design instead of the traditional bio for “Author pages?”

I love going to other author sites and getting a peek at what makes them tick. The more I know about an author, the more I can relate to their writing or them as an individual, the more likely I am to try their work if they’re new to me. I wanted people that took the time to stop by my site to get at least a brief glimpse of who Sydney Somers is.

Who/What inspired you to write?

Grade school language arts. I wrote my first story in grade one, Jenny and the Glowing Green Mittens. I don’t have that story anymore, but I remember it clearly and remember getting hooked on telling stories since that first time. I took my first stab at writing a novel when I was sixteen. I wrote eight chapters and then summer hit… Someday I may revisit the idea… then again maybe not. :-)

Who are some of your favorite authors?

LOL. Who aren’t? My list is soooooo long. Off the top of my head, I always keep books by Jennifer Cruise, Linda Howard, Maggie Shayne, Susan Elizabeth Philips, Karen Robards. Two other amazingly talented authors come to mind as well, Jaycee Clark (I adore her Deadly Series) and upcoming author, Gail Delaney. I’m also a huge fan of Angela Knight, Jaci Burton, Shiloh Walker, Shelly Laurenston… See I told you I could go on forever.

Is there a way other than your website for fans to keep updated?

I have a monthly newsletter, Flirting with Passion, where subscribers can keep updated with what I’m writing, read excerpts, catch the occasional sneak peek at what’s in the works, as well as guest author interviews and monthly contests.

What final advice would you offer to writers who are seeking publication?

Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Read. And get on publisher reader loops to see what’s out there, who’s looking for what and just being friendly with everyone. It’s never too early to start building your name, because as long as you believe in yourself, and have a couple fantastic critique partners in your corner, you’ll find a home for your book.

Finally, any last thoughts.

Thanks so much for taking the time to interview me Dena. I’ve had a blast!

Thank you Sydney for taking the time to answer my questions and give us a glimpse into your life and world. For more information about Sydney Somers and her books, visit her website at http://www.sydneysomers.com/index.html.


Interviewed by: Dena