Tell Me Your Story Tuesday
Welcome
Keri Ford was raised in South Arkansas on a farm surrounded by family, horses, cows, donkeys, ostriches, emus, chickens, ducks, Canadian Geese, and enough dogs one would think they were a pound…and then she bought a
Cosmopolitan when she was twenty-two. She doesn’t recall the fantastic sex tip that drew her to the magazine, but she vividly remembers reading an excerpt of Christina’s Skye’s
Code Name: Princess. One elevator scene and quick thought of,
I didn’t know people wrote stuff like this… and her life would never be the same. Visit
www.KeriFord.com to find out more about Keri and her books.
Let's get to know Keri!
Be sure to check out details about her latest release
at the end of our interview!
Do you have a writing routine? What does it look like? Where do you usually write?
What routine? J I have a very short attention span, so things that are patterned and routine and the same from day-to-day get me bored super fast. I’m a pretty laid back person, so I just go with it and work at different times. That doesn’t mean I’m not organized. I have lists and calendars and all that fun stuff to keep me up-to-date on my progress. And a deadline is a deadline, period.
and this is where I work. I live in a single-wide (which I often mock and now you know why!) and my desk is sandwiched between my husband’s recliner, the couch and tv at my back and one of my husband’s deer overhead. I have to be careful when I stretch and stand, because I have occasionally whacked the deer on the nose. I’m scared I’m going to knock the darn thing off the wall one of these days.
Is the life of a writer what you thought it be? What is different?
You know I think it’s exactly what I imagined. Pajamas and fun. And then just the flexibility. I can dig in hard for a week and for two weeks after, take it easy. That flexibility I think keeps me going and interested in writing.
Do you have any special time management tricks for working in writing time and living a normal life?
I have to make time for family. I can poke at the computer all day and all night seven days a week without stepping away to just hang with my family. It’s not that I don’t love my family, LOL I do, but I can get wrapped up in my writing and want to do that all the time.
When my son (4years old) is out of school, I try really hard to work in the mornings to lunch, or a little into the afternoon and then we play the rest of the day. That doesn’t always happen. Sometime we do the opposite and I work the afternoon, play mornings. I raised him to know that mommy is working and he does his own thing for the most part.
What is the best advice you have received about this journey?
After reading some of my writing, Courtney Milan told me she felt like I was following the “rules” blindly. Those few words, that she probably didn’t realize would impact me so, completely turned my career around and got me on the right path.
What advice do you wish someone would have given you when you were starting out?
Don’t be afraid to at least look at and consider other publishing options. I was a bit of an e-pub snob for a couple years because I didn’t understand it, didn’t research it or anything. I wrote it off because it was different and not “traditional”. BIG MISTAKE. BIG. HUGE. (wink). After I looked closer, did some research, I tested the waters and I absolute love it. I love my publisher and all she does for me.
While the epub path may not be right for everyone, it’s great for me. I wish I had started looking sooner.
What do you do to fight burnout? Do you ever worry about "running out of stories"? How do combat that?
Maybe a few years down the road the road, I’ll start having those worries, but I feel like I’m just now gearing up and getting started with all the stories I have to tell.
What kind of scenes do you have a hard time writing?
The sex scenes. OMG. They’re so frustrating. I have to write them in layers. I start with the mechanics. Insert slot A into B. Then I go back and put in all the feel goods. Then go back and add emotions. It is a long process that can take weeks to get a 3 page sex scene just right.
Do you ever write material based on your close relationships, such as a best friend?, and how do you balance that material with the need to tell an interesting story?
I find I tend to base things off myself more than others. Not that I’m rewriting my life over and over again—no! But such as Nicolette in In The Hay is very wishy-washy on trying to find her career and path in life. That was me before I found writing.
The only time I’ve been tempted to write about someone I know it was in a negative light, but I really don’t want to idolize someone I don’t care for in that way.
What sources do you use for inspiration? ( Music, movies, people watching)
Inspiration is everywhere, you just gotta wait for it to smack you around. I’m not picky, I take what I come up with, from wherever it comes.
What do you do when you aren’t writing?
Trying to keep up with my family! My son is four and he is all boy and a handful. This spring we started planting a garden together, so that’s been a new thing to keep me busy!
Tell us a bit about your work in progress.
I’m currently editing Making Her Nights, fourth in the Apple Trail Series. This book is so awesome and loaded with sexual tension. This book to me feels like the hottest one I’ve written in Apple Trail, but it so far has less sex scenes than the others. After years of dodging each other, these two finally admit their feelings and it’s just whew.
What is next for you?
I have a trilogy of books scheduled to come out back-to-back in 2012. They spin off a character introduced in Apple Trail 5, Satisfying Her Nights. I don’t know much about them, so … I guess that’s all I have to say on it!
Thanks so much for having me today!
Thank you for talking with us!
Now Available!
3rd in the
Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas series
….two strangers visiting Apple Trail. When they get together will they put in roots in this small town or go back to their lives?
It’s been a White Picket Fence life for Nicolette. Charming, but tedious. She graduated high school, raring to go. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems though. The fear of being stuck in a rut, living a dull day-to-day life keeps Nicolette from settling on a career, despite her six years of college. When the chance arrives for her to housesit, she takes opportunity by the horns for a little playtime. She would experience life and find something that would make her happy.
Drew knows exactly what he wants. To run the family construction business. Too bad his dad doesn’t think he’s ready. They make a deal. Drew will help his cousin put up a new fence and after he’s learned hard work, the construction business is his. Drew’s not sure learning how to string fence line together will see him suitable for a career of paper pushing, but he’ll do it.
When Drew meets the wanna-be-free-spirited Nicolette, his determined thoughts of what he’s always worked for begins to sway. Nicolette’s finding the fun in life. But their relationship is temporary. A week tops.
Also available :
For more excerpts and more, please visit Keri’s website:
