1--What is the title of your latest release?
PUCK AND PREJUDICE (A Regals Hockey Romance #1)
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When NHL goalie Tucker Taylor takes an accidental swan dive through time into the Regency era, he meets his match in Lizzy Wooddash, a woman whose life goals include: hanging with her cool friends like Jane Austen and avoiding marriage at all costs, or barring that…becoming a widow. A marriage of convenience with a time traveler seems like the perfect hat trick: she gets her future independent widowhood, he gets a place to crash while figuring out how to get home, and nobody catches feelings. But soon they’re catching feelings, and their perfectly practical plan begins looking about as solid as ice in August.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Since my Georgette Heyer fangirl phase I’ve loved Regencies, and setting the book in 1812 allowed me to place my characters right when Pride & Prejudice was being written. I love “How Did This Get Made” content, and I thought it would be fun to loosely play around with the concept of what might have inspired Austen as she was drafting.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I’d love to vibe with Lizzy AND Tuck. In fact, my goal was to write a hero who was a man I’d want to get a beer with…he is curious about women and is comfortable enough in himself to center others.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
For Tucker: Protective, adaptable, and loyal. For Lizzy: Clever, unconventional, and passionate.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
It’s hard to write one chapter in a contemporary voice and one in a Regency voice–I worried a lot about whether I could pull it off. But I had to learn to release fear. I also learned that writing time travel theory comes easier if you have the flu and spike a 104 fever. I was semi lucid and it’s a part of the book I didn’t have many edits on.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wish I could say I'm super organized about it, but honestly? I edit whenever the anxiety hits. Sometimes that's mid-sentence, sometimes it's after fifty pages. With time travel stories especially, you have to keep track of so many details that I end up going back pretty frequently to make sure everything lines up.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Every Christmas we have Sticky Date Pudding with Toffee sauce as well as Pavlova with fresh cream, kiwis, passionfruit and berries. I’m not a giant sweet tooth but those two things are incredible.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I always assume other authors are writing under very aesthetic and thoughtful conditions, there is likely a big wooden desk and a library lamp. But for me? I have Google docs on my phone and my laptop, and I draft in a box with a fox, or on a couch with a slouch, literally anywhere, anytime.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Kennedy Ryan. She is a wonderful author and genuinely good person and deserves every single flower she gets in this world.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I read Outlander when I was pregnant with my second child (I had a one-year-old). When I finished, I thought, I really want to write a book. And immediately started writing my very first book (which got me an agent, but I never published, and it should not see the light of day ever).
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was visiting my family in Southeastern Michigan when my agent called me to say my debut book, Upside Down, was being acquired in a three-book offer (this became the Off the Map trilogy). I hung up and felt so surreal that I jumped into the lake with all my clothing on.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I can’t choose between historical and contemporary romance…guess that’s why I wrote a mashup of the two LOL
14--What’s your favorite movie?
The Handmaiden directed by Park Chan-Wook. It’s a queer Gothic thriller set in 1930s Korea, a girl is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on a countryside estate.
15--What is your favorite season?
Virgo season.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Being worshipped? Just kidding (not really)–I love to go alone to a place near Big Sur that has outdoor hot and cold pools, saunas and steam rooms. I bring a good book and don’t talk to anyone all day. But my day always starts with breakfast in bed from my husband and kids. I’m a huge breakfast in bed fan, or any breakfast I don’t personally make.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
With winter coming (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) I want to recommend my all-time favorite: The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden–in particular the audio version. Arden’s writing is lush and gorgeous, the narrator is so atmospheric, and it’s Medieval Russia, feminist, and has a slow-burn romance with a Frost Demon/God of Death (need I say more).
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Korean: In particular, I’m addicted to naengmyeon when hot and samyeopsal anytime.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Binge watch BTS content (Run BTS, concerts, variety shows)
20--What can readers expect from you next?
The E.M.M.A Effect is coming out in 2025. Here’s a hint: When an AI program, The E.M.M.A, designed to help athletes maximize their performance suddenly starts matchmaking instead, will NHL center Gale Knight and computer guru Harriet, discover The E.M.M.A knows best?
From the author of Mister Hockey comes a sizzling marriage of convenience romance between a pro hockey player who accidentally travels back in time to Regency Era England and the brazen contemporary of Jane Austen he just can’t help but fall for…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a modern single man in possession of a hockey jersey may be exactly what a Regency woman needs to avoid the shackles of marriage...
Goalie for the Austin Regals, Tucker Taylor is benched due to health issues. So he decides to visit his sister in England. But an accidental plunge into an icy pond thrusts him back to 1812 where he comes face to face with a captivating blue-eyed woman who regards him as if he’s grown two heads.
Lizzy Wooddash dreams of a life surrounded by books, engaging conversation, the presence of literary icons like Jane Austen, and... nary a husband in sight. But in Regency England, only widows like her cousin Georgie enjoy freedom and solitary pursuits, unencumbered by expectations. The only way to quickly become a widow is by marrying a dying man or killing a perfectly healthy one, neither of which Lizzy desires.
A visitor from the future might just be the husband of her dreams. Once married, they can figure out how to return Tucker to his proper time, and his absence—aka death—will make Lizzy the widow she always dreamed of becoming. Yet as sparks ignite, they soon realize that matters of the heart rarely adhere to carefully laid plans. Can their love stand the test of time, or will Lizzy get exactly what she wanted...as well as a broken heart?
Fantasy Magical Realism [Avon, On Sale: November 12, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063412323 / eISBN: 9780063412330]
After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.
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