1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE INDIGO HEIRESS
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A colonial American indigo heiress meets her nemesis in a Scots merchant who saves her from scandal only to have her save his very life in turn.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Since my ancestry is rooted in Britian and colonial Virginia I find that setting fascinating. It was also where many of the movers & shakers of the 18th-century lived.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I would love to get to know them as real people though my characters sure seem real enough to me on the page. I’m especially fascinated with my villains!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Smart, cautious, industrious.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a great deal about how Loyalists to the British Crown viewed our War of Independence. Quite a messy business! I found the wealthy Glasgow merchants based in Scotland fascinating, too. Their ties to Virginia in that era were rich, complex, and deep—and even controversial today.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait till I’m done. I do several different edits once finished – I print out the manuscript then redline it, I then read the entire manuscript aloud, I use different formats and fonts for other edits which helps me process it differently. Editing is not my favorite step. The first draft is.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Pasta, European chocolate, hot cocoa with whipped cream.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
In summer I love to write in my office which has a window and screen door facing our garden. In winter I write by the fireplace from my favorite chair beside a big window overlooking the Pacific Northwest woods.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
The Bible, the only book where the author is in love with the reader as has been said. It’s amazingly living and active, so it doesn’t ever get old, always has a message, reaches me at whatever stage or season I find myself in. When I was 12, my mom & I memorized the 139th Psalm which means so much to me.
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 got the call on my son’s 11th birthday. I was so excited I felt too sick to eat cake! I thought my publisher-to-be, Revell, simply wanted 1 book from me. They wanted 3! My writing journey is a bit different. My pastor brother opened my eyes to the fact I should do something besides simply writing for myself like I’d been doing for 40 years. I wasn’t exactly a willing participant but am very grateful to use whatever gift the Lord has given me. It’s been an incredible experience!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I started reading (and writing) historical fiction at age 7 when I first discovered the library. I rarely read other genres though there are so many fine authors now.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
The Last of the Mohicans was key to my fiction inspiration. I’m not a movie buff but I actually saw that movie in the theater a dozen or so times when it released. I was going through a hard time personally, so the movie became not only an escape but benefitted my writing in untold ways. It was like watching one of my frontier novels come to life.
15--What is your favorite season?
I’m a sunshine lover so any season the sun is shining is my favorite, probably summer most of all. I love the heat and miss living in the south where I was born and raised.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With a nice dinner or day out. I grew up with a granny who made a many layered German Chocolate Cake for my birthday every year from scratch. I miss her so much – and her cake!
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I really learn a lot from Cissie Graham Lynch and Lisa Bevere’s podcasts, both godly women on top of what’s happening in our times and how to reflect Christ through it.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Thai or Italian. Anything but sushi, really. My sons love it but I just can’t!
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I swim and take long walks. Cook and bake. Garden. Frequent HomeGoods & bookstores.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
A novel set in 1776 to coincide with our nation’s 250th anniversary of independence in 2026. Also, I have a July 2025 novella releasing that is dear to my heart. Title & cover reveal soon!
Virigina plantation life is all she has ever known.
But could the life she was meant to live be waiting on a distant shore?
In 1774, Juliet Catesby lives with her father and sister at Royal Vale, the James River plantation founded by her Virginia family over a century before. Indigo cultivation is her foremost concern, though its export tethers her family to the powerful Buchanan clan of Glasgow, Scotland.
When the heir of the Buchanan firm arrives on their shores, Juliet discovers that her father has arranged for one of his daughters to marry the Scot as a means of canceling the family's crippling debt. Confident it will be her younger, lovelier sister, Juliet is appalled when Leith Buchanan selects her instead.
Despite her initial refusal, Juliet realizes that fleeing Virginia is her only choice after finding herself in the midst of a scandal. The ship just leaving the harbor for Glasgow is her only hope. But she will soon realize that being part of the complex and calculating Buchanan clan is not the sanctuary she imagined--and the man who saved her from ruin is the very one she must now save in return.
Romance Historical [Revell, On Sale: January 21, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780800740696 / ]
Laura Frantz is a Christy Award winner and the ECPA bestselling author of eleven historical novels, including The Frontiersman’s Daughter, Courting Morrow Little, The Colonel’s Lady, and The Lacemaker. When not reading and writing, she loves to garden, cook, take long walks, and travel. She is the proud mom of an American soldier and a career firefighter. When not at home in Kentucky, she and her husband live in Washington State.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy