Today we have Lily Velden's virtual book tour for her latest release from Dreamspinner Press, Heart Knot Mine. Enjoy!
~Mia
~*~
Quick round:
Coffee, tea or…what’s your vice? Bonox! LOL, I’ve never tasted the stuff, but as soon as I read this question an old Australian advert started playing in my head and now I can’t think of anything else but it! The tagline for the ad was Coffee, tea or Bonox? Hahahaha, maybe I should write to them and let them know their advertising worked! I’m brainwashed!
Favorite Movie: Dear Frankie
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite book/author: Oh God, feeling the pressure… I can’t narrow it down! There’s too many to choose from.
How do you feel about bacon? It’s one of life’s necessities!
The REAL questions…
Tell us a little about yourself.
Something about myself… hmm… rather than putting you all to sleep with some boring statistics, how about I confess a few quirks and funny moments?
Let’s see… I’m one of those dreadful people who reads the last few paragraphs of a story and if I don’t like the ending I won’t read the book. Now before you all clobber me, the ending doesn’t necessarily have to be neat and pretty with the MC riding off into the sunset, but it does have to be satisfying or intriguing.
Um, what else? Oh, I know! I like to change what side of the bed I sleep on. Every month or so I’ll swap. It drove my ex-husband crazy! Hahahaha, maybe that’s why I’m now the ex!
And then, when I was a teen, my father rescued an escapee baby chicken from certain death at the chook farm and I raised him as a pet. His name was Captain Horatio Chook and I, um, ‘loved’ him so much he grew as big as a swan!
And last, but by no means least, growing up, I was a shocker for sneakily switching on my bedside light after my parents had gone to bed and reading to the early hours of the morning. Of course, that meant I was not a morning person. I’m still not! You just about need a crowbar to lever me out of bed!
So, yes, back to the story. Well, um, one morning when I was about fourteen, I overslept and ended up just throwing my uniform on and grabbing my books as I raced out the door. I made it to the bus stop with mere seconds to spare.
Half way to school I looked down at my feet… I was still wearing my oh so fluffy pink slippers!
What’s under your bed?
My daughter’s stuff! She’s been living and working in the UK for the past 3 years. By the time she opens all the cartons and sees her things again it will probably feel like Christmas to her!
What comes first, plot or characters?
Thank God! A no-brainer question! Characters, definitely characters. Often by getting to know them first the story tells itself.
Pantser, plotter, or hybrid? Tell us about your writing process.
I love that you use the phrase ‘hybrid’ it makes me feel like I’m some sort of exotic rose or should I say lily?
So, *cough*, I’m an exotic lily… because, even though I know the overall story arc before I start writing it’s the characters who dictate what pit stops and detours we make on the journey.
I’ve never written a storyboard, nor mapped out each chapter in my life, and if I’m being honest, if I ever did, I’d probably rebel against myself. I’d join forces with the characters, start a revolution, and flick myself the bird while throwing some kind of literary spanner in the works that took the story off in a whole new direction.
What’s your most interesting writing quirk?
Probably that I write the story out of order. I don’t write sequentially. It always amazes me that at the end it all flows and makes sense. I’ve decided I must have a guardian angel whose sole purpose is to help me pull it all together!
What’s your favorite thing about the genre you write in?
I’d have to say my favorite thing is the dynamics between the men. Men think and behave differently to women and I’m endlessly fascinated in how differently they see things and behave with each other.
What is the hardest thing about being an author?
Having patience! It’s not one of my better virtues, but you have to learn it as an author.
First there’s the gut-wrenching, nail-biting wait to see if your baby is even going to be accepted for publication.
And if you get the yay, then there’s the journey the book needs to take through the editing, cover art, galley-setting, proofreading, and converting/printing process. It all takes time. Unfortunately, the process doesn’t come with a magic wand or remote control button!
As I write this, though, I’d have to say something else I struggle with is knowing when to stop! Knowing when enough is enough, and it’s time to leave well enough alone. I’m a repeat offender when it comes to tweaking—as in, if it were an Olympic event, I’d be a shoe in for the gold medal! I’m always searching for the perfect way to structure a sentence, that one ideal word.
I think most writers would agree with me that when you find that perfect word to convey meaning and describe what you’re seeing in your head, rather than the merely adequate word, it’s like the difference between a flashlight and the sun.
What’s the easiest thing about being an author?
Spending time with my characters. They’re my friends and as real to me as you are, Mia. It’s great hanging out with them in my head!
What do you wish someone had asked you for an interview question?
Hmm, this is a tough one. I think, though, I’d have to say I’d like to be asked what I think is important in the creative process.
You might want to take a seat, Mia, because I’m about to pull out my soapbox and get passionate!
Okay, here goes.
I think the most important aspect of the creative process, and it applies to music and art as well as writing, is the taking of an idea and giving it life. It’s the taking of something that was previously only inside your head and turning it from a mere thought or idea into something real. Something tangible. Something that can be seen, or heard, worn or inhabited.
I believe that is what’s important and the achievement, not how the audience responds to it.
You have no control over the audience—each person will bring to the story their own life history, experiences, prejudices, emotional issues, expectations, likes, and dislikes. What one person loves about your work, another will hate for the very same reasons.
By saying that, I’m not dismissing the audience, in fact, the opposite is true. Every creator desires an audience for their work. Why write a piece of music if it’s never going to be heard by anyone but yourself? Why make an artwork which will never be seen by anyone else? Or write a book no one will ever read?
My point is, though, it’s important to stay true to why you decided to create that something in the first place. You have to stay true to the need within you that compelled you to start it, because putting a creative work out into a public forum leaves you vulnerable and exposed, so you need to be strong in your belief in yourself and your creation.
Okay, stepping down from soapbox…
Tell us about your latest release!
You’re brave, Mia, after my response to the last question! I could go on for hours about Noah and Robert and how much I adore them. They have been a wonderful addition to the voices in my head! And can I say, Noah has been beyond patient—it’s took me two years to tell his story. I just hope he feels I did it justice. It’s certainly been an adventure for me—a fun, sexy, but at times difficult journey that I’d take with him again without a moment’s hesitation.
I just hope your readers will give Noah the chance to charm them the way he did me.
Thanks for having me visit, Mia. It’s been a blast!
Despite a successful college teaching career, Noah Daniels has become depressed. He feels he’s leading a monochromatic life: love has eluded him. When he’s offered a chance to teach in London as part of an exchange program, he accepts, hoping a change of scenery will do him good. But once he’s there, his outlook on love and sexuality changes in ways he never expected. Robert Callinan is Noah’s English counterpart in the program. The men exchange not only their jobs, but also their homes, and it is what Noah stumbles across while staying at Robert’s house that sends him on a journey of self-discovery—both mentally and physically. A journey that puts color back into his life… just not in the way he expected. When the exchange program ends, Noah has to go home, but he doesn’t know if he wants to return to the life he left behind.
For More Information
Heart Knot Mine is available at Amazon.
Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
Or, order your copy at Dreamspinner Press.
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
Watch the book trailer at YouTube.
About the Author
Lily Velden lives on the east coast of Australia, her family having emigrated from Holland when she was a child. She’s both a left and right brain person, holding qualifications in both Finance and Fine Arts. She tells her friends that her way with numbers will make her a profitable artist and writer… one day.
Lily has always had a love of language and a beautifully crafted sentence, and admits to having a fetish for collecting quotes, poems, and song lyrics. What she won’t admit to is how many notebooks she’s filled with those quotes… Her fascination carries on into her artworks where she often incorporates text. When a shoulder injury slowed down her art practice she decided to explore her love of the written word more fully and began writing. “I’ll paint my pictures with words.”
Not that she’s abandoned artmaking in its entirety—Lily collaborates on the designs for all her book covers.
There are many things Lily loves, here are just a few of the PG rated ones: a good laugh (all the better if caused by a naughty joke), the smell of freshly baked goods and mown grass, a smile from a stranger, rainbows after the rain, and witnessing a promise kept.
Her latest book is the M/M Contemporary Romance, Heart Knot Mine.
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