Interview with Elisabeth Rose

I jumped at the chance to interview Award-winning, fellow Avalon author Elisabeth Rose after recently signing up to participate in the Avaloners Blog. I met Lis at the RWA National Conference in Washington DC in 2009. I made her a cup of coffee and she gave me a pack of TimTams and we’ve been friends ever since.

From her Bio: Elisabeth Rose lives in Australia's capital, Canberra. She completed a performance degree on clarinet, traveled Europe with her musician husband, and returned to Canberra to raise two children. Twenty-three years ago she began practicing Tai Chi and now teaches classes in that as well as teaching and playing clarinet. Reading has been a lifelong love, writing romance a more recent delight.

The Wedding Party is Elisabeth Rose's seventh book for AVALON. The Right Chord, Coming Home, Stuck, Outback Hero, The Tangled Web, and Instant Family are also available.

Here’s something about her current Avalon Romance release The Wedding Party.

Phoebe Curtis is thrilled when asked to marry friends Lindy and Alex in her seaside hometown of Narooma. Lindy has arranged a pre-wedding holiday week, Phoebe included, as a reunion for Alex and his two Best Men. Phoebe loves weddings and hopes for her own happily ever after.

Brady Winters reluctantly leaves his luxury charter yacht company in the Mediterranean for a flying trip to Australia to be Best Man. A week is all he can spare and, as a confirmed and cynical bachelor, spending time with an overexcited group of women preparing for a wedding is the last thing he wants.

But as Lindy's meticulous plans go awry, Phoebe's sense of duty almost halts the wedding, and a dental crisis forces Brady to stay on long enough for him to discover a wedding of his own might not be too bad after all. But will Phoebe have him?

Q: What was the inspiration for The Wedding Party?

Lis: My niece's wedding. They had two Best Men who flew in from overseas to take part. They gave a combined speech and one of them said he had no intention of getting married, he was having too much fun crewing on yachts in the Med. The celebrant was absolutely wonderful. She obviously loved weddings and being part of her couple's special day. To me these two attitudes were perfect for my heroine and hero. My problem was getting them together and keeping him around long enough for them to fall in love.

Q: What part of The Wedding Party came to you first? The characters? The story? The setting?

Lis: From my previous answer you'll see it was the characters and the setting all rolled into one. Basically I nicked the whole idea from my niece! LOL That's not entirely true. The real people bear absolutely no relation to my characters, they were a jumping off point.

Q: Does your niece know her wedding sparked this book?

Lis: Yes, she answered quite a few questions for me.

Q: Do the other two people, the ones you based your hero and heroine on, have any idea you've slid them into fictional shoes?

Lis: Apparently the best man does because the groom told him all about it!

Q: Was writing The Wedding Party different from any of your previous novels?

Lis: It was different in that I was able to describe the setting very particularly having stayed in Narooma at my in-laws several times. It's a beautiful spot on the coast. The beaches are golden, the water crystal clear and a unique shade of blue green. There's a golf course set right along the cliffs on the headland. My husband and I went on a research visit. :)

Q: What do you personally like most about this novel?

Lis: I like the whole book, of course, but I think Avalon's cover designer Catherine Casalino did another wonderful job. Catherine has designed three others of my covers I realize now--The Right Chord, Stuck and The Tangled Web. They've all been fantastic.

Q: Music usually plays a big part in your books. What were the musical influences in this story?

Lis: Because neither of my characters are musicians music wasn't such a big part of the story but I did sneak a few pieces in. In one scene Phoebe, my heroine, is trying to annoy Brady while he's trying to relax. She suggests some music and chooses a classical album at random (they're staying in someone else's house) figuring opera will be pretty irritating for him. Mozart's Queen of The Night aria comes on and she's secretly pleased because it's a high soprano voice, loud and quite aggressive and should be boring straight through his head. Unfortunately Brady likes it and actually recognises the singer.

Q: Personally, I love Queen of the Night but I can see if one detested sopranos it would get on one's nerves. Is there any musical revenge on Brady's part?

Lis: No but Phoebe tries again with Neil Diamond whose voice sets her teeth on edge. Brady goes to sleep so she fails again. When he wakes up he thinks she must like the music so doesn't say anything even though he doesn't like it. They're both stuck listening to it then.

Q: Do you have any upcoming Avalon releases we should know about?

Lis: Love On the North Shore Line will be coming out next year sometime but I don't have a release date yet.

Q: Are you working on any new titles for Avalon?

Lis: I've sent in another manuscript but haven't heard from my editor about it yet. It's a spinoff from Outback Hero and tells Caroline's story. Caroline is the pregnant younger sister of the hero Jonathan, who appears toward the end of the book.

Q: I see you are an “Award Winning” author. Could you elaborate?

Lis: Instant Family won the Golden Quill Traditional Category and The Tangled Web was a finalist, and that Instant Family is also a finalist in our RWAustralia R*BY Award. (That's Romantic Book of the Year.) The Award is announced at our conference in Melbourne on August 13th. I was really thrilled that this book has done so well, especially finalling in the R*BY because it's in the Long Romance section and is up against some heavy hitting historical authors.

Congratulations to Tangled Web and Instant Family for becoming finalists in The Golden Quill and the RWAustralia R*BY Award. What an honor to be nominated for Romantic Book of the Year!

Elisabeth is a regular contributor here at the Avaloners' Blog. For more information about her you can check her webpage and read her personal blog: Elisabeth Rose.

I want to thank Lis for her cooperation and those of you have taken the time to read my first interview. Good luck on the RWAustralia R*BY Awards next week, Lis!