AccessRomance interviews author Tessa Radley.

AR: Your debut book, BLACK WIDOW BRIDE, came out last month from Silhouette Desire. What can you tell us about this story?

Tessa: I sold BLACK WIDOW BRIDE after an online pitch at eHarlequin with the Senior Editor of Desire. I had never submitted to Desire before, and I wasn't sure that a secret baby story would work for Desire. I'd heard that the Senior Editor of the line was not a big fan of children in romances. But she had said she wanted to buy new authors from the pitch. So I had nothing to lose. If I'd read a past comment that she'd made in Writing with Passion workshop on eHarlequin I might have been more optimistic: "If you can give me edgy and different, I'll buy it--even if there's a five year old running around, I promise."

Well, she bought the manuscript last February and I was absolutely thrilled! BLACK WIDOW BRIDE is about a gorgeous Greek guy who, at the request of his mother, persuades Rebecca Grainger to arrange his brother's wedding. Only problem is that Rebecca fell for Damon in a big way years ago...and she's been keeping secrets from him ever since. So, yes, it is a secret baby story…but it's also edgy and a little different.

AR: Readers don't have to wait long for your second book, which is titled RICH MAN'S REVENGE and will be released in June. What is this one about? Are your first two books connected in any way?

Tessa: RICH MAN'S REVENGE is not connected to my first book. But you must be looking inside my head with the talk of connected books. Because, strangely enough, I'm working on a proposal right now that is connected to Rich Man's Revenge—and it's tentatively titled RICH MAN'S AFFAIR!

In RICH MAN'S REVENGE, tough guy Rico D'Alessio seeks revenge against Kimberly Sinclair and her father. Intending to force Kimberly into marriage and get back his shares in the Sinclair family company, he's frustrated when he finds that Kimberly has just gotten married. So Rico makes do with the next best thing...her sister, Danielle. Except Danielle has always had a thing for Rico...and she's in danger. Two good reasons to marry him. Needless to say, Rico doesn't know what hits him and all his well-laid plans fly out the window.

AR: After that, you have a mini-series coming out in September, October, and November. Can you tell us a bit about this series?

Tessa: I love reading linked books. It's that whole thing of getting to know the characters and the world they live in. My BILLIONAIRE HEIRS mini-series is linked through 3 cousins, all grandsons of the incredibly wealthy Socrates Kyriakos. Socrates had only one son and two daughters.

Each story stands alone. In THE KYRIAKOS VIRGIN BRIDE (September) Zac Kyriakos needs to find himself a virgin bride to fulfill the family prophecy. Pandora Armstrong, is the perfect candidate. She's beautiful, smart…and a virgin. But Pandora thinks Zac has married her for love. And she's not happy to discover his real reason for marriage.

In THE APOLLONIDES MISTRESS SCANDAL (October) Gemma Allan goes to the island of Strathmos to confront resort billionaire Angelo Apollonides about what really happened there three years ago. And in the final story THE DESERT BRIDE OF AL ZAYED Jayne, the errant wife of the sheikh Tariq Al Zayed returns to the sheikhdom of Zayed to demand a divorce from her powerful husband. But it's much more difficult to get than she thought it would be…

AR: As mentioned, you have an impressive five books being released this year. Can readers expect that many releases from you each year?

Tessa: I'll certainly be writing four books a year. If my editor schedules five books for me—then, yes, I'd be very happy to have that many releases. :-)

AR: What challenges do you face as a New Zealand author with your publisher and the majority of your readers located overseas?

Tessa: I think the world is shrinking—especially with the advent of e-mail and the Internet. I don't think the traditional difficulties associated with far flung authors is such an issue today. My biggest challenge dealing with my publisher is trying to work out what time of day it is in New York, especially with gremlins like day-light saving. When it's day there it's usually night here.

As with Harlequin Presents, Desire readers are located all over the world. The books are sold in the United States, Australia, France, Japan, Germany, England as well as other markets. Desire stories are about relationships and falling in love. They have to be meaningful to many women all over the world. My biggest challenge is to keep delivering stories that women everywhere can relate to—stories where they believe that the characters will live happily ever after in a changing, often confusing, world.

AR: Do you write full time now? What is your work day like?

Tessa: I do some freelance work in addition to writing for Silhouette Desire. My day tends to be quite hectic. I go for a walk most morning which helps to focus my mind on the scene I'm going to write.

Once I settle down at my desk, I try not to get distracted by e-mail, phone calls or endless trips to make coffee. Not always easy. I set myself a daily target—a number of pages to write. I'm not that good at writing huge page counts, I do better to write regularly. Once I start writing it tends to go well and I'll write until around lunch time. After that I'll do the stuff that seems to eat up my time – e-mails, planning other work, line-edits (if I have any), returning calls, research that I need.

AR: What do you do in your spare time? Any fun hobbies you'd like to tell us about?

Tessa: My kids do a lot of sport. And I love watching sport—live or on television—with my family. Recently the household came to a standstill with the Cricket World Cup which was played in the Caribbean. New Zealand made the semi-finals but simply couldn't catch Sri Lanka or Australia. Next time. :-)

AR: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to share with Access Romance readers?

Tessa: I'm delighted to be here at Access Romance. I will be blogging regularly at ALL-A-BLOG and look forward to catching up with you there!

I've added a copy of BLACK WIDOW BRIDE to the fabulous ROMANCE GALORE CONTEST where one reader can WIN 34 books and which runs until June 30th. WOW!! If you visit my blog, I will be doing a SUNDAY GIVEAWAY all through May. If you want to hear more about my contests and receive advance extracts to my books, join my newsletter.

Interviews Index > Tessa Radley (May 07)