Author Interview: Katherine Hawthorne

About the author:
Katherine Hawthorne loves sexy alpha males and books that come with warnings, which is exactly what she writes. Throwing out the last vestiges of her oh-so-proper Ivy League education, she traded tedious academic writing, combined her favorite genres, and found her greatest joy in writing romantic suspense.

When Katherine isn’t writing, you can find her racing down the ski slopes in the winter and relaxing on the beach in the summer, most likely lost in a book. Married with four children, three of which still live at home, life is a never-ending crazy thrill ride, one she quite happily embraces.

What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
From an early age, I have always loved romance books, way before I was old enough to read them! It wasn't long before I also found I had a love of mystery and suspense. The combination of genres is my absolute favorite, which is why I chose to write in the romantic suspense genre. My early favorite authors were Tami Hoag and Sandra Brown, who shaped me as a writer today.

Tell us about how you write.
I am a messy writer! I start out in order, however, by the time a reach the midpoint, I have changed the timings of scenes, I have changed character's povs. I have a million highlights that say weird things like "put this at end", or "don't forget to write this…."

Mostly, I write while sitting on the couch, listening to music. Often, I'm not looking at my manuscript, but out the window as I write because sometimes it's easier to get into the characters' heads that way. When I do look down, my book is usually filled with red lines, indicating misspellings and every other error you can think of. If i'm in the middle of a scene and something else comes to mind, I'll type it out, highlight it and move on to be dealt with later. See? Truly messy! However, when I go back to the beginning to start editing, it all comes together!

Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?
Ha! I'm always talking out loud. I'll ask my characters what they're going to do next or how they're going to get out of whatever situation they're in. It helps clear my head and many times it allows me to move forward if I'm in a hard spot. Many times the romance part is easy, but the suspense part is not and I always have to talk those out, make sure I'm hitting all the points and don't overlook something. I also use hand-written timelines for cases because it makes it so much easier to look and see when the characters found this lead or that lead.

What advice would you give other romance writers?
You've all probably heard it a million times before, but don't give up! As long as you have stories in your head, keep writing them down.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
When I decided to dust off that old book and re-wrote the whole thing (believe me, other than the character's names, it bears no resemblance whatsoever) self-publishing wasn't even a conscious decision.. I didn't weigh options, I just went for it. I had a book, a good book and I wanted to get it to market as fast as I could. Did it hit number one overnight? No. Did I realize then I pretty much knew nothing about marketing? No. Would I change my decision if I knew now what I knew then? No.

That isn't to say I made the right or wrong decision. I made the right decision for me and I enjoy the freedom of self-publishing and I can handle the stress that comes with it.

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Indie authors have already changed the book publishing industry and I believe they will continue to do so!

Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?
Romantic Suspense

My books are available in the following formats:
eBook, Print