Connie: Unfortunately there is nothing in the least exotic about me. I was born in Minnesota where, as Garrison Keilor says, "all the children are above normal" and raised both here and in upstate New York. As an adult I've lived in both states, too. I graduated from college, went on to graduate school, married, worked in all sorts of different venues (waitress, model, landscape, graphic design ...), had an even more exceptional daughter than the requisite above-average Minnesota child. Once she entered kindergarten, I decided to finally give myself the opportunity to do what I had wanted to do my entire life: write a book.

Both my parents came from strongly matriarchal families and while I couldn't say my mother ruled our household, it was definitely a co-chair position. So the idea of a dependent woman is alien to me - and to my writing.

Robin: Who are some of your favorite authors - and what are some of your favorite books?

Connie: There are so many! In romance there are Lisa Kleypas, Laura Kinsale, Teresa Medeiros, Kathleen Eagle, Liz Beverly, Julie London, Susan Kay Law, Susan Sizemore, Eloisa James ... on and on and on.

I am enthralled with the George R.R. Martin fantasy series, and I really am enjoying the P.K Ryan historical mysteries as well as Barbara Hambly's New Orleans based books.

Robin: How do you relax and unwind between deadlines/books? Aside from reading, what other hobbies do you enjoy?

Connie: I could fill three lives with the things I like or want to do, and consequently have no patience with people who are bored. I am a voracious reader (my TBR pile is stacked beneath my bedroom window - my dog uses it as a bench to look into the backyard), love to cook, garden (for years I was a Master Gardener with the University of Minnesota extension office), and travel. I play a fairly competitive game of tennis, work out with weights three times a week, jog (okay - I'm a seasonal jogger - I don't do treadmills), design needlework projects, paint, and sketch. I am a birdwatcher with far too short of a life list, and a mushroom collector. I fish and skeet shoot.

Robin: I read that you work(ed) at the Minnesota Wildlife Animal Rehab Center. (We at RBL love our fur-babies!) Can you tell us about that?

Connie: I started volunteering with MWRC about eight years ago in the avian nursery. Most of the babies we got were nestlings that had been displaced by either storms or construction, as well as fledglings that were victims of domestic animal attacks. We hand-fed them the appropriate diets for their species - you do not want to know what a baby crow eats (and, btw, baby crows are simply the smartest, most cunning little creatures in the world!) - and cleaned their nests.

After a few years of that, I graduated to animal crew which necessitated a series of rabies shots - no, they don't hurt and they are no longer given in the stomach. But the serum is an unnerving florescent shade of blue-green.

This is not nearly as glamorous a job. We take care of the adult animals that come in - because of car accidents, oil spills, cat and dog attacks, or plain old sickness. After our full-time vet examines them, we make a place for them in the appropriate ward - mammal, reptile, avian. We have flight rooms for transitional birds, wading pools for ducks and geese, tanks for forty snapping turtles, cages for possums and rabbits, etc. We've had in our hospital bobcats and otters, foxes and skunks, great blue herons and giant mute swans. If anyone finds the wherewithal to bring an animal in and it can be saved, we find a way to save it. Also, we never turn an animal away because of its species, which means that squirrels and sparrows get the same treatment as tundra swans and beavers. As the director says, "What if they turned you away at General Hospital because they'd already treated enough middle-aged white women for the week?"

Want to make a donation?

Robin: That sounds great, Connie, and I'm sure that although the work is hard, that it is also very rewarding! Connie, let’s switch topics, and talk about the craft of writing, if you don't mind. You may have heard these questions before, but we have many aspiring authors at RBL Romantica (myself included), and I find it fascinating to hear the different answers we get from published authors.

How did you get into writing? Did you have any mentors who inspired you?

Connie: I cannot recall a time when I did not write or want to write. Even before I could actually write, I was babbling stories to my stuffed animal collection before tucking them into bed. Probably the first book I remember having been struck by the author's power to invoke not just a mental image but a sensory gestalt was Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I still remember reading the paragraph about the old ladies sitting on the porch, dusted over with sweet smelling talc like melting frosting. I wanted to be able to make worlds like that and to create it with words.

Robin: What do you enjoy most about writing?

Connie: When things are going well and the words are spilling out faster than I can type, I like the feeling of creating something. Of course, that only happens sparingly. Most of the time I'm happy to settle for more mundane perks - like the lack of a dress code and the hourly breaks.

Robin: Any drawbacks?

Connie: If you work at home, as I do, people, even people who should know better, like husbands and children, assume you can take time off to do other things. Worse, you *want* to do other things. In other words, I'm easily led astray. There's also the perception that if you're sitting in the sunroom staring blankly out the window for ten minutes, you’re not doing anything. Sometimes that's when I'm doing the most. Only other authors seem to really *get* this.

Robin: What about your method? Do you plan/plot an outline first or do you just write and fill in the blanks later?

Connie: I try to do a fairly detailed synopsis, but about two-thirds of the way through every book I discover that the synopsis is really just holding me back - so then I generally go back and change much of the theme and tone of the book. It's not a particularly efficient way to write. But it's my way.

Robin: Does a story start with a scene, an idea, or with a character?

Connie: I've started at all of these places.

Robin: What was the best advice you received prior to becoming a published author and who gave it to you?

Connie: Susie Kay Law told me not to write what I thought would sell but write what I would want to read.

Robin: What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Connie: This is the same advice I've been giving for years - finish a book. It doesn't matter if the book is good or bad, just the act of carrying through from A to Z will teach an author more about constructing a story than any number of workshops or classes or how-to books. You can spend years honing the art of writing a first chapter, but no publisher I know is buying a book comprised of first chapters.

Robin: Have you ever read a book and thought, "I wish I’d written that book."? If so, what book was it?

Connie: Plenty - but as I assume we're talking about romance novels, I'll stick to that genre. I really love LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase.

Robin: Connie, there are so many reference books out there for writers, everything from style manuals to "Romance Writing for Dummies." Can you suggest to us three reference books that have been invaluable to you as a writer? (Feel free to list more if you want to.)

Connie: Sure!

"English Through the Ages" by William Brohaugh - a dictionary divided by era and cross-referenced, telling when a word came into use.

"The Regency Companion" by Laudermilk and Hamlin - a great short reference of day to day life, customs, styles, and real people in Regency England, including slang.

"Timetables of American History" by Lawerence Urlang - always nice to know who was doing what in the various disciplines year by year, country by country.

Robin: What has been your funniest experience as an author?

Connie: The first time I was ever "recognized" by a reader.

It was a miserably hot afternoon - in the high 90s and humid. We had just finished watching our daughter's softball tournament and her blood sugar was plummeting - okay, mine too - and the situation was dire. So we went out to dinner at a family style restaurant instead of going home. We were hot, tired, dusty, and I had baseball cap hair. The place was crowded and the air conditioning had quit. The waitress was slow. I mean s-l-o-w. After finally eating and the check finally arriving, I gave the waitress my credit card. And we waited some more. And some more. Now my kid was eight and getting antsy and being a good mommy I decided to distract her by showing off my one sure-fire party tricks - balancing a spoon on my nose. After a few false starts I managed. So there I am, a spoon dangling from my nose when I hear this shriek of delight. "You're Connie Brockway!" I turned around, spoon still dangling and there's my waitress saying, "You're my favorite author." Pause. "You have a spoon on your face."

So much for my glamorous persona.

Robin: Connie, I’ve enjoyed reading your books, probably starting many years ago with PROMISE ME HEAVEN. You have quite a vast vocabulary and your lyrical prose is stunning! The settings in your stories range from England to Scotland and even Egypt. What is the attraction to those faraway lands?

Connie: I love history. I love social history. There's nothing more interesting to me than understanding how social minutiae affects history.

Robin: The characters you create are so real, so alive. I’ve always liked how you write your male characters with an "edge". When I read ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT I learned that I absolutely adored a tortured hero (and you write them soooo well!!!!). What do you think makes a Connie Brockway hero so enticing, so exciting, so real?

(Example: Raine from the McClairen's Isle Series, Part Two) "Even in the blistering heat of the most powerful climax, I still tasted you." (Oh my, if that isn't the stuff we women live for, then I don't know what is!)

Connie: Thank you! I always try to stay aware of the Greek hero archetype when creating my heroes, that the hero must be self-aware, understand and accept his flaws, and have a sense of why those flaws exist but without being self-pitying. I also really try and stay honest with the characters. My heroes generally have a compilation of motives, agendas, and obligations which do not always coexist peacefully with one another.

Robin: When I read the McClairen’s Isle Series, I saw a villain that we love to hate! Carr is an absolute masterpiece!!

"Yes yes, out with it - before your tongue rots the leather on my new boots."

"What's this? Emotions, Fia? Oh, my dear, you have grown soft."

"... a travesty to call it conversation."

Carr gets my vote for BEST VILLIAN OF ALL TIME! He was so despicable, and I didn’t want him to keep messing things up - but I turned the pages faster and faster waiting to see what he could possibly do next. How did you come up with Carr?

Connie: Oh! He was just over the top fun to write. I decided Carr would simply think himself above the rules that govern others and see no reason why that shouldn't act in his own best interest always since he, at least in his mind, was so clearly superior.

Robin: Please tell us a little about the new series, The Rose Hunters Trilogy.

Connie: Did you ever see clips from a really old TV series called "Paladin"? It was about this man who wandered the wild west, elegant, deadly, urbane but hard as nails, coming to the aid of those who were defenseless. I decided it would be fun to write a series about a group of young Scots who feel obligated to protect a family of destitute English women whenever one of them sends for help. I mean, what could be more romantic than to have a handsome deadly male at your beck and call? Each of the books, MY SEDUCTION, MY PLEASURE and MY SURRENDER, tells the story of one of the ladies and one of the men.

Robin: What made you choose to write this series, in this setting?

Connie: I've visited Scotland several times and love it. It's a land of contrasts. Harsh in the north and sophisticated in the south. Rough and cultured, educated and barbaric. A perfect echo of the relationship between the sophisticated English ladies and their tough Scottish protectors.

Robin: The first book in the series, MY SEDUCTION, was a good mix of adventure, mystery and romance. (I confess that I have an idea of who the mystery man is!) What can we look forward to in the next two books?

Connie: Different heroes and heroines. I am writing each hero using a classic romance archetype. Kit was the rough, tough soldier paired with the passionate yet practical Kate. The hero of MY PLEASURE is Ramsey, who is an elegant, sophisticated, and deadly swordsman, and his beloved is a classic Sleeping Beauty, Helena. While I can't name names, the hero of the final book, MY SURRENDER, is a scoundrel and thief, quick-witted, amiable and deadly, and his match is Charlotte, just as scandalous, amusing and deadly. And, of course, you'll discover who betrayed my young men in the French prison where they were held.