On the Eight Day of Christmas....Alinar brings to you...An Author Interview with Lily Graison

Welcome to Day 8 of our event! Today we'll be interviewing author Lily Graison, who has been with Alinar since 2007. Be sure to read to the bottom of the post for today's Contest.

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LILY GRAISON resides in North Carolina, a stones throw away from the Blue Ridge Mountains and a few hours from the Outer Banks. First published in 2005, her debut novel won a Reviewers Choice Award. The author of 11 books, Lily writes in the Contemporary Romance genre, as well as Paranormal Romance and Historical Western Romance.

When not writing, Lily can be found at her sewing machine creating 1800’s Period Dresses or curled up in a chair with a book in her hand.

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Welcome Lily. Thank you for joining us today. Can you Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and where are you from?

Sure I can. I’m married to my High School sweetheart and we’ll be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary come January. I‘m a mother of two grown children and I have 2 grandbabies, both boys, one of which is a special needs child. I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life and hope to retire to the coast someday. I write full time from my home office which is in a constant state of organized chaos.

Can you tell us about your latest release?

I jumped from my comfort zone with my latest release. I’ve written Contemporary’s and Paranormals and now, I’ve released my first Historical Western Romance, a novella featuring one of four brothers who will star in my new Willow Creek Series set in the Montana Territory, circa 1800’s. This first story features the local Lawman, Morgan Avery, and a heroine who is on the run from a man she can’t seem to escape. When she needs protection, who better to turn to then the lawman? Only problem is, she doesn’t tell him she’s in trouble and by the time he finds out, it may be too late to help her.

Sounds interesting. How many books are in the new series?

At this time, I have a total of five planned. The first four books in the series are all novella’s, featuring the Avery men. The series will eventually grow as more characters arrive on the scene. A full-length novel is in the works that revolves around a character mentioned in book 1 of the series. It’s planned for release in late 2012, after the first four novella’s are released, with more stories coming later on.

Can you tell us about the type of stories you like to write?

I've always liked the dynamic of opposites attracting. Most of my books feature heroes and heroines who are as opposite as night and day. It makes their meetings more explosive, especially if ones morals are less than acceptable to the other. Of course, love always conquers all and I’ve never written a story without a Happily Ever After. Regardless of how different my main characters are, they always seem to adapt and love the other in spite of their shortcomings.

Do you outline? If not, what is your writing process?

I don’t outline. I’m a panster. For those who don’t know what that is…it means, simply, that I write by the seat of my pants. I don’t plot before sitting down to write. Usually an idea comes to me, characters start filling my head and an opening scene unfolds enough for me to ‘see’ where the story starts. I then sit down, write the opening scene and let the characters drive me forward. When I reach a point I don’t know what happens next, I have to stop, think about it, let the book ‘play in my head’ like a movie reel and go from there. Sometimes the scenes flash easily, others, not so much. Plotting seems so much easier but like a reader, I don’t like being spoiled to the ending of a book. I’m along for the adventure with my characters. When something fantastic happens to them, I’m right there with them, living in that moment. It’s the way I’ve always written and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. It’s the way I work. It’s the way my muse, Benny, speaks to me. It’s the way it will always be.

Now that we know what and how you write, what do you do for fun? Any hobbies you’d like to share?

My husband and I are part of a local historical group. We’ve been in it a few years now and dressing the part is half the fun. Since those elaborate 1800’s ladies dresses are so expensive, I started creating my own soon after we joined the group. The dresses I make are very time consuming but being able to wear them is amazing. Think Gone With the Wind and you’ll get an idea of what sort of dresses I create. We strive to be as historically correct as possible when dressed, which means I can have anywhere up to 9 layers of clothing on, most of which is under the hoop skirt. Corsets are uncomfortable and crotchless pantalets (historically correct) are a bit breezy. I step lightly when in those dresses. My worst fear is falling and anyone watching seeing my most prized jewel. LOL If you’d like to see some of my creations, you can find them on the Hobby Page on my website.

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Thank you, Lily, for the insight into your writing and life. As always, we have another contest today, which features one of Lily's Holiday books, as well as two books from Candy Nicks and Kallysten. To enter this contest, just comment below to Lily's post or to just say Hi.

Up for grabs today: Kallysten's: Living Out of The Box, Lily Graison's: That First Christmas, Candy Nicks: Choice of 1 Moon Child Series Book







The Winner of yesterday's contest was... entry #22 Maria Pena!