Gay N. Lewis: Bluebonnet Time in Texas. Meet Texas author: Laurie Alice Eakes

The Texas country side is filled with flowers every spring. It's a perfect time to park by a stream where colorful bouquets grow and read a good book written by a Texas author.

Photograph by Dale Lewis

Copyrighted 2012 and

used by permission

The author I introduce to you today is Laurie Alice Eakes.

Laurie Alice Eakes is a multi-talented author whose books intrigue me. The first book I read of hers was Lady in the Mist and I was hooked. It's book number one in the mid-wife series. Eakes is a bestselling, award-winning author of romantic novels and has a degree in English and French from Asbury University and a master’s degree from Seton Hill. With over a dozen books in print, she's under contract for more.

After enough moves in the past four years to make U-Haul’s stock rise, she and her husband along with exotic felines, a golden retriever, and a black lab now make Houston, Texas her home.

She graciously answered my questions, and I loved her answers.

Texas is a large state. Are your book (or books) set in Texas?

I'm afraid not at the present time, and that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.

Were you born in Texas?

I'm a Texas transplant by way of Virginia.

Have you lived elsewhere?

I have lived in seven other states: Michigan, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, and Virginia. Looks like I'll be in Texas for the foreseeable future.

What is your favorite season in Texas?

Spring when the birds are singing their hearts out and things are green.

What would you change about Texas?

The heat. The flatness, too, but mostly the heat.

Do you enjoy sports or hobbies?

Both. I'm not a huge sports person, and when I watch the m or go to an event, I have a good time. I sort of knit for a hobby, but I'm not very good at it.

What is a typical day like for you?

I wake up around 6:00, walk the dogs, then come back, make coffee and fresh orange juice, pack my hubs' lunch, make breakfast, feed the dogs and cats. Once Hubs is off to work, I sit at my desk and write in my prayer journal, have my quiet time, though sometimes I do this on the balcony. Then I work on social media marketing for an hour or two. After that, I either clean house or go to the gym. Then I get down to writing and write until around 5:30 when I get dinner started. I like to preserve the evenings for my husband and/or friends.

How did your characters come to mind for your book?

I have no idea. I like bringing opposites together and putting people outside their comfort zone. So a lady and a quietly renegade American? Priceless.

How do you plot your books

I come up with a premise and setting, then characters. After that, I start asking them questions to know their goals and motivations. Once I establish conflicts, I gather my plot points and write a chapter by chapter outline.

How long does it take to write one?

As little as four weeks and as long as four months. This depends on the length of the book and how much research I must do. I average two months per book.

What is the hardest part of writing?

Reminding myself that this is not about me, but about my calling from the Lord.

Do you enjoy research?

I love research. For each book, I know ten times more than I can possibly include.

When did you start your writing career?

When I was a child I had a poem published, then some other little things scattered throughout the years. For novel writing, it's difficult to say because I started playing with story many years before I actually wrote. I got serious in 2003 and sold my first book in 2005.

Has anyone ever come up to you and said, "Aren't you that author that wrote....?"

Nope. Sometimes people who have read my books don't even put me together with the book when we meet.

How did you get the idea for A Lady's Honor?
Cornwall has always fascinated me, so I started peopling it in my head until a story finally emerged from setting and time period.

Do you dream about your work and can't sleep?

I don't think I dream about it, but it often wakes me up demanding I write.

Out of the books you've written, which one is your favorite?

I was just asked this yesterday and had a hard time saying. Probably Heart's Safe Passage, the second Midwife book. After all, how can one resist a Scottish ship captain with a wounded heart?

Is there a new genre would you like to try next?

Absolutely. I want to try contemporary romance or contemporary romantic suspense.

If you could speak another language what would it be?

I speak French, but living in Texas, think I'd do better to speak Spanish. After living on the border for four years when first moving here, I understand a good bit, though don't encounter it so much now that I live in a major city further north.

If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you be doing?

I would still write, and I'd do a lot of traveling. Many places I still want to see. Or maybe I'd get my Ph.D in history.

Thanks Laurie Alice for visiting with me today. I’m amazed at how quickly you write such remarkable stories.

Her books are available in print and eBook. You can find Laurie Alice’s books on Amazon and other online book sellers as well as retail book stores.

Her first book won the National Readers Choice Award in 2007, and her third book was a Carol Award finalist in 2010. Between December of 2008 and January of 2010, she sold thirteen books to Barbour Publishing, Avalon Books, and Baker/Revell, making her total sales fifteen. Recently, she added two novella sales to that collection, as well as having her first book with Baker/Revell, Lady in the Mist, picked up by Crossings Book Club, and six of her books chosen for large print editions by Thorndike Press.

A Lady in the Mist

(Book one in the midwives series)