#43 - A Live Interview with Marie Force

Marie Force, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than 40 contemporary romance novels was recently in Toronto and spent an evening with Kobo, Harlequin and an intimate group of lucky fans to celebrate Marie.

Mark Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life, interviewed Marie in front of the group. In the conversation, Mark and Marie discuss:

• How Gansett Island, a fictional island is based on Marie's favourite real island, Block Island, is a spot that Marie goes to regularly
• The next Gansett Island book (Celebration After Dark - coming December 1st) which will feature Big Mack and Linda
• The READER WEEKEND summer retreat that Marie runs for her fans, (limited to 300 people) which is co-ordinated and plann by Julie, Marie's Executive Assistant
• How Marie has been with a Harlequin imprint (Carina Press) since 2010 when Fatal Affair was launched and the recent deal for books 10 through 13 which is, so far, the biggest deal of her career
• A reveal that Sam is not going to get pregnant any time soon in the Fatal series (because of how significantly that might change everything in the series)
• How new ideas are constantly flowing through Marie's mind and the amount of time she ends up spending thinking about fictional people in her life
• The six people that Marie employs full time
• The fact that Gansett Island is Marie's favourite series and how Sam from the Fatal series is her favourite character to write.
• The manner by which Marie embraces both traditional publishing and self-publishing and how she enjoys the collaboration of working with publishers
• How self-publishing allows her to do things such as bring out three books in three weeks (something that is a rare feat when it comes to traditional publishing)
• The reality of the punishing writing schedule (writing 8 or 9 books in a year) that Marie keeps in order to meet the demands of the publishing that she does
• How the first books from the Fatal series sat on the shelf for a full year before Carina Press came along, wanting to do something different about the way that romance was presented to readers

Marie also answers questions from her fans about:

• If Skip might ever recover from his paralysis
• Whether or not she will write until Scotty becomes an adult
• Her most memorable fan interaction
• Whether or not fans will see more of Shelby and Avery
• The hardest part of writing romance
• The best ways to keep informed about Marie's new works and the new Marie Force app that is available to keep fans informed and connected
• Whether or not she plots out books ahead of time
• Where she writes most often and whether or not she writes longhand or via a computer
• If Doctor Harry Flynn might ever have a love interest
• Her influences for writing

After the interview, Mark goes over a few tips for those about to embark upon NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), conjuring up a few tips derived from articles on the Kobo Writing Life blog by Kevin J. Anderson and Chris Mandeville.