Interview With Author Chris Redding

Please welcome my fellow Liberty States Fiction Writers member, Chris Redding!

Incendiary

Hi, Chris, thanks for being my guest today. Tell us about your new romantic suspense, Incendiary.

What if your past comes back to haunt you?

Chelsea James, captain of the Biggin Hill First Aid Squad, has had ten years to mend a broken heart and forget about the man who’d left her hurt and bewildered. Ten years to get her life on track. But fate has other plans.

Fire Inspector Jake Campbell, back in town after a decade, investigates a string of arsons, only to discover they are connected to the same arsons he’d been accused of long ago. Now his past has come back to haunt him, and Chelsea is part of that past.

Together, Chelsea and Jake must join forces to defeat their mutual enemy. Only then can they hope to rekindle the flames of passion. But before they can do that, Chelsea must learn to trust again. Their lives could depend on it.

What are you working on now? Do you have any releases scheduled for this year?

Right now I am working on revising a romantic suspense and writing my second romantic comedy. Comedy is a departure for me so it isn’t second nature to be able to write it. That said, I am enjoying it. The first RC is awaiting a decision at Montlake Romance.

What are your writing goals for this year?

I need to get another rough draft finished. The romantic suspense needs to be critiqued, then edited before I publish it. I also have another book, Corpse Whisperer, that I need to get into print. Whew! I’m tired just listing all that. If I can, I’d like to write another writing workshop also.

How do you come up with ideas?

Ideas can come from anywhere. I find I look at the world differently than others so anything can inspire me. A place might make me think how interesting a dead body would be to find there. Other times a news story makes me wonder what really happened.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

I can make things happen how I want them to. Guess it’s a control issue.

What is the best thing about being an author?

If someone pissed me off, I can kill them in a horrible way in my book. No one will ever arrest me for that.

What did you learn from writing your first book or what do you wish you’d known before becoming published?

I wish I had known more about promotion. It’s a big chunk of being an author. I don’t hate it, but I’m never sure I’m doing the right things.

Do you have a favorite time of day for writing?

I write in the morning. The kids are gone to school by 7 so I have an hour or so before I need to get ready for work.

These are few of my favorite things:

1. Pizza

2. The laughter of a young child.

3. That moment of crawling into your own bed after a trip and your body just about sighs to back in a familiar place.

Excerpt:

The electricity of an impending storm raised the hair on Chelsea James’s arms. Barefoot, she stood on the wide front porch and watched the trees blow almost in half.

Her dead sister’s voice played in her mind.

“It’s like nature has to violently clean up,” Morgan would say as they stood in this very spot.

They both loved storms. The power of nature impressed Chelsea. Morgan concentrated on the aftermath. Odd that she never thought of the aftermath of her own actions.

“How so?” Chelsea would ask her older-by-a-few-minutes sister.

Morgan’s eyes would be wide. “Because a storm gives the trees a haircut, gets rid of the ones that are weak. And on top of that, the rain helps the ones that do survive.”

Chelsea would nod.

But this storm didn’t bring with it the same renewal. Somewhere deep inside her, Chelsea knew this storm was different. This storm could bring destruction— or worse—this storm might not bring the wanted rain for those trees that survived.

She sighed. Right now she missed her sister more than anything.

Chelsea’s firehouse pager went off. “Unit 37, you have a fully involved structure fire on Briar Lane.”

As Captain of Biggin Hill First Aid Squad, she had certain duties. But she was also a firefighter and sometimes that took precedence. The shakiness of the dispatcher’s voice told her this fire could be big.

So tonight she’d be a firefighter.

Bio: Chris Redding lives in New Jersey with her husband, two kids, one dog and three rabbits. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in Journalism. When not writing she works for her local hospital in the Emergency Services Department. She has been writing for thirteen years and has five books published.