Spotlight on Ashley Ladd

November 2003

Robin: Hello, Ashley. I want to thank you for this opportunity. I was thrilled when asked to interview you, because one of your books, Purrfect Justice, written as Elaine Hopper, was the second book I ever reviewed, and I remember that week, trying to put my thoughts onto paper about a book I love. Now I have the opportunity to ask some questions so that I can know more about an author I admire.

My first question is rather simple .. How long have you been writing?

Ashley: I've been writing short stories since I was six. As far as seriously writing novels, I began in the early nineties, but one of my children became seriously ill, so I had to stop for awhile and devote myself to my children. I started writing fiction again in 1998 I think.

Robin: Do you remember when you first sold, what your initial reaction was?

Ashley: I was thrilled! I'd been depressed about writing, and about a lot of things in general. I had about given up when my husband called me at work to tell me that Tigers Play, my first published novel, had been accepted by New Concepts Publishing. That immediately brightened my day.

Robin: What writing goals did you set back in the beginning? Are they any different now?

Ashley: A long time ago I had set my goals that I would sell my first novel no later than the year 2000, when I was also turning forty. The turn of the century and turning 40 seemed like 2 giant milestones that just happened to coincide.

Yes, they are different now. Now my goal is to make a living at my writing (well, that was also my hope since I started seriously writing) and to make the New York Times best seller list. Primarily, I want people to enjoy my stories, best seller list or not.

Robin: You are a career woman, first Air Force, then college, then as an analyst, and during this time, a full-time mother of five children! Still a career woman, I’d say! So tell me, how do you find time to write?

Ashley: I don't watch much TV. :) I type very fast which helps. I try to write at least a page or two every day and they really do add up. Whenever I can find a bit of time, I write. Whether it's during lunch hours at work, waiting at doctor's offices, when the children are in bed for the night or watching one of their cartoons.

Robin: You are a multi-published author, with Ellora's Cave, Awe-Struck ebooks, New Concepts Publishing, and NovelBooks, Inc. How spectacular! My question is, what genres do you prefer to write? And will you specify a certain genre or subgenre to one publisher over another?

Ashley: I like variety. It depends what mood I'm in at the time. I love contemporary romance and I also love futuristic space sagas and time travels where I have a contemporary hero or heroine with a futuristic mate. I love comedy and action adventure. I usually write one of these subgenres or a combination of them.

Robin: What is a typical day, or writing day to you, Ashley?

Ashley: I take children to school, then I go to my full time day job working for a charity. I pick up my little guy from after care on the way home. Many nights I have to turn around and take the 13 year old to softball games or practice, or pick up the 20 year old from her night college classes. I help the kids with homework, do some housework, and get the younger children to bed about 9 pm. Then it's my time to answer email and write. Sometimes if we don't have a softball game or other activity, I'll get to peek at my email earlier for a few minutes here and there. Thus I do most of my writing late nights and weekends.

Robin: Since ebooks don’t have a shelf life, what are your available titles? Do you have a favorite of your own titles?

Ashley: My most recent book is always my favorite. :)

My available titles are:

New Concepts Publishing
Tigers Play
Next To Forever
Careless Whispers
Mata Hali/Naughty & Nice
Secrets
Self Defense
Alien Encounters Anthology

Ellora's Cave
American Beauty

NovelBooks, Inc.
Lions of Judah
Purrfect Justice

Awe-Struck ebooks
Over The Moon/My Baby Too
Double Dare
Wooing Jenny/Shipwrecked
Seasons of Romance anthology

Robin: Speaking of favorites - Who is your favorite author, and what is your favorite genre?

Ashley: I love Stephen King's and Stephen White's books. I also love to read Sherryl Woods' category romances and I'm a big fan of Barri Bryan's contemporary and Decades books.

I'm eclectic when it comes to reading so the best I can say is that I love the romance genre. As long as there's some romance in the novel, I usually like it. Right now I'm reading Sheri McGathy's Stones, Left Behind, and Harry Potter.

Robin: What are you working on now, and what is your upcoming schedule?

Ashley: I'm working on several projects for Ellora's Cave and NCP. I just signed a contract for another contemporary romantica with Ellora's Cave to be released in December 2004 tentatively entitled The Price of Fame. I also have a paranormal holiday romance novelette in the 'Enchanted Holidays' anthology with HardShell Word Factory, but I have not been apprised of the release date as yet.

Robin: Tell me how you like to research. For example, in Self Defense, Rick is partially deaf. How did you do the research for his character, as well as the excellent self defense tips in that book?

Ashley: In the case of Rick's hearing impairment, I've been researching that since I was 21 years old. I'm hearing impaired, so Rick is based on me. His problems with hearing loss are the problems I've been experiencing for the past 22 years. I lost the hearing in my left ear due to my tour of duty in the Air Force. I wasn't in a war like Rick, so that's different. I was lucky and was in the military during peace time. Still, I worked with very noisy machinery and improper protection and had to suffer through military doctors that ignored the problem until it became major and permanent moderately severe hearing loss resulted. It's very frustrating not being able to hear everything, to get bits and pieces of conversations and to hear a lot of muffled words. But the worst part are the people who assume I'm lying about my hearing loss because in some situations, on some days, I hear better than others. When I don't hear correctly, they assume I'm not paying attention, or that I'm daft. I think I inadvertently insulted some people but can't be sure till this day because I didn't hear something correctly, drew the wrong context, and responded wrong, or maybe I didn't hear a greeting and didn't respond at all. Then when I do hear correctly, then it's "Aha! Caught ya!"

Many times I've made up my mind to become a hermit and avoid the spoken world, but alas, with a big family, and a day time job in customer service no less, that's not a luxury I can afford. I do so love email and the written word so I can SEE words instead of having to rely on my faulty hearing. So I wanted to create a character like me, so that the hearing world could get a glimpse of what I and other hearing impaired people go through on a daily basis.

I took a self defense class at church with an excellent instructor. That actually gave me the idea to write my romantic suspense Self Defense. The character of Rick had been simmering in my head for awhile and he's the one who stepped forward to be the hero in this novel.

Robin: A lot of writers pen series, or continuity stories. Do you have any plans for something like that?

Ashley: Not at this time. I have projects to keep me busy through 2005 at least. Perhaps after that. We'll see what my muse (or my editors) come up with by then.

Robin: How does your family feel about your writing? Has that perception changed since you became a romantica author?

Ashley: My family is rather blase about my writing and keep telling me not to work so hard and take a break, that I deserve to rest. Sometimes my husband gets grouchy when I buy advertising. My kids hate it when I have booksignings which means I'll be away from home for a few hours on a precious weekend or evening, or horror, miss a softball game (I really try not to do that, but a couple of times the booksigning was scheduled so far in advance I didn't know about the conflicting softball game until it was too late to reschedule).

My kids are embarrassed of regular romance writing - maybe they equate all romance with erotica, even though I have explained otherwise several times. To tell the truth, I haven't told them of the difference with my new books. My husband knows of course. And I'm my sure my 22 and 20 year old have figured it out just from seeing my website.

My husband was very pleased with my royalties from my first romantica book, and perversely, seems happy. Even my oldest son finally showed some grudging respect at the recent success. I guess money talks. :)

Robin: Would you like to tell us something about your first romantica title, American Beauty?

Ashley: Kirsty Engle is in shock when Bradley Miller, resplendent in a ball gown, feather boa, and tons of eye-shadow, wants to rent her spare room. She can't understand why this obviously unavailable man makes her heart sing and her blood boil more than any other. Undercover police Lt. Brad Mueller curses his captain and the car thieves that are responsible for him being in such a totally ludicrous predicament. It's bad enough he has to dress like a babe, but he's under strict orders not to touch one for the duration of his secret mission under threat of being fired from the force. This ladies’ man doesn't know if he can stand his worse-than-death sentence - particularly after he falls for his sweet and very voluptuous landlady. As if all of that isn't bad enough, everything gets really crazy when Kirsty and her gay boss make a bet to see who can win his heart. A sizzling, hilarious romantic comedy.

Robin: Who is your biggest inspiration?

Ashley: Do I have to choose just one? Impossible!

I think it would have to be Holly Fuhrmann aka Holly Jacobs who writes for Harlequin Flipside. She's in the Dreamweaver's writer's loop with me online and she's a real writing dynamo, a big success story, and a really sweet person. She's also a mother with a large family. I've watched her go from publishing short stories, to small press to publishing at least a couple of books a year with Harlequin.

Also, I'd have to say Pat Waddell who is in my local RWA chapter. When I first met her, she was published with small press and had a blockbuster hit with her first book (I think it was her first book) The Alliance. Pat's very gun ho and at that time, she was still working as a controller as well as writing novels. I think she was picked up by Kensington Precious Gems next. An agent approached her at one of our Fun in the Sun conferences in Florida and next thing I knew, she was writing leading historical novels for Kensington and signing multi-book contracts with Dorchester for more futuristics like The Alliance. And through it all, she's a very nice lady who is willing to share her industry knowledge.

And I can't leave out Billie and Herb Houston who are the writing team of 'Barri Bryan' for NCP. They are absolutely wonderful people and authors. I just love them to death personally as well as professionally. I wish my husband would write with me like Herb writes with Billie, or at least or at least take an interest in my writing and attend conferences with me.

Then there's Sher Hames-Torres, Kim Cox, Nancy Lepri, and Linnea Sinclair who have been such wonderful support almost every step of the way, almost daily. Their friendship and help has been invaluable and I wouldn't have made it this far without them.

Robin: Do you want the world to know Elaine Hopper and Ashley Ladd are one and the same? Can I ask why you chose to publish under the name Ashley Ladd?

Ashley: Not everyone. I really don't want the people at church or where I work to know about Ashley Ladd. I don't think they haunt romance sites or loops, so I'm probably safe. But some of my church members and coworkers know about my writing as Elaine Hopper and my elainehopper.com website, so I wanted to separate my romantica books and any mention of them.

Robin: One of my favorite writing questions - are you a plotter or a pantser? *g*

Ashley: Almost always a pantser. I hate to admit it. I have the basic outlines of my stories - usually, but not nitpicky details. When I try to plot down to minute details, I lose the drive to write.

Robin: Do you find your stories writing themselves?

Ashley: Sometimes. I love it when that happens. It feels like it's really working well when that happens.

Robin: You’ve done a fantastic job, Ashley, and I very much appreciate it... Let’s have a little fun. What would we find you doing on a rainy day?

Ashley: Probably reading email, writing, or maybe even playing tumble bees at pogo.com. I also love to go to the movies. Sometimes I read. Or the kids and I play Scrabble or Yahtzee.

Robin: Where would you love to go, anywhere in the world that you have never been before?

Ashley: New Zealand and Australia. I think since I read my first Harlequin romance set in New Zealand it seemed so romantic, I've longed to see it ever since. I'm still waiting to get there. I'd also really like to see Scotland, England, and my ancestral home - Germany.

Robin: What is a pet peeve?

Ashley: I really don't like it when an animal gets a point of view in a novel - unless it's a children's story or a cartoon or a paranormal/shapeshifter type story.

I'm really not too fond of ditzy heroines or absent-minded professors either (although Fred MacMurray was awfully cute in that role).

Robin: What makes your heart break? What makes you smile?

Ashley: When children and parents are separated in a story. When we took my children to see the first Land Before Time movie, I sobbed all through it. I had lost my mother to cancer about a year before, maybe even two years before, so this brought back all those horrible feelings of loss. I had no idea then what the theme of the movie was or I would have avoided it - at least when my wounds were so raw. Mom's been gone since 1988, but these themes still always make me cry.

Romance makes me smile. Gene Kelly always makes me smile. I just adore him in Singing in the Rain. I adore the entire movie. It has such a happy, upbeat feel. Donald O'Connor makes me laugh out loud.

Robin: Last fun question - Do you prefer silk, satin or cotton?

Ashley: Cotton. I like the simple life and would love to live in the country or a small town. I also prefer daisies to roses, even though roses are very beautiful, too.

Robin: Ashley. Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself today. I enjoyed learning more about you and your writing talent. I wish you the best in your personal and professional life

Ashley: Thank you, Robin! I've enjoyed chatting with you.

Robin: To learn even more about Ashley Ladd, please visit her websites at www.ashleyladd.com and www.elainehopper.com.

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