Interview with romance author Sally Basmajian

Today’s special guest is romance author Sally Basmajian. We’re chatting about her new romantic comedy, So Hard to Do.

During her virtual book tour, Sally will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for your chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:
After leaving the corporate world, Sally Basmajian discovered the joy of writing. Her fiction and nonfiction stories have appeared in newspapers such as The Globe & Mail and in several anthologies. In 2022 she won prizes for memoir pieces (Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop, Gulf Coast Writers Association), and was thrilled to have a poem selected by the journal Antithesis. She expects to be busy in 2023, when her first two novels appear: in January, a light-hearted romance, So Hard to Do (published by Creative James Media) and in October, a much darker one, Fountain of Evil (Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC).

Welcome, Sally. Please tell us about your current release.
Imagine falling for a guy—hopelessly and lustily—and then learning your mom is also crushing madly on him. In So Hard to Do, our mom-daughter protagonists are horrified to discover this awful truth. Not to mention, the handsome object of their affections is even more upset. Add a cast of zany supporting characters to the mix and rom-com havoc ensues.

It’s comedy wrapped in romance, or possibly the reverse, but love abounds. Complications do, too, in that some of those seeking to love are on the autism spectrum and trying to cope with a whole new world of hard-to-read social cues. Plus, there’s the matter of reigniting one’s sex life after menopause. All in all, nothing about love is easy to do!

What inspired you to write this book?
In my writing group, we sometimes give each other prompts, to encourage creativity and bump each other out of ruts. I believe someone suggested we write a short piece about a break-up, but not a conventional man-woman one. Without giving it much thought, I jotted down a short scene involving a woman breaking up with her daughter. The rest just flowed.

Excerpt from So Hard to Do:
As she mused in an X-rated way about his mouth, Jannie remembered something from a book she’d read where the heroine had a habit of biting her lower lip. It drove men mad.

So she tried it. Nibble, nibble.

Aram just looked at her. His breathing didn’t accelerate. His chest didn’t heave.

She tried again. Nibble, nibble. The prolonged silence was beginning to be uncomfortable.

“Are you all right, Jannie?” Aram finally asked. He studied her.

Well, that hadn’t gone so well. But she’d never tried to flirt with an older man before. Maybe they needed something more obvious.

She attempted to look coyly up at Aram through her eyelashes. This wasn’t as easy as all those romance authors made it sound. She felt her forehead contract, her nose wrinkle and her upper lip pull away from her teeth in her effort to do the impossible.

“Jannie, are you having an allergic reaction? Shellfish, maybe? Isn’t that crab I smell coming from your condo? Do you carry an EpiPen?”

What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m about a quarter of the way into a romance, set in the 1970s, and featuring a pair of sisters who have musical abilities that verge on magical. It’s maybe a bit of wishful nostalgia. My own sister and I were avid piano students, and while she was certainly more gifted than I, neither of us had fairy dust in our fingertips and we eventually stopped playing.

I’m also always writing memoir stories. This month, one of my tales will be published by Canada’s newspaper, The Globe and Mail. It’s all about buying a strapless bra at the age of fourteen. Just thinking about it now makes me chortle (I couldn’t have done it back then, or my strapless bra would have fallen right off).

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was a teenager, I filled notebook after notebook with impassioned prose. It wasn’t particularly bardic, but it definitely was cathartic! At that point I had no idea I’d ever get more serious about writing. As a matter of fact, I’m still not “serious” about it. That would kill all the fun.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I left my job in broadcasting about a decade ago. Soon after that, I had more time on my hands than I knew what to do with. I became a crazed Zumba fanatic for a while, took up golf, walked my little dog until he had Schwarzenegger muscles in his hindquarters, and did some traveling. Then I entered a local writing contest and, much to my surprise, won. Now I write when the mood seizes me (fortunately, this happens often!), and squeeze all the other activities in around it.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
My sense of humor gets out of control. Fortunately, I have writing buddies who slap me silly when I go too far over the top.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I dreamed of being a ballerina and dancing at the Bolshoi. As a matter of fact, there’s a story about that posted on my website. Sigh. I still own my first pair of toe shoes.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I appreciate your interest in my novel. If it makes you chuckle, then my satisfaction is complete.