Romantic suspense author Rebecca A Corio joins me today to chat about her new contemporary, Storm of Passion.
Bio:
A former farm girl from the Midwest, Rebecca is grateful to have lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for the last three decades. She finds Hawaii as breathtaking today as when she stepped off the plane thirty years ago. Rebecca now splits her time between Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. A lover of the outdoors and animals of all kinds, Rebecca finds both locations, beaches to forests, perfect for writing romance. She has a particular fondness for the American Akita and beautiful Maine Coon cat.
Blessed to find romance in everyday life, Rebecca loves creating characters readers can identify with and weaving bits of her life into her stories. She is a passionate romantic and believes in love at first sight and happily ever after. She knows that love, even for a moment, is worth the risk.
The advice she gives most often . . . When the Universe stops to sprinkle pixie dust over you, make sure your heart is open to receive it.
Welcome, Rebecca. Please tell us about your current release.
This romantic suspense has a class 4 hurricane headed for the island of Hawaii. The new Civil Defense Director’s equipment tells him the hurricane is going to miss them. So why does one very beautiful, very stubborn local girl keep telling him he’s wrong?
Full of the magic and beauty that are so much a part of paradise, there are numerous locations featured that the reader could see for themselves if ever they visit Hawaii. The sights and sounds that are so unique to the experience of being in the islands are woven throughout the story, as are facts regarding the island and even some of its lore.
The book also talks about the struggle of being a newcomer to the island. Earning respect from the residents and people who rely on the Civil Defense agency to keep them safe. Equally difficult, is a local girl trying to stay true to her heritage in the face of opposition
What inspired you to write this book?
In my 30 years on the Big Island of Hawaii I’ve experienced my share of watching hurricanes march across the Pacific. The knowledge you aren’t safe until the storm is gone is real. My time spent as the Security Director of a private residential community in Hawaii means I know what it is like to prepare. There is always someone who waits or doesn’t think it was necessary, which means there is always someone to save.
Excerpt from Storm of Passion:
Local girl, Savanah Jordan, is still recovering from the surfing accident that left her temporarily in a wheelchair when she suddenly finds herself caught in a war between her boss and the new Civil Defense Director for Hawaii Island. With a category 4 hurricane almost upon them, Savanah doesn’t have time for Director Race Weston, even if the thought of him does take her breath away. Race can’t stop thinking about the Safety Manager of Onimura Resort. He finds Savanah Jordan as beautiful as she is confusing. By refusing to follow his safety measures, she is putting everyone in danger, including herself. Why can’t she understand he’s trying to save her? As the storm hits, Race begins to realize nothing is as it seems. Savanah and Race will have to set their differences aside and trust one another if they want to have any hope of surviving the monster hurricane
What exciting story are you working on next?
Book Two in the Men of Danger series. An Army helicopter pilot and the leader of the local SAR, Search and Rescue, team disagree about who is in charge. A problem that disappears the moment the lights go out. Orders from the Army can’t be changed. The question is, will they have waited too long to admit the attraction is more than skin deep.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve always been wordy. I was that kid teachers gave a page limit to. Not too few… but too many. But I didn’t start writing stories until ten years after high school. Pieces of things really. Not full manuscripts. Those wouldn’t come for another twenty years. And then one day, I found my imagination hijacked by the lives of people who weren’t real to anyone but me.
Do you write full-time?
YES. And no. When I am at home in Washington, I write full time.
If so, what’s your work day like?
Full time workday, I am up by 8-8:30 having coffee and checking social media for an hour. Which is really a thin disguise for playing with our little Frenchie, Oreo. Another hour is spent returning calls and emails. By that time it is barricade myself in my office until dinner or Oreo needs to go out. Once I get to writing, I forget to eat, to drink, to move anything but my fingers. Thank goodness for the dog. She’s the reason I finally get up out of the chair.
If writing was a struggle that day, I stop at six hours. If things are going along well, there isn’t an end time. Which means someone has taken pity on the furbaby and is playing with and feeding her.
I don’t take set days off. I’m happiest when I am writing seven days a week. Taking a day off happens when I have reached a milestone, or realize I can’t remember the last time I was out of my house.
What do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
When I am home in Hawaii, I am helping my husband at our restaurant so write only about a third of the time. But even that is if I am lucky. We also have a non-profit, the Bryan Fujikawa Foundation, that was started to address the problem of children and families going hungry in Hawaii. Throughout the first year of Covid, our restaurant, in coordination with other community groups and members, served almost 80,000 meals, something our foundation looks to continue. We are still in the infancy stage of the foundation, but as president, it is my job to get things up and running. In the meantime, we continue doing events to benefit our community and others whether it is foundation work or not.
Writing usually happens for a few hours over coffee in the morning, or the days I steal to spend at the beach. There are never enough of either.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have a tendency to play out my characters. If one drinks wine at seven in the morning, I will. If I am writing a beach scene, I have on my bathing suit and apply sunscreen even if I am at my desk. It is like an actor preparing for a part. It all helps me to better understand my characters and how they think. Why they behave the way they do… hopefully.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Stewardess. That was it. That was the only occupation on my list. For as long as I can remember, serving drinks to people I didn’t know, landing in a different city each night, being Sally Sunshine of the air, that was all I ever dreamt of being.
I am older now. I realize those women and men do a hell of a lot more than that. Yet there is still an air of unavoidable romance to it for me. And I write the mess out of it whenever I have characters in that profession.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I pen my manuscripts by hand. With pen and a plain old composition tablet. There is something about writing longhand. Some people don’t even know what that means anymore. For me there is something personal about pen to paper and watching the words flow out. The initial penning is almost intimate. There is also the bonus that I can write anywhere. I always carry a tablet with me. If I get stuck waiting for an appointment, in an airport, I pull out my tablets and can make notes or revisions at the very least.
When I started my writing journey, the actual pursuit of writing a book, I knew NOTHING. Looking back, it is scary exactly how little I knew about what I was getting myself into. All I knew is I liked to tell stories and writing them down seemed logical. Boy was I in for a crash course to the world of authors and agents, publishing and promoting. The things I never knew I never knew…
Thankfully the first writing conference I attended was the absolute schiznizzle. Thank goodness for those people, their dedication, that conference, and the steps that led me to them. Giving a shout here to the New York Algonkian Pitch Conference run by Michael Neff and instructor Susan Breen. They were incredible. In five days that conference and those people managed to assure me my chosen genre deserved its spot on the podium no less than another. Something which, at the time, I had no idea how big that was. In the years since attending, I have referred to my notes on many occasions. I followed their instructions and landed my agent. When my first contract cam through, I went back to my notes again. When I get stuck now, I often refer to things I learned from that conference.
The author trip is a constant learning experience. At least that is how I still feel about it. But I know that now. I go into everything expecting to learn something. That has been a key for me from day one. I’ve also been extremely lucky in having people who allow me to talk about my stories constantly without committing me to an institution or moving to another country. I actually have several friends who don’t care to read. They are the best at helping me work out problems with manuscripts. Because we talk out loud, it makes the brain work differently than writing and reading, and solutions have a tendency to present themselves much faster. Which probably explains why authors talk to themselves so much.