Interview with romance author Corinne LaBalme

Romance author Corinne LaBalme joins me today to chat about her new Cape Cod romance novel, Summer People.

During her virtual book tour, Corinne will be raffling off a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a 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:
Corinne LaBalme lives in France and loves everything about it… except eating snails. Her articles about European fashion, food and fun destinations have appeared in The New York Times Travel section, Diversion, La Belle France and France Revisited. Her favorite place to write? Any Parisian café with a good croissant connection…

The setting for Summer People is founded on childhood memories of vacations on Cape Cod and based on my mother’s (very real) house in Brewster.

The romantic hero of Summer People — Rick Martell — is the kind of guy who exists only in our sweetest & beachiest dreams…. sigh!

Welcome, Corinne. Please tell us about your current release.
Summer People is an ode to Cape Cod and the first beaches of my childhood. It’s also a story about hope since Jessica and Rick have both pulled the short straw in the true love sweepstakes so far. Maybe the winter of their disconnect is finally over…?

What inspired you to write this book?
While this is not the first novel that I’ve published, it is the one I ever wrote. I was working in the American Art division of an auction house and when I visited my mother in Brewster, Massachusetts, I mentally re-arranged her living room into Jessica’s folk art gallery. So there was the setting and a role for the main character. Now all I needed a romantic hero. Rick Martell – sad to say – is totally imaginary.

Excerpt from Summer People:
“To you…” he began.

Jenna leaned forward, both hands cupping her wineglass.

“To you and…” Wait a second! Where was that humongous gem she had on her left hand ring finger this morning? What kind of crazy game was this woman playing with him?

“Yes…?” prompted Jenna.

“To you… and to the unexpected,” said Rick slowly.

“To unexpected pleasures, at any rate,” said Jenna brightly after the pause threatened to become uncomfortable. “Like this marvelous homemade chili. I think the toast should be to the chef.” She raised her glass and took a sip.

Plan B. What the hell is Plan B? wondered Rick as he watched her intently. He didn’t detect any come-hither in her straightforward gaze. In fact, her smile conveyed nothing except neighborly concern that he might have been struck deaf and dumb all of a sudden. He raised his glass again, took a long swallow, and turned to his plate. Plan B is all hers, he decided.

What exciting story are you working on next?
Last January, I published a cozy mystery starring Melody Layne, a New York ghost-writer who gets stranded in Paris when the nasty French movie star who hired her to write his memoirs dies under rather suspicious circumstances. French Ghost took Melody all the way to the Cannes Film Festival and got her quite involved with the actor’s sexy but secretive Spanish son.

Right now, I’m in the final edits for the sequel, French Toast in which Melody tackles a cookbook for a flashy celebrity chef whose famously unconventional recipes are suddenly making his restaurant clients very, very sick. What is going on in the kitchen?

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Short answer? As soon as I held my first pencil. However, the first day that I knew I was going to be a writer was when I hopped on crosstown bus in a snowstorm to buy my very first typewriter: a second-hand Olivetti portable. It looked like a war-torn machine that Hemingway would have pounded to bits. In fact, maybe it was. While it was obsolete even I before I got it home, I’m grateful that I had the experience of changing ribbon spools with ink-stained fingers and hearing that brave little bell chime like a reward at the end of a line. When I think I’m having a hard time writing on a laptop… I remember that sweating over that Olivetti! (PS: I still have it.)

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
For me, it’s less about finding the time to write then finding the place to write. It’s really hard for me to concentrate when I’m at home. I’ll do anything – dust light fixtures, organize spice racks, even polish toothpaste tubes – but sit still and work. I do most of my writing in cafés, where the coffee is a lot better than mine, and where I have to stay in my seat.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’m not the only writer who prefers not to know where I’m headed in the next chapter, but I’m definitely in the camp of writers who like to be surprised by what their characters are going to do next.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer in Paris! Exactly what I am!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
No… thanks for hosting me on your lovely site!

You’re welcome! Happy to have you!

Links:
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