I want to welcome Beverley
Bateman. First I’d love you to introduce yourself.
I’m Canadian. I live in the
Okanagan Valley in beautiful British Columbia with my husband and two Shiba Inu dogs. It’s
beautiful country here. There are mountains, lakes, beautiful beaches, apple,
pear, apricot and peach orchards, plus raspberries, blueberries, strawberries
and lots of other fresh produce. You can shop at little stalls on farms and
orchards. It’s also wine country where we produce world class wines, which I feel is my obligation to sip while I write
my Romantic Suspense and Medical Thrillers. My latest books include the
Hawkins’ Family series – Hunted and Missing. My
Assistant PI Holly Devine series set in Florida: A Cruise to Remember and A Murder to Forget. And my
chat room murders, where my reference was a sheriff in Reno who worked the chat
rooms - Don’t Go.
Tell us about your
latest release.
My latest release is A Cruise to Remember.
It’s the first in my Holly Devine, Assistant PI series. My
husband and I were on a cruise and I thought it would be cool to write a story
set on a cruise ship. There are also so many jewel stores in the Caribbean for
the tourists I thought jewel theft should be part of it. The rest of it just kind of came together,
you know, those voices in my head.
Now I have a few
questions for you – I have found readers do like to know fun things about us
writers.
1.) Who is your
favorite villain – it can be from a book (even one of yours), movie or TV show.
And why?
I’m not really a fan of villains, so I’m going to pick one
that makes me laugh – Wile E. (Ethelbert) Coyote. He tries so hard to kill the
roadrunner and is so incompetent. Everything backfires on him. And there’s no
conversation. It’s all visual. I love it.
2.) Who is your
favorite character out of your books? Why?
I think I’m going to say Lillian, from A Cruise to Remember.
She’s a secondary character. She’s been widowed for three years and has early
Alzheimer’s. She’s wealthy, warm, friendly, a kleptomaniac and she enjoys manipulating
the lives of others, but in a good way.
3.) What do genre do
you write? What made you pick that one?
I write mostly romantic suspense. I love romance and HEA
endings, but I also love murder, mayhem and dead bodies. This way I can write
both.
4.) What are you
working on now?
I’m working on a serial killer who haunts teen chatrooms.
The heroine is a Washoe County detective, who works chatrooms to catch and
convict those trying to meet teens. My resource was an actual detective who
worked the chatrooms. The hero is a Reno police officer who doesn’t want to
work this case. They start out like oil and water, but have to work together to
save a girl’s life and find a serial killer. Together they help the other grow
while tracking down the killer.
5.) What got you to
start writing?
Like so many authors, I’ve been writing most of my life. I
can’t remember when I wasn’t making up stories, even in my head. I used to make
up stories with my dolls. Then I’d write short stories and ghost stories. I
wrote locked room mysteries when they were popular. I have books filled with
ideas and plots. It’s kind of an addiction.
6.) Where do you get
your ideas from?
I honestly don’t know. It might be something I see, or I
belong to a Kiss of Death writing chapter and I do a tour once a year – often
police, homeland security, fire departments, ATF, FBI and lots of other
interesting places. I get lots of ideas from there. It might be something I
read in the paper or even a thought that hits me. What if…?
7.) What would people
who read your work be surprised to find out about you?
Hmm, that’s an interesting question. Maybe that I’m a
Canadian since my stories are all set in the US.
8.) Do you have any
special talents?
No. I do watercolor painting, Tai chi and ran a half
marathon but I don’t consider any of
that a talent. It’s just stuff I do.
9.) What was the one
piece of advice you received when you were an aspiring author that has stuck
with you? Why?
I got a lot of good advice from other writers and editors. I
think the one that sticks with me is write every day. I had a spell where I
wasn’t writing. I had too many things to do that all came before my writing,
but I wanted to write. I took a class to see if I could break through my block.
We were assigned partners and had to be accountable to them to write every day.
I used my usual excuses and she said to me – ‘take 10 minutes before you go to
bed and write. You don’t have to have a chunk of time to write, like two or
three hours. Just write – even ten minutes.’ It worked, and I still use it when
I start procrastinating.
10.) If you could talk
to any famous figure (present, past or fictional) who would it be and what
would you talk about?
I think I’d say Kathryn Hepburn. I loved her as an actress,
but I respected her life. She was a fascinating person. She was independent back
in the 30’s and did her own thing as a young woman. Long before many of us were
fighting for equality. She never married and she continued to act into her
eighties. I would ask her about her life, what she felt was important for women
to do to live successfully and maybe why she never married.
11.) What song would
you say describes your life?
Pick
Yourself Up - Pick yourself up - Take a deep
breath, / Dust yourself off. / And start all over again.
Rejections, mistakes, whatever
doesn’t work out I just learn from it and move on.
12.) If you could come
back as any animal – what would it be?
That’s hard. My two favorite animals are pandas and wolves,
but I’m not sure I’d want to be one. I write dogs into most of my books, so
maybe I’ll stick with that. I’ll be a Shiba Inu.
.jpg)
Blurb:
Amnesia, a cruise ship, a jewel theft ring
and attempted murder combine to make it a cruise to remember. Hallie Donald has
been in an accident and has amnesia. She’s traveling on the cruise as a
companion. And someone is trying to kill her.
She doesn’t remember
anything but someone, Interpol agent Eric Norby searches for jewel thieves on a
Caribbean cruise, but his main suspect is the woman he loves.
Excerpt:
She leaned back slightly, and
Eric’s jacket slipped to the deck. Bending to pick it up she felt rather than
heard a buzzing sound, something like a mosquito, around her left ear.
Strange.
As she sat back up she noticed a
hole in the back of the deck chair.
Funny, I don’t remember it being there before I picked up the jacket.
She ran her finger over the hole
and shrugged, turning her attention toward Eric as he approached.
“Here we go.” Eric carried a
couple of tall, colorful drinks consisting of a mixture of red, orange, and
yellow colors and topped off with parasols. “What were you doing?”
“I’m not really sure. There was
a funny sound, like a mosquito, and I think this hole just appeared.”
“What the hell...?” Eric placed
the drinks on a nearby table. He ran his finger over the hole. “It’s a bloody
bullet hole.”
“A what? You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not. Where were you
when it happened?” Eric looked at the hole, squinting back in the direction it
would have come from.
“I guess that’s when I bent down
to pick up your jacket.”
“My God, you could have been
killed.” Eric pulled Holly into his arms, squeezing her against his chest.
“You’re sure you’re all right?”
“I think so. I mean, I wasn’t
hit or anything. I just can’t figure out what’s happening. This has to be one
of the worst nights of my life.” She relaxed against Eric’s strong, muscular
chest, feeling secure and safe.
“I’ll report this to the
Captain; make sure it gets to the right authorities.”
“Uh, uh, uh...” Holly couldn’t
speak. Her eyes widened as she realized the implications. She shivered as ice
water dripped slowly through her veins.
What if that was really a push earlier and now this--someone taking a
shot at me? Why? What kind of person am I
that someone wants me dead?
“Are you sure you’re going to be
all right?”
Holly’s teeth chattered.
Eric tipped her chin up,
brushing her hair gently off her face. He kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. I’m
here. It’s okay.” He moved his hands gently over her shoulders, checking for
any injuries.
“I-I don’t understand. Could it
have been an accident?”
“I don’t think so.”
Eric stroked her cheek gently, trying to calm
her. “There aren’t a lot of gunshot accidents on the deck.”
“So someone deliberately tried
to kill me, but why?”
“Maybe it has to do with your
past?”
“But I don’t have a past. How
could that have anything to do with it?”
“Maybe they’re
afraid you’ll remember your past and want to make sure you don’t. Or maybe you
made some enemies in your past. Who knows? We’ll probably have to wait until
your memory returns to find out. Now sit down.” Eric kissed her cheek and
gently pushed her into a chair away from the railing.
“It’s too much--first Jack, then
a gunshot and I think someone tried to push me overboard. I even had a
flashback in between.”
Eric took her hand. “Someone
tried to push you overboard?”
“I think so. It could have been
accidental, but after this, I’m not sure.”
“I’ll take you back to your
cabin and report it. We need to check and see whose onboard that might be
capable of this.”
“I guess.”
“Come on, you need a good night’s sleep. So
you’re beginning to remember?”
Buy Links for A Cruise to Remember:
Amazon http://amzn.to/LyJLHh
Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/1bfHaeQ
Where to
find me:
Twitter @kelownawriter
Webpage http://www.beverleybateman.com
Thanks so much for
having me Barb. This was fun.
Hello Beverly, great interview and cover. All the best to you.
ReplyDeleteI love learning more about you Beverly and your books! Tweeted!
ReplyDelete