Day #14 Birthday Bash with Lynsay Sands

Welcome to Day #14 of JoJo's 30 Day Birthday Bash. Today we have the privilege of getting to know Lynsay Sands, And Lynsay is going to be stopping in throughout the day to chat with all her lovely fans! So help me welcome Lynsay! *clap clap clap*

Lynsay Sands

How do you think romace has changed in the last 30 years?
I hated romance 30 years ago. Picked up one or two to read and threw them down with disgust as a teenager. The heros always seemed horrid to the heroines and yet they somehow miraculously loved them and supposedly changed them through love and that just seemed horrible to me. If some guy treated me like crap, I wouldn't give him the time of day let alone fall in "love" with him. Nowadays there is much less of that, thank goodness. At least I think there is, I avoid books where they start out enemies and basically sniping at each other but fall in love anyway.

I also think the female characters are much stronger in today's stories. Back then the heroines were all nurses falling for the doctor, or nannies falling for the child's father, but now the heroines are career women themselves, strong, independent women who fall for strong independent men.

What type of romace do you prefer to read?
I prefer the lighter ones. I'm not really into the ones that have all the tragedy happening during the story. I do not like weeping with greif for a fictional character's loss. There is enough greif in life without going out and reading someone elses even if it's fictional. I prefer stories that make me smile and feel good at the end.

What are your favorite types of heros & / or heroines?
Oddly enough, I like flawed ones. Real people are flawed and so I like flawed heros and heroines. Ones with little quirks to their characters, or who make mistakes but redeem themselves, etc. I'm not interested in writing perfect heros or heroines with perfect lives and perfect looks and perfect, perfect, perfect. I'm nowhere near perfect myself and don't know anyone who is, so why write such a fabled creature? LOL.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
There isn't much to tell. I'm Canadian, grew up in a small town, live in London, Ontario now and I write. I'm actually pretty boring. LOL.

Fav color - red

Fav Scent - vanilla

Shower or bath –
I love nice hot bubble baths. It's the only time I seem to get to relax anymore, lol.

Strawberry or cherry –
Cherry of course. I only like fresh strawberries but have an appreciation for cherry anything.

Dress or jeans –
Hmm… I am normally a pant or shorts person. I actually haven’t put a dress on in some time and really haven’t missed it.

Fav movies -
I like comedies, actions and horrors. But I guess my favorites would be Transformers, Iron Man, Shrek (all of them), and Clint Eastwood has produced some really amazing movies the last several years. Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, etc. But my all time favorite is still Silence of the Lambs.

How long did you write before you became a published author?
I’ve been writing since I was twelve. I sent my first story into publishers when I was 19. They sent it back telling me what was wrong with it and asking me to send in anything else I'd written. I didn't have anything else written at that time and thought it was a rejection of the initial story, but later was told by an editor (who basically called me an idiot) that it wasn’t. LOL. Hey, I was young. I was also on my way to University and probably not ready to be pubbed. Then in 1996 I tried again and in 1997 the Deed was published.

Do you set a daily writing goal?
No… I usually start writing a month before a book is due but I have been known to finish one within two weeks if under duress. Honestly I always feel too busy to have a regular routine. I just don’t know if it’s possible, at least for me. I sit down to a story and write it and it's pretty much all I do until the story is done. I stay in the story that way which works better for me.

How many books / series have you written?
I’ve written 14 Argeneau/Rogue Hunters (which I consider to be part of the same series), 12 of which have been releaseed; 18 historicals, 16 of which have been released; 11 novellas; and 1 contemporary.

As for series, in contemporaries there are the Argeneau/Rogue Hunters, and then I did two connected Shapeshifter anthologies. In Historicals there is the Devil of the Highlands series (Devil of the Highlands, Taming the Highland Bride, Hellion and the Highlander) There are also three connected medievals from earlier in my career, The Deed, The Key and The Chase, and right now I have two done out of three or four in connected Regencies which are untitled.

Can you tell you tell us a little bit about the book?
Born to Bite tells the story of Armand Argeneau, and clears up the question of what really happened fifty years ago with Nicholas Argeneau and the poor woman he was accused of killing. Unfortunately, explaining it in Renegade Hunter would have given away all of Armand's story, so it had to wait until now. It was also too much to explain in just a couple paragraphs and they only give me so many words per story. But equally important is that it clears things up about Armand's bad luck with wives and brings him back into the fold which is definitely a good thing.

Can you tell us about your favorite / strangest fan experience?
I have amazing readers. I always say I have the best readers anywhere, and I believe that. They're all wonderful when I encounter them whether in email or at signings. But I did have one woman who burst into tears everytime we ran into each other at a conference. She explained that she'd had several tragedies in a short span of years and had been miserable and unable to smile let alone laugh, but then someone had given her one of my books and she'd laughed for the first time in a long time, and she had bought them all and each had lifted her mood further and she was just so glad I wrote those books. Well, each time she burst into tears, I got teary eyed and hugged her, lol. I'm sure it must have been a strange sight at that conference. Two women bumping into each other, crying and hugging over and over again. Definitely a kind of strange but lovely experience.

Do you read any reviews on your books?
I used to, but it got me down too much. It doesn't matter what you write, there will always be someone who doesn't like it. For instance, some people find my stories too light. They want the dark stuff and that's just not me. And while there would be 50 good reviews and one deriding the story as "fluff" it would be that one critical one that would have the most impact. So, I have learned to just stay away from the review sites. I didn't start writing worrying about what others would like. I was writing the story the way I saw it, and it seems to me that since that worked and has given enjoyment and amusement to a lot of people, I should really just continue to do that and not worry so much about the impossible task of trying to please everyone.

Do you read your own books after they make it to final print?
Sometimes, years later. Although, that is happening more often now with the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series as I check old books to see what side characters have done and so on for present books.

What do you like to Read? Your Favorite Genre?
I'm a horror buff. Dean Koontz and the like

Is there anything else you would like to share with your followers today?
　Yes, I'd like to thank all my wonderful readers for the lovely emails and messages they send me. I really appreciate it. In fact, sometimes they are the only thing that keeps me going when on deadline, exhausted and just wanting to sit down and watch a movie or something. And if you haven't had an answer yet, hang in there, I do answer all of them, but get so many it takes a while (even as much as 6 months). You will eventually get a response, but in the meantime, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Lynsay

You Can Find Lynsay Here:
Website: www.lynsaysands.net
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/lynsay.sands
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/lynsay_sands
Windows Blog - http://lynsaysands.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=523531755
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lynsaysands

 

Thank you so much Lynsay for being here today

and for helping me Celebrate my upcoming 30th Birthday!!!

But wait don't go away! Lynsay is stopping by
throughout the day to chat with

her lovely fans AND Lynsay Is offering you awesome commentors,

the chance for 2 of you to win a signed copy of Love Bites with the original cover!

Is that not AWESOME!!!!

Rules:

** Must answer one of the Questions:

~Have you read anything by Lynsay? What  did you think about it?

~ Haven't read anything by Lynsay, which book peeks your interest?

***please include an e-mail address so the winner can be contacted

*Open WORLD WIDE / Ends June 18th*