An Interview with Elizabeth A. Lance

Elizabeth A. Lance is a young adult paranormal, regency, contemporary romance, and steam punk author. Her works are The Regency Collection (series of short novellas), The Agents for the Crown Series (A Regency Romantic Suspense series), The Soul Mates Series (A YA Paranormal Romance Series), and The Goddess of Love Series (Mostly contemporary with a hint of Greek Mythology).  If you click her name, it will lead you to her amazon page. To know more about her work and where to contact her, you will find her networking sites below. She would love to hear from her fans.

I gathered Miss Elizabeth as quite accommodating, kind, fun, and cool person and I really love her attitude in writing which inspires me with my writing too.  Read her answers to get to know her more.

QUESTIONS

CL: If there’s something you want your readers to know about you, what would it be?

Hi! I’m Elizabeth. I met my soul mate the summer before my high school senior year in 1988. We were married three and a half years later and have been together ever since. Relationships,  even those with your soul mate, take work. Over the years we’ve discovered that communication is the key. And to never go to bed angry. My relationship with my husband is one of the reasons I write soul mate romances. I truly believe that there is someone out there for everyone.

CL: How did you come up with the idea for your Soul Mates Series?

My Soul Mates Series came about while I was working in an elementary school. Twilight Breaking Dawn had just come out and all of the Fifth and Sixth graders were reading it. (Okay, so was I 😁) Anyway, one of the young men in the sixth grade class and I were discussing the story and he made the comment, “I wish someone would write a story like this with a guy as the main character.”

Now, I had been writing for years, mostly historical romance, and had attempted to go the traditional publishing route, but hadn’t gotten my foot in the door, quite yet. It was also right around the time Amazon started there breakthrough novel contest. I had entered one of my Regency romances and made it to the top hundred. It gave me more confidence in my writing, so when he said that, it hit me…hey, I can do that, and from there Max Fergus came to life.

CL: How did you choose the title of your books? 

Book one of Soul Mates is called Scent. I didn’t actually have a title when I started writing,  but scent was very important in the story, when Max finally meets Anna, her natural, wild scent envelops Max and it is what woke his inner shifter, like calling him home.

Book two, Bewitched was so named because Tony finds himself completely under Jillian’s spell, and she is a Sorceress, so it was fitting.

Book three, Magic breaks from the Male perspective and is Abbey Fergus’ story and takes place many years after book two. Unlike her brother Max, Abbey learned early on that she had magic, but it was important to show how that effected her, which is why the story is told from her point of view.

Book four, Hunger takes us back to the Male perspective with James, who is a Lycan. I named it Hunger, because James has an appetite for a lot of things, so seemed appropriate.

There is a short story to go along with Soul Mates Hunger, called Soul Mates Origins: Lycan Legends. In Hunger, James tells a shortened version of the story of how the Lycans came into being. Origins gives the real story.

Book five, which I am currently writing and hope to have published by the end of the year, is called Fire. It is Thomas` story. Thomas is a fire-breathing Dragon shifter. In Fire you will get a better feel for the Never Never, and the Goblin Realm, and you will see a return of the Queen of Air and Darkness, as well as the introduction of other Fae rulers.

Books six and seven are of course not written yet, but I do have names for them. Book six is called Rose, and will be from Max and Anna’s daughter Roses (like her father, Rose is both shifter and Fae) perspective, and book seven will be called Ice, and is Talriktugs (Rik, the bear shifter from Alaska, for those keeping track) point of view.

CL: Are any of your characters based on someone you know? How did you come up with them? 

Max and Anna are loosely based on my husband and myself. Brandon,  my darling husband, is blond-haired and blue eyed, and athletic, while he didn’t play football in high school, I do have pictures of him as a kid, from when he played and my imagination filled in the rest. I, of course, am not Canadian, and only have a little bit of French ancestry in me, but I took three and a half years of French in high school and I’ve always loved the language, so Anna, got me with a twist 😁. The relationship between Anna and Max is very much like my husband’s and mine. We had an instant connection and talked about marriage the first night we went out. From that night on we were practically inseparable. We rarely argue, but of course every relationship has hard times, we just try to resolve those conflicts quickly and do our best not to focus on those, but on the positive. You don’t really see a lot of conflict between Anna and Max, maybe a little bit in the beginning because of jealousy,  but they deal with it quickly and it melts away, because they continue to communicate. They are partners and their minds and souls are attuned to each other.

Rose, who you briefly meet in book three, and again in book four, is loosely based on our daughter. Very similar personalities between them, both are sassy and smart.

James, book 4 hero, is very loosely based on our son, funny, sarcastic, fiercely loyal, loves to eat… yeah that’s our boy 😃

Gareth, the Goblin King ( book three, Magic and book five, Fire) is of course highly influenced by the late, great David Bowie 😍 and Beast Boy from Teen Titans 🤩

The rest are probably composites of many people I’ve met, know or want to know.

CL: Who is your favorite character in your book and why? 

Oh gosh, don’t ask me that! That is like asking me to choose a favorite child or Book! But if you twist my arm, it’s gotta be Max… hello, based on my favorite person in the world, so yeah, but James and Rose are right up there too, for obvious reasons 😉 And, ok… Gareth, the Goblin King… because, well… he’s  the Goblin King!

CL: Describe your writing process.

I don’t write from an outline, I just have a basic idea of what the story is about. I am what some authors refer to as a by the seat of her pants writer. I  never know exactly what is going to happen, I just start typing and it happens. Of course, this means I don’t just sit down and write things out in one quick go. More like erratic spurts of creativity. So it takes me a bit to get books out. Bewitched was actually the fastest book I’ve ever written and that is because I was doing Nanowritmo that year, and was completely insane for a month! My family walked on eggshells and kept me supplied with chocolate, but it’s not an adventure I’d like to repeat, so I take my time writing now. The family is much happier that way. 😃

CL: Who are some of the authors who have influenced you? 

When I first started writing,  I was inspired by Laura Matthews,  Anita Mills, Georgette Heyer and Victoria Holt who also wrote as Philippa Gregory (I think I spelled that correctly, forgive me if I didn’t,  it’s been 30 plus years since I read her work) I fell in love with the Regency and Victorian Eras because of them. They write/wrote strong heroines and heroes, and scenes that are/were very visual. I wanted to do that too, so I strive for that in each book I write.

By the time Harry Potter and Twilight came out, I had kids and I was working with tweens and teens. So I’d have to credit J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyers for influencing me to write paranormal stories.

Other influences would include Gail Carringer (Regency, Victorian Steampunk), Janet Evonovich, and Laurell K. Hamilton.

I would also love to include some of the Indie authors who inspire me, and amaze me, Sarah Hall and Nicole Thorn coauthor some of the best stories I’ve ever read; Skye Knizley’s stories always include strong heroines and lots of action, which I love! Faith Marlow, who writes a twist on Dracula’s love life, is another inspiration. And Shyla Colt who writes hot MC romance is one of my favorite indulgences. Oh, and Bryan Tann and Kindra Sowder, fantastic apocalyptic futuristic writers, I love their work too. Oh, and L.A. Johnson’s Syfy is funny and quirky and just leaves me grinning like a crazy person. And funny, and quirky takes me to Marianna Thorn and her Skyler Wolfe mystery series oh she makes me laugh so much!

There are so many writers out there that I love and adore, I could spend all day on this! Through my career as a writer and editor I have been lucky enough to work with and read some awesome talent. If you want more reading suggestions, I can probably direct you to some fantastic talent in just about every genre. 😀

CL: What made you want to become an Author?

I have been an avid reader since I discovered Ramona Quimby in first grade. I was the girl in school who always had her head in the clouds and her nose in a book. I discovered my love for writing and telling my own stories in ninth grade English class with a creative writing project that let my imagination soar. Once I had a taste of it, I never wanted to stop.

CL: What advice would you give to other aspiring writers?

Read. Read Everything. And study sentence structure, trust me, it’s important. Notice the details in everything, not just books, but life. Study conversations and how people phrase things, and habits, and dialects. Research, learn new things, be inspired, stay positive and don’t pay attention to the critics, because they will try to suppress your creativity. Be You. Write what you know, and if it’s something you don’t know, then learn it. Most of all, have fun with it. Take joy in it. If you do, it will show in your work, and leave your readers with a smile.

What would you like to say to your readers?

Thank you. Thank you for reading, for enjoying the worlds I create, for gushing over my favorite characters, and for wanting more. I write because it makes me happy, having you love what I write, is beyond words incredibly humbling. I am forever grateful to you all.

CL: That concludes our interview. 

EL: Where you can find me and my books:

http://smarturl.it/ElizabethALance

http://elizabethannelance.wixsite.com/elizabethannelance

http://www.facebook.com/ElizabethAnneLance

Twitter @ElizabethALance