Friday, February 13, 2009

Riding the Rail - Julia Devlin



Please welcome my special guest this week, Scarlet Rose author Julia Devlin, whose recent release, Riding the Rail, is available from The Wild Rose Press!

Over to you, Julia!


Can you tell us a little about your book?


Riding the Rail has a special place in my heart, since it was the first story I ever wrote, finished, and submitted.


Julian St. Clair and Serena Adams meet on a jam packed El train and share an erotic encounter. NO! Not that, get your mind out of the gutter!! Disconcerted by the experience, Serena makes a fast get away only to discover Julian and his partner Ryan are her 9:00 meeting and new clients. Serena tries really hard to keep her head on business, but it doesn’t quite work…


Julian is a great hero, he’s persuasive, smart, gorgeous, and down to earth. He doesn’t let the fact that Serena is ten years older than him stand in his way for even a second. Serena is very sassy, but befuddled over why this beautiful younger man, who can have anyone he wants, desires her. I think she’s very relatable, because most woman in there later 30’s (I’m 37) and 40’s, even while confident, would find themselves feeling confused.


How did the idea for the plot come about?


I got the idea for their story one day while riding a packed El on my way into downtown Chicago … and the rest as they say is history. I plotted out the whole story while smashed between a bunch of strangers. And for the record—not one of them looked like Julian.


I love sale stories (ok I am just nosy!!) so can you tell us about your road to publication - and your call story?


I was sitting home, during a rare occurrence when I was by myself reading emails when I got the email from Trish over at Wild Rose Press. First I read it about 15 times to makes sure I wasn’t misreading, then I proceeded to call every single person I knew and paced around my house like a mad woman. Lol, yes, I was very dignified and cool about it.


We are all about the love here, so please share your fave books, movies, TV shows or current fantasy squeeze (it's all in the line of research!)

My favorite all time romance is Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie. If I ever run into Phin Tucker, watch out! My favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice, the original one and my current favorite TV show right now is True Love, but will be quickly replaced by Lost and Flight of the Concords when they return. My fantasy squeeze right now is Jon Hamm from Mad Men… if you’ve never seen him he is H-O-T, hot!

What are you working on now?


I’ve just sold a story to Liquid Silver books that will released in May of 2009 as part of their Hearts Afire series about Firefighters. Abby Simmons is a thirty year-old accountant with a To-Do list and her firefighter neighbor Luke Marlow is kind enough to help her out. ;)

I’m also finishing up a full length Single Title Contemporary about a Bad Boy bestselling author and a Feminist woman’s studies professor. I’m not quite sure where this one is going yet, but I’ll keep you posted.

How can readers keep up with your writing and books?


I’ve got all the usual places… I try and keep them updated, but sometimes I’m more successful than others. A girls got to have time to write you know!


Website
Blog
Myspace

Thanks for having me, this has been great!

14 comments:

April Vine said...

Hey, Christina and Julia

As expected, a great interview!!!
Riding the Rail sounds like a hot must read. I’ll be getting to it soon.
And congrats on all your rave reviews, Julia!

Devon Gray said...

Great interview! I love how you plotted your book smashed into strangers on the El. I hoe you at least had a pen and paper. My inspiration always seems to come to me in the most inconvienent of times!

Mona Risk said...

Great interview. Congratulations on your new book, Julia. I rode the Chicago train when visiting my son and know what you mean by packed. LOL What a good idea. Wishing you a lot of sales.

Emma Lai said...

Great interview ladies! Looks like I'm adding another book to my TBR. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase the number of hours in the day so that we can read everything we want?

Congrats, Julia!

Kaye Manro said...

Wonderful interview, Christina. And Julia, I found Riding the Rail a while ago and loved it! If anyone hasn't read this one, they should. It's good.

I love that smashed visual. I can just see you ceating your story now. I know how that feels as I'm sure it's much like the T in Boston!

Debra St. John said...

How incredible to see your first work in published form. Congrats, Julia! Thanks for the interview, Christina.

Anonymous said...

Hi to both Christina (neat blog site) and Julia. Amazing where we get our inspiration, isn't it? Getting "smashed" gave you a great opening scene--never know where one might come from. Enjoyed the teaser. Sounds like a great story to get!

Tanya Hanson said...

hi Julia, wonderful interview and sounds like a TBR! I love the idea of a younger man! Keep up the good work.
Congratulations.

I love your blogspot, Christina.

(I am a Cactos Rose).

~Tanya
www.tanyahanson.com

Julia Devlin said...

Thanks Christina for including me on such a great blog! You've inspired me to try and get my butt in gear for my own blog.

Thanks for all your great comments, glad you liked how I came up with the story.. even though Serena's train ride was much more interesting. And yes, inspiration comes in the strangest places.

Helen Hardt said...

Hey ladies, great post! Julia, Riding the Rail is on my Sony waiting patiently to be read. Like Emma, I need a few more hours in the day for pleasure reading, LOL. I'm looking forward to it!

Helen

Cari Quinn said...

Great interview, Christina and Julia! It's really fun hearing how authors come up with their ideas. I've been wanting to read Riding the Rail for a while now, but my TBR is about to explode! LOL As soon as I can beg, borrow or steal some free time... ;)

Congrats on your Liquid Silver contract, too, Julia! :)

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Julia and Christina,

Great interview. Riding the Rails sounds an exciting read.I travel by train all the time and never meet any hunky heroes. Always dour faced business execs with their pot bellies protruding under their too-tight jackets.
Best of luck, from the reviews sounds like you have a best seller on your hands.
Regards
Margaret

Catherine Bybee said...

Hello Ladies. I find that reading all these interviews is directly related to my empty wallet. Hummm... wonder why that is?

Christina Phillips said...

Thanks for stopping by, ladies! And thank you, Julia!