Katherine Grey: An Unexpected Gift

Interview With Katherine Grey

Susana: What inspired you to start writing?

Katherine: It wasn’t so much something that inspired me to start writing as a person. I have always had an active imagination and would make up stories. I would often share with friends some of the stories or talk about the characters that peopled those stories. After much encouragement from one of those friends, I decided to try to write a book. That first book took me 9 months to write and currently resides on a shelf in my closet. Like most first books, it’s no where near publishable but I learned a lot while writing it.

Susana: What author or authors have most influenced your writing?

Katherine: This is a hard question to answer. I would have to say Johanna Lindsey, Suzanne Enoch, and Lisa Kleypas. Johanna Lindsey was one of the first historical writers I ever read so I have to give her the most credit. I love how each of these wonderful writers immerse their readers in the worlds within their books, how each of them write such strong female characters yet keep them grounded within the time period, and the way they convey the depth of emotion and conflict in their books.

Susana: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Katherine: One of the pieces of advice I first received is to write every day or at least five days out of the week even if you can only manage one page a day. I learned from experience that by writing every day, you keep the story in the forefront of your mind so that your subconscious is working out plot points even when you’re doing something else. If you write only when the mood strikes, odds are it will take you years to finish a manuscript if you finish it at all.

Susana: What is your work schedule like when writing?

Katherine: I’m lucky enough to get out of work at 3:00 p.m. so I write from 3:45 to 5:15 Monday through Friday. I sit on one side of the dining room table typing away and the boy child sits on the opposite side doing homework so there are the occasional homework question interruptions. I try to write between 20 and 25 pages of new material each week.

Susana: What are you reading now?

Katherine: I just finished Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon. Rose Gordon is a new author to me. Someone recommended that I read the book. I’m always on the lookout for new authors to read.

About An Unexpected Gift

Known only as Lazarus to the band of cutthroats and thieves he leads, William Prescott will do anything to find his missing sister, even blackmail a fragile young woman into helping him. But he never plans to fall in love with this mysterious woman with a troubled past.

Haunted by the memories of war, Olivia St. Germaine wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But when her brother, a doctor, suddenly leaves town without a word, she is forced to use her medical knowledge to help an injured man who puts her life in danger. Can she keep herself safe as she tends Lazarus, or is her heart more vulnerable than she realizes?

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Excerpt

“If you don’t leave, I shall have Jennings call the constable.” Olivia headed for the door.

“And how will you accomplish that?”

She halted in mid-step.

“Yes, I know there are no servants in residence.” Lazarus sauntered closer. “Did you play the benevolent mistress and give them the night off?”

Eager to keep him at a distance, she scooted around him and stood at the end of the bed. “What do you want?”

“What do you think I want?”

“Why don’t we dispense with the games, and you just tell me?”

Lazarus closed the space between them in two strides. He pushed her backward onto the bed. Olivia bounced against the soft mattress. She dug her elbows into the thick counterpane in an effort to scramble backward away from him.

Grabbing her ankles, he pulled her toward him in one quick jerk. He leaned over her. His hand closed over her hip, freezing her in place. The warmth of his hand burned through her clothes to her skin.

Feeling truly terrified for the first time since he’d announced his presence, she searched his gaze for some kind of sign this was all a great joke. No, it was no game. His eyes were as hard and cold as glass. “What do you want?” she repeated, her voice a near whisper.

“Stop asking questions about me. Forget you ever heard the name Lazarus.”

About the Author

At the age of four, Katherine pestered her mother to teach her to read. From that point on, she spent the most of her childhood lost in the pages of one book after another. Soon she began writing stories of her own, populated with characters doing all of the things she was too shy to even contemplate doing herself.

A chance meeting with another author led Katherine to seriously pursue a writing career. Her debut novel, Impetuous, was released by The Wild Rose Press in August 2011.

Katherine lives in upstate NY with her family though she threatens to move south at the beginning of each winter season.

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