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URL:
http://www.karennacolcroft.com
Contact:
karennac@hotmail.com
ABOUT
KARENNA
I wrote my first story at age
five, and haven’t stopped since. Throughout high school and
college I wrote young adult novels. In 2004, I began work on a
young adult paranormal series that grew to thirty books, and
spawned another ten-book series. In 2006, after a challenge from
a friend, I started writing erotic romance and romance. So far
I’ve had three e-books published, as well as a story in an
anthology, and I have three more works under contract for 2010,
including my novella with Siren-Bookstrand. I live in eastern
Massachusetts with my fiance, my two daughters, a pair of cats,
and a fish.
INTERVIEW
Q: Why did you start
writing romance?
A: In the summer of 2006, a friend of mine challenged me to
write a loving, positive sex scene. After waffling about it for
a bit, I did, and surprised myself with how well it came out. I
decided to keep writing romance and erotic romance, just to see
where I went with it. That scene, incidentally, decided it
belonged in a novel, one which I’m currently revising so I can
submit it.
Q: Do you ever base any characters on people you know?
A: On occasion, but never without checking with the person
first. Sometimes I don’t realize I’ve based a character on
someone in my real life until I’ve finished the story; when I
revise, I ask them if it’s okay with them. Only one person has
ever said he didn’t want me to use him in a story, and he
amended that later to say as long as no one who knew him would
recognize him, it would be all right. Several of my heroines are
based on me, in whole or part; and I have one or two heroes who
are based on my fiance, who proudly calls himself my “research
assistant.”
Q: What do the people who know you think about what you
write?
A: Not everyone who knows me knows that I write romance and
erotic romance, and I use a pen name to keep it that way. Of
those who know, which includes my parents and my fiance’s
parents, the general reaction is that it’s pretty cool, and that
they wouldn’t expect me to write that kind of thing. I’m pretty
mild-mannered in real life.
Q: When you look back on the first story you ever wrote,
what do you think of it now?
A: Unfortunately, I can’t look at my first ever story; a flood
in my parents’ basement when I was about 11 destroyed it.
However, when I look at the stuff I wrote in high school and
college, I cringe just a bit. A whole lot of “telling” instead
of “showing,” and some plots that just don’t make sense. Even
when I look back at the romance and erotica stories I wrote a
few months ago, I sometimes cringe. I’m learning more about
writing and revising almost every day, and there’s always room
for improvement.
Q: Describe a typical day in your life.
A: Typical? What’s that mean? Most weekdays, I’m up around 5:30
or 6:00 to start checking emails and message boards. I consider
promoting my work an important part of writing, and the message
boards give me a chance to do that. At 6:30, I wake my daughters
for school; they leave at 7:30. I haven’t had a day job for a
few months now, so once the kiddos and my fiance have left for
the day, I start in on writing, revising, and promoting. With
the three combined, I usually spend about 4-6 hours a day,
sometimes a bit less if I have errands or appointments. My
children come home between 2:30 and 3:00, and I check in with
them about homework; my fiance’s arrival time home depends on
what season it is. I take a break for about an hour around noon
each day, and at 6 or 7 pm I’m off the computer for the night to
spend time with my family.
Q: Anything else you’d like readers to know?
A: I’m living a romance novel. In December 2006 I left an
abusive marriage. For the next year and a half, I dated
occasionally, but gave up on dating in May 2008 when I decided I
was looking for the right thing in the wrong places. Two nights
later, my now-fiance and I met at the home of a mutual friend.
It was literally love at first sight from his point of view, it
took me a few hours that night to admit that I felt an
attraction as well. He’d also given up on dating, until he met
me. He’d never been married or even lived with anyone, and he’d
pretty much decided he would be spending his life alone because
he couldn’t find the right person. Within two days, he decided
to drive two hours after work to see me, and soon after that, he
started spending most of his time off with my kids and me. We
started talking about moving in together “someday” before we’d
known each other a month, and he told me he loved me for the
first time on my birthday a month after we met. We actually did
move in together in June 2009, he proposed in September, and our
wedding is planned for April 2010. He treats my children and me
wonderfully. He’s the man I always dreamed of finding and never
believed I would.
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