#AuthorInterview Kristen Beairsto on Sugar & Spice

Hi Kristen, welcome to Rachelle’s Window. I hear you have a new release. Love the cover by the way. Those legs do stand out.

Yes, thanks, Rachelle. Sugar & Spice follows a woman named Frankie Stevens who runs a lingerie catalog company with her two best friends.  She’s also sworn to remain single after two horrible relationship experiences.  So she’s focusing on work and expanding her company into Europe.  But she needs the help and finds herself working with Royce Westin, who works to try and convince her to take a chance on love again.

Royce Westin? Sounds like a hotel. What was the inspiration for this story?

I had a dream that me and two of my friends started our own lingerie company.  I loved the idea so much I turned it into a story.  And yes, there are aspects of the three owners in Sugar & Spice that are based on me and my friends. ; )

I’m wondering if there’s anything subliminal with a lingerie company. Have you written people you know into any of your other stories?

There’s been a few characters that are modeled after someone I know.  One story I wrote a long time ago, that will never ever ever see the light of day, I wrote about me and my friends and I had one of my friends die in the story.  My friend to this day won’t let me forget that I killed her off in the story.  She’s milked it for all it’s worth. = )

Uh oh... Payback is sweet, right? What inspires you?

People that think, or step, outside the box.  They move outside of their comfort zone and try to reach for something better.  It takes a brave person to step outside their comfort zone.

No kidding, so, is there a genre you haven’t written in that one day you’d like to tackle?

Paranormal romance is really fascinating.  I’ve always been intrigued by magic.  Talk about endless possibilities.

Yes, I know about that. I want to try everything at least once. What’s something you’ve learned about yourself from your writing/publishing experience?

First off, I learned I’m not above putting someone I don’t like in real life into a story and killing them off or hurting them really badly.  Second, I’ve realized that patience and determination is great and all, but if I don’t maintain my motivation, it all goes by the waste side.   And lastly, nothing feels as good as a major success after a lot of hard work.  Ok, so maybe there’s a few things I can think of that feels better, but it’s definitely in the top three. ; )

Bio

In between her to-be-read pile and trying to bring the characters in her head alive, Kristen spends as much time as she can with family and friends.  Much to her husband’s dismay, she enjoys collecting purses, shoes, and jewelry.  During those rare times she’s not working at her day job, rushing her daughters somewhere, watching movies with her husband, and trying to meet a deadline, she can usually be found energetically cheering for one of her favorite New York sports teams.

As with just about every other writer on the planet, Kristen grew up an avid reader.  She started with young adult before she technically hit the age range and moved on to sci-fi classics by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.  At fifteen, her best friend gave her a book she just had to read!  The book was Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts.  Always a sucker for a happy ending, she was a goner and fell in love with the romance genre.  Having started writing novel length stories at the age of eleven, Kristen’s stories all took a romantic turn from that point on.

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Sugar and spice makes everything nice, but mixing business and pleasure can come with a price . . .

Francis Stevens – Frankie to her friends – has declared herself permanently single after a couple of monumentally disastrous relationships.  And she doesn’t mind at all.  Between the international expansion of the lingerie catalog company she runs with her friends, labor strikes, and her regular work load, she has little time for love or a relationship.

But Royce Weston has other ideas.  After his family accuses him of becoming a workaholic, a chance encounter with Frankie at a night club has his mind on things other than business.  As luck would have it, Royce winds up the executive assigned to work with Frankie and her lingerie company when she partners with his family’s investment firm to fund her expansion.

Despite Frankie’s outward appearance of confidence and swagger, insecurities rear up and cause her to over compensate and drive harder for what she wants.  Doubts weigh her down and with Royce watching her every move, she fights to keep her businesswoman’s façade firmly in place.  But while Frankie tries her best to keep her mind on business, she can’t ignore the way Royce’s touch makes her feel or the fact that he makes it clear he’s interested in more than just a business relationship.  When all of her defense mechanisms fail to keep him at arm’s length, Frankie finds herself wondering: is it possible to mix business and pleasure?