#AuthorInterview Mimi Barbour on her Vegas Series #crime #thriller

Mimi Barbour lives on the beautiful east coast of Vancouver Island and writes her paranormal romances with tongue-in-cheek and a mad glint in her eye. Asked why she prefers paranormal, she answers – chuckling.  “Because it’s fun! Imagination can be a lot more interesting than what happens in real life to so-called normal people. I love my characters, and my goal is to make the readers love them also. To care about what happens to them while the tale unfolds. If I can steal my booklover’s attention away from their every-day grind, absorb them into a fantasy world, and make them care about the ending, then I’ve done my job.”

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I’m working on Book #4 in my Vegas series and something rather miraculous has happened to me. I think this is the best book yet!! Truly!!

I’ll explain.

When I started the first book, I was trying to get my work added into an anthology with some wonderful Amazon, best-selling suspense authors whose influence I knew would help my budding career. I was told to submit a tale with around 5,000 words and it had to be done like - yesterday!!! So, I got myself to work and wrote what I thought was a good story, with a blockbuster opening and fascinating characters. I sent it in praying they’d accept the work.

To my utmost shock and heart-stopping glee, Carolyn McCray, the organiser and my promoter, explained to me that I had sent in the beginnings of a full-length novel. What she now wanted me to do was to write the short story to introduce those same characters who would appear in the book. And then, of course, write… You guessed it! The book.

Whaa???

I was ecstatic and freaking out all at the same time. They were going to take my work except I still had to write it - a whole new short story and I had like three days before they wanted to release it….gulp.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I got my chubby little butt into my office and worked harder than I’d ever done before. I did come up with the short story she wanted and it was added into the anthology. I called it “Partners” and the following full-length book was called “Roll the Dice”.

Well once I started the series, I got caught up in the lives of my hero and heroine. They had to suffer and overcome huge conflicts just to make it worth my time and effort to care about their lives. Right?? I mean these books are suspense? And to me, that means the reader must never know exactly what is in store for them. As their creator, it was up to me to keep everyone guessing.

Except I never thought I’d be the one guessing also.

So after I finished “Roll the Dice”, I had to write a follow-up book to set things right. I mean, I don’t want to do a spoiler here but, trust me, it was imperative to continue. Unfortunately, I had released “Roll the Dice” in Sept. Christmas was closing in and I had a deadline to get a holiday book written and released by November. I had to stop writing on the Vegas series. Feeling suspended and itching to get back to it, my promoter urged me to write a bridge book to keep the series alive.

Huh?? What’s a bridge book I asked shyly, blushing like a sixty-year-old virgin? Should I have known what she meant??

She explained, without any hint of censure. Phew!

It’s a short story giving the readers a peek into the lives of your characters while they wait for the next full-length blockbuster. Okay! I could do that and I did. I released “Vegas Shuffle” a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed writing this portion, because, to tell you the truth, it rather cemented all the stuff going on in my characters’ lives in my own head also. Made everything clear for me to know exactly what I needed to do for the follow up story called “High Stakes Gamble”.  This will be Book #4, which I’m madly writing now to be released in the beginning of April.

And I will reiterate what I said at the beginning. This is Book #4 to the series and my best book yet. At this point, I’m so very comfortable with all my characters that I know their needs, their wants, what they fear and who they love. And each morning, I can’t wait to get back into their heads so I can add a few more chapters and get closer to the end so…

Wanna know something else I just found out myself? There will have to be two more books before I can even begin to think of stopping. Oh yeah…!!

Note from Mimi: My contact information is as follows: I do love to hear from you so please drop me a line.

Blog- Believe!: http://mimibarbour.blogspot.com

Website: http://www.mimibarbour.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MimiBarbour @MimiBarbour

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/mimi.barbour

Amazon page: http://amzn.to/Qy67qM

LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/TCa7cL

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