Bobbye Terry Interview & Giveaway

Hello Bobbye Terry. Thank you to taking the time to stop by. I am honored to have you here.

To start would you mind telling the readers a little about yourself?

I’m from Virginia and went to college there. My English professor told me I had a great grasp of grammar and an excellent vocabulary but not enough imagination for creative writing (big grin). He obviously didn’t discuss this with my characters.

I didn’t start writing fiction professionally until 1995 when I joined Romance Writers of America (VRW). Writing with a partner as Terry Campbell, we sold Mr. Wrong, originally to Hard Shell Word Factory for electronic rights and immediately afterwards sold the print and large print rights to Macmillan, the house that originally owned Thorndike and the imprint, Five Star. Mr. Wrong and our next book, Fat Chance, came out in hardback a few months apart. These are now available on Kindle. They will soon be added to Nook.

After publishing with Five Star, we had contracts with several small press houses and released Intimate Investor (also now re-released in Kindle format). My partner and I took a five-year hiatus from writing and decided that we would seek publication on a few of the books we’d written before we took a break, but we agreed to each write solo because each desired to write different kinds of books. So, starting in the mid-summer of 2009, I started writing my first romantic fantasy as Daryn Cross. It will be out this coming October from L&L Dreamspell with the sequel releasing January 2012.

By early 2010, I knew I wanted to also write suspense. So in January that year, I wrote Coming to Climax, which releases from Turquoise Morning Press. Because I have humor in everything I write, but in varying degrees, I thought it would be fun to write some shorter cozy mysteries. Thus, Buried in Briny Bay became a reality.

Your upcoming release is Buried in Briny Bay what can you tell us about it?

Briny Bay is a fictional town that I envision as being near the mouth of the Neuse River into the bay that is part of the Pamlico Sound in eastern North Carolina. Briny Bay is a typical little sleepy southern town where not much happens—until the sisters, Roxie Turner and Trixie Frye end up trying to solve the murder of Georgia Collins, Roxie’s nemesis for more than twenty years. Roxie told just about every resident in the town she was going to murder the woman and now the woman’s dead. If that weren’t bad enough, other people end up murdered, with all their deaths emulating ways Roxie said she would use to kill Georgia.

Buried in Briny Bay is the first book in the A Briny Bay Mystery series, how many books do you see in this series?

Four right now, but of readers respond well to series, the sisters have a lot more life in them.

What inspired you to write mystery novellas?

A love for humor, small town quirks and mystery/suspense. They go so well together, so why not give it to folks in shorter works they can read quickly while commuting or for a short one night read?

You have a short story published in the Be Mine, Valentine anthology with other TMP authors, what can you tell us about it?

Be Mine Valentine is a wonderful collection of twelve feel-good romantic stories. My contribution was "The Legend of the True Love Angel." Abbie is Irish and has heard her whole life that, when the time is right, the true love angel will appear to her and indicate the identity of her true love. She'll know when she sees the same glow as the angel's around him. She was sure her soul mate was Dane, a psychiatrist who works with her, but right before Valentine's Day she finds out he's engaged. A short trailer of both the story and Buried on Briny Bay are on my author page at Turquoise Morning Press.

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? Was your family and friends supportive?

From the time I was in elementary school I write down little vignettes. I never considered doing it on a larger scale until 1995. My family approved by never considered it to be something I’d do any more than a hobby. They still have a habit of thinking I’m a little off-center with the exception of my sister who is very creative in her own right. As for friends, well, most of them are writers now.

What is the writing process like for you? Do you have a particular writing process or any writing rituals?

I write all the time, actually. I’m a morning person, and start the actual writing around eight. Of course, during the day I’m also blogging and answering e-mails, doing promotion, and errands. But I do one or two small tasks and then back to writing. I don’t normally do a lot after about six in the evening, but have many times.

In your free time what can you be found doing?

Reading, playing with my dog outside, taking photos (now that is a hobby—I love to take them of sunsets and sunrises. Sometimes I also get lucky with a moon shot). I am also a gourmet cook and have the six-burner gas stove to prove I’m serious.

What are you currently working on? Anything you can share regarding your current Work in Progress?

Right now I’m working a science fiction novella, part of the Cash Chronicles that I’m indie publishing starting in March. The series begins with a teaser 13,000-word long short story (already completed) about the life of the Chronicles’ original villain back in the nineteenth-twentieth centuries before she was cryogenically frozen and the cloned. But never fear, because Book Two of the Briny Bay Mysteries is done and turned in and Book Three will be completed and turned in by the end of March.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Just that I appreciate the interview and hope some readers will get a copy of the sisters’ feel good adventures and smile.

Giveaway:  Bobbye is giving away an ebook. The winner will have a choice of a download of Be Mine Valentine, or if he/she wants to wait until Buried in Briny Bay is out, they can have that one. To be entered leave a question for Bobbye. The contest ends March 5th at 11:59pm EST.