#TuesdayswithTaryn Q&A with Teresa Reasor aka @teresareasor

Tuesdays with Taryn

Please welcome with me- Teresa Reasor, fellow Kentucky writer, artist and teacher.

What book(s) most influenced you as a writer?

I have a list. I loved Sandra Browns earlier works. And Kathleen Woodiwiss definitely influenced my historical romance writing. One of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten is a reader review for my historical Highland Moonlight. She said anyone who enjoyed Kathleen Woodiwiss’s books would love Highland Moonlight. I didn’t pattern Moonlight after Woodiwiss’s work, or try to steal her voice, that would be impossible, but the love story does have a similar feel to it.

I love reading male writers. Michael Connelly has had an influence, Dean Koontz’s earlier works, and, believe it or not, Steven King.

The writing craft books having had an influence on my writing have been numerous. I try to read a craft book at least once a month. I never stop learning, evolving.

The very first book on writing I ever bought was one by Phyllis Whitney. I’d read all of her novels, still have them. And I bought that book and— the rest was history. I had to write. That was when I was in college, many, many moons ago. I still use the same research process I learned from that book. Story by Robert McKee, Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan, Stephen King’s On Writing, Orson Scott Card’s book on Characters and Viewpoint, and Johnny Payne’s on Voice and Style are some of my favorites I still go back and revisit.

What book do you read over and over again? That depends on what I’m working on at the moment. While writing my Navy Navy SEAL series I have a stack of reading material I revisit over and over. The Warrior Elite, The Finishing School, and Down Range, all by Dick Couch and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell among a list of others.

When I’m working on other things I’ll choose reading material germane to my subject matter. I have to immerse myself in the subject to get a feel for the knowledge my characters will have. But it’s more than that. It’s to understand what reactions my characters will have to the conflicts I throw at them. I’m constantly reading male writers to try and improve my MAN SPEAK. 

Tuesday Trio-

1)      Movie- Underworld the first one with Kate Beckinsale and Scot Speedman

2)      Music- The Red Violin Soundtrack, Joshua Bell is fantastic!

3)      Decadent Dessert- Death by chocolate. A chocolate brownie with chunks of chocolate baked in, topped with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a grated Hershey bar, (I’m serious about my chocolate)

What’s the most interesting or bizarre bit of trivia you’ve learned from researching for a novel? That George Washington’s physicians probably killed him trying to cure him of something simple like a bad chest cold. They tortured him. They even burnt the bottoms of his feet. I think he finally died to escape them.

Novel on your Nightstand:

Who/what are you currently reading?

I have a stack of books in the floor next to my bedside table. They’re my to be read books. The Wolf Gift, by Anne Rice, May Day by Thomas Block, The Rope by Navada Barr, and Malice by Lisa Jackson are a few of them. I also have the complete works of Jane Austin all in one volume. I think it weights at least ten pounds. And though I’ve read several of them in the past, I’m revisiting them this summer. By second book, Captive Hearts, was a Regency Romance so what better way to review the premises included in Regency than reading Jane Austen.

Whom would you cast as your Hero & Heroine if your book became a movie?

Highland Moonlight  (Kevin McKidd and Kate Beckinsale)

Captive Hearts (Ioan Gruffudd and Sophia Miles)

Breaking Free (Eric Bana and Emily Blunt)

Timeless  (Garrard Butler and Michelle Williams)

Breaking Through (Chris Evans and Emma Stone)

Not that I’ve thought about it much!!!

Blurb: For Timeless

Archaeology student, Regan Stanhope, lands the chance of a lifetime when she’s chosen to work on a summer dig in Loch Maree, Scotland. The ancient monoliths hidden beneath the loch are the most important discovery since Stonehenge. And for seven hundred years, they have been waiting—for her.

Saturation diver Quinn Douglas is contracted to recover some of the megaliths from the loch’s bottom. The job will breathe life into the struggling salvage business he and his brothers are building. But from the moment he arrives, Quinn is plagued by dreams and feelings from a past he did not live. Or did he?

Regan and Quinn are drawn to each other as they research the monoliths and the reason behind their shared visions. But both sense something mystical at work, delving into their minds, manipulating their emotions. And when they finally discover the monoliths’ extraordinary secret, they know they must seal them away from those who are desperate to unlock their power. Even if it means remaining caught in a timeless struggle between the past and present forever.

 

You can find out more about Teresa at her

WEBSITE

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