Romance author Lorraine Beatty answers a few questions about Rekindled Romance (Love Inspired): Dealing with exes is never easy, but when Matt’s ex-fiance shows up out of the blue after leaving him behind years ago, he has a hard time adjusting to the idea of her being around again — especially since she’s his new neighbor.
Q: WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS WRITING REKINDLED ROMANCE?
I wanted to point out that chasing after worldly success can’t fill the void in our hearts or take the place of God. I also wanted to show that even when we get off track and think we can do it all ourselves the Lord will give us a second chance to get it right. The heroin in Rekindled Romance is only 34 years old but she has a mild heart attack due to the extreme stress in her career. She gets a second chance with her former fiancé but first she has to reconnect with her faith.
Q: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH STORY TO WRITE?
Usually it’s the one that is nagging at me. I get ideas all the time but some are nothing more than a sentence or a small concept. But others start coming together right away. I see the hero or heroine and know their issues, often time they’ll tell me their names before I even know what they look like. Once they have names, then I’m hooked and I can’t wait to get started on Grant and Avery’s story, or Vic and Allie’s journey. Over time I’ve learned that if I know the black moment of a story first, creating the rest of the book is much easier.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE STORY WHERE YOU DREW ELEMENTS FROM REAL LIFE?
Shelby Russell, the heroine in Rekindled Romance, has lost everything – job, home, etc. It’s something I understand because there was a time when our family lost it all. But The Lord restored so much to us and gave us a Do Over. Which is why I named the town Do Over, Mississippi, even though the residents have come to call it simply, Dover.
Q: IN YOUR NEW NOVEL, WHICH CHARACTER SURPRISED YOU MOST?
Oddly enough, it was the children. When they were in a scene, they took over. They also have a dog and he insisted on his close ups too. I guess even in writing it’s true – never work with dogs or children.
Between the hero and heroine, I think the hero turned out to be more bullheaded than I expected him too. He just would not give an inch.
Q: WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
I just finished the final edits for Christmas at Monmouth Plantation, a novella for Barbour’s Plantations Christmas Weddings collection to be released in September. I’m working on book three in the Dover series. This book focuses on Ty Durrant, a wounded police detective who comes home to Dover to recuperate and finds a woman and her young son living in his lakeside cabin.