LOVING LUCIANNA BLOG TOUR - FIVE QUESTIONS TO THE AUTHOR, JOYCE DI PASTENA, AND GIVEAWAY

What made you write a book about an older couple falling in love?

I belong to a Facebook group called the Clean/Sweet Romance Group. Last spring we held a joint promo event on Facebook, and afterwards the group leader challenged us to write a fall-themed short story, novella, or novel for a promo event to be held in the fall. At first I simply tried to come up with a story set during the autumn season, but then I thought, “What if I wrote a story about a couple falling in love in the autumn of their lives?” (All good plot ideas begin with “What if…?”  ) And then I remembered a pair of secondary characters who fell in love in my medieval romance, Illuminations of the Heart, who were in their 40s and 50s. Their romance was a very small part of the arc of that story, but I decided it would be fun to follow it up and see where their romance took them. And that became the kernel of my idea for Loving Luciannaand my Hearts in Autumn romance series. (Loving Lucianna is the first in my projected series. I have an idea for a second romance, hopefully to be completed by next fall.)

What advice would you give budding writers?

I  know this sound trite, but write. Write every day, even if it’s just 100 words. And most importantly, write whether you feel like writing or not. The best advice I ever received was from someone who said, “Real writers write even when they don’t feel like it.” That advice has gotten me through many a rough patch when I didn’t feel like writing but did it anyway. It’s the way books get finished. I may not enjoy every word that I write—some days it literally feels like pulling teeth to get 100 words on the page. But I have never once regretted “forcing” myself to write when I came back to the computer the next day and saw that I had made progress with my story instead of letting it stand still.

What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

 Published a book. Honestly. You pour your heart and soul almost literally into a story then send it out into the world, knowing the world might knock it to pieces. It’s terrifying, not just the first time, but every time you do it. Because as much as your head knows the knocks, when they come, are “not personal,” it always feels personal because an author puts something personal, a piece of her heart, into each book she writes.

 If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want with you?

A. My scriptures to keep me spiritually focused. Something by Georgette Heyer to make me laugh. (Probably These Old Shades or Friday’s Child.) And The Three Musketeers or Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas to give me a little adventure.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

Definitely the Middle Ages (12th-13th centuries), though I’d want to be able to come home at night and sleep in my 21st century bed.

Favorite dessert?

Chocolate chip cookies (without nuts – nuts belong in brownies, not chocolate chip cookies)

Thank you, Joyce.  Good luck and happy writing!

About the book

Sir Balduin de Soler gave up long ago on love. He never had the means to support a wife until an unexpected advancement in his fifties allows him to reassess his future just as the lovely Lucianna enters his life.

Lucianna Fabio harbors a secret, painful memory from her past that has kept her unwed, as well. Now in her forties, she thought herself too old to marry until she meets Sir Balduin. Now suddenly their lonely autumn lives feel very much like spring again . . . until Lucianna’s brother appears without warning and threatens to revive the secret that will destroy Lucianna’s second chance at love.

About the author

Joyce DiPastena dreamed of green medieval forests while growing up in the dusty copper mining town of Kearny, Arizona. She filled her medieval hunger by reading the books of Thomas B. Costain (where she fell in love with King Henry II of England), and later by attending the University of Arizona where she graduated with a degree in history, specializing in the Middle Ages. The university was also where she completed her first full-length novel…set, of course, in medieval England. Later, her fascination with Henry II led her to expand her research horizons to the far reaches of his “Angevin Empire” in France, which became the setting of her first published novel, Loyalty’s Web (a 2007 Whitney Award Finalist).

Joyce is a multi-published, multi-award winning author who specializes in sweet medieval romances heavily spiced with mystery and adventure. She lives with her two cats, Clio and Glinka Rimsky-Korsokov, in Mesa, Arizona.

Connect with Joyce:  Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter

Where to buy the book:

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