Friday Five: Amy Andrews

646Author: Amy Andrews
First published with Escape: 2014
Favourite romance trope: Small town
Ideal hero (in three words): Funny. Handy. Laidback.
Ideal heroine (in three words): Spunky. Quirky. Mouthy.
Latest book: Limbo

What began your romance writing career? Why do you write romance?

The need to not get off my electric blanket in the midst of a freezing cold English winter… (sorry, not very romantic!) I write romance for the happy sigh and because it privileges women’s experiences and sexuality.

Amy Andrews (2)

What do you do when you’re stuck with a scene?

I plough through. Even if its shite – I can fix that in rewrites.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had to research for a book?

I’ve recently Googled bonnet (hood) heights for pickup trucks to figure out the logistics of my hero going down on my heroine…..never did that in my old job!

Amy Andrews (1)

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? Or any cute quirks in general?

I am boringly un-quirky. I save that for my characters!

Favourite book covers? What draws your eye to a romance cover?

I’m drawn to quirky or different covers. I really like the cartoony type covers (yes, I know, I’m the only one in the entire world….) because they can be really personalised/tailored to a book and are often quirky or different. Nothing quite like a hot man on romance cover or a really hot couple clearly into each other! And I really appreciate when the people on a cover actually fit the description of the characters in the book.


23731 (1)Six Feet Under meets Stephanie Plum in Amy Andrews’  fresh, funny, sexy urban-family noir about a country singer who almost made it, a private investigator who’s seen too much and a mother who will cross all barriers to save her child.

When ex hillbilly-punk rocker turned cadaver make-up artist Joy Valentine is visited by the ghost of a high-profile murder victim begging for Joy’s help to find her kidnapped baby girl, Joy knows from experience the cops are going to think she’s crazy.  So she takes it to the one guy she knows who won’t.

The last thing disgraced ex-cop turned private investigator Dash Dent expected is a woman from his past turning up to complicate his present with a nutty, woo-woo story. The problem is he knows Joy is telling the truth and he can’t ignore the compelling plight of baby Isabella whose disappearance six months prior transfixed the nation.

Discounted and discredited by the police, Dash and Joy work together to uncover the mystery and find Isabella, with a whacky supporting cast including Eve, a brothel madam; Stan, an excommunicated priest; Katie, Dash’s ten-year-old daughter; and two horny goldfish. It’s a race against time and against all odds – but the real battle for Dash and Joy might just be keeping their hands off each other.

 

Crossing Genres, Mashing Labels

Sitting down to write a book that mashes up genres isn’t something a career-minded author does lightly. Often these books are compulsions. I certainly ignored Joy and her story for two years because it was just too weird and beyond my scope of normal until I just had to write it. And it was a lot of fun – scary but liberating and I still love the world of that book so damn hard.

Unfortunately, a mash up book is often just as hard for publishers to grapple with even if they love it and the world you’ve created. Because how do you put a cover on a book that conveys romance, noir, comedy, urban family and a touch of paranormal?

How?

How do you cover Six Feet Under meets Stephanie Plum?

The answer was staring us in the face all the time. Embrace the quirk! The book is quirky as all giddy up – it has fornicating gold fish for crying out loud. And a brothel madam. And an ex-communicated priest! To name just a few of the eccentricities.

Embrace the quirk!

So, Limbo is getting a do-over and I cannot even begin to describe how in love with this cover I am. With Ralph there staring straight back at you, it screams quirky and I am utterly thrilled with it.

23731

For those who missed it the first time around, here are some reviews to entice you!

Roz from My Written Romance. Holy crap, that was so much fun to read. From the country-singing punk heroine and the ragged and rugged ex-cop hero, to horny goldfish, a brothel madam and an excommunicated priest, Limbo is everything I love about Amy Andrews, and like nothing I had expected.”

Marcia from Book Muster Down Under.  While Amy may feel she has gone out on a limb in breaking with her traditional romances and giving her readers something different to what they have come to expect from her by using elements she’s never attempted before (see an interview held with Amy at AusRom Today), after reading Limbo I can honestly say that, while she may feel that way, for me (a long time reader of romance and all its sub-genres), her combination of comedy, mystery, suspense and romance is an absolute winner and I’d go so far as to say that both Stephanie Plum and Erica Jewell may very well have a rival in their midst – believe me when I say you will not want to miss this!”

Carol from Reading, Writing and Riesling. In the words of the author this book is “urban-noir/paranormal-lite/mystery/romance mash up” and I would add PI in the mix, and a great mix it is too. This is a great contemporary feel good romp that had me smiling and laughing out loud. The characters are quirky, flawed and very very real.”

I hope you love the new cover as much as I do and you’ll be tempted to one-click and give my quirky little baby a chance. Two more books are planned in the series. Book 2 – Neither Here Nor There – should be out early next year

Buy links: Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon US, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Google, Booktopia

May Titles Bloom Into Life

For your reading pleasure!

23731Six Feet Under meets Stephanie Plum in Amy Andrews’  fresh, funny, sexy urban-family noir about a country singer who almost made it, a private investigator who’s seen too much and a mother who will cross all barriers to save her child.


24128Revisit Swallow’s Fall in this beautiful short novel from Jennie Jones about an ex-military man, a single mother and the impossibility of dreams coming true.


24083From the author of the romantic horror debut Beckoning Blood comes the gripping sequel that mixes blood, sex, and magic.


Finally, all the Housewives are together at last – with four bonus stories…

24129Secrets Revealed! Bonus four epilogues, exclusive to this digital bind-up!

You’ve never met housewives as hot as these…They’re wealthy and glamorous. The elite of society. But appearances can be deceiving.