Connie: and Tina: Welcome to Once Upon A Romance, Sandra. We’re very happy to have you here with us, very happy to have the chance to get to know both sides of you; the author side and the personal side. First would you tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re working on now that we’ll see in the near future?

Sandra: Thank you for inviting me here, and for that warm welcome.

A little bit about me… Well, I live in Northern Connecticut with my husband, who’s also my business manager. I’ve written (and had published) more than sixty novels, most for Harlequin Presents but also some single titles and novellas. A plug here for Presents, if that’s okay… Did you know it’s the best-selling line of category romances in the world? My books are published in more than twenty languages and I have more than 20 million books in print.

Tina: Plug away!!

First I want to ask you about your most recent mini series, the Knight Brothers, with Naked in His Arms being the last release to the series and Alexander the latest hero. He’s a hot alpha hero. Did he naturally appear to you as typically alpha male or did you have to do a little molding here and there in order for him to meet the needs on all levels of Cara? How about with Matthew and Mia in Captive in His Bed and Cameron and Leanna in The Desert Virgin?

Sandra: The Knights are a slightly different "spin" on the Alpha heroes I love to create. They’re powerful, wealthy, self-made and totally take-charge guys. The tweak I gave Alex, as well as Matt and Cam, is that they shared a seemingly-loveless childhood and grew up to take pleasure in things that are extremely dangerous: first high school pranks, then Special Forces, then covert ops for the government. When my trilogy begins, the brothers own their own company, Risk Management Specialists.

Their lives have made them especially close to each other, wary of any other emotional commitment.

The key was to create women who’d ultimately pierce the brothers’ protective shells and find the sensitivity and tenderness locked within each man’s heart. The Knights had always shown those qualities to each other. Now, it was time to show them to the women with whom they fell in love.

Connie: Let’s talk about alpha for another minute, Sandra. You mention the need for the heroine to be as feisty, as alpha as the hero. Independent. Many authors can do so and you being one of them I’m curious as to how you walk the line that makes her "alpha" but not so "alpha" that she’s almost unlikable?

Sandra: Connie, I think I deal with my heroines in much the same way I deal with my heroes.

What I mean is, an Alpha hero should be assertive, not aggressive. He should be dominant, not dominating. He should be powerful, not bullying. He should be no more demanding of others than he is of himself.

An Alpha heroine should be the same. Her independence should be a good thing, not a negative one. When she stands up for her rights, when she stands up to the hero, it’s not for the sake of giving him a hard time, it’s because she fully believes she’s right. She knows, instinctively, that he might interpret her backing down or giving ground as a sign of weakness. That means developing meaningful motivations for her behavior, and a conflict that can stand up to the scrutiny of both my reader and my hero.

After that, I have to find ways to let my heroine and my hero ease back and open up to each other. For me, that’s a big part of the challenge in each book I write.

Connie: It’s obvious when reading your books your characters are well developed, but now we see just how much.

Tina: Do you enjoy writing and creating the mini series as much or more than you do a single category title? Does your creativity get to recharge with each project whether it’s connected to a series or not?

Sandra: I love both but in many ways, writing and creating a mini-series is more of a challenge. I have to keep my readers’ interests going from book to book. That’s not easy.

As for recharging my creative batteries… I’m happy to say that the answer is yes, they recharge for each and every project, whether it’s a series of connected books, a single title, a stand-alone category novel, a novella, a continuity… The truth is, I love writing. I love my career. There’s hardly a day goes by that I don’t realize how lucky I am to be doing what I do and getting paid to do it!

Tina: How lucky the readers are, too, to have you writing for them, us.

What do you find is different and yet the same in writing the mini series vs. the single category title?

Sandra: In a single category novel, there’s no real room for a sub-plot. In mini-series, I can often carry an ongoing sub-plot as I did in the Knights, in terms of the brothers’ childhoods and their relationships with their father. Also, when I write a mini-series, I keep very careful notes about the relationships of my characters. I tend to write fairly complex characters so there’s generally a lot of back-story to them and I have to sort all that out before I begin writing. I try hard to make my characters’ relationships with each other different, one from the other, so that adds another element to my planning.

On the other hand, especially in Presents, the real concentration is on the passion, the emotion, the depth of the relationship between hero and heroine. I see that as the most important part of my Presents novels, whether they’re stand-alones or mini-series.

Tina: The sorting, the notes and keeping track. Too much homework. Guess that’s why your write the books and I sell them.

How about the continuity titles? The ones where you write a mini series with other authors. We’ve had differing viewpoints on this. Does doing so allow you to be at your creative best or do you feel hindered by the restrictions (if there are any?), or both?

Sandra: I’ve done two of those, one for a continuity called Cooper’s Corner—my book was Dancing in the Dark—and another for Forrester Square, in which my book was Ring of Deception.

I was concerned about restrictions, as are many authors. And, of course, there definitely are some. There were far more in the Cooper’s Corner series, where I had to deal with a lot of back-story that wasn’t mine concerning my heroine and the man she’d loved.

Forrester Square was a far less restrictive experience for me. My hero, Luke, was a cop. He’d been in a bad marriage. Now, he would fall in love with a woman, a single parent raising a little girl, and ultimately he’d come to suspect she might be involved in some jewel thefts. That was all I had handed to me, so it gave me a wide-open field for developing a story and my characters. I could make Luke the kind of Alpha hero I adore, one with lots of emotional baggage, one who hides behind a shield of toughness, who’s stunned to find himself falling in love. The entire plotline was mine to do with as I liked.

Ring Of Deception was a RITA finalist in Long Contemporary, and there’ve only been a couple of continuity books that have made the RITAs, so I can honestly say I was very pleased with how the book turned out.

Connie: Having someone hand you a "what if" that’s not yours could seem overwhelming, but yet I could see the possibilities to challenge yourself.

You’ve been writing Presents for a long time. As has been established you’ve also written for the Cooper’s Corner and Forrester Square series. With all the titles and scenarios you’ve written and looking back, how has writing changed for you? What do you see as your biggest change in voice and style?

Sandra: The biggest change for me took place about a dozen years ago. Presents, under its then-Editorial Director, used to insist authors use single POV (the heroine’s). It also insisted that North American writers use British English, not American English. If you didn’t, an English copyeditor made the changes for you.

To be blunt, I thought both requirements were a mistake. I’d always felt, in my bones, that Presents novels should be the hero’s story more than the heroine’s. I also thought it just plain silly for my American characters to use British terms like bonnet (hood of a car), chemist (drug store), underground (subway), carriage way (highway), etc. I thought it was a jarring interruption for me as a writer, for my readers and for my characters.

Don’t get me wrong. I will always be grateful to that Editorial Director at Harlequin Mills and Boon for buying my first book and starting me on what’s turned out to be a wonderful career. And it wasn’t that she just didn’t want me to use dual POV or American idioms, it was that she firmly believed her approach was the right one.

But I reached a point at which I took a deep breath, wrote a book that used male POV, sent it to my editor and said I honestly didn’t see that I could write that story any other way. I said I would not change it to single POV.

It was a huge gamble, because if my then-editor had refused to try and convince her boss that I was right, I’d already drawn a line in the sand. I knew I wouldn’t be able to back down. It took several months but finally my editor phoned and said her boss wasn’t happy about it but they’d publish the book as it was.

That book—Emerald Fire—opened in the hero’s POV. Though it also contained the heroine’s POV, there was no doubt the book was the hero’s story. Its success led to my proposing my first mini-series, Landon’s Legacy. I used dual POV throughout that series and absolutely leaned more heavily on making them the heroes’ stories than the heroines’. The series was a great success and marked a huge change in my voice, my style and my career. A new Executive Director came along right about then and topped things off by agreeing I could use American English instead of British English.

I felt as if I’d been set free, and I know, without question, that freedom showed—and still does—in both my voice and my style.

Connie: How fascinating! The things we learn through these interviews! Tell me more, how has the Presents line changed over the years in general and for you as a writer and ultimately for the reader?

Sandra: Well, it’s now most definitely hero-centered. Presents acknowledges that their books are basically the hero’s tale.

Heroes have changed, too. The kind of hero I always wrote, even in the days when I couldn’t use his POV, was an Alpha male with a heart, even if it took the heroine a while to find that heart. I never could understand why a woman, in a novel or in life, would be interested in a man who treated her cruelly. Now, Presents heroes are almost always guys with decent instincts, though not always obvious ones.

Heroines are much more sophisticated. They have careers (or not, depending on the story) that reflect the real world. Problems, motivations, conflicts are more realistic, too. Presents are, without question, sexier and more sensual than in the past. All these changes are good for authors and for readers. They’re part of the reason Presents novels sell so incredibly well. Presents authors and editors are always willing to try something different, to move ahead.

Tina: All the changes developed create a win win situation for the author, Harlequin and the reader.

Help us picture your work area, Sandra...desk; cluttered or organized? Anything by way of mood enhancers; music, food, drink, pets?

Sandra: I have an office that, I think, is very much a reflection of me. The wall I face is hung with family photos, mementoes, awards, pictures of things that interest me—for instance, I have a large, framed map of American Indian tribes on that wall as well as several paintings and sketches of wolves. (Wolves and wilderness are passions of mine.)

Another wall is hung with a framed, signed cover proof as well as the framed, original painting of another of my covers. Both were much-cherished gifts from the artist.

I have several music CDs on a shelf over my desk but the truth is, I rarely play them when I’m working. It’s not that it’s distracting, it’s that I get so involved in the story I’m writing that I forget I’ve put on a CD and I don’t hear it. Sounds crazy, maybe, but when I write, I truly forget the outside world.

My desk itself is always neat at the start of a book. By the book’s end, however, it’s a disaster area. I joke about "shoveling out" my office after finishing a novel but it’s close to the truth!

Tina: Now I feel like I can picture you tapping out a story for us. And when you’re tapping away, what would your typical writing day be like, Sandra? How do you and your characters handle the interruptions?

Sandra: I write every day except Sundays, from 9 or so in the morning until it feels right to stop, generally 5 or 6 in the evening. As for how my characters and I handle interruptions… excellent question, Tina. The truth is, not very well! I don’t take phone calls while I’m working. The UPS guy, the FedEx driver, both know to just leave packages on the porch unless they require a signature. The only thing I do stop for is lunch with my husband, whose office is upstairs from mine. Sometimes, he’ll call on the intercom to remind me it’s lunch time and I’m really amazed to find the hours have flown past.

Connie: You put in a grueling schedule, Sandra.

Is there any direction you’ve not gone in as a writer that you’d like to do in the near future?

Sandra: Connie, I approach each book on its own. I’ve tried suspense, the paranormal, now erotic romance with the Knight brothers… I guess the best answer to your question is that I’ll only know I’m going in a new direction when I get there, if that makes sense.

Connie: Perfectly.

Sandra, on the occasions you do a workshop online, what is the format for the workshop? Is it basically for those who are interested in the category romances or for anyone interested in writing?

Sandra: I don’t see a difference between writing Presents and writing single title. Not in my books or my approach to writing, anyway. Reviewers, readers and my own editor (Tessa Shapcott, Sr Editor/Executive Editor for Presents) all say that my Presents are basically single titles in Presents format.

That’s how I approach writing Presents, so that’s reflected in my approach to the workshops I give. Good writing is good writing, no matter who you write for.

I love to do workshops, by the way. It’s fun to interact with other writers. And I always learn something about my own writing in preparation for a workshop. Unfortunately, I’ve been doing fewer and fewer of them because of time constraints but I’ll always do some because I enjoy them so much.

Connie: I’ll have to keep an eye out for your next one, Sandra.

When you travel, does any of your sight seeing turn into research for future novels? How about when you visit London in September, will you be doing any research/sight seeing then?

Sandra: All my travel is research for my work! Everything I see, hear, taste, touch and do ends up in my books eventually. I’m lucky in that my career has made it possible for my husband and me to travel quite a lot, always with a portable computer (mine) and a digital camera (his) so I can take lots of notes and he can take lots of photos.

I’ve been to London several times so I’ve done lots of research there but there are some neighborhoods and places I want to explore in greater depth this time. And I want to do some research to get background information for a possible forthcoming hero.

Tina: Sandra, you’ve piqued our interest now!

We’re going to move on to getting to know you a bit better aside from your writing now. I’m not much of a shopper myself, so you’ll find an assortment of styles in my closet from 10 years ago (if not longer) to something from last year. Though I will say that I do shop for the RT conventions! Anyway, what would we find in your closet? Do you like to clothes, shoe, purse shop, or are you not much of a shopper?

Sandra: Shopping! One of my favorite topics, Tina. I have two closets, mostly because I sort of lead two lives. One is what I think of as the Everyday Me, the Real Me. That’s the Sandra who lives in jeans, T-shirts, sneakers (winter) and shorts, T-shirts, sandals (summer.) Those things, along with hiking boots and old LL Bean jackets, are in one closet.

The other closet is the Business Me. Suits. Heels. A gorgeous Burberry raincoat I hardly ever get to wear. You know, clothes for RWA. For business meetings. For important dinners.

I do have two special weaknesses: shoes and Coach handbags. My husband says I collect Coach. He might just be right! And shoes… Mmm. Let’s not even talk about what a sucker I am for a new pair of thong sandals or Nike trail shoes or heels. In fact, just yesterday, I saw a pair of slingback heels, tried to hold off by asking myself—sternly—if I really needed them, came up with a ‘no’… and, of course, bought them anyway!

Tina: Sternly, huh? I don’t have a shopping weakness, thank goodness!

Connie: What about flip-flops??????

Tina: Oh. Right.

Connie: Back to the interview...Any favorite movies or movie stars from the glamour days of Hollywood? What makes it/them favorites?

Sandra: Harrison Ford, maybe, who almost always comes across as real no matter what the role. Going further back, Burt Lancaster. Kirk Douglas. Even in late night movies with dated plots and dated sound-tracks, Lancaster and Douglas always get to me. SPARTACUS runs on late-night cable every now and then. I’ve seen it three or four times by now but Kirk’s final moments still make me weep.

Tina: Absolutely, strictly for fun... You’re stranded on a desert island with what fictional (movie or book) character? What is it about this character that makes you want to get to know him?

Sandra: Hmm. Well, right now, it would be Elvis Cole, an ongoing character in a series of suspense novels by Robert Crais. I only discovered these books recently, and Cole is a complex character with lots of layers, so I’d like the chance to get to know him better.

Or perhaps it would be the character John Travolta played in Pulp Fiction. Was it Vincent Vega? A cold-blooded killer but with such levels of complexity… Yup, I’d like to spend a little time getting to know him.

Connie: Hmm, interesting choices. They’d by lying on the proverbial couch but only so you could de-layer them.

You’re learning to knit. And unravel and start all over again. What is your goal? What do you want to ultimately learn to knit?

Sandra: Actually, I did knit years ago, Connie. I loved the feel of the yarn, the click of the needles… I just never got to that state some knitters obviously get to, you know, that almost-Zen thing? I’d like to reach that point of Zen, if possible. I guess it’s not what things I ultimately want to learn to knit, it’s the journey of getting there… if that makes sense. I just joined a knitter/writer blog with several other writers. So far, I’m definitely the rookie! We’ll see how it goes!

Tina: Is there a particular historical, or famous figure (living or dead) you would love to meet, Sandra? What about this person intrigues you? What would you say to them or ask them?

Sandra: Elizabeth I. I’d love to ask her if she really took lovers, or if she guarded her power so zealously she truly remained the virgin queen to the end. I’d also love to meet Julius Caesar. Another complex guy. So much power that it ultimately corrupted him… and yet, he fell like a stone for Cleopatra’s deft maneuvering.

Connie: So much history that was never recorded, so much we’ll never know but would like to know.

Answer these, please:
Would you rather mini golf or bowl?
Would you rather rent a movie or go to the theater?
Would you rather dine out or dine in?
Would you rather read in a bubble bath or curled up in a comfy chair?

Sandra: Mini-golf. I’m not much of an athlete. Heck, that’s an understatement! And I’ve never bowled in my life!

Rent a movie. There’s almost always somebody loud sitting behind me in a theater who wants the world to know his/her opinion on the script!

Depends. Dining out in a favorite restaurant or some new, upscale place can be wonderful… but if I’m not in the mood to dress up, I’d just as soon have take-out Thai or phone for pizza with extra cheese and lots of garlic.

Definitely, in a comfy chair, feet up and tucked beneath me.

Tina: More pieces to the Sandra puzzle in place...

Would you tell us how you met your husband?

Sandra: Well, I was fifteen. A friend who’d moved to my neighborhood from my husband’s kept telling me how much this guy and I had in common, how much I’d like him, etc. So, of course, the more she talked him up, the less I wanted to meet him.

She finally took things into her own hands, invited him to visit her, then had him drive her to the building where I lived with my parents. She phoned our apartment from the building’s lobby, told me I had to come down just for a minute to meet someone or she’d never forgive me.

I was in my senior year in high school, busy studying for a Latin final, but I said—just to get her out of my hair—I’d come down for five minutes. I went back upstairs two hours later, starry-eyed and with a date for the next weekend.

That was it. We’ve been together ever since.

Connie: And after all these years of marriage is there a story to look back on that wasn’t funny then, but is now?

Sandra: Not really, though we do look back a lot and shake our heads at how painfully young we were when we married. We have so many shared memories, because we met so young, that neither of us can really recall what it was like before we knew each other.

Connie and Tina: With that we’ll say thank you and good-bye. We had a great time, Sandra. But first, is there anything we forgot to ask that you wanted the readers and fans to know?

Sandra: Only that reading is the greatest gift we can pass on to our children and grandchildren. And thank you, Connie and Tina. I had a wonderful time.

Connie and Tina: We did, too, Sandra!

Comment or respond to Sandra's interview and we'll post your comments below!

"Connie and Tina: I honestly don't know how you two do it? This interview with Sandra Marton was amazing.

I can honestly say that I've actually read everything she has ever written. Years ago a friend gave me A Flood of Sweet Fire and I was hooked. I started hitting used book stores and web sites until I had a copy of everything Sandra Marton had written. Sandra's recent Knight Brother series was exceptional. Also my favorite series were The Ramirez Bride's, The O'Connell's and The Baron's.

However this interview and the insight you've given us into Sandra the author was exceptional. Thanks so much."

Marilyn Shoemaker
Seattle, WA

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Author's Interviews