Author Interview-Laura Briggs

I am very happy to have another fabulous author interview for you today. Author Laura Briggs has been kind enough to stop by the blog today to answer some of my burning questions so that we can all get to know her a little better!

Laura Briggs is the author of several chick lit and romance stories. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and admires novelty scarf designs as well. Her favorite Jane Austen novel is Sense and Sensibility, and she enjoys reading everything from women’s fiction to modern day mystery novels. She loves spending time with family, caring for her pets, going to movies and plays, trying new restaurants, and dreams of traveling around the UK and Europe someday. Laura has written the popular Wedding in Cornwall series, which is celebrating it's first birthday! She also recently published a literary themed novella; The Bronte Book Club for Hopeless Romantics. You can find links to all her social media at the end of the interview! 

First question-bit of a cliche-how did you get into writing?

Well, I was a huge book fan and majored in English at college. After dabbling in some freelance writing for awhile, I penned a romantic short story about a bookstore owner who teams with a dashing author to save her failing business. It was called Only in Novels and got me a book contract with the lovely Christian Fiction publisher known as Pelican Book Group. I wrote more titles for the same publisher and also begin to publish some chick lit titles independently via Amazon and Smashwords. Two of my favorite themes have been wedding planners and modern Jane Austen.

 Do you have a particular writing style or genre that you prefer?

I primarily write stories for the chick lit/romance genre. It’s a lot of fun creating scenarios that are zany or exciting or even glamorous. I love to send my characters cross country for a road trip romance, or, in the case of Julianne in A Wedding in Cornwall, ‘across the pond’ to a new life and new job at a beautiful Cornish estate. 

How do you develop your characters as you write, are any of them based on real people?

Sometimes I will pick a movie cast for a novel, imagining what actor or actress might portray the characters in a film adaptation. It's a lot of fun to do and can really help me to picture how the character might react to certain events in the story.

What was the inspiration behind your Wedding In Cornwall Series?

A lot of different things helped inspire the series. I had already written several stories with a wedding theme, so it was familiar territory that I knew and loved. One of those stories, Late to the Wedding, had made it to the Top 100 on Amazon UK, so I knew I had a sizeable reading audience in that part of the world. As for choosing Cornwall as a setting, it just seemed to fit. I had seen the beautiful and unique landscape in episodes of Doc Martin, and, of course, Poldarkis a huge sensation right now. It just seemed like the perfect setting for what I had in mind, and thankfully, my readers seem to agree.

  

How much of you is reflected in your writing?

Several of my interests tend to pop up in my novels. Characters who share my love for reading abound, such as the librarian heroine in The Bronte Book Club for Hopeless Romantics. My baking aspirations and love for reality baking shows are pretty heavily reflected in A Bake Off in Cornwall (though none of my real life kitchen creations have come close to matching the ones described in that particular book, LOL!).

What kind of research did you have to do before/during writing this series?

For A Wedding in Cornwall and its sequels I have had to rely primarily on internet research. As much as I would love to hop on a plane to Cornwall and spend several months immersed in research there, I simply can’t do it. Being from ‘across the pond’ means there are no doubt many inaccuracies in my depiction of English and Cornish life in general. It’s very much a fictional village I have created for these stories, and I’m glad that most readers are willing to accept the differences between the version of Cornwall my characters inhabit and the real world Cornwall that so many of them know and love.

Which other authors inspire you or are there any you particularly enjoy reading?

Jane Austen has certainly inspired several ideas for me, as she probably has for many romance authors. I do have pretty broad taste in reading, though, and enjoy everything from classics to women’s fiction and mysteries as well, both modern and historical.

And finally, what are you working on right now?

Lots of things! I’m getting Book 7 in the Cornwall series ready for publication. I’m also working on the sequel to my literary-themed romance novella The Bronte Book Club for Hopeless Romantics.  And, there are more books still in the ‘idea phase’ that may or may not make it to the first draft stage in the coming months.

Thank you so much to Laura for stopping by today. Happy series birthday!

Don't forget to check out Laura on social media:

Twitter Account: http://bit.ly/1ME9ivJ

Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/1JjeMoI

Author Website: http://paperdollwrites.blogspot.com/

And you can order Wedding in Cornwal here, or the Bronte Book Club here!