Interview with Stacy Finz

Borrowing Trouble_finalHow did you get started writing?

I started as a newspaper reporter. I got my start at my college newspaper, writing record reviews and covering the arts. I interned at the Los Angeles Times and got my first real job out of college. For 30 years I covered everything from crime and catastrophes to agriculture and food. Then one day I got the notion that I should write fiction. After I sold my first three books I quit my newspaper gig and have been writing romance ever since.

What genre(s) do you write in and why?

I write contemporary romance. What appeals to me about the genre is that the stories always have happy endings. After thirty years of being a journalist I didn’t get to write too many happy endings.

Tell us about your current series.

It’s the Nugget Romance series about a small town in California’s Sierra Nevada where the lost and lonely find happiness and love. The residents are quirky, independent and watch out for each other.  Borrowing Trouble will mark the sixth book in the series. But all the books can be read as stand alones.

What is your next project and when will it be released?

The next Nugget book, Heating Up, will be out in July. And in November I have a Christmas Novella that will be part of an anthology with a number of other authors, including Fern Michaels. That story will launch a new series about a small town called Glory Junction, which I’m really excited about.

How likely are people you meet to end up in your next book?

Not likely, though a couple of my former newspaper editors show up in Second Chances, the third book in the series. And I kill a dear friend in Borrowing Trouble (No offense, Kevin).

What is most difficult for you to write?  Characters, conflict or emotions?  Why?

By far sex scenes. I’m always worried that they sound silly and not true to life. And always at the back of my mind is the thought that my mother is going to read this.

Give us an elevator pitch for your book.

He’s a chef, she’s a cop. Neither came to town looking for love but it found them. Trouble is, so has their pasts.BorrowingTroubleTour copy

What is your favorite dessert/food?

Anything bad for me. Mac and Cheese (homemade with gorgonzola), Nachos (the kind you get at the ballpark) and donuts. I love donuts.
Here’s an excerpt from Borrowing Trouble:

“Sloane, honey, look at me.” She lifted her head and locked eyes with him. Man, they were blue. “I left some trouble behind in LA. It hasn’t followed me yet . . . but now’s not a good time for me to get involved.” It wasn’t safe for either of them. And then there was the fact that he didn’t do involvement. Ever.

“What kind of trouble?” she asked, her chin held high.

“Bad trouble.” He wanted to leave it at that, but she was looking at him skeptically. Like she thought he was either wanted by the mob or feeding her a lie after he’d gotten her in the sack. “I have a stalker. She’s delusional and dangerous and I don’t want to put you on the other side of that. You understand?”

He watched her morph back into cop mode. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story. I like you, Sloane. You’re beautiful, smart, and tough. And you’ve got enough on your plate. You don’t need my pot of problems to add to it.”

“Have you gone to the police?”

“Santa Monica PD is working the case. But my stalker is as canny as she is crazy. So far they have nothing to arrest her for. Their best advice to me was to get out of LA while the getting was good. That’s why I’m here.”

“You ran from her?”

He didn’t like the way she’d phrased that, but yeah, that’s exactly what he’d done. “She broke into my apartment, she trashed my restaurant, she violated the restraining order I took out on her . . . and that’s not the half of it. But she didn’t leave a trace of evidence. Just my word against hers. Sloane, hurting a woman goes against everything I know and believe in, but if I didn’t get the hell out of there I was gonna hurt her.”

“Was she your girlfriend?”

He gave a bitter laugh. “Nope. But she thought so. Still does. I met her in the bar of my restaurant, went home with her that night, and the next thing I know she’s threatening to kill herself if I won’t see her again. It’s too surreal to explain. Even I have trouble understanding it, and believe me, I’ve read all the literature there is about this kind of warped obsession, trying to comprehend how this happened. But if she ever finds me, I don’t want her finding you.”

“Did you tell Nugget PD about this?”

He held her gaze. “I just did.”

“So this is official?”

“Sloane, I’m not talking to you as a cop. I’m telling you because this woman is unhinged . . . seriously scary. Last night shouldn’t have happened. But this chemistry between us . . . Ah, hell . . . it was selfish of me.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “If anything happened to you, I couldn’t live with that.” It appeared that thinking with his dick instead of using common sense had become a pattern.

Borrowing Trouble:

In the beautiful mountain town of Nugget, California, staying out of the limelight is easy, but staying out of love is a bit more challenging…

Back in Los Angeles, Sloane McBride was a great police detective, but after she uncovered corruption on her own squad, the job became nearly impossible. In the bucolic hills of Nugget, she can start to imagine a life after all that, where she keeps her head down, does her work, and doesn’t bother anyone. But her delicious next door neighbor isn’t going to make it easy to keep to herself…

Brady Benson’s wildest dreams came true in LA—but they were paired with a living nightmare. As executive chef of a searing-hot restaurant, he was lauded, adored… and then found himself caught in the sights of a lovelorn stalker. Now, laying low in Nugget, he finds his own heart ensnared by the beautiful new cop with her own reasons to start over.

Neither Sloane nor Brady came to town looking for love, but it seems to have found them. Trouble is, so have their pasts. And they’ll have to stop hiding from both if they hope to come out the other side together…

photowinner2Praise For Stacy Finz

“Finz is a unique new voice. Nugget, California is a charming small town filled with inventive characters and sweet romance.”–Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author of the Lucky Harbor Series

“Tender and touching, Stacy Finz writes romance with heart.”–Marina Adair, #1 National bestselling author of Summer in Napa

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Stacy Finz’s Bio

 

Stacy Finz is an award-winning former newspaper reporter. After more than twenty years covering notorious serial killers, naked-tractor-driving farmers, fanatical foodies, aging rock stars and weird Western towns, she figured she finally had enough material to launch a career writing fiction. She is the author of the Nugget Romance series (Kensington/Lyrical Press) about a small mountain town that has a strange way of giving people unexpected reasons to start over and find the most irresistible chances to fall in love.

http://www.stacyfinz.com/

 

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