Welcome to Romance Author - Constance Bretes

I’m delighted to welcome Constance Bretes to my blog.

Hello Constance – It was great to connect with you through our publisher, BeachwalkPress, Inc. where a wide range of quality ebooks in a variety of subgenres are offered.

I’m keen to discover what a Contemporary Romance/Romance Suspense Author has to share and I'm sure your readers are too. But before we discover more about your latest release - Midnight Escape - here are a few questions which will hopefully give your readers an insight into some of the things that matter to you.

Arabella: Authors can release books, making them available to readers in various ways…via an agent, or working directly with a traditional publisher, or they can even go the self-publishing route. Which method of publishing do you prefer, and why?

Constance: I work through my publisher, Beachwalk Press, Inc. because this publisher works individually with me on my books so that they are virtually error-free and grammar correct.

Arabella: Who or what inspired you to write your latest release, Midnight Escape?

Constance:  I was watching the show, Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. In case you don’t know what the show is about. It’s about the commercial crab fishermen who go out to the rough Bering Sea crab fishing. The episode showed a captain whose daughter wanted to take over the business, so he hired her as the greenhorn deckhand and started her at the lowliest job on the boat, taking the fish and baiting the pots. As I thought about the storyline that was forming from this, I kept asking myself how would I get the heroine on the boat. So I came up with a mob hit, and Jax helping her to escape the mob by taking her out on the boat.

Arabella: If the person of your dreams, (husband/wife/partner/or superstar), were to take you out for the night, where would they take you and what would you do?

Constance: A romantic dinner at a 5-star restaurant followed by an evening at a concert to listen to Gordon Lightfoot and a visit backstage with the star for a lovely conversation.

Arabella: Currently, what is your most favourite T.V. programme, and why?

Constance:  I LOVE The Big Bang Theory, and Last Man Standing. The Big Bang Theory is geeky and hilarious. Last Man Standing, well, I just love Tim Allen.  

Arabella: When writing a book or chapter, which do you concentrate on first: plot, character, or setting?

Constance: Plot. Always the plot. The characters and setting are embellishments to add to turn it from a plot to a story.

  

Arabella: How do you research your novels and characters?

Constance:  In the case of Midnight Escape. I spent a lot of time watching the Deadliest Catch, learning the ins and outs of the boat, what all the machines do, what the crew do, what sets the men off while on the job, and stuff like that. I also research the towns in Alaska, the bay area and the passageway to the sea, where dry docks are and why they exist. I also research paralytic shellfish poisoning, something that only happens in the Alaska coastlines. Most of this is done through internet searches, but I do visit my library from time to time to find books on particular subjects. For example, in two of my books, Blue As Sapphires and Elkhorn In The Moonlight, I spent a lot of time researching gold mines. I lived in a small town that had 4 gold mines, and I research the town’s history with gold and the people, population, etc. If at all possible, I will visit the towns in my stories to get a feel for them. Blue As Sapphires was written based on the town of Phillipsburg, Montana, while Elkhorn In The Moonlight was based on Basin, Montana, where I lived.

Arabella: A slice of Chocolate Cake, a piece of Fruit, or Burger and Fries?

Constance: Burger and fries. However, I’m picky about the food. I want it fixed correctly, or according to the way I like it. Especially my French fries.

Arabella: What advice would you give to someone who is starting out on their writing journey?

Constance:  Try to take a couple of creative writing classes at your local college, and know your grammar. Grammar was something that I never got the hang of even to this day. Now, it’s like trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

Get with some writers groups or people who write in your genre. Develop relationships with them so you can have an even exchange in ideas, encouragements, and guidance.

Writing is a lonely business. Vary your quiet spaces to write to include ways that help inspire you. I sometimes will go to a restaurant, a bar, a back porch, a lake, a small town, just someplace to help inspire me.

People’s conversations, habits, reactions, etc. inspire me when adding the setting and characters to my books.

In Elkhorn In The Moonlight (released in February 2019) I sat at the small town bar and restaurant and listened to the patrons talk about different stuff. Old miners passing by talking about mining in Butte, Montana before it was forced to close due to federal regulations, something someone found on the internet, like a driver getting pulled over for driving a wooden car on the freeway, music they like to listen to on the jukebox, etc.  Sometimes I take a pad of paper, other times, I make sure my iPhone is charged up and use the note features on the phone.

Constance, it was great having you on the blog and I hope your readers enjoyed learning about your research methods . . . T.V. – T.V. – and yet more T.V. Where would writers and authors be without Discovery Channel, Google, and our local libraries? J

Best wishes and good luck with Midnight Escape.

Arabella

www.arabellasheen.co.uk

About Constance Bretes

Constance started writing contemporary romance and contemporary romance suspense fifteen years ago. She was born and raised in Michigan. After thirty-eight years working for the State of Michigan, she retired. She and her husband moved to Montana and lived in the mountainside of a small town, where the story, Elkhorn In The Moonlight, was based upon. After living there for three years, they moved to Alabama with their three feline furballs who own her and her husband. Her hobbies include basket weaving, reading romance books, and jewellery making as well as writing.

https://constancebretes.com

Email: bretesc@gmail.com

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Book Blurb - Midnight Escape

On the run from the mob, Suzanne discovers that hunky Jax is just the man she needs.

Suzanne Pacheco is on the run from the mob after witnessing a murder and helping to put the killer in prison. Her trip across the country brings her to a small town in Alaska. But once again the mob’s hitman has tracked her down. She’s disheartened at the thought of leaving the town she’s developed a real fondness for, but there’s nothing else she can do. Until she finds help in the unlikeliest of places and embarks on an adventure like never before.

Commercial fisherman Jax Devereaux has his hands full fishing for crabs in the formidable Bering Sea, but when Suzanne needs his help, he adds yet another thing to his list of responsibilities. He takes her with him to the one place he thinks she might be safe—the middle of the sea. But there’s danger everywhere. Can he keep Suzanne safe, and will he lose his heart in the process?

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midnight-Escape-Constance-Bretes-ebook/dp/B07T9T2Y2D/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=midnight+escape+constance+bretes&qid=1563279391&s=gateway&sr=8-2