Tell us a little about yourself. I’m almost 30.  I
live in Indiana with my amazing boyfriend.  I’m impatiently waiting for a house and a puppy. I’ve been writing pretty much since I can remember.  I am a hair stylist and work in a salon.  I’ve been licensed for about 7 years.  I love it and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  Well, except writing.

My mom was a hair stylist.  It was amazing to see what you had to do to get that license. What television sitcom is most like your family?Why? Hmmm….I don’t know if this counts as a sitcom but the show Whitney reminds me a lot of my relationship.

I love that show!  Whitney is so spunky! What’s your favorite thing to do to relax? I usually read to relax.  There’s nothing like getting lost in someone else’s world for a while.  Oh and I drink wine, of course.

If you had to be one of your characters, which would you be and why?  I’d probably be Chloe.  She’s someone that no one has met yet, but don’t worry, you will.  She’s strong and independent but has never had to worry about much.

Let's learn a little more about yourself personally. Do you prefer…Beer or wine? Wine all the way.  I love wine. I, however, only drink one beer. My boyfriend is a bit of a beer snob, and he loves to try new beer.  He’s always trying to get me to try them too but I just don’t like
beer.  I try.

I understand.  I'm not a wine fan but I love the fruity drinks that cost a ton of money.  I do like some of the summer ales as far as beer.  They have a fruity drink too.  Do you prefer...exercise or watching tv? Sadly, watching tv.  I used to exercise.  I took dance lessons from 4 or 5 until I was 12, I think.  I ran track in high school.  I randomly get the urge to work out but I’m not very consistent.  I love educational tv though.  Like the discovery channel or the history channel.  I get sucked into it.

Do you prefer...Coke or Pepsi? I don’t really drink either but it I had to choose I would pick Coke.  I’m a water drinker.  Water and lemonade.  

I love water myself, especially with a wedge of lemon in it. Do you prefer...living without car or living without your computer? I’m going to say my car.  Mostly because I hate driving and I can’t imagine writing by hand anymore.  How sad is that?

I would have said without my car too.  I can't live without my computer and even took it with me on my honeymoon.  To be fair, I was in a Master's program and couldn't skip even for a wedding but my computer is much more important to me than my car! Now let's learn a little about you as an author. Did you always want to be an author? I guess you could say that.  I never really thought I would get published.  It was always a dream even if it was distant.  I’ve mostly written for myself though.  I always have characters talking to me and ideas so I put them on paper.

What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult? Edgar Allen Poe, Truman Capote, and Shakespeare.  I devoured our assigned reading in school, and after school I
continued on reading the classics.

Did anyone in your life influence you or encouraged you to be a writer?  My best friend has been very supportive and writing is something we have in common so she’s always encouraging me.  My boyfriend is very encouraging and he was the one that told me I could put my stories out there for everyone to read. 

What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite?  Developing my characters and watching them grow.  Telling their stories in general has to be my favorite. I am horrible at titles though. It’s like pulling teeth.

What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on? It seems that in my years since high school and college I have forgotten most grammatical rules.  I love to over punctuate but in the wrong place.  So when it comes to editing it makes it much harder for me.  I definitely need some improvement on that.

I think that all authors would say that same thing about grammatical errors.  I'm a huge
exclamation point person.  I learned that fix on my first manuscript.  But learning is an important part of writing and I love to see the edits so that I can learn a new skill. Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing? Not really.  It depends on my mood. 
Sometimes I listen to music, but most of the time I just turn something mindless on tv. I need background noise I guess.

Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books? Nope, my writing is all over the place.  Most of my stories are very different from one another.

What have you learned the most from being in the writing business?  I haven’t been in it for very long.  Tears in the Rubble is my first published work.  So far though I’ve learned a lot about marketing.  Which is something I’ve never been very good at doing.

Marketing is something that is always changing.  I don't believe what we did a few years ago will work anymore.  We must always come up with new and exciting things to capture our audience.  Tell us about your latest release: Tears in the Rubble. Tears in the Rubble came out April 17th and it’s my first published work.  I wanted it to be a realistic love story.  A journey between two characters.  The struggle to grow together and not apart. And the journey to realizing that sometimes life is unexpected but you make the best of things even if it’s not part of the plan.

Layla Swanson grew up in the lazy, small town of Hollow Oaks and can’t wait to get out.  She has big dreams and big plans in the big city. Layla has worked hard and her senior year is nearly at its end.  She can’t wait to go away to college.  And she’s one step closer to getting what she wants. Layla isn’t letting anyone get in her way. 

Taylor Scott may not be your typical country boy, but he doesn’t mind Hollow Oaks.  His
dreams may not be marked on paper and set in stone, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have
them. 

A chance meeting between the two childhood friends may have Layla second guessing her longtime plan. Their rekindled friendship is leading them down a path neither one could have foreseen.  But with Layla leaving for college, many challenges face them, especially when she
so stubbornly sticks to her solo plan.

Is Taylor’s love enough to convince Layla to let him in?  Or when everything falls apart, will 
Layla run away?   

It sounds like an exciting tale of two people who have different dreams.  I can't wait to read it. How did you decide on your story plot? Oh, I didn’t decide on anything. My characters did.  I had plans and well they had other plans. 

How did you choose your characters names and location for your story? I made up a small town.  It’s in the Midwest but the town and city from my story are made up.  I guess I chose the Midwest because I know it, its home to me.  I don’t really have a process for choosing character names. In this instance I had characters in my head for quite some time and their names just felt right.  They just popped in my head.

Do you have a favorite scene? Why? I do. There’s a scene after their high school prom in their barn hideaway.  It’s actually the first scene I wrote from this story.

Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why? Not really.  I love Taylor.  He’s great, although he’s a bit too nice sometimes.  I’m not too fond of Layla and her
decisions but we’ve made amends.

Thank you Britni for stopping by and chatting with us today.  I wish you much success
on your first release and many future releases to come!  Please let my readers know how they can get a hold of you…Find me on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/BritniHillAuthor
Or check out my blog http://britnihillwriter.blogspot.com/

A Twisted Fairy Tale


Little Red Riding Hood?
Boy, they got that all wrong.
She was hot, you know, what a looker-
Not at all little, nicely rounded.
And she had hair to match that temper
like the sun, all fiery and golden.
After looking at her,
I never even noticed
a basket of goodies.


She walked in the woods everyday
with that wiggle and bounce in her step,
Trying to get my attention.
But I was too busy
with my work, and couldn’t
stop for her.


One day last week, maybe Tuesday?
She gave me that smile, you know the one.
And asked for my help picking
flowers for her sick Grandma.
Just the thought of her sick Grandma,
I had to help.


Then it happened-
As we were picking flowers,
She laid her cape on the grass-
She was all over me
like a treat to a starving man.
She was like an animal.


But when her boyfriend,
the Big Bad Hunter saw us,
She freaked- And blamed me.
She called me a Wolf
and said that I was after her basket of goodies.


So that’s the story, officer.
I’m innocent, not an animal
just misunderstood.
It’s girls like her who give
Fairy Tales a bad name.


 

"If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were…”   Richard Bach (US writer) was the source of this quote. Usually the accompanying picture is of a butterfly, as if love were fragile and easily broken.  Some people say that this is the most profound writing that they have eve heard. CRAP! 
Love has nothing to do with being set free or owning someone…That is obsession, it isn’t love.  Love doesn’t wear you down but builds you up, makes you more than you were.

I know a lot about obsession.  It consumes you like a fire, taking over your personality and changing who you are.  You say things that you don’t mean, you do things that you would never do, and you hurt not only the person that you supposedly love, but you hurt yourself and everyone around you.  No matter how much we want to call this love, it isn’t.  It is life on a rollercoaster where every little thing can send you plunging over the edge at 60 mile per hour speeds into a corkscrew, and putting your stomach in your throat.  If you are an adrenaline junkie or a sadomasochist, this ride is exciting, frightening, and addicting; but it is NOT love no matter how hard you try to justify it. Been there, done that, and burned the crappy t-shirt! 

Fairy tales tell us that Prince Charming will come on his white horse and turn our lives into “happily ever after”. Shakespeare leads us to believe that love overcomes the hate and anger of family rivalries; no obstacle is too great to overcome if you love each other.  Of course, Disney shows us that there are always happy endings no matter what challenges two people overcome. These are shadows that haunt teenagers, making them reach out to grasp on to someone (that one special someone) who will make their life complete.

The hard part about defining love is that it is as tangible as smoke, different for each person (and like smoke, always causing your eyes to tear up).  You can’t hold love in your hands.  For love you need to let it fill your heart.  Distance, time, even death can’t stop love.  You love so many different people in your lifetime, parents, siblings, friends and even pets.  Yet we are searching for the “one true love”of our lifetime.  

I have been very fortunate to have known a great deal of love in my lifetime.  My mom loved me no matter how much she was angry at me.  My dad loved me even though I broke the rules of what a “good daughter” should be.  My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and sisters loved me.  Not to say that loving me was easy; they didn’t always like me or the choices I made, but they loved me none the less.  With all that love, I still kept searching for more. 
Along the way, I got confused and thought that obsession was love.  I was willing to settle for passion rather than love.  

The hard part is trying to describe what love is and how to find it.  You think you see it out of the corner of your eye, yet when you turn your head, it is gone.  Or like the shell game, you search under each shell looking for the
marble but it isn’t the one you pick.  However, love has a way of finding you and I was privileged to have it fall into my life.

Words are inadequate to explain love.  If people like Shakespeare struggle with it, who would think that I could? 
Trust me, I’ve tried and I am not often at a loss for words.  The ones that I choose seem to lack the full experience.  It is like looking at photograph of cheesecake when you are dieting and starving.  It lacks the full
experience.  I can tell you how he makes me feel.  I feel like a whole person.  I can be myself and know that even no matter how yucky, he will love and accept me. No matter how tight he holds me, I feel only safe not trapped.  I feel beautiful at 3 am in the morning without my makeup on and my hair sticking up. Rather than dismiss my ideas, he listens, asks questions and is open to what I am saying.  When I help him with something, I am a superhero!  And yet, with these words, I only scratch the surface. Just by putting the words to paper, I find that it isn’t complete.  It is still like trying to catch smoke in your hands…always slipping through your fingers.  

Maybe water is a better way to describe love... No matter how much you have, you can always have more. 
Everyone deserves and needs it. While it is everywhere, it is hard to hold on to, you have to be adaptable to even grasp a drop.  It is powerful enough to light a city or move a mountain and gentle enough to cradle you as you float in it. It cleanses and fills you up. It never really dies but changes forms, passion to comfort.  It soothes and comforts you.  It nourishes your soul.

Inferno or sparkling lake… you decide…


 

http://edinroad.com/blog/2012/04/10/guest-blog-by-melissa-keir/

Last night I was on Edin Road Radio reading an excerpt from my book "Second Time's the Charm".  I had a wonderful time talking with Jesse and am going to be back on the show in June, reading from my upcoming release "Protecting His Wolfe". 

Jesse has allowed me to guest blog on their site and I've got an interesting interview with Alex Hunter from Second Time's the Charm.  Find out what attracted him about Lissa and how their rleati