I am on the launch team for the Love Inspired novel Undercover Christmas Escape by Terri Reed, due out November 28.
As part of being on the launch team, I had the opportunity to do some interview questions with the author. This is not a "canned" interview. I did ask these questions, and Terri graciously took time to answer them.😎
1) Terri, Your book Undercover Christmas Escape is releasing November 28. Can you tell a little about it?
This is the third book in my US Marshal’s series. In the first two books, which came out last year, we were introduced to Deputy US Marshal Sera Morales. When I decided to write Sera’s story, I was taking a screenwriting class and brainstorming ideas for a holiday rom-com script. But I was also thinking about this book and how to incorporate Christmas into an action-adventure story for Sera. I thought it would be fun if she had to go undercover as a Christmas elf. However, the more I played with the idea and the story evolved, I decided to have her go undercover as Mrs. Claus. Of course, that meant there had to be a Santa. I always try to pair my characters with someone who’s going to challenge them in some way. Enter DEA agent Duncan O’Brien. Charming, by-the-book and very protective, Duncan was a good foil for the more guarded, sometimes reckless, and driven Sera. For the purposes of the story, Sera had to color outside the law enforcement lines to achieve her goal and Duncan wasn’t about to let her go alone, which meant risking both of their careers. Both were competitive but also determined to seek justice. And in the end, they discovered they were stronger together.
2) a) Would you mind giving a short bio? Terri Reed’s awarding winning romance and romantic suspense novels have appeared on Publishers Weekly top 5 Romance Bestsellers and Publishers Weekly top 5 Religion Fiction Bestsellers, Publishers Weekly top 5 Mass Market Paperback Bestsellers, Nielsen’s Bookscan top 25 Bestsellers and featured in USA Today and have been #1 Amazon Bestsellers, as well as Fresh Picks at Fresh Fiction.com. Her novel A Family Under the Christmas Tree was adapted into a Hallmark movie and retitled Picture a Perfect Christmas. She resides in the Pacific Northwest with her college-sweetheart husband. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends and agility training with her dog. Contact Terri @ terrireed@sterling.net or P.O. Box 19555 Portland, OR 97224 and online @ https://www.terrireed.com
b) How many published books does this make for you, and do you have a favorite of all the books that you have written? In total, I’ve written 63 books. As for a favorite, that’s tough. Each book has its own unique set of challenges and joys. But if I have to choose it would be my second Love Inspired book, A Sheltering Love. I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to write another book after the first one but I did and I learned so much through the process, including finding my author voice.
c) How long have you been writing as a published author, and what was your first book that was published, etc? My first ever published story was a novella that was included in the 2001 Romance on the Rails collection for Barbour Books. I sold my first book to Love Inspired in 2003, titled Love Comes Home.
3) Approximately how long did it take you to write Undercover Christmas Escape, and can you tell about writing process? It took me three and half months to write Undercover Christmas Escape. I always start with a germ of an idea and start building my characters and also playing with scene ideas. Then I write the synopsis before I start the chapters. I dictate my first rough draft and then clean it up on the computer, before sending the pages to my critique partner who reads it and provides feedback.
4) You have written a lot of Love Inspired Suspense novels - and I am guessing you are one of their authors who has written the most. Have you written many books that are not Love Inspired Suspense? I know of at least one: I read A Family Under the Christmas Tree, and loved it. And as usual the book was better than the movie, in my opinion.😊
I’m so glad you enjoyed A Family Under the Christmas Tree. That was a labor of love. I really needed to try my hand at something a bit different and was very happy to be presented with the opportunity to write this book. And it was a huge blessing to have the book turned into a Hallmark movie, Picture a Perfect Christmas.
Yes, most of my books are Love Inspired Suspense novels. I’ve also written three novellas that were not a part of the Love Inspired franchise. One of which I’m sharing with my newsletter subscribers. I also wrote a story for Tule Publishing Group titled, Home for Good, as part of their Montana Homecoming collection. I loved writing that story, as well. It had some good tropes—cowboys, reunion-ish, childhood rivalry, frenemies to lovers.
5) You write mostly, or all Christian fiction. Would you mind sharing why you write Christian fiction as opposed to secular? I do write mostly Christian fiction because when I tried writing without faith as an element, the stories fell flat and didn’t ring true. When I added faith, not preachiness but characters who have faith and live out their lives with faith, my stories became more authentic and resonated with readers.
6) I am sure you have done a lot of interviews over the years. Is there any question, or questions, that you wish were asked, but rarely or never get asked? This is a tough one, but I guess I would say “What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned while writing your books?” I think the answer is I didn’t expect there to be so much personal introspection in order to craft realistic and fully formed characters. I use a variety of personality typing methods and had to do the work for myself in order to understand theories to be able to apply them to my writing. Becoming self-aware has been a bonus and a pitfall but very enlightening.
Thanks, Terri, for taking the time to answer my questions, and for giving a glimpse into your life and writing. I have not read every one of your books, but I have read several, and am definitely going to check out your first two books. Those are two I missed.
Congratulations on your upcoming release, which I am about to start reading. I am definitely looking forward to it. God bless you for writing quality Christian fiction.
I mentioned the movie that was made from Terri's Christmas novel, A Family Under the Christmas Tree. The trailer for that movie, Picture a Perfect Christmas, is below:
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