LWL #Interview: Marianne Rice Shares Her Writer’s Perspective

Hello, beauteous readers! I am thrilled to introduce author Marianne Rice. Marianne authored more than nineteen small-town romance novels set in rural New England towns. She loves high heels, reading romance, scarfing down dark chocolate, gulping wine, and Chris Hemsworth. Oh, and her husband and three children.

Marianne’s new book, Something More (book six in the Well Paired series) features Mia and Ryan, two people who find each other while searching for equilibrium. Check out the blurb.

A Well Paired

Available at Amazon

Mia Parker needs to reassess her wild lifestyle, get back to her lost passion for writing and drawing. At a quiet beach, she gathers inspiration, finding it in a stranger with mischievous dark chocolate eyes and a quirky passion for marine life. But the more time they spend together the more stoic and mysterious he becomes.

FBI agent Ryan Thorne shut everyone out of his life after a devastating loss six years ago. Safeguarding his emotions and feelings, limiting his interaction with people is the only way he can keep those around him safe. Being unreachable, unlikeable is his MO until Mia gets under his skin. Her snark, her sass, and her persistent nature have Ryan doing things he swore he’d never do again. Like, laugh… and open his heart. He finds he likes it, and her, a little too much.

But loving her will put her in danger. It’s a cost too high. A risk he’s not willing to take. The only way to keep her safe is to walk away…but his heart marches to a beat of its own.

Interview

Marianne shared her perspectives as an author, her best writing habits and pumping out books while holding down a day job.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Energize! I love it and wish I could write full-time, but there are bills to pay and teenage mouths to feed and cloth so that requires the day job.

What is your most productive writing habit?
Definitely the sprinting! It’s my favorite (and most productive) way to write. I have a fabulous group of writers who I often sprint with. Usually, it’s in 30-minute increments but sometimes the words are flowing so I plow through for 45 solid minutes before coming up for air. I feel so accomplished after a sprint.

Do you have another profession besides being a writer? If so, what is it, and how does it contribute to your writing?
I’m a high school English teacher. I taught middle school English for four years (that was a brain-suck) and have been teaching eleventh and twelfth grade for the past nineteen years. You’d think being an English teacher would give me an edge in the fiction-writing world but the skills are quite different. In my writing workshops, I teach thesis writing, literary analysis, and the research process. I mean, those come in handy to some degree, but the “rules” in writing fiction are nothing like the papers I assign and correct on a daily basis. In one aspect, it’s harder because the rules are looser. Teaching my students the craft of a five-paragraph essay is pretty cut and dried. However, I love the creative aspect of fiction writing!

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I like to write the entire series or at least three books if it’s a longer series before publishing. Right now, I have the next book in my Wilton Hills Christmas series done (it will come out in November), three books written in my Band of Sisters novels (a new four-book series to come out in 2021), and the first book done in another series I’m working on (probably for 2022). So, five books completed; I’ll be writing the final Band of Sisters book this summer.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
This varies a great deal because of the day job. I was able to write a 75,000-word book in the beginning of our quarantine time. That took me about four weeks, a record! Usually I work on one book between January-June, one in the summer, and another between September-December. Some years I’m able to squeeze out four books in a year, but that’s counting my Christmas books which are only 50,000 words.