#lwlinterview – D. V. Stone Shares New Release

Greetings, romance addicts. Today, author, D.V. Stone joins us to share a little about herself and the characters and cover of her book, Rock House. She also has a giveaway, so don’t stop scrolling!

Welcome, D.V.

What inspired you to write this book? 

A few years ago, I heard about NaNoWriMo, which incidentally is going on now. National Novel Writing Month is in November. The challenge is 50,000 words in 30 days. I’m pretty competitive, even with myself. But how to do that? It’s an immense amount of writing. With that in mind and not wanting to get lost in the world of research, I wrote what I knew. As a former  EMT with restaurant experience and a love of music, off I went. Rock House Grill was conceived and fleshed out. I made the deadline but then shelved it for a few years. Editing is not my most outstanding talent.

Then one day, in 2019, I pulled it out and began to submit to publishers. Do you know how sometimes you think you’ve screwed up badly, but then it works out? Well, in May of 2019, I sent out a bunch of submissions. A few days later, I reviewed those and realized I’d sent the wrong salutation to Wild Rose Press. I sent a new email. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I know you’re the Wild Rose Press.” Believe it or not, an hour or so later, there was a reply requesting the manuscript. The rest is history.

What can we expect from you in the future? 

I’m working on Jazz House, the second in the Impact Series. I also hope to have my second mid-grade independent in the Agent Sam Carter series. The first is The Mystery At Branch Lake. The one I’m finishing up is The Mystery At High Pointe Tower. I have a great time writing these. Aimhirghin, Kingdom At A Crossroad, is waiting patiently for me as well as my second Shield-Mates book.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Rock House Grill?

Rock House Grill follows the lives of Aden House and his twin sister Olivia House. Aden is a chef who dreamed of owning a restaurant. He’s an overachiever who doesn’t know when to step back. Oliva has a degree in business and hospitality. She deals with depression and anxiety (and I hope one day to give Olivia her own story). They conceive and develop first Rock House but are nearly done with Jazz House, Olivia’s baby. Both restaurants are music themed. Shay McDowell is an EMT who dreams of being a chef. She’s been dealt a lot of bad cards in her life, but she’s tough yet vulnerable. Like the Linda Ronstadt song, she’s been cheated, been mistreated, when will she be loved.  

Who designed your book covers? 

Tina Lynn Stout designed both Rock House Grill and Rainbow Sprinkles’ covers. They are both fantastic, and Rainbow Sprinkles’ looks like a piece of art. I used an online service and created Felice, Shield-Mates of Dar cover. There’s a lot to making a good book cover, and I’ve learned over the years how important they are. Can you judge a book by it’s cover? Absolutely. It is the first impression a reader gets. There needs to be a certain balance in the art, text, title, and author name. If it’s a series, the book covers need to be cohesive. Because I’m multi-genre, I’ve struggled with creating my independents. An author needs to be recognizable, which comes from branding. I write romance, contemporary, suspense, fantasy, and mid-grade. What does that logo look like? I’m still figuring it out.

What did you edit out of this book?

There initially was a chapter about Shay and Joanna on duty. The calls that they responded to on one long night. My editor didn’t think it should be in the story. Not moving it forward. Instead, I submitted the chapter to Wild Rose for an addition to their Australia Burns series. Remember the Australian wildfires about a year ago. The Wild Rose Press and the authors all donated stories to raise money for the relief effort. Instead of one book, it became a three books series. 911, What’s Your Emergency, is in the first book of the series.

Thanks for sharing with us, D.V.! Okay, romance addicts, it’s clicking time. Check out more about Rock House Grill.

D. V. Stone

Born in Brooklyn, D.V. Stone has moved around a bit and even lived for a time on a dairy farm in Minnesota before moving back east. Throughout her wandering, she always considered herself a Jersey Girl. She met and married the love of her life, Pete–a lifelong Jersey Man, and moved this time to Sussex County. They live with Hali, a mixed breed from the local shelter and their cat Baby. D.V.’s career path varied from working with the disabled to become a volunteer EMT, which in turn led to working in hospital emergency rooms and then in a women’s state prison.

After a few years, she took a break from medicine and became the owner of Heavenly Brew, a specialty coffee shop in Sparta NJ, and a small restaurant in Lafayette. Life handed some setbacks, and she ended up back in the medical field, but this time in a veterinary emergency hospital. During the poor economy, she was laid-off from a long-time position she cared about. Devastated, D.V. wondered what to do with her life.

Finding comfort in her love of reading, she realized it was now time to follow her dream of writing. It’s been a long road but worth every minute of it. Now a published author, she also works in a people medical office again. “Thank you for taking the time to read about me. Each time you open the pages to one of my books, I hope you’ll be swept away by the story and find encouragement in your own life, never to give up on hope.”

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