Getting to Know you Thursdays with Deborah Hale with giveaway

Please welcome Deborah Hale to my blog today. Deborah writes Love Insipred Historicals and I have gotten to know her at the LIH Goodreads site and also She and the fellow LIH goodreads authors and members have been supporting me with prayers etc during my recovery.

1.      Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a Canadian author and mother of four, three of whom are still living at home attending post secondary school.  My husband and I have been happily married for over thirty years. Before becoming a writer, I was trained and worked as a special education teacher.

2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?

Hands down the Lucy Maud Montgomery books.  My grandmother was a skinny, freckled red-head whose ancestors came from PEI, so she was a devoted Montgomery reader.  She used to buy me some of those books for birthdays and Christmas or lend me her hardcover copies.  My favourite of all Montgomery’s books is Jane of Lantern Hill because of Jane’s wonderful character growth over the course of the story.

3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write?

Anything historical.  I’ve written secular historical, inspirational historical, historical fiction and fantasy in an imaginary world that was basically medieval.  Historicals are also what I love to read.  One of my favourite series is the Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries.

4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?

Again, definitely Montgomery.  Being a scribbler, I loved Emily of New Moon. The story of how long it took Emily to get published helped prepare me for some of the ups and downs on the road to publication.

5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I’ve been telling stories ever since before I knew what an author was, but somehow I never thought I could get my work published until I had finished my first novel, almost twenty years ago, and joined Romance Writers of America.

6. How did you go about becoming an author?

For years I would start stories and never finish them because I was so discouraged by the quality gap between what I was writing and what I was reading.  But when I got the idea for the story that became My Lord Protector, I sent chapters in the mail (snail mail, that was pre-Internet) to a friend of mine who would give me feedback.  Her encouragement helped keep me going.  After I finished the book, I started trying to find a publisher and got rejected.  Then I discovered RWA, and began the five year process of learning how to write a book people would pay to read.  I rewrote that first story six or seven times, took out huge chunks, changed the point of view and changed the last quarter of the book entirely. I entered the Golden Heart three years in a row with that rewritten story and climbed from the bottom half to the top half, then to the finals and won, to my astonishment. That exposure helped me get an agent then I got rejected by a bunch more publishers until Harlequin Historical bought my book.  Since then I’ve written over twenty-five more novels, novellas and shorter works for Harlequin.

7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?

I love performing, singing and acting, and I love working with young children, especially those with special needs.

8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?

I sing in a small Celtic choir, dabble in genealogy and practice tai-chi. I also love playing board games with my family.

9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?

I am blessed to live in a very beautiful place that many people come to visit, so I don’t have too many other places I want to go.  I would love to visit Australia and New Zealand because everyone I know who has been there raves about them. I’d also like to go to the UK someday for a good long stay and visit some of the historic places I’ve researched for my books and places where my ancestors lived. (Jenny here it would be great to see you visit Australia it is a lovely country just like Canada is)

10. If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?

J.K. Rowling, because I love her Harry Potter series and there are so many questions I’d like to ask her about that imaginary world and how she writes.  Harold Ramis, who made one of my all-time favourite films, Groundhog Day, because he’s so versatile and funny.  Finally Sir Patrick Stewart so I could thank him for inspiring my first romance hero…and so I could listen to his wonderful voice.  (Would be an interesting meal. I love Sir Patrick Stewart in his Star Trek role.)

Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will
be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.

My most recent book is The Baron’s Governess Bride (out in June 2012) which is the third story in my Glass Slipper Brides series for Love Inspired Historical.  Some of the reviewers on Amazon have called it “Jane Eyre meets Cinderella.”  It’s about Grace Ellerby, a governess who hides her beauty because it has made her the victim of unwanted advances in her previous positions.  Rupert Kendrick, Lord Steadwell hires her because he thinks she’s unmarriageable.  His daughters’ last governess abandoned them to elope and he doesn’t want it to happen again.  Grace and Rupert don’t realize they’re beginning to fall for each other until one evening at a masked ball they begin to see each other with fresh eyes!  Readers can find me through my website www.deborahhale.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDeborahHale or Goodreads at the Love Inspired Historical Group http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/24770.Love_Inspired_Historicals.  I love how the Internet has opened up ways for readers and writers to connect with each other!

Giveaway
Deborah has offered a giveaway to one commenter. To enter answer the question did you have a favourite fairy tale. You have til Thursday 16 August, 6pm Aussie time to enter. Please leave a way to contact you and any entries that just say enter me will be null and void.