Sunday Coffee Time Chat with Author Melissa J. Rutter

Welcome to Sunday morning Coffee Chat time!

Today’s guest is Melissa J. Rutter!

Welcome Melissa!!! So happy to have your here today for a Sunday Coffee Chat! Melissa and I met a while ago on Facebook and she is not one of my dearest friends! She is also part of my Beta Team and I cherish her opinions!? So let’s get started with her interview! Hello Melissa!

Hello, first of all, thank you for having me, I am pretty excited to be interviewed by the amazing Stacy Eaton. If I ramble on, just stop me, because when I am nervous, I can talk for England. Thank you for taking the time to read my interview. ?

First I have to know, Coffee or Tea?

Tea, has to be tea, milky and warm, none of the iced stuff that my family in Texas tried to get me to drink. No, that is not for me, I like it wet and warm with a couple of Rich Tea biscuits to dunk in it. (Rich Tea are cookies, btw, only a lot plainer.) ?

lol… thanks for explaining that!? So they know you?re an author, but do you work another job when you are not writing?

At the moment I only write, which in an ideal situation is perfect, but life isn?t ideal and I am looking to return to work. I usually work in an office. I used to work in Motor Insurance and before that I worked for the Inland Revenue, I guess I like jobs that tends to take your money away from you, sorry. ??

lol… That is too funny!? What is your favorite thing to do when you aren?t writing or working?

Reading or watching movies but reading mostly. I do enjoy walking too, on my own or with my family. Nice long walks that make you feel like you have really done something that day, it?s good for clearing my head also and my cure for writers block. ?

I love those kinds of walks!? What is your favorite color?

Turquoise, it reminds me of the ocean on a sunny day. Dreamy. But I also like red and lime green, I had everything lime green in my kitchen and a lime green car, the car was totaled by a (whispers) German driver and my kitchen burned down, so, I am not allowed to have anything lime green anymore, hubby says its unlucky for me.? ?

Well we will like it for you in private!? What is your favorite season?

I like Autumn, all the colours and cooler days, but I love winter, I like to snuggle under a blanket and read or write while the winter wind howls outside my window. Dark nights, never getting too hot, cozy DVD afternoons with my children, love it. I am a December baby though and it probably has something to do with it. ?

It probably does. If you could live anyplace on earth, where would it be?

Texas, its where my heart is. I have family there and I love and miss them very much. I haven?t been over since my daughter was 5 months old and now she?s eleven, so a visit is long overdue. I expected tumbleweeds and rocking chairs on porches, and I was pleasantly surprised. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would move there in a heartbeat.

And we would take you on the second heartbeat! Other than writing, what do you have a passion for?

Music, I like really good music with lots of layers, so, not boy bands screaming into your ear, something that makes you feel the music, currently love Imagine Dragons and Evanescence. I also love to bake, I do it in crazy mode though. I don?t bake for ages, but then I get the notion to do some and end up making enough cakes to feed the street.

Can you move over here please so you can bake for me? lol… Just kidding! Okay, let’s talk writing now. How long have your been writing? Was it a dream, a goal or is it just a hobby?

I have been writing since I was sweet sixteen. I kept it a secret for a lot of years because an idiot ex laughed when I told him that I liked to write. It took me until 2012 to get the courage together and try and put something out there, I was signed by a publisher on July 5^th2012 and now I have eight books on the shelves. This is my dream, doing interviews, meeting amazing people, seeing my name on Google, I mean, how cool is that??

I so understand that!? How many hours a day do you devote to writing?

As many as humanly possible. Okay, I don?t have to go to work, but I do a lot of driving for my disabled mother, she can?t get around otherwise. I also have school run because here in the UK we have no school bus system, so I take them to and from school and that?s an hour either end of the day. I would say about four to six hours, if I have a deadline then I do more.

That is a good amount of time. Do you have a set routine or do you write when the mood strikes?

I get my buzz in the wee hours. When the house I quiet and there are no distractions. I get a couple of hours in as long as I turn Facebook off.

Facebook – is it possible to turn that off?? I wonder… Is there some place special you like to be when you write?

I am very unfortunate in the sense that I don?t have my own office to work in and I have to write in the living room with the rest of the family. Our house is small and all of my writing is currently done on a laptop because I lost my home computer in a house fire. ?

I know… My heart broke for you!!! I’m so glad you are moving forward though!!! Do you listen to music or do you need a quiet place to write?

It depends on the piece. If it?s an emotional piece then music helps set the scene, break-ups and make-ups have their own music playlist for me. But I write better when it?s quiet. ?

I have those kinds of playlists too! Okay – now let’s talk about a book! What is the name of it and is it part of a series or a stand alone novel?

I am going to talk about my latest release, Cruel Winter. It?s the sequel to my hot and steamy romance Summer Rain.

Where did the idea come from?

I already had the characters and was not ready to let them go, you know what it?s like when they still talk to you after you and finished a novel. So I played with a few ideas and now we have a sequel. I really wanted to set a story around where I live. Yes, I keep saying I would like to live in Texas, but here in Poole, on the south coast of England, we have everything from rolling hills to sandy beaches, to cities filled with culture and quiet villages that don?t even have a local store. So I wanted to send a bit of Poole and Dorset out into the world and its doing really well.?

What is it about?

I?ll have to tell you a little about Summer Rain first, as that is where the story starts. During the wettest summer on record in the UK, Kelsey Spires meets a rebel posh boy with a silver spoon in his mouth, Jeremy ?Jez? Buxton. His father is a diplomat and he has lived all over the world. Their relationship is far from easy and he becomes Kelsey?s first real boyfriend, yes, when she met him at 24, she was still a virgin. That soon changed. The bumpy road of love ends on a smooth note after almost losing each other forever. In Cruel Winter I wanted to show what happens after the Happy Ever After, because life isn?t that plain sailing and to test their relationship to the limit, they have to face the unthinkable. They lose the one thing that had bought them back together, Kelsey has an ectopic pregnancy and wonders now the baby is gone, will she lose him too? She wonders if the passion and steam will be enough to keep him or are they just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. A family visit to Canterbury at Christmas gives her an insight to the word Jeremy has come from, which instills further fear that they are not meant to be together. Again it?s a roller coaster of a ride as Kelsey tends to cut her nose off to spite her face. She can?t lose him, she can?t let him leave her, she would rather walk away, that way she stays in control, or so she thinks.? ??

Very nice. Do you have any upcoming projects in the works or other books that have been published ? Tell us about them?

I am currently finishing off a London based gangster novel which I am hoping to publish very soon. I have just released the second book in my fantasy series Lunar Ryce Soul Searcher and already getting messages for book three, which I am about six chapters in now. I have the second I, Immortal book releasing at the end of August, so my calendar is pretty much full.

I have eight books altogether on Amazon, too many to mention but all are on my website with book trailers and links to Amazon.

Great Melissa!! Thank you!!! I’m so glad you joined us today!!!!