Please welcome Lizbeth Selvig to Novel Reflections! She’s here today to talk about her debut release, The Rancher and the Rockstar, published through Avon/Harper Collins.
 

Please tell readers a little bit about yourself.

Thanks so much for inviting me to Novel Reflections. It’s great to be here. Tanya and Dianna, you asked such great questions; I hope I do them justice!

I was born and raised in Minnesota and people tell me I have a Minne-soh-tah accent, but I don’t hear it! I’ve also been fortunate to live in Germany, Canada and Alaska–and I claim them all as honorary homes. I’ve been married to my very own romantic hero for many, many years and we’ve raised two great kids, who married two other great kids! My daughter is an equine veterinarian, my son is a food company product manager and a rock musician/recording engineer — so I had lots of built-in research help for my book. I’ve been making up stories since I was five and pursued my love of writing with a journalism degree. I worked as a reporter and a magazine editor before getting serious about my fiction. When I entered and won the RWA Golden Heart contest in 2010, it led to finding an agent and then selling to Avon Impulse. Now I’m living la vida loca. You know: writing romance and procrastinating by playing Frisbee with my hyperactive border collie.

Please tell us about your latest release.

The Rancher and the Rock Star is a perfect romantic fairy tale to me–the ultimate dream-come-true story for someone who grew up idolizing pop and rock stars like I did. Didn’t we all fantasize at some point about what could happen if our very favorite famous person showed up on our doorstep? Here’s a mini synopsis:

Gray Covey has been on top of the music world for twenty years. His latest record might not be climbing the charts like he’s used to, but he still sells out concert arenas and causes female fans to swoon. So, when he cancels a sold-out gig to go in search of his runaway teenage son, his disappearance makes headlines.

Abby Stadtler is a widowed single mom running a small horse farm in southern Minnesota. She’s struggling, but she’s proud of how she’s raised her daughter and managed to make ends meet without asking for help from anyone. She has no idea that the young man who’s come to work for her is not eighteen as he claims, nor does she have a clue his father is one of the most famous men in the world. Until he shows up in her barn one rainy morning.

When Abby and Gray first meet, there are sparks of everything from annoyance to attraction. What they don’t expect is for the attraction to flame into love. And when it does, they have to deal with the feelings of Gray’s angry son and Abby’s love-sick daughter, who thinks it’s absolutely the pits that her hero is falling for her mother!

Add Abby’s need for independence and fear of losing her solitude, mix in Gray’s crazy band, his controlling manager, and paparazzi closing in, and you have a love affair that simply can’t work. Unless, of course, love really is the most powerful force on Earth.

Blurb:
There comes a time in every independent woman’s life when she has to step aside and let a White Knight do his job.Abby Stadler has fought to carve out a quiet, independent life for herself and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Kim. She may need a White Knight, but she doesn’t want one. Especially when he shows up in the form of a superstar with a missing son and vindictive paparazzi on his tail.

To the world, Gray Covey is a rock god. To his teenage son, Dawson, he’s simply an absent father. When Gray is forced to track a runaway Dawson to Abby’s struggling horse farm in small town Minnesota, he finds far more than a widow and a ranch with a silly name.

Faced with one teen who despises him, one teen who worships him, and a woman who flips his heart on its axis, Gray must learn not just how to be a father, but how to be real superstar.

Were any of the characters a challenge to write?

Oddly enough, the most difficult person for me to write was not a POV character. Gray’s son, Dawson, took a lot of thought and many revisions until I had him portrayed the way I wanted. I took ideas from my critique partners, my agent and my editor because, as it turns out, creating an angry, snarky teen with a penchant for running away from conflict is not a gimme task! Dawson is a great kid, but he’s tired of being ignored, and he pretty much lets everyone know it. He manages to get one of the biggest names in rock music to walk out on sold-out concert dates. It was difficult to do that without giving him too much power over the adults or making him unlikeable. But in the end, I think Dawson ended up with a lot of his dad’s heroic traits!

Was there a character you enjoyed writing the most?

I love Gray and Abby, of course. But I had the most fun with a couple of secondary characters. Abby’s crusty old neighbor, Ed Mertz (or as Gray calls him, Ethyl) was a hoot. I love older people and put them in all my books because they have so much life experience to share. Ed is hilarious, quick, surprisingly down-to-earth, and very wise. He’s the closest thing Abby has to a dad.

The other characters I had a ball with aren’t humans but the two cockatiels that play such a big role in the book. Lester and Cotton were based on my brother and sister-in-law’s birds, Felix and Cotton, one that didn’t speak and the other that did, indeed, whistle “The Colonel Bogie March” and the theme from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Without giving away spoilers, can you share your favorite scene from the book?

I think my favorite is Abby and Gray’s love scene. I won’t say too much, but one of my friends claims she’ll never think of push-ups the same way again!

What do you feel makes your characters unique?

I think it’s their individual quirks. Gray is not your typical rock star in that he started his career as a student at Juilliard studying classical music. His original instrument was the clarinet and he still plays it very well–which gives him a big “in” with Abby’s clarinet-playing daughter. Abby’s most endearing quirk is her habit of solving any emotional crisis or celebrating any emotional victory with hot chocolate (melted candy bars, butter, vanilla, and cream) that Gray claims clogs his arteries just from smelling it. And their relationship is not a typical rocker romance. By the time Gray meets Abby, he’s been through his drug and alcohol years and is trying to learn what to do with the rest of his life. Abby is not a cliche’ fan-who-gets-to-date-her-rock-hero character. Their combined personalities make “The Rancher and the Rock Star” a pretty atypical rock ‘n roll story.

Do you have a special formula for creating characters’ names?

I don’t have any formula, other than collecting names that resonate with me. I’m not someone who chooses names for their meanings. I just want the name I choose to fit my image of the character and be one I love typing over and over again while I write. I force my husband to sit through movie credits so I can write down interesting names. (You should see the handwriting on these, by the way. Movie credits give off very little light so my lists are quite . . . artistic!) I’ve also been known to open phone books and randomly start reading. I have lists of first names and of last names, and I try lots of combos until one name jumps off the page and names my character. This is actually one of the best parts of starting a book for me. I don’t do titles well at all, but I love naming my people, and it usually happens pretty quickly.

How do you like your heroes and heroines?

I’m really drawn to characters who have strong inner journeys to make.

I know the trend in romance today favors alpha heroes, but I’m a beta girl all the way. I’ll almost always take an artist or scientist over a ruthless businessman or navy seal. (Not that they don’t have amazing appeal too.) I’ve always preferred strong, sensitive heroes to those who are domineering and over-confident or cocky. I fall fast for a hero who is not a wimp, but who’s searching for love and family. Having said that, I’m all in when it comes to a bad boy with attitude–but he has to be much more than a tough guy. He has to have a true heart of gold and need just the right woman to save him.

My heroines usually possess an inner strength they have no idea is there. They’re strong but not kick-ass–unless, of course, they really need to be! I love heroines who, just like their heroes, must find their way to their strongest selves. And in the end, they’d all answer the same way Julia Roberts’ character in “Pretty Woman” does when she’s asked what the princess does once she’s rescued by the prince: “She rescues him right back.”

Tell us a little bit about who makes his perfect other half. :)

You’ve gotta love Gray, because for a guy who’s a hero to half the women in the world he’s pretty clueless. He’s been at the pinnacle of the rock scene and allowed others to manage his life for so long, he’s forgotten all the lessons about people and work ethic he learned growing up. He cares very much–about his son, about his band, about his manager, and about his music–but he really doesn’t understand why, when he’s sure he’s using all the “people skills” he’s learned from schmoozing his public, the wheels just keep falling off the relationships bus.

Abby, in almost every way, is Gray’s emotional opposite. She has hard work and self-discipline down to an art. Taking care of others, protecting her privacy, and raising her daughter are the only things that matter to her, and she doesn’t want to be beholden to anyone for making it through life. She not only doesn’t swoon over Gray the rock star, she literally makes him shovel his fair share of horse poop! Around Abby, Gray remembers what it’s like to depend on his muscles, his brains, and his family rather than his reputation for success. She brings out the true hero in him.

Fortunately, he has plenty to offer in return. It’s not easy for a strong, stubborn woman to let the world in and learn to ask for help. If ever there was a perfect someone to bring a reclusive small town woman out of her shell, it’s a man who has the world watching his every move. These two are, without question, each other’s perfect half!

Other than writing, what are some of your passions in life?

My husband and I are avid hikers. We lived in Anchorage for three years and got hooked on hiking in the mountains all around South Central Alaska. We’ve hiked in all 70 of Minnesota’s State Parks and we’re taking our dream hiking trip to northern England this coming June to walk across England – 190 miles in three weeks. (Yes, we are crazy.) I also love to quilt and I’m a horse-fanatic from way back. I don’t have horses on my property at the moment, but I get my horsey fix from my daughter’s equines: two thoroughbreds and one Arabian. And, of course, I love to read but don’t have nearly enough time to whittle down my enormous to-be-read pile. Sigh.

Can you leave readers with a little teaser form THE RANCHER AND THE ROCKSTAR?

His fitted, denim-colored T-shirt read “Dashboard Confessional,” but it wasn’t the band name that unhinged her jaw. Who would have known a singer could sport biceps and pecs like— She snapped her mouth shut. Get a grip, Abigail, she thought. You sound like Kim.

On second thought, no way did Abby want her daughter thinking what she was thinking.

“Forget it.” She meant her refusal of his help sincerely. “You’ll just get wet, too. I can handle this.”

“You can’t come close to getting all those hay bales inside alone, and I can’t stand here any longer watching a damsel in distress.”

Her flash of defensive pride had no time to grow. Two seconds later they were both soaked to the skin. After they each had a stack of hay safely in the barn, Abby took a moment to rummage in a corner for a pair of canvas work gloves. He thanked her with a silly smile, and she realized what a ridiculous situation she was in. His fame aside, they’d known each other fifteen minutes, and here he was in a downpour, ruining expensive-looking leather shoes and a perfectly good pair of jeans.

As they fell into a quick, efficient rhythm, there was no missing that Gray Covey’s pecs and deltoids were not merely for show. He didn’t need to get off the trailer and lug bales into the barn. Instead, he hoisted cube after bristly cube and launched them like javelins through the door. For every four bales she heaved, Gray tossed eight. His biceps contracted over and over, smooth and firm, and his hips twisted in fluid perfection with no wasted movement.

By the time they were three-quarters finished, she’d changed her mind—or lost it. He wasn’t ruining his jeans. He could have sold the sucked-on denim for a thousand bucks to any woman who saw it. It had been a long time since she’d seen anything finer than Gray Covey-slash-David Graham with his thick, rain-darkened hair slicked back to his collar and rivulets of water streaming from his cheeks.

They continued without words. Once in a while, when a bale flew well, she heard a guttural “oof” from his throat that gave her more chills than the rain did. She refused to dwell on the errant thoughts—they were so foreign she barely recognized them as hers. But even in the driving rain, with lightning crackling every half a minute and thunder following much too closely, Abby didn’t think she’d ever enjoyed any job on her farm as much.

In ten minutes they had every bale under the roof. She stood beside Gray in the deluge staring at the barn floor, which looked like the aftermath of the Big Bad Wolf versus the first Little Pig’s house.
“Woo hoo!” He uttered his first syllables since climbing onto the wagon. Blowing out a deep sigh, he bent and braced his hands on his thighs. He peered up at her and grinned. “Here I thought I’d have to miss the gym today. You were going to do this all yourself, Mrs. Stadtler? I’m damn impressed.”

The compliment pleased her ridiculously.

He straightened and held up his palm for her to slap. Their gloves made a pitiful, slurping smack, and Abby giggled, although embarrassment picked at the edges of her gratitude. She should probably tell him she knew who he was.

“I don’t know how to thank you. This defines above and beyond,” she said instead.

He tilted his head back and opened his mouth to the sky. His Adam’s apple convulsed, and Abby’s throat went so dry she could have been standing in a desert rather than a monsoon.

“Not what I expected when I left Chicago this morning. But it’s been a very long time since I’ve played in a full-blown thunderstorm.” He winked and licked the water from his lips.

“I’m a little worried about you if you think you’ve been playing.” She didn’t tell him that for over ten minutes she hadn’t once considered this work either.

He laughed. “C’mon. A celebratory dance before we get you inside.”

“Dance?”

He linked their elbows and pulled her into a hoe-down spin on the wagon bed. To her astonishment, he started in on a pretty song she’d never heard on any disc in Kim’s collection.
“A storm-eyed girl took my hand one day,
and said, ‘Follow me, boy, I know the way.’
I went with open heart and soul,
till the rain came down and she had to go.”

He drew her into a waltz hold and hummed more of the beautiful tune. “Mmmm, mmmm, thought this was our dance. And she said . . .” He hesitated. Then he shrugged and grinned. “No, no, no, I’m off to France.”

Gray spun her beneath his arm and let her go. When he bowed, she couldn’t draw enough breath to make another sound. He jumped off the wagon, reached for her waist, and took her weight to lift her down. She’d never been touched in such a downright sexy way.

“What was that song?” she asked to distract herself.

A slight flush darkened his cheeks. “Sorry, sometimes things just pop out of my mouth. I can promise you’ve heard its one and only performance.”

Where can readers find you on the web?

Website: www.lizbethselvig.com
Facebook.com/lizbethselvig
Twitter@lizbethselvig
Goodreads/lizbethselvig

 

Giveaway Details:

  • Lizbeth and Avon/HarperCollins are giving a $25 gift certificate to one randomly drawn person from the tour. In addition, Lizbeth is generously gifting a copy of “The Rancher and the Rock Star,” along with a couple of other goodies, to one commenter who joined us today at Novel Reflections. Woot!! :)
  • Please leave a comment or question for Lizbeth along with your email addy.
  • Contest is open the duration of the tour.
  • Winners will be randomly selected and notified via email.
  • Remember: The more tour stops you leave a comment on, the greater your chances of winning! :)

Tour Stops:
The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/01/virtual-book-tour-rancher-and-rock-star.html