Teresa Reasor, Author, Artist, Teacher

Please join me in welcoming

TERESA REASOR

to Tabor Lane

Pull up a chair and pour a cup of coffee.

If you leave a comment or a question, your name will go into the pot to win a copy of Teresa's new book Timeless in ebook format. 

Tell us about yourself and where you live and work. My name is Teresa J. Reasor. I live in a small Southeastern Kentucky town with my husband of 36 years. Soon to be 37 years on June 13th of this year.  We got married on Friday the 13th. Neither of us is superstitious.

I’ve just retired from twenty-one and a quarter years of teaching elementary art. Now I’m writing full time. I’m also an adjunct instructor for Eastern Kentucky University. This is my ninth year with them.

Describe your journey to becoming an author. When my children were babies, I penned several of the worst category romances ever written. Thank God I never submitted them!!

Once my children were all in school I went back to school to finish my degree and had little time to write anything but term papers. But once I’d graduated, I joined the

Kentucky Romance Writers and met several authors. The group was very nurturing to us newbies, and I started learning about plot, point of view and etc.

I studied the craft of writing while I was taking Masters classes and teaching full time. I wrote another category romance. We were in the process of moving furniture during a remodeling project and my 100,000 word manuscript, I’d typed on the typewriter, was thrown out. I never discovered who discarded it, I’d still be in prison now for killing them if I had. I picked my heart back up out of the dust and after grieving several months, I wrote another book this time on the computer I got for my Masters graduation.

The first manuscript I thought would be good enough for publication was Highland Moonlight. I submitted it to all the major editors who accepted unsolicited manuscripts. I learned all about submitting, writing queries and learning to live through rejections during that time. I got some really good rejections and some really harsh ones.

Eventually I submitted to The Wild Rose Press, a small e-press based in New York. I received a contract for Highland Moonlight a week after I submitted the full. I then submitted Captive Hearts my second manuscript and it too was accepted. I had two books released in one year. And it felt very validating.

  

Do you gravitate toward specific genres in your writing? Yes. All my books have a degree of suspense in them. The first two, Highland Moonlight and Captive Hearts are Historical Romance.

The next one, released in June of 2011, was Breaking Free the first book of my SEAL Team Heartbreaker Series. It is a Military Romantic Suspense. 

The fourth book I released in January 2012 and is titled Timeless. It is a Paranormal Romantic Suspense set in Loch Maree, Scotland.

I have to have that suspense angle in there to give an added dimension to the plot or I’m just not satisfied.

  

Tell us about your latest published novel. Where can readers purchase your books? My latest release is titled Timeless. Here is the blurb:

Archaeology student, Regan Stanhope, lands the chance of a lifetime when she’s chosen to work on a summer dig in Loch Maree, Scotland. The ancient monoliths hidden beneath the loch are the most important discovery since Stonehenge. And for seven hundred years, they have been waiting—for her.

Saturation diver Quinn Douglas is contracted to recover some of the megaliths from the loch’s bottom. The job will breathe life into the struggling salvage business he and his brothers are building. But from the moment he arrives, Quinn is plagued by dreams and feelings from a past he did not live. Or did he?

Regan and Quinn are drawn to each other as they research the monoliths and the reason behind their shared visions. But both sense something mystical at work, delving into their minds, manipulating their emotions. And when they finally discover the monoliths’ extraordinary secret, they know they must seal them away from those who are desperate to unlock their power. Even if it means remaining caught in a timeless struggle between the past and present forever.

Timeless is the hardest thing I’ve ever written. And I’ve had people tell me its completely different than anything they’ve ever read. I hope it is. I don’t ever want to be cookie cutter with any of my plots.

But I do know that it took me over a year to research for the book and the same to write it.

It can be purchased at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, both in print and ebook. And at Apple, Kobo, Sony and Smashwords in any format you want.

  

What are your favorite authors and how do they inspire your work? I’m very eclectic as a reader. I’ll read anything from Erotic Romance to Christian, from Horror to Category. I’ve never met a book I wouldn’t at least read the blurb for.  

My favorite authors are: Sandra Brown - her writing is so sensual. Kathleen Woodiwiss - we lost a wonderful Historical Romance writer when she died.

These next three I’ve read to get the man speak down. Every time I read their books they give me an insight into the male psyche. Michael Connelly - I love his Harry Bosche series. Nelson DeMille - I love his smartass alpha detective John Corey. Harlan Coben - I love the way his plots are seamlessly woven together. The Woods is probably one of favorite books. Stephen King and Dean Koontz - for their imaginations.

And I’ve read everything that Suzanne Brockmann has written. Since I write Military Romantic Suspense, of course I’d love her stuff. I’ve learned so much about Deep Point of View from her. I could go on and on.

What is your reading list like right now? I’m doing research for my current work in progress Breaking Through. So I’m reading a bunch of books about PTSD and SEAL procedures. Dick Couch’s Down Range and The Finishing School. Every Other Four a journal written by Cpl Matthew Wytecki, Lethal Warriors by David Phillipps.

For pleasure I have: The Gate House by Nelson De Mille, May Day by Thomas Block, Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich, and Lover Reborn by J.D. Ward.

And for writing craft: On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels, Writing the Block Buster Novel by Albert Zuckerman, and I’m revisiting The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass. I never stop studying my craft and trying to strengthen my writing. And if I’m not writing, I’m reading.

  

Tell us about your current project. I’m currently working on the second book of my SEAL Team Heartbreakers series Breaking Through. A hand injury has slowed my progress. I’ll know soon whether I have to have surgery.

 Here’s the blurb:

Ensign Brett Weaver wakes up from a month-long coma to discover that he and his SEAL team swim buddy are being investigated for murder. And that his friend and comrade may have tried to kill him.

Reporter Tess Kelly is working hard to live up to her journalist father's expectations, so when Brett offers her some information in exchange for an introduction to her father she jumps at the chance. The explosive international situation Brett lobs into her father's lap is a major scoop.  But the secret she's discovered about Brett Weaver could be just as controversial.

Will her feelings for this wounded warrior win out, or will she choose to follow her father's path and release a story that will destroy Brett's SEAL career?

I’m hoping to release Breaking Through this summer.

It’s different from Breaking Free. Breaking Free has only one romance in it. Breaking Through has four story lines going at the same time, seven point of view characters, and a lot more SEAL action in it. I’m hoping that my readers will feel as though they really got their moneys worth and a wonderful reading experience with this one.

Brett is one of my favorite heroes thus far. But I have to say I’m still in love with Hawk, the hero from the first book of the series. But he’s in this one too, so if other readers feel the same way, they’ll get a Hawk fix.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog Kathy. I really appreciate the opportunity. I’ve really enjoyed doing the interview. 

Write on,

Teresa Reasor

You can find Teresa on the web

Teresa Reasor's Website

Teresa Reasor's Blog