Interview with Marianne Arkins

I’d like to welcome our guest today, Marianne Arkins. It’s a pleasure having you come visit us at Much Cheaper Than Therapy, where chocolate is plentiful and advice is free. So grab some chocolate and a lounge chair. Your therapy session has begun.





I understand you have a new release out called “One Love For Liv”. Can you tell us a little bit about your fabulous new book?

I think the blurb says it best:

Liv is out to prove her high society fiancé is cheating on her. Can she do it without breaking a nail—or falling in love with Mike the mechanic?

Olivia “Liv” Leigh, wealthy socialite and spa owner, suspects her fiancé of cheating on her. Drastic steps are required to discover whether appearances are deceiving. And if those steps require a bit of stalking, a change of appearance, a hippo-sized dog named Spike, and sacrificing her manicure to clean house for a sexy-but-sloppy man whose neighbor is determined to break several of the strangest Guinness world records, why should that be a problem?

Mike, a happily single auto mechanic, is more than content sharing his bachelor pad with piles of laundry, dirty dishes, and a sneaky ferret. But when a half-crazed woman in a bad wig shows up on his doorstep, what’s a nice guy to do?

Why, invite her in, unknowingly help her in her search for the truth and, in the process, fall head over heels for a woman who’s never been less his type.

“One Love For Liv” is a very interesting title. How did you arrive at that name?

Actually, I’d marketed this story as “Isn’t She Liv Leigh” (the name of my heroine), but my editor didn’t think it said anything about the story, or even sounded like a romance. But she wanted a fun sounding name and we tossed ideas back and forth. It took a while to find a title we both thought was okay. Then it was run by the other editors in an editor meeting and… Poof! We have “One Love For Liv”.

Did you have to do a lot of research for the book?

Not too much, except for looking for really strange Guinness Book World records for my secondary character, Frank, to try to break! I have to admit that was fun… did you know there is a record for snorting cooked spaghetti out of your nose for distance? Ugh!

(Thanks for the visual!) KW

What character did you like writing about the most, and why?

Frank. Definitely Frank. He was so easy-going and fun… yet so worked up about breaking a record. I loved having him do all the odd things he did. He as a hoot. Mike, the hero, was fun, too. He spent most of the book trying to teach Liv how to loosen up, and I enjoyed having him surprise and shock her.

If your book was made into a movie, what actor would you like to fill your hero’s shoes?

I modeled Mike after Tom Welling and I can’t imagine a better person to play him. I stumbled across this picture of Tom looking scruffy with a ball cap on backward and thought THAT’S MIKE.

Do you have any authors that inspired you?

The queens of comedy, certainly: Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and most recently paranormal authors Lyndsay Sands and Kerrelyn Sparks as well as Deborah MacGillivray—who wrote the quirkiest set of books I’ve read in a long time. I also think Nora Roberts is the queen of characterization. She amazes me how well she draws her characters, makes them solid and makes us care about them.

What do we have to look forward next?

I have another release coming soon from The Wild Rose Press, a cowboy story entitled “A Change of Heart”. I have another short story under consideration at Samhain, and am working on finishing two other novels. Hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot of me around!

(We'll be looking for you.) KW

Thanks, Marianne!

To celebrate her book release, Marianne is offering a free ebook of your choice from her list of available books (http://www.mariannearkins.com/bookshelf.htm) and short stories to one lucky commenter on today's blog. She will be around all day today. I'm sure some of you have questions or comments for her, so please ask away...

About the Author: Marianne was born in California, met her husband in Colorado, got a puppy and got pregnant, then moved with the group of them to the frozen north of New Hampshire where her thin blood keeps her indoors six months of the year. It's the perfect scenario for writing! She has seven published stories with The Wild Rose Press, and has a novel, "One Love For Liv" available from Samhain Publishing. Check out her website or blog for more information or to see what's going on inside her brain. If you dare. (Hmmm. Sounds intriguing!)KW