SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Author Robecca Austin!

Joining me today in The Loft is Canadian author Robecca Austin. Robecca writes historical, contemporary, and billionaire romance stories, with a preference for sassy heroines and alpha heroes with a soft center. When not creating her happy-ever-after stories, the prolific author can be found outdoors, enjoying nature and lots of sunshine--when there are no bugs--and hugging family. Robecca is a Cystic Fibrosis warrior. She lives and works in Canada.

S: Good morning, Robecca! Thanks for joining me today.

Why write romance?

R: I grew up reading romance stories or having them told to me by way of creepier tales meant to scare me. Through it all, I remember hanging on for the happily-ever-after (HEA).

S: I'm always amazed when people tell me they grew up reading romance. I grew up writing, but I didn't read my first romance novel until I was studying for the bar exam and needed a break. Someone had a bag full of paperbacks and passed them around. They became a great stress reliever!

Do you write in other genres?

R: Because of all the ghost stories I heard growing up, I do enjoy writing paranormal tales, but those musings are private. My published books are all romance, either billionaire, contemporary, or Regency historical.

S: Do you believe in love at first sight?

R: I am a believer in love at first sight. Though it has never happened to me, my husband swears he knew when we met--honestly, he might be singing that song because I cooked on our first date. I’ve also heard enough stories through friends to believe in it.

S: My mother always said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!

What do people get wrong about romance?

R: That it’s just about sex. There is little regard for the relationship, trust, and the growth happening between characters.

S: Exactly. I focus on the relationships in my stories. The sex is part of building the relationship, but not the sum of it.

What’s the best advice you have ever given?

R: Keep practicing what you love--er, keep it legal, please--and follow your gut. It doesn’t matter what you love--fishing, writing, snowboarding. It you love doing it and it brings you joy, have fun. At the turn of self-publishing in 2012, I received a ton of push back for wanting to self-publish, so I didn’t even though my gut was screaming. Eight years later, I wish I had.

S: Learning to trust your gut is very difficult for some. I have friends who claim if you trust your gut, you have no one else to blame when things go wrong!

What inspired "The Christmas Gift?"

R: Heather Lauren, another author, got me excited about her Christmas collaboration. She had me at stories with curvy heroines set in a small town. That I could add billionaire boss and one-night stand to the mix was a bonus.

S: Is there anything special you would like people to know about "The Christmas Gift?"

R: The relationship between my hero and his friends is modeled after my own friendships and I was happy to bring some of our jesting, teasing personalities to the page. Spencer, the friend in the story, sparked real-life debates about just how standoffish and germaphobic he really is. But don’t worry, I gave him his own short novella, "The Billionaire Touch."

Here's the blurb--

Ivy

It was supposed to be a one-night stand. A hot night of sweaty indulgence with a man she’d vetted. A man she could play with and then walk away from, someone who ticked all her boxes. Instead, she was facing off with Corin, a man who hijacked all her rules and made her knees weak.

When the pregnancy stick turns pink eight weeks later, all her carefully laid plans go down in flames.

Starting over in a big city is no challenge for Ivy. She’s intelligent, successful, and can readily form a plan. Too bad her strategy didn’t involve her new boss turning out to be her baby’s father.

Cor

Straight-laced and uptight ought to be kryptonite to Corin’s carefree, love-them-and-leave-them lifestyle. Yet, the memory of the one night with a mystery woman haunts him. When he’s finally convinced himself his memories of that night are overblown, she turns up at his firm with the Christmas gift he didn’t know he needed.