SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: New author Arabella Ames!

Joining me this week in The Loft is new eXtasy author Arabella Ames. Arabella writes contemporary romance and enjoys exploring the dark side of love. As a full-time author, she spends her days with her cat, Cat, drinking espresso and falling in love with morally gray men. She has her MFA in fiction writing, and enjoys traveling, mountain climbing, and consuming novels. Currently, she is working on the first book in a new three-book romance series that will be released later this year.

The avatar for Arabella Ames

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

How do you develop the characters in your books? Do you use photos or a vision board?

A: I meet my characters in the same way I might come to know someone in real life. With every interaction, I have a better understanding of their motivations and personality, and even begin to know their more private hopes and fears. I tend to avoid photos as reference for my characters, unless they are inspired by a real person, and there are details I find important to include.

S: Do you utilize tropes when writing romance?

A: I do use tropes when writing romance. There's a certain joy in picking up a novel and knowing things will work out in a way that the reader likes. Happily Ever Afters and guaranteed plot points aren't for everyone or every genre, and that's okay. But in romance, I think there's an added thrill in seeing common themes play out. So much of real life mirrors art and vice versa. In fiction, we have control. And there's comfort in that.

S: I think people read romance for the comfort the stories bring. Despite how bad things get, readers hold onto the hope of a happy ending.

What do you write first—the blurb or the book?

A: I will always write the book first. It's funny, I can easily write 60,000 words, but ask me to write a short paragraph summarizing the story, and I'll panic.

S: Blurbs are tough to write, but holding off until the manuscript is finished makes it so much easier.

Do you write in other genres?

A: I do write in other genres. My second favorite is fantasy, but every story I write includes love in some way. Our lives need love, and I think our fictions do as well.

S: I find it hard to write a story without some sort of romance. It comes in so many shapes and sizes. It's everywhere around us.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

A: Summiting Mt.Kilimanjaro in 2022. It was my second attempt. I'd previously climbed Kilimanjaro in 2018, and wound up 2000 feet short of the summit. So being able to go back and overcome, not only a mountain, but a previous personal failure, was the ultimate accomplishment.

S: Wow. That's an amazing accomplishment.

What inspired "Hostile Takeover?"

A: I found myself falling out of love with my career, which was a corporate management role at the time. Although growth at the company was no longer what I wanted for myself, there was endless inspiration, and it began with a seemingly simple premise. We've all had, or known someone who's had, a forbidden workplace romance that fizzles out for one reason or another. But what if, despite all odds, you were meant to meet them, and they were determined to make things work, no matter what. Naturally, I took that idea and made it into a dark romance kidnapping plot.

S: Is there anything special you would like people to know about "Hostile Takeover?"

A: This is my debut novel. I finished the book, got it to the editor, and three weeks before it came out, quit my corporate job. It's a huge risk, but I've never been happier. In many ways, I credit this book with changing my life.

Here's the blurb--

Career-driven Meghan always thought that she would make partner by thirty until a new transfer is brought in to help close a corporate merger, disrupting her plan with motives that have the potential to upend more than just her career.