Author Interview: 10 Questions with Ashley Ladd

crazyinlove_800 I’m excited to introduce Ashley Ladd, the author of Crazy in Love, a new Erotic Short Romance story from Total-E Bound. Ashley was nice enough to sit down and answer a few questions for us and I hope you enjoy the interview!
Make sure to scroll down after the interview to enter to win a copy of Crazy in Love!
Your newest release Crazy in Love features Kacey and Heath, a married couple who seem to have lost that spark. Can you tell us more about how they got to this point and what readers can look forward to in Crazy in Love? Heath is a young, hot shot attorney who's putting all of himself into his job. He loves his wife but is rarely home. When he is home, he's too tired or too busy working from home to pay attention to her. Thus Kacey feels neglected. When he rejects her advances and is annoyed when she tries to talk to him, she begins to think he doesn't love her anymore. She's ready to leave and start over.
When Kacey claims the ghost of her crazy great-grandfather is threatening to kill her, and her friend tells Heath that Kacey thinks he's fallen out of love with her, he finally realizes he has to take drastic measures to keep the woman he loves and save his marriage.
Characters really make a story for me, so I always love to ask authors what three words would you use to describe your hero? Passionate, work-aholic, sexy
What three words best represent your heroine? Genealogy buff, cat-lover, flirty
What was your favorite part of writing Crazy in Love? Any particular scenes or plot twists you couldn't wait to write? (Ok - we understand, no spoilers allowed!) My favorite part was researching the history, getting the dialogue and medical terms right, and creating a crazy ghost.
The ghost of Kacey's great-grandfather plays a central role in Crazy in Love. Where did your inspiration for the character come from? Have you ever been visited by a ghost? No, I've never been visited by a ghost but my younger daughter used to think a ghost visited her at night when she was little. She thought it was the ghost of my mother, but my daughter was only four, so she couldn't really explain why she thought so. I've had other adult friends who think their houses were haunted, too. One of them told me to put a half full glass of water next to my daughter's bedside at night to keep the ghost away.
My family history inspired this story. It's amazing how many fascinating stories are in the pages of genealogy. This is my second story inspired by our family genealogy. The first was in an anthology that is sadly out of print. But that story was a lot of fun to write, too.
You've authored over 40 books. How do you keep it fresh and what are your favorite stories to write? I'm having fun with ghosts and time-travels in particular. I love throwing a character out of his or her time and comfort zone and see how they cope out of their element.
As per keeping stories fresh, I think I'm succeeding. This year for instance, my stories include a vampire on a mission to save her world, Kacey who's being threatened by a crazy ghost, Colleen who gets whisked back in time to the 1970's and gets a second chance to get things right, a cougar story (older woman, younger man), a story that features military issues (I'm ex-Air Force), a genie story (this one's on submission), and one that involves the inner workings or a reality show. Ideas are everywhere. There's another dysfunctional ghost in the reality show story.
AlwaysABridesmaid_w2864_300[1]Speaking of how prolific you are, you also have another new release out titled Always a Bridesmaid. Can you tell us a little more about it? Certainly. AAB as I call it for short, is a contemporary category type romance. Breanna is summoned home to be her sister's maid of honor. Unfortunately, as much as she misses her sister and father, home holds too many painful memories thus she's been avoiding town for the past eight years, or rather, she's been avoiding her ex-fiancé Troy Youngwolf. He broke her heart when he eloped with her best friend and had a child with her. But Troy is now a widower, single father, and the town's sheriff instead of the town's bad boy. As her sister's wedding guests and parties cause trouble in town, Troy keeps showing up to keep peace in the town much to Bree's dismay.
Always A Bridesmaid is available here.  
I love asking authors what they're reading and if they have any new books or authors they would recommend. Any you want to share with us? This year's Christmas present from my hubby, a Cooler e-book reader is filled with books. Also my dresser has a large stack of dead tree books. What I can see from here are books by: Tawny Weber, Cathy McDavid, Trenae Sumter, Holly Jacobs and Merline Lovelace. At least one of the books on my Cooler reader is also by Merline Lovelace. I'm in the middle of Holly's book entitled "Unexpected Gifts".
Obviously, I enjoy reading Merline's books. I also very much enjoy books by Sheryl Woods, Holly Jacobs, Brynn Paulin, Stephen King, and Stephen White.
Where can our readers find you next? I was recently interviewed at Bookworm Nation and Molly Daniel's blog.
Next week starting on March 29th, I'll be guest blogging all week at http://www.novelspot.com/ and I’ll be the featured guest blogger at Long and Short Reviews.
June 2010 I'll be at Lori Foster's Readers & Writers Event in Cincinnati.
Lastly, would you give our readers a little sneak peak excerpt from Crazy in Love? Absolutely! I hope you enjoy it.
Excerpt From: Crazy in Love
A mixture of awe, disbelief, enlightenment, and grief washing over her, Kacey Carlisle poured over her great-great-grandmother’s pension claim records. The ancient handwriting was almost illegible in places yet it was clear—her grandfather, August, hadn’t left his wife and family as the descendants had believed all these years. Her grandmother, Emma, had kicked him out.
Emma had sworn under deposition she’d feared for her life after August had returned home from the Civil War, physically and mentally ill. Other acquaintances had also testified under oath that
August had suffered from crazy spells, that he’d thought spirits were chasing him. Others claimed August believed Emma to have been unfaithful. For sure, he’d been a tortured soul.
Kacey’s head spun so she took another sip of her soda as she tried to make sense of her readings. Clearly, there were two sides. Still, she sympathized with Emma. Her own husband, Heath, while not insane or abusive, had been ignoring her for a long time and so her thoughts had turned more and more to divorce. It broke her heart, but she could no longer deny it. Heath had fallen out of love with her. If she paraded naked before him, he’d only tell her to quit acting silly and stop blocking the TV.
Oh, yeah. She empathized with her ancestor. Men could be real shits. Who needed them?
Her heart cracked a little more. Who was she fooling? She still loved her husband, desperately, madly. Insanely. At least, they didn’t have kids who would get hurt.
Miffed at herself, she chewed her lower lip. So it would seem she was insane, too. Who would hang on when the situation was so hopeless?
Only a crazy person. Maybe she’d inherited Grandpa August’s crazy streak.
”It’s late. Come to bed,” Heath muttered on a growl. Barefoot, he padded through the hall and scowled at her. He scrubbed the heel of his hand over the beginnings of new stubble on his chin. “I’ll lose my job if you keep me awake all night. I won’t be able to function at work tomorrow.”
Thank you for having me over, Sabrina. I really enjoyed chatting with you. Ashley
You can find out more about Ashley and follow her at the following sites:
http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com/ http://www.ashleyladd.com/  http://www.elaineannhopper.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/ashleyladd http://twitter.com/elaine_hopper http://www.myspace.com/ashleyladdromancewriter http://www.facebook.com/ashleyladd
Tell us, have you ever been visited by a ghost? If not, who would you want visiting you from the beyond, or would you rather the ghosts leave you alone? Let us know and you could win a copy of Crazy in Love, compliments of Ashley!

29 comments:

  1. Good Morning Everyone!

    Thanks again to Ashley for being with us today and for offering a copy of Crazy in Love to a reader!

    Personally, I have questioned one house we lived in and if maybe there was a ghost there. The dogs would watch off in the distance of a room for a long time and growl at it sometimes. They were spooked, and they say dogs can feel those kind of things.

    Not sure if I really believe in it or not, but I'm not ruling out the possibility!

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  2. Hello! Thanks for a great fun interview and giveaway. have lived in the same house for 30 years. My mother and I owned the house together. She passed away several years ago. I have had many paranormal experiences in my home, both before and after my mother passed away. The first experience was to glance over at a living room window late one night and see the "Scream" face looking in! I rushed to the door and turned on the front porch light, and not a "soul" was about! Another time, on Halloween night, I heard distinct footsteps on the wooden floor of the upstairs hallway. My mother and I were both downstairs and no other "human" was in the house. One night, I went upstairs to my room without turning on the stairway light. When I got to the doorway of my room, a large misty shape moved from the area of the doorway and went across the room and out the window. One bright Sunday morning, I had overslept, which is a rare occurrence. A voice from the doorway of my room said: "Are you getting up?". I looked over through sleep-filled eyes and saw the blurred image of a large friendly blonde woman dressed in red and royal blue. I answered, and then realized it wasn't my mother! The "woman" was twice the size of my mother (who was actually downstairs in the kitchen). Since my mother passed away, I have noticed unusual scents in the house. I have smelled my grandfather's pipe tobacco, my grandmother's lily of the valley, and my mother's fingernail polish remover. All of these people are deceased, and none of those items are in the house! The time that I was the most afraid was when I came home to find my house almost in a vacuum state. There seemed to be no air, no sound, and no smell of any kind in the house. My cats were in hiding. I don't know what had been in the house, but it had some kind of mojo!

    gcwhiskas at aol dot com

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  3. I personally never met a ghost but we had this old cat mansion in my hometown and I swear to God that thing had more than one ghost inside. Always made these strange sounds.
    Me = believer in the supernatural. LOL

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  4. This book sounds great, as done AAB.

    I've never had a ghostly encounter but if I did, I'd want it to be from my grandam. I was named after her and never really got a chance to know her.

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  5. Hey Sabrina - so nice to meet you at the BBP over the weekend. As for a ghost - never had one visit but I'd love to have a Yankee soldier from the Civil War or a soldier from the Revolutionary War visit me. I'm a big CW buff and I live about 20 minutes from the Battle of Saratoga which was a turning point in the RW so that is who I'd like to haunt (visit) me!!!

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  6. great post.

    If I could be visited by someone i'd want it to be my great grandmother.She lived a very full life and met some famous people,i'd ask her if that was true and ask her to tell me the stories.

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  7. Wow Virginia! Those are some amazing stories.

    SusiSunshine - There's always one house in every town that's really spooky right?

    Sara - I agree with you. I'd like to get to know my grandmother that passed away before I got to know her.

    elaing8 - Very cool that you great grandmother knew famous people - for some reason that seems to scream a book idea to me.

    :)

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  8. I don't think I'd want a ghost to visit me! I do love romances where the hero/heroine have to find love again so this sounds great!

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  9. I haven't (to my knowledge) been visited by a ghost, and as I'm quite the scaredy cat, I think I'd prefer things stay that way ;) Thanks for the interview--I always enjoy learning more about authors!

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  10. Thank you all for welcoming me here. I love writing about ghosts but I wouldn't want to come face to face with one, at least not an angry or crazy one.

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  11. I'm with the earlier comment from Anna - I love books with a married hero and heroine who've fallen out of love and need to find their way back.

    Hope I win, but I'm still adding this to my list. Thanks for the interview.

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  12. Thanks for the giveaway! This is a new to me author so choose me.

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  13. Enter me please!

    I haven't seen any ghosts myself, but I love stories with them. I hope the ghost isn't too scary though!

    Wow. Over 40 books? That's impressive. :)

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  14. Just saw your reminder on twitter and stopped by to enter! The excerpt is very interesting.

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  15. Virginia, that's really spooky. Only that one house I lived in, the one where my daughter thought she saw ghosts in her bedroom at night, ever gave me a bad feeling. One of my friends whose very realistic said she once lived in a haunted house.

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  16. Susi, I once attened a romance writers conference at a haunted hotel. It was a fun type spooky. We went on ghost hunts and really did get spooked a couple times when we got to the haunted floor, even just the elevator to the haunted floor.

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  17. Sara, sometimes I think my mom and my aunt are my guardian angels and are watching over me - and watching me. Especially my mom.

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  18. Kris, It was nice meeting you this weekend at the BBP this weekend, too. I also enjoy Civil War stories and history. It was really interesting to do the genealogy on my great-grandparents who lived during this time.

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  19. elaing8 - I'd like to see my grandmothers again, too. My mom's mom used to tell so many family stories. I was 13 when she died. I wish I'd written them all down. As a kid, I didn't think about it.

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  20. Anna, I like second chance at love/reunion stories, too.

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  21. flchn1 - I like to meet new authors, readers, and people, too. I visit lots of new blogs every weekend when I have some free time from the day job.

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  22. Stacey - One of my heroines is also named Stacy ( in "Submissive Dreams" at www.total-e-bound.com)- and our beloved cat is also named "Stacey".

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  23. booklvr324 - I'm going to let one of my children pick the winner to be fair. But I wish all of you luck.

    Meanwhile, there are several free stories on my blog at http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com Look on my sidebar for "Free Short Stories" and also for my "Monday Minute (free)Fiction" so you can get a taste for my stories. :)

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  24. tinak53 - I love to create stories with ghosts. I also have ghosts in "Wishcraft" at www.total-e-bound.com and there is a funny ghost in my book coming out this summer with Amber Quill Press - "So You Want To Marry My Mom".

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  25. Barbara - thanks for popping over from Twitter. I'm glad you liked my excerpt. :)

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  26. Thanks again, Sabrina, for having me as a guest today. I enjoyed everything.

    And the winner is: Anna.

    Congrats Anna!

    Please email me with your email address so I can send your prize copy of "Crazy In Love" at:

    ashleyladd2@gmail.com

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  27. Thanks so much Ashley for being with us and for the wonderful giveaway! Congrats to Anna and I hope Ashley will visit with us again soon!

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  28. Thanks for the interview and givaway. Your book sounds interesating.

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  29. If I could choose to be visited by a ghost I would choose Moses and Jesus.

    enyl(at)inbox(dot)com

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