Author Interview: 10 Questions with Ashley Ladd

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.
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!