Author Interview: Elaine Hopper

Please help me welcome Elaine Hopper, sweet romance writer and long time friend, to Happily Ever After.

Her contemporary romance (sweet, no sex) "Always A Bridesmaid" just released at The Wild Rose Press. I enjoyed her book very much.

Be sure to leave to leave a lot of comments for her and make her feel welcome.

Ashley: Were you always a bridesmaid?

Elaine: No. I was only a bridesmaid once, in my friend Daria's wedding. I was already married when I stood up with her.

Ashley: Why do you call your book that?

Elaine: Breanna, the heroine, has been called home by her older sister to be her bridesmaid. This is at least the third wedding she's been a bridesmaid for. And this is the most painful. Not only does it remind her that her beloved mother is gone and won't be at her sister's wedding, it also puts her into close proximity with the only man who ever broke her heart.

Ashley: Have you ever had your heart broken?

Elaine: At least a couple times. Once for sure. But that was a LONG time ago. My husband and I celebrated our 30th anniversary in January 2010.

Ashley: Tell us about your family.

Elaine: I'm an only child but now I have five children and two grandchildren. We have five cats and two dogs. Four of our five children still live at home. My aunt died last week so I hope to go home for her service next week and celebrate her life with the rest of my mother's family. She was my mother's older sister.

Ashley: My condolences. I'm so sorry. I hope you get to see your family. Where's home?

Elaine: For the past twenty years, Florida. Originally, Cincinnati. I've now lived in Florida longer than Cincinnati where I grew up. I really didn't want to be here, but I love it now. Strangely, my life in Cincinnati seems like another lifetime. I still love to visit. My dad's backyard is pure Heaven on Earth.

Ashley: Do you write full time?

Elaine: I wish. For the foreseeable future, I'll be working for my day job. Actually, I love it - the mission, my co-workers, my job. I'm truly blessed. I'm a customer service manager at a charity that helps the poor of the destitute third world. I often work overtime which means I come home too tired to write many nights. For now, I write a lot on weekends and some evenings.

Ashley: Do you write at home with such a full house?

Elaine: It's not easy. The cats think they own my computer and keep trying to type my stories. They also think my computer is there to rub their heads against. Who knows? Maybe I should give them a chance.

Also my kids get pretty loud and I don't have an office of my own. Thus I take my laptop and my MP3 player to Borders or Barnes & Nobles a lot and write there.

Ashley: I want to ask some fun things. What type of animal would you be if you could chose? (Cats are off limits.)

Elaine: Not fair! Okay. I'd be a flying horse, a pegasus. I'd soar through the heavens and live in the clouds.

Ashley: Is your favorite color still purple? You wear pink and black a lot, so is it those?

Elaine: It used to be purple. Keeping to black pants and skirts makes it easier to mix and match although I like pink much to my daughters' horror.

My favorite color isn't just one color. I like a mix of colors best. You know, when one color blends into another, especially blue/purple/pink mixes. Or opals. I love the way they twinkle with different colors.

Ashley: What is your worst nightmare?

Elaine: All kinds of carnivorous dinosaurs including but not limited to alligators and crocodiles. Honestly, a couple times I awoke after T-Rex's were chasing me, picking off other people around me. (shudder) I wonder if it has something to do with all my husband's ceramic dragons in our room. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night their eyes glow eerily. It's really spooky.

Ashley: If you couldn't be a writer or a customer service manager, what type of work would you like to do?

Elaine: I always longed to be a journalist. For a brief time I wanted to be an astronaut. I like playing with web design and graphics. That might be fun.

I've held many jobs: I was an airman in the US Air Force. I was a computer maintenance technician, a cost-pricing analyst, waittress, hostess, and even ran a ceramics greenware shop. I've been in customer service for sixteen years and I've been published since 1999.

Ashley: If you could have a do over, what would it be?

Elaine: There are a few things I wish I'd done differently, and yet, I wouldn't be the person I was now if I'd followed a different path. I think I should stop making wishes. When I was 16 I wished I could live in Florida. Voila! Here I am. I made another wish a long time ago, and now it's coming true. I'm not ready to reveal what it was though. What I will say, is be careful for what you wish.

Ashley: You tweeted that you saw the new movie Star Trek at least six times at the theater. Why?

Elaine: I love the big screen and I love Star Trek, especially the new movie. It's awesome. It was showing for 99 cents at the dollar theater so the kids and I had fun. Back in 1977 my boyfriend then saw Star Wars 17 times paying full price. I wasn't quite as obsessive as he was. :) My kids have a good memory now. Me, too.

Ashley: Where can we find you in the near future?

Elaine: I'll be at Lori Foster's readers and writers event in Cincinnati this June.

I'm the guest blogger all week this week at Novel Spot. Please visit and leave comments so I don't get lonely.

Next week I'm the spotlighted author at LASR.

Ashley: Thank you for joining me. I know you've been extra busy promoting your new book, Always A Bridesmaid so I'll let you go.

Elaine: Thanks for hosting me, Ash. Please drop by my house anytime.

Elaine can be found at:

http://www.elainehopper.info/
http://www.elaineannhopper.blogspot.com/
http://www.twitter.com/elaine_hopper

Hell has finally frozen over. After nine long years, Breanna Parker has come home to be her sister's maid of honor. Just her luck that the first person she runs into is her ex-fiance, Troy Youngwolf—the man who eloped with her ex-best friend and broke her heart. Now a widowed father and sheriff of their Florida home town, sexy bad boy Troy wants another chance and won't take no for an answer. However, every time Breanna looks at Troy or his little girl, her heart breaks anew. She can hardly wait for her sister to get hitched so she can escape back to her urban family in Ft. Lauderdale. The risk is too high that Troy may discover her most closely held secret, one with the potential to destroy them both…perhaps this time forever.


Rosebud

(Pages 144) Sweet



Excerpt:

“So this is how the worldly Breanna behaves in her off-duty hours?” Troy righted Breanna, his hands lingering on her arms.

She stepped back, quelling the desire to rub away his prints. She chafed that Sierra was getting a big head start and she was left alone with Troy. “What are you doing in my house? Daddy’s not home.”

“Is that how you greet your boss? Or your old flame?”

Fire smoldered in Troy’s eyes as mischief danced in his voice. Knowing Sierra was way ahead, she sighed. “What do you want? More memos copied? Someone to pour you a coffee?” she said with saccharine sweetness, vowing to return to college and upgrade her career.

“I stop by periodically to make sure everything’s okay. This is my last stop of the day.” He didn’t move to leave. “Everything okay here?”

Was he daring her to make him leave? She scowled. “Only if you call having a crazed sister okay. Or having my boss intrude on my personal space.”

He didn’t blink, just advanced a step. “Is being around me really that bad? You didn’t used to think so.”

Before she realized his intentions, Troy backed her against the wall and crushed close. He captured her lips in a searing kiss that left her weak-kneed and breathless. Soft hands cupped her face, stilling her head. His hips pinned her to the wall so she couldn’t do more than squirm against his solid frame.

How long they kissed in the hall, she didn’t know. She was powerless to break the kiss—as if she’d been starved for it for years. Shirt balled in her hands, she molded her body to his.

He drew back a short distance. “You can kiss me like that and still say you hate

Always A Bridesmaid is available at TWRP.