[Author Interview] Blast From Her Past by Katy Eeten #Inspy #Romance

Title: Blast From Her Past

Author: Katy Eeten

Publisher: Anaiah Press

Genre: Inspirational Romance

AMAZON

BLURB:

After a broken engagement, Sydney Hampson has decided to leave her past behind her, including her faith, and focus on her career instead. This proves hard to do once a former classmate, who had been a bit of a bully, is hired by her company, and they are forced to work together.

Grant Williams gave up his teenage antics years ago, and now he’s looking forward to a future that includes a strong relationship with God. When he realizes he’ll be working with none other than Sydney Hampson—the girl he’d had a secret crush on during high school—he couldn’t be more thrilled. Until he discovers she’s not the same caring, compassionate woman she used to be.

During a business trip, the pair get stranded in the middle of a snowstorm, and Grant sees this as his chance to make things right and put their past wrongs behind them…if only Sydney can get over her distrust of men, and Grant in particular. But when their relationship finally turns into something more, a conniving coworker threatens to destroy Sydney’s happiness, no matter the cost. Can Sydney put her faith back in God and learn to trust in Grant again before she loses everything she’s gained?

AUTHOR BIO:

Katy Eeten lives in southeast Wisconsin with her husband and their two sons. She works full time in Contract Administration, but her true passion is writing. Blast From Her Past is her first published book. Aside from writing, Katy also enjoys taking walks, baking, and hanging out with her family.

Katy can be found at her WEBSITE, Facebook, and Twitter.

Tell us 5 surprising things about yourself. 

1) I can type 113 words per minute. 

2) I was a fast-pitch softball pitcher as a teenager, and my team once played the Russian Olympic softball team. 

3) I get motion-sickness doing the simplest things, like swinging on a swing (I cannot step foot on a boat without Dramamine!). 

4) I am crazy competitive when it comes to games, which I love playing. 

5) I once threw out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game (through a “Student Achievers” program at my school).

Do you plan all your characters out before you start a story or do they develop as you write? They definitely develop as I write. In Blast From Her Past, Justin, Harold and Nana didn’t even exist in my first draft, and Rachel really only played a part in Sydney’s memories. As I re-read and edit what I’ve written, I see the need to flesh out certain sides of my hero and heroine, which often brings out the need for additional minor characters or deeper interactions with those characters.

What type of book have you always wanted to write? A poignant time-travel book where the main character learns something life-altering about herself or her family through her time-traveling abilities. I’m not generally into sci-fi or fantasy, but I love the idea of being able to go back in time and learn from past experiences through the lens of a more mature perspective, and would love to generate that nostalgic, dramatic, gut-wrenching feeling in the hearts of my readers.

What’s the last movie you watched and loved? Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence (it’s older, but I don’t usually watch movies until they’re well out of the theaters :))

If you could be one of your characters - Who would you be? And why? Sydney’s sister Kate (from my debut novel Blast From Her Past). She’s a Christian with a loving husband and two sweet kids, and is really grounded and content with her life. She is caring, gives good advice, isn’t afraid to say what’s on her mind, and has a good sense of humor.

Flirting Questions 

What does love feel like? Love feels comforting, content, accepting, beautiful, safe. It has moments of excitement, moments of tenderness, and endures all the moments in between.

What’s an absolute no-no in a relationship? Tearing your partner down for no reason. Words can be damaging, and their effects last. Think before you speak, especially in the heat of an argument. We face enough opposition in this world as it is. No need to add to it with the ones we love. (And cheating, of course, but I feel like that’s a given!)

How did you meet your significant other? My pastor set us up! He thought we’d hit it off so insisted we go on at least one date, and the rest is history (we’ve been married for over 15 years)

If you could take a romantic trip, where would it be? The where is less important than who you are with - but I have several European destinations I’d love to see. London, Paris, Ireland, Italy. I would take any of those as long as I’m with my hubby :)

Do you believe in love at first sight? No. I believe in “strong attraction at first sight,” but until you know about someone’s beliefs, character, personality, etc., I don’t think you can truly know it’s love. But I do think you can know pretty early on in a relationship whether you are in love and if it’s meant to be - my husband and I only dated a few months before we got engaged, and were married less than 7 months later.

Flirting Quickies: 

Facial hair or clean shaven? Clean shaven

Planner or Panster? Planner

White wine or red? Not a wine drinker

Coffee or tea? Neither … Unless the coffee has a ton of cream and sugar in it

Vanilla or chocolate? Chocolate

Sweet or salty? Sweet (or both!)

Sleep in or get up early? Wish I could sleep in!

Laptop or desktop? Laptop

Beach or mountains? Beach

Winter or summer? Summer

City or Country? City

Clubbing or candlelight dinner? Dinner - any kind of dinner :)

Backpacking or luxury hotel? Don’t need luxury, but not much for roughing it either

Morning or night person? Neither by nature, but having kids has forced me to be both

Christmas or Halloween? Christmas

Optimist or pessimist? Realist