Author Interview Dearly Beloved
Author Interview
How do you plot novels? Do you outline?
I am a diehard plotter and outliner. I could never sit down and simply begin to write. I need to know who my characters are, where they are going, and how they are going to get to their HEA. I outline the events that need to happen in my books in order for the characters to move from nothing toward love. I do detailed character outlines with not only the stats – weight, hair color, etc, – but their emotional journeys, flaws and foibles, as well.
Do you write in one genre, or in many different genres?
Just one: contemporary. I’m a here and now kind of girl. But within contemp, I write the subgenres of RomCom and small town romance.
What is your favorite part of the writing process? In truth, all of it. From the plotting, to the scene design, to coming up with my characters and their flaws, writing to me is like breathing. It’s my oxygen. If I didn’t have air, I couldn’t breath and I would die. That’s the way I feel about writing. If I couldn’t do it, I would emotionally wither and die on the inside.
What is your dreams as an author?
Obviously the shallow one is to be on some kind of bestseller list someday. But really, I just want to write stories that resonate with people. I want people who read my books to laugh on one page, cry on the next, and then smile again when they turn the page again. I want them to be invested in the characters or their actions so much, they can see themselves reacting in the same way, or sympathizing with how they handle a situation. And ultimately, I dream that the reader of my books likes what I’ve given them and wants to come back for more.
What would you like from your readers to take away from your novels? Do you have a few hours, because, there are sososososo many things! Hee Hee. I guess, ultimately, what I want readers to come away with after reading one of my books is that there is nothing more precious than family, love truly can heal every wound, and people are basically good. There is so much darkness in the world right now, I want my readers to feel lighter and happier after they finish one of my books. I want them to be hopeful for a world where love – as corny as it sounds – truly can conquer all.
What are your strong points when it comes to writing? What are your weak points? I’ve been told numerous times that my dialogue writing is spot-on. I have an ear for how people talk, how they get their points across, and that I can make my characters all identifiable just by the way they speak. My weakest point is that I use 50 words to describe something when 5 will do!! Still learning to self edit as I go, but it’s a struggle. Every. Single. Day.
Are you working on something at the moment?
Several things, in fact. Book 2 in the Match Made in Heaven series, plus I recently wrote the first book in a three book arc about a private detective agencies of brothers. It’s romantic suspense lite, and I’m looking for a publishing house for it right now.
About the Book
Title: Dearly Beloved
Author: Peggy Jaeger
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Colleen O’Dowd manages a thriving bridal business with her sisters in Heaven, New Hampshire. After fleeing Manhattan and her cheating ex-fiancé, Colleen still believes in happily ever afters. But with a demanding business to run, her sisters to look after, and their 93-year-old grandmother to keep out of trouble, she’s worried she’ll never find Mr. Right.
Playboy Slade Harrington doesn’t believe in marriage. His father’s six weddings have taught him life is better as an unencumbered single guy. But Slade loves his little sister. He’ll do anything for her, including footing the bill for her dream wedding. He doesn’t plan on losing his heart to a smart-mouthed, gorgeous wedding planner, though.
When her ex-fiancé comes back into the picture, Colleen must choose between Mr. Right and Mr. Right Now.
Author Bio
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
Tying into her love of families, her children’s book, THE KINDNESS TALES, was illustrated by her artist mother-in-law.
Peggy holds a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s Disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.
In 2013, she placed first in two categories in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest: Single Title Contemporary Romance and Short/Long Contemporary Romance.
In 2017 she came in 3rd in the New England Reader’s Choice contest for A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and was a finalist in the 2017 STILETTO contest for the same title.
In 2018, Peggy was a finalist in the HOLT MEDALLION Award and once again in the 2018 Stiletto Contest.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.