Both of my children went through surgery and my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma.
It took my focus and I needed to put that to my family, so I did.
Day says the book is certainly not immune to the travails of her personal life.
Credit: Meghan Poort
Everything that happens in a writers personal life affects the writing to a certain extent, she explains.
Thats definitely the case with me.
EW exclusively debuts the cover for Days new title, out August 27 from Montlake Romance, below.
Montlake Romance
I really cant share a lot about it when I talk about it until after somebodys finished it.
As with the Crossfire series, its designed to be read twice.
But all of my books feature survivors.
Every writer has a particular topic that is important to them that flavors everything that they write.
And for me, I like to write about people who are surviving.
In this case, Teagan and Garret are both surviving the death of a dream.
And, of course, finding each other and being able to help each other through that process.
Do you feel its a departure from theCrossfireseries or will it still excite those readers?
Its very different from the Crossfire series in a lot of ways.
The other was that Im a big fan of theDr.
Pimple Poppershow even though its really disgusting.
My essay was on how I wanted to be a romance novelist.
That was age 12.
So it was always what I was going to be doing.
What was your teachers reaction to that?He kept me after class.
(laughs) I was like, Oh no, Im in trouble now.
But no, he kept me after class, and he said, I wanted to discuss your essay.
That was a lot better ending to that story than I was expecting.Right?!
Much better than detention, let me call your mom, and so on.
It couldve gone much worse.
Your mom gave you your first romance novel though, right?
So she wouldnt care?No.
My mom is a huge romance reader.
Thats how I got into reading romance.
Or the way weve been perceived in business, in personal life, in sexuality and everything else.
I just figured thats what you had to deal with as a woman.
I had no idea that this is wrong, and we should be stopping this.
We should be changing it.
Hopefully, well see more of that in the books that we read.
For example, the book that my mom gave me.
I ended up finding that book on eBay years later.
Thats happening less and less frequently.
You were president of RWA.
The organization is facing some steep challenges right now.
During that time, the RITA contest was something that was on our plate.
I imagine its probably exhausting for them at this point in time, but theyre fighting the good fight.
Some writers stick with the same publisher their whole life.
Thats great if it makes them happy to do that.
We love her work, and we would love to be able to work on something with her.
A cover should be eye-catching.
I immediately gravitated toward this one, and I thought it was just absolutely stunning and beautiful.
I look at this and it makes me happy.
Hopefully, when readers pick it up theyll feel the same way.
Thats why I loved it.
I wanted something that spoke of hope and this is what that cover says to me.
