Victoria Howard is a romantic suspense author of two published novels, The House on the Shore and Three Weeks Last Spring, and two short stories.  She is currently working on a third novel, Ring of Lies.  When not writing, she can be found walking her five month old Border collie, Rosie.

Muse: Victoria, first of all, Whispers of the Muse welcomes you to the site. Tell us a little about yourself. What part of the world do you live in? Tell us about your background?
Victoria: Thank you for the warm welcome, Deborah.

 I was born in Liverpool, at a time when the Beatles (Twist and Shout!) were becoming famous.  We moved to the Wirral on the “posh” side of the river Mersey when I was eleven.  I attended the local girls’ grammar school, going on to college where I received my Medical Secretarial Diploma.

I’ve lived and worked in various places since then, spending most of my adult life on the outskirts of a village in the Highlands of Scotland. While living there, I managed a company involved in the offshore oil industry.  I feel Scotland is my spiritual home, which probably the reason why I’ve used it for the setting of my second novel.

 In October 2000 I moved to South Yorkshire, and until recently, I worked for Britain’s National Health Service. 

Muse: Who are your favorite authors?
Victoria: Where do I start?  Katie Fforde, Valerie Fitzgerald, Milly Johnson, Daphne DuMaurier, Jane Austen, Nora Roberts, Lee Child, Henning Mankell, Lin Anderson, and James Cobb to name but a few.

Muse: Why do you write Romantic Suspense?
Victoria: I’ve always enjoyed reading mystery and romance novels.  Combing the two genres allows me, and hopefully my readers, to enjoy both genres in one book.

Muse: What is your writing regimen? How often do you work on a novel? Do you set daily time or word goals? What keeps you meeting your deadlines?
Victoria: I like to try and write every day.  When I’m working on a manuscript as I am now, I prefer to do all the research first so that I have all the information I need and can get on with the business of crafting the novel.   Of course, there are times when I find I need more information and it’s at that point I’ll break off, read what I’ve written then do any further research, before continuing working on the manuscript.

I’m usually in my office by mid-morning and try and work until 4.30pm. I don’t have a daily word goal per se, although I do like to stop when I reach the end of a scene.  I think knowing that my publisher is waiting for the manuscript keeps me on track as far as meeting deadlines are concerned, that, and thinking of the next plot!

Muse: Does the way you personally look at life reflect in your writing style?
Victoria: I don’t think there is an author alive who hasn’t drawn on their own experience at some point in their writing career, and I’m no different.

I don’t think my novels are autobiographical, although there are elements of me in them, for instance, Anna, who lives in a remote Highland croft in The House on the Shore.  I too lived in a croft, although it was on the east coast of Scotland, not on the west. 

Muse: What are the creative jumping off points for you? Are you inspired by dreams? Music? Nature? The occasional black nightmare? What triggers your imagination?
Victoria: Newspaper articles, news items, radio programs, but mainly places seem to fire my imagination.  

Muse: Tell us about Three Weeks Last Spring. What was your inspiration?
Victoria: I’ve always enjoyed writing and traveling, and a visit to Seattle a few years ago, made me realize how delicately balanced the eco-system of area was.  Many of you will remember the catastrophic oil spillage by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska, and the damage it caused to the environment.  Something like that could easily happen in busy shipping lanes of Puget Sound.  However, I didn’t want to use an oil spillage as the scenario – I wanted something that would have an impact on man too, which is how I came up with the emotive topic of illegal chemical dumping.

Muse: What is your favorite scene from the book and why?
Victoria: It has to be the one were Walker is fighting for his life in the ocean.  It involved a great deal of research to ensure the scene was accurate.  From the very beginning of the chapter you get the impression that something bad is about to happen and the chapter closes with the chilling sentence “He floated face down in the water, an invisible form in a black sea.”

Muse: Have you written other books?
Victoria: I have one other book in print, The House on the Shore was released last year and was a contender for the 2009 Joan Hessayon Award presented by the Romantic Novelists’ Association.  It also received an Honourable Mention in the 2009 London Book Festival Awards.

Muse: Tell us more about your other books?
Victoria: When Anna MacDonald leaves Edinburgh to find peace in the Scottish Highlands, she gets a twofold surprise:  a lost sailor teaches her to love again…while a mysterious stranger has plans to kill her.

Passed over for promotion by her boss—and boyfriend, Anna walks off the job in anger.  But being reactionary has its price.  No longer afford the rent on her Edinburgh apartment, she retreats to the only place she has ever felt happy – her grandmother's croft on the edge of a Highland loch.  With no phone or neighbours, and only two border collies for company, Anna sets out to finally achieve her lifelong dream; to write—and sell—the novel that has burned within her for years. 

Luke Tallantyre, a renowned Cape Cod artist, has sailed across the Atlantic to escape an artistic dry spell.  When his yacht develops a problem he drops anchor in Loch Hourn.  He rows ashore, and knocking on the door of the croft, asks to use the telephone, but the reception he receives is less than welcoming – in fact it's downright frosty.

Anna resents the cranky American’s intrusion to her seemingly idyllic life.  Luke thinks she’s an ill-mannered hermit.  But an unseen assassin is after one of them.  So they unwillingly join forces and embark on an adventure neither ever imagined…including a chance at true love.

Muse: How do you feel about the current publishing marketplace?
Victoria: It’s hard for the first time author to get a foot on the ladder.  Most of the large publishing houses will only accept agented manuscripts, and many aren’t taking on new authors. 

Small, independent presses, while they may not pay an advance, they are often prepared to take on new writers. 

With the advent of the Kindle, iPad, and Sony Reader, the digital market will keep growing and I think it’s important that publishers, both large and small, embrace this technology.