About Anne Calhoun
Anne Calhoun is the author of contemporary romance fiction. She lives in the Midwest with her family and singlehandedly supports her local Starbucks.
Q. How long have you been writing?
A. I got serious about writing for publication in 2007. I wrote and submitted three category length novels that were justifiably and resoundingly rejected before I wrote and sold Liberating Lacey.
Q. Why romance?
A: Why not romance? What’s more universally appealing than a story about two people falling in love? The earliest myths known to humanity relate to love, romance, and triumph over seemingly insurmountably obstacles. I’m just following in that tradition. More practically, I write romance because I’ve wanted to write romance since I was in junior high. There was quite a break between my junior high school ambitions and 2007, but eventually, I couldn’t continue to avoid what I really wanted to do.
Q. Where do you get your ideas?
A. Everywhere. Snippets of conversation, books I’ve read and thought “hmmmm…how would I do that?”, the newspaper, TV, magazine articles. I find things go into the compost heap that is my brain, then come out again on paper in completely different forms. Usually several different ideas come together to form a book. I know a book’s ready to be written when I understand the story underneath. For example, while I’m glad readers enjoy Hunter and Lacey’s physical relationship 
for me that book’s about power, about who has it and how they get it, and what they do with it. In most cop stories the hero has all the power thanks to a stalker, a serial killer, an abusive ex-husband, and he’s therefore very protective, etc. I wanted to write a book where the heroine didn’t need the cop hero for anything, but still fell in love with him and see how that played out. The book flowed once I could say to myself, “On the surface this will look like an erotic romance between an older, rich woman and a younger cop hero, but to me it’s about power.”
Q. Any advice for aspiring writers?
A. Write. Write as much as you can. Use your research time judiciously and spend the bulk of your available time putting words on page. It’s hard. It’s painful. It’s easy to get tempted by the latest book on how to write a book, or your favorite author’s magic, but you will not grow as a writer unless you’re putting words on the page most days of the week. Stephanie Tyler wrote on her blog that new authors shouldn’t even read a how-to book until they’ve gotten their first book on paper, down to The End. I totally agree. You need that experience, that book, to apply the advice. Otherwise, you don’t really get POV or pacing or plotting like you need to get it to improve. So write. Forget about the first book wonders and remember Anna Campbell, who wrote for 25 years before selling and was a double RITA nominee. WRITE!
Q: Hunter’s absolutely yummy. Is he based on a real person and can I meet him?
I’m glad you like him! He’s entirely fictional. In fact, when I first wrote Liberating Lacey, I didn’t know any cops. I’d been pulled over for speeding once when I was sixteen and hadn’t spoken to a cop since (a very, very long time). I got the details for “what’s on your belt” scene from a book called Police Procedure and Investigation by Lee Lofland. Who knew reading could be so much fun?
Q: How do you decide if what you’re writing is a short (like a Spice Brief) or a full-length book?
I’ve had a couple of books I intended to be short get away from me in a big hurry. Generally, I think of the shorts as scenes, vignettes, nothing more. What She Needs (August, 2010) describes one night in a couple’s life; there’s very little drama, no big question to be answered, no heroine (or hero) to rescue. The same goes for the Spice Brief that will release in January, 2011 – one night, one incident, very big decision to be made, but we all know how these are going to turn out, right? So if you start out to write a short and end up with a big steaming pile of backstory and a huge conflict, you’ve probably got a book. And while the two shorter works I’ve sold stayed neatly within the 15K word limit, the last two I’ve tried to write have driven me BESERK with their nefarious, teeth-gnashing efforts to twist and turn and grow into something longer.
I like writing short, and spent a year doing it, working on four different short stories, because it really taught me to focus on the emotional conflict and to make every word count. When your limit is 15K words, you have to get tight and direct. I’m wordy. I love dialogue and description, so this really helped me approach writing scenes and chapters in longer works with a more critical eye. Do I need this? What does it do for the story? I find in revision that sometimes I have to cut my favorite writing in order to make the story work and keep the emotional tension high.
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