Welcome Special Guest Josh Lockwood

Happy Endings is pleased to welcome our special guest today – Josh Lockwood.  That’s right, ladies — a fabulous gentleman who writes romance!  Josh has a new book coming out on October 21, 2009 from Wild Rose Press.

Welcome to Happy Endings. Can you tell us a little about your latest release?

Thanks for having me on here, Jeannie.  I really appreciate the opportunity.  Woman With A Past is the story of a young woman coming out of prison after serving time for a crime she didn’t commit and trying to regain her son.  It’s set on an Irish line boat plying the Erie Canal in one of America’s early growing-pain stages and, in my humble opinion, is a fast, fun read.

The blurb from his website:

A woman with a past looking for a future, a son she doesn’t know, and a man she has no reason to trust thrown together in the devil-may-care heyday of the Erie Canal.

That’s where Molly Ryan finds herself when she comes out of prison after serving time for a crime she didn’t commit and takes a job as cook on an Irish line boat, hoping to regain her son.

The very last thing she expected was to fall in love with big-shouldered Captain Danny Brennan along the way.

Will love, honesty, and honor be enough to regain her long lost son? Enough to start being a family again? Or will she be swept away by the old country charm of the captain?

The book sounds wonderful, Josh!  And isn’t that a terrific cover? I love it. Now since we’ve been talking about muses around here lately… Do you have one? If so, introduce us to him, her or it.  How does your muse help you?

My muse?  Oh, man!  I call her Blabbermouth because I can’t pronounce her real name and she laughs every time she hears it.  I guess you’d call her a fairy, but she doesn’t have wings like Tinkerbell.  She’s eight and a quarter inches tall — very proud of that extra height, by the way — with a trim, svelte, little body.  Most of the time she wears a shimmering blue-green micro-mini that leaves very little to the imagination and has a habit of leaning back against the tower of my computer with her long legs stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles.  She wakes me up almost every night, whispering story lines in my ear, and won’t leave me alone until I get up and start typing.  She also gestures a lot with her hands when she speaks, describing shapes and emotions in the air, and gets very upset with me when I can’t translate her gestures into the written word.  She says she’ll never leave me, but I’m not so sure about that.  She’s an awfully feisty little thing and, with muses, you just never know.

What is your biggest challenge as a writer?

Without a doubt my biggest challenge is research.  Our history is much more convoluted than just what they teach in school and, for a writer of historical romance, the facts of the story have to be correct.  I’ve been lucky enough to find diaries and journals kept by people who actually lived and worked in the areas I’ve written about and it’s given a tremendous authenticity to my work.  The trick is to weave the fiction around an actual historical event or period without making it sound like a textbook.

Imagine one of our readers is a writer who is inches away from giving up on her dreams.  What would you say to convince her (or him) to keep working at it?

Don’t worry about being a best-selling author.  As a matter of fact, don’t worry about selling at all.  Just write what you enjoy, what feels right for you.  But keep on writing.

Our characters often have characteristics of ourselves or others in our lives.  What’s one characteristic you gave to a character that you know is either you or someone you know?

Probably the ability to see the humor in any given situation.  I know that’s one of my characteristics.  When everyone else is talking gloom and doom, I’m the guy with the stupid grin on my face, saying, “What the hell?  It could be worse.”

Have you ever created a villain or killed a character off who is based on someone you know? (We won’t tell.)

Oh, yeah.  Every villain I’ve ever created has been based on a real person.  It’s much easier to describe the looks, speech patterns, and mannerisms of someone you know rather than having to dream it all up in your head.

If someone forced you onto a reality TV show as a contestant, which one would you go on?

Survivor.  I had to go through jungle survival school while still an aircrewman on active duty with the Navy so I know I’d get by out there and I’m a good judge of character when it comes to forming alliances.  I think I’d do well on that show.

Describe your ideal, sexy heroine.

This is a hard one.  There’s so much more to being sexy than just looks.  Looks are important, of course, but I think I’d want her to be down-to-earth and have brains as well as a body.

What movie have you watched more than any other?

Probably ‘Quigley Down Under’.  It has all the earmarks of being an adventure story, you know, but it’s really a romance in disguise.  The funny thing is, you don’t realize it until very near the end.

Anything with Tom Selleck is a winner with me! 🙂  And now, because this IS Happy Endings, I have to ask: What is your favorite fictional romantic happy endings — either from a book, a movie or TV show. Why that one?

That would have to be Nora Ephron’s ‘Sleepless in Seattle.’  It went against everything you would expect in a normal romance. The hero and heroine never even met until the very last scene, but their characters had been so well developed throughout the story that you were absolutely sure they were right for each other.  Then, in that very last scene, when Tom Hanks takes Meg Ryan’s hand in his and asks, “Shall we?” you just know they are starting a whole new life together and it leaves you with the soft, warm glow of satisfaction.

ABOUT JOSH:

Josh Lockwood is a retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer who’s been writing off-and-on since he was a teenager. Mostly westerns and not getting very far. A few years ago he met a well-known romance writer, read all of her books, and was hooked. Where the westerns focused on scenery and grit, the romance genre seemed to be all about feelings and emotion. Having seen both the very best and very worst of mankind’s behavior … from the free-wheeling liberty ports in a young sailor’s life to the unimaginable horrors of Viet Nam … he felt somewhat qualified to write in this vein. He chooses little-known locations and time periods for his historical romances, and hopes his second novel, Woman With A Past, will be as satisfying to read as it was to write.

Visit Josh at his website: http://joshlockwood.bravehost.com/

Thanks so much for visiting with us today, Josh.  It’s wonderful to have a man in our midst…so fellow authors, ask away your questions!