Meet Sandra Antonelli!

Sandra Antonelli's first book, A Basic Renovation, has just come out with Escape Publishing, so I asked her if she'd drop by and say hello.

Welcome, Sandra! So glad you could visit us here at the LoveCats.
 
Thank you for having me! I’m absolutely tickled to be here!

Tell us a bit about New Mexico, where A Basic Renovation is set.

Bear with me on this. New Mexico is in the Southwestern part of the USA. One might think that means desert, but the Rocky Mountains move through the centre of the state, and while there are portions that are desert, the mountains are lush and green—and surrounded by mesas vistas that make you think of cowboy movies—in fact lots of cowboy movies are filmed in New Mexico. 

The town Los Alamos has a secret past. It was once the site of a ranch school for boys (the author Gore Vidal went there) before the location was taken over by the US government during WWII. The town then became the site of the Manhattan Project, the secret mission to build the world’s first nuclear bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy. If you lived or worked in the town, or were married to someone who worked in the town, you needed ID to get in. There was a guard tower and military police. All the mail went down to one location in Santa Fe. 

After the war, the town was ‘declassified’ and became the site of the government run Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility that still operates. Oddly enough, Los Alamos has the highest concentration of people holding PhDs per capita (this actually relates to your next question). It is a lovely town in the ‘middle of nowhere’ as it is 45 minutes to the closest city, Santa Fe. I had family living in Los Alamos. The town is peaceful, breath-takingly beautiful, and one would never know that classified nuclear research goes on behind all nature’s splendor.

A Basic Renovation is a contemporary rom-com and it’s about… Hang on, I’ll post the blurb:
 
When it comes down to it, rats in the oven trumps Lesley’s desire to never set eyes on another Brennan family member. So Lesley, a pro at property redevelopment, scrambles to Dominic Brennan’s hardware store for supplies. 

Dominic knows poison — rat and otherwise — and he sees it in Lesley. The woman ruined his brother’s life. Now that she’s back in town, Dominic’s afraid she’ll drag up the past, the secrets, and the pain. They clash immediately, but mix in a teenage boy, a puppy, some white paint, and some loud music, and what starts as cold fury transforms into a nuclear attraction. 

This basic renovation becomes a major life refurbishment for them both.
 
Where did the idea for such a fun plot come from?
 
Again, I have to give more background about Los Alamos. A bush fire back in 2000 swept through the town. The little city of 18,000 was evacuated. Over 400 homes were destroyed. I visited shortly after that (with a video camera) and went through one neighbourhood where every house had burnt down—except for one. Someone—the owner I’m guessing—had put at sign out in front of that house. The sign said: Last One Standing. I saw that sign and knew I had the makings of a story. I knew I’d have to have that house, a character with a PhD, and something about fire, and Los Alamos’ nuclear history. Love can feel pretty fiery and atomic sometimes.

I love that your characters are a little older than the average romance hero and heroine. Dominic and Lesley are fully rounded and come with life experiences that make them interesting and relatable. Why did you choose to write about characters their age?

Somewhere around 30, I got tired of reading about characters in their 20s. To be honest, I couldn’t quite relate to twenty-somethings when I was in my 20s because they didn’t have enough life experience to be interesting to me—unless it was in historical romance where age was bound by the era when the novel took place. But I had a preference for reading contemporary romance, and as I got older I realised people in their 30s and 40s and 50s were still out there looking for love, still making mistakes, still trying to get life right. 

It also annoyed me that if I wanted to read about a female protagonist with more life experience and a little bit more age mileage while she was finding love, I was suddenly directed to Women’s Fiction, where romance was more of a subplot rather than THE plot. My choice was to keep on bitching about it, or to write the sort of story I wanted to read. That’s what I did with A Basic Renovation.

You say you write ‘Quirky Romance Novels for Grown Ups…and Smart Asses’. What’s that about?

The grown up part is easy. I write older characters finding love for the first, second or third time. The smart-ass part…I think that says more about me and my sense of humour. I’m part 13 year-old boy, part sarcastic woman. I like irreverent, out of place or black humour. People look at me and see a petite blonde with a high, thin voice, and little kid feet, all of which supposedly means I couldn’t possibly cuss or be sarcastic or smart-assy. Maybe smart-ass is the way I counteract the behaviour expected of me. Maybe I have a Napoleon complex.

We’re always looking for book recommendations here at the LoveCats – what’s the last romance you read that you loved?
 
It was an Historical—Jo Goodman’s The Last Renegade. By the way, Rachel, did you know Jo Goodman has a heroine named Rachel Bailey in Never Love A Lawman?


Actually, I have seen that! I must get a copy. Thanks for dropping by to chat about your book, Sandra - it's been fun. :)

If you'd like to check A Basic Renovation out, you can get it at Amazon (for the ridiculously low price of $0.99), Amazon UK, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, or from the Escape site. Or check out her website for more interesting snippets.

So, now I'm wondering - what do you all think about women in their 40's being the star of romance novels. Would you read one? Or do you prefer your heroines in their 20's and 30's?