Thanks so much for making the time to read and review He Belongs to Me and for having me on your blog!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your road to becoming an author.
I married my high school sweetheart thirty years ago and I have four great kids– 19-26yrs old. Though being a stay-at-home mom is a laudable profession, I found it a thankless job (at the time) and living for my kids and husband was sucking the life out of me—all my fault by the way. Writing was a wonderful creative intelligent outlet and it fed my soul and made me a much happier person and better mother and wife. So I joined writers groups, went to several conferences every year, entered writing contests, and invested in learning to write.
It must be so exciting to have your first book being published! Tell us a little about the decision to self publish.
It is exciting having my first book out there. I’ve been writing and learning the craft for about 16yrs and in the past 5 years had 2 very good agents who could not sell 2 other women’s fiction books—because the stories were hybrid books and didn’t firmly fit in a genre.
So after I got some great feedback and another rejection from Entangled Publishing on He Belongs to Me, I decided to self publish my works starting with this story. I figured I’d let readers determine if it’s a story worth reading.
So I hired an editor to check the grammar and spelling, and a professional cover designer to give me a great, marketable cover. It was very important to me to offer my readers the best product I could.
What do you like most about being a writer?
I love that I can create characters that each have a piece of me in them. I can express the meanness and cattiness in me through some characters like Shelly and the grandparents, and then I can be sweet and loving and smart and witty through my hero and heroine. I can kill people without going to jail (in other books) and I can have hot passionate sex with a young thing without being labeled a cougar or without being unfaithful to my husband.
That’s pretty sweet if you ask me.
Did you always know that you’d like to write contemporary romance? Did you try other romance genres?
I write romantic suspense as well as women’s fiction. I write the stories that fascinate me. I enjoy paranormals and historicals, yet I simply don’t have the interest in history and voice to write those genres.
If you have time to read what are some of your favorite books?
Of course I make time to read. I love reading and the publishing industry is constantly changing and I think it’s important for an author to keep up to date with reader expectations. Also, I believe that reading really good writers helps elevate my writing. Some of my favorite books include the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Game series, Harlan Coben books, Christine Feehan Game series and Lisa Kleypas contemporary books and I could go on and on.
If you could be in any book/series/world which would you pick and why?
No idea. I write contemporary stories, so I guess that’s where I enjoy being.
Short Bio-Theresa Rizzo is an award-winning author who writes emotional stories that explore the complexity of relationships and families through real-life trials. Born and raised in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she currently lives outside of Boulder, Colorado with her husband of thirty years. She’s raised four wonderful children who are now scattered across the country.
Find Theresa On the Web:
Book Buy Links:
Theresa, thank you so much for joining me today and great luck to you on your novel!
