Author Bio: Emily Robertson graduated from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas with a degree in Theatre. She is an avid reader and enjoys reading New Adult and Romance as much as she does writing them. She currently resides in the Washington D.C. area with her husband and two children. She loves connecting with and talking to other readers by email, or on Facebook or Twitter. You can get information on her upcoming works by visiting her website, signing up for her newsletter, or joining her Facebook reader’s group. Writes: New Adult and Contemporary Romance Author of: The Portwood Brothers Series, Playing by the Rules, Playing with Fire, and Playing for the Win Tell us a little about yourself.
I’d like to think that I’m somehow so amazing that if I walk into a room, you’ll know immediately who I am. That’s totally not the case, though. I’m just your average wife and mom who looks as crazy and frazzled as the next. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for over eleven years now, and life has been a wild ride. I enjoy traveling, running, and sampling all the different flavours of Italian ice at Rita’s, our local ice and custard joint. I’m an avid reader when I have time, and I love the stupid games I download on my phone. During March Madness, my husband and I fight to the death over our brackets, but we always pick the same team to win it all (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!). We recently started getting into baseball as a family because my son started playing this year too. I have moved more times in my life than most people would consider sane, but this is my life. All of it makes for fun and excited things to weave into my books. Tell us about your latest release. My latest release just came out on July 14th. Playing it Cool is a book I honestly never thought I’d write. I don’t plot when I write because it just never works out for me. When I wrote Playing by the Rules, I was thinking it’d be a series about a guy and his roommates. The whole thing derailed and took me with it. Because of how the books lined up, we meet Bryce and Addison after they’ve already been dating for many years and are engaged, and by the end of the book they’re married. Playing it Cool goes back in time to when the couple meet in college and how they fall in love. To say that they are opposite might be a bit of an understatement. Bryce is a fun easy-going guy, and Addison has had her future mapped out since she was little. I hope fans of the series will love this novella and the look into the beginning of Bryce and Addison’s relationship. Because it’s a prequel, this is a great place to start if you haven’t read the series too. What can readers expect from you in the rest of 2017? This year has been a crazy year for me. I’m finally settled, and I’m excited about the rest of the year. I just released Playing it Cool. I have another Portwood novella coming out in October that should wrap up the series (I’ve learned never to say no), and I have a brand new series that I’m working on. This series revolves around a band and the women who keep them on their toes. Have you got anything planned for 2018 (book releases, signings etc.)? In 2018, I’ll continue to release (or start if I didn’t get them out at the end of this year) my series about the band, series name to come. Right now there are four books in that series, but I have a couple ideas for novellas as well. I’m also going to be doing a book signing at the Royal Book Bash In the DMV on June, 23, 2018. What is your favourite genre to write? Hands down it’s New Adult. There’s something about writing about the time in life where things are new and exciting. I love writing about those first big changes and what that does to a person. I remember in my life when I was stepping out on my own for the first time, and what feelings and emotions that brought about. There’s so much to play with in that time and so many things to bring about. Do you see yourself writing in any other genres in the future? Other than romance? I’m not sure. I’ve always said that I’ll never say never. Maybe some day there will be a murder mystery on the shelf with my name on it. My muse is so fickle, I can’t tell you what will happen. All I know is when something strikes, I just go for it. Which book was your favourite to write, and why? That’s a hard one. They are all great for different reasons, except Bryce books. I never like writing his books. I’d say my favourite to write was a book that’s yet to come out called Encore. It’s the first book in the band series. There was something about the change of pace from the other series, and the story itself that just had the words flowing from me. Maybe it was the second-chance love story or the banter in the book, but after a slump with what I’d come from, it really showed me how much fun I could have again. For those who are new to your work, which book would you recommend starting with? If you’re new, you have two choices. You can start with Playing it Cool because it is the true beginning of the timeline for the series. If you’d rather not start with a novella, though, you could start with Playing by the Rules. It’s the first book that was published in the series, and the rest of the books follow closely behind timeline wise. How do you find names for your characters? And can you write them until you’ve found the perfect one? Names are so hard. Usually my characters don’t come to me with names. I have a baby name book I sometimes use, but Google is my friend. I usually just Google, “Popular baby names in (fill in the year).” I usually can’t start writing until I have a name for everyone. In fact, I can’t start writing until I fill out what I call the Questions of Doom. It’s a lot of questions about the character that range from name, what they look like, to what their biggest fear is. Which of your characters would you want to be stranded on a desert island with, and why? For sure Jax. He’s a military man. If he couldn’t get us off the island with his skills, he wouldn’t be bad to be stuck with either. Do you have a character you feel more connected to? There are several for different reasons. I tend to write little bits of my life into each of my books. In Playing by the Rules, Payton is dealing with life after a head injury. The chronic pain and the issues that cause is something I’m very familiar with. I wrote the book when I was frustrated with my own options for treatment from my head injury. It’s so hard when people can’t see your pain, but it’s there every day. I also am really connected to the second book in the series. In Playing with Fire, Jax is coming home from a deployment. He’s spent the whole time trying to get over his attraction to his brother’s girlfriend. Then enters Emma, a fiery redhead, who offers him a distraction. When I wrote his book, I needed a distraction of my own. My husband had just left for his own deployment. I spent my days playing single mom, and my nights were busy writing. Who is your biggest supporter? My family, all of them. My husband has always been there for me from the beginning. Even when I wasn’t sure I was going to publish, he was there. My kids are always excited for me and help me celebrate. Even my preacher dad and mom and my in-laws and sister love supporting me in any way they can. They’re always the first to buy my books even before they know if they’re good or not. Were you an avid reader as a child? When I was little, yes. As I got older, no. Reading comprehension was always hard for me. Sometimes it still is. Several years ago, though, I found that I could read for fun, and I’ve never looked back. I try and read whenever I can now because I have found that it’s fun again. Are any of the experiences in your books based on events that have happened to you/someone you know? So many. Like I said earlier, I deal with the effects of my head injury still today, and I wrote about that in Playing by the Rules. I loved bringing in military life to one of my books, and then I’ve also written about things that effect so many like the loss of a child or sexual assault. I try not to shy away from anything that comes to me. Life is messy, but a messy life makes us who we are. It’s what shapes us into the people we become. Do you have any funny writing quirks or stories you could tell us? I don’t know if I have any writing quirks, but the stories are endless. I remember my first year I did NaNoWriMo. I was posting about it on Facebook a lot, and when I went down to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, my dad saw me at my keyboard and said, “What are you writing?” My sister blurts out, “She writes smut!” Cover blown. My preacher dad looks at me for a second and then says, “Well, it should be easy to get all those words then. You only need to say ‘oh ah oh ah, yes, oh ah’ over and over again.” Best Dad EVER! Are you a sporty or curl up with a good book type of person? Both. I love curling up with a good book or horrible reality TV. However, I do love running and getting out too. I try and balance most stuff where I can. What is the strangest thing you’ve done in the name of book research? I called a lawyer out of the phonebook to ask them questions. It doesn’t sound strange, but when it’s your first book, it feels really weird ringing someone up just to ask them questions about kidnapping. What is your drink of choice while writing? I’m boring. I drink water. I gave up soda a year ago and haven’t looked back. Are you a morning person? Heck no! I do get up early to run in the summer, though. What book are you reading now? I just finished the Kerr Chronicles by Jen Frederick. What can I say, my writing keeps me about five years behind. Name 3 books everyone needs to read (excluding yours). The Addison Holmes Series by Liliana Hart (Lots of laughs) Forward Passes by Jami Davenport (Hello, Mr. Harris) The Gridiron Series by Jen Fredrick (Football? Yes, please!)
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