com/) - and not only had an enormous room with a bathroom in the castle’s tower, but we ate dinner on the chateau’s terrace overlooking the river, with a thunderstorm rumbling in the distance.

On the bright side, at the end of that day we stayed in a castle - Chateau de la Treyne (. One day we walked 16 miles in 90+ degree heat I almost expired. That was seven days of walking miles of paths, from village to village, castle to castle. I spent a couple weeks in France, including taking a self-guided walking tour through the countryside in the Perigord Noir region, along the Dordogne River. As one grows in my mind, so does the other as the idea for the story changes, the characters who fit in that story, and can make that story happen, also change.ĭid you do any unique research for Wake Unto Me? The two are always interconnected, for me. In the beginning, what or who spoke to your first? The story or the characters?īoth. In adult romances, you already know what the characters grow up to be. When you’re a teen, there’s such mystery about what shape your own future will take, and how you will turn out. One thing I very much liked about doing a YA was that I could spend more time on the heroine’s search for who she was, and who she wanted to be. I had to keep the action above the neck, which is way different from what I’m used to writing. The main challenge was that my editor kept telling me to ‘tone it down’ when it came to any physical romance between the hero and heroine. You’ve written a lot of adult romances as well, how was it like writing YA? What were the challenges and advantages? I even console myself, when something goes badly in my life, that someday I may be able to use it in a book. No experience, bad or good, is ever wasted. When I’m working on creating a story, I draw from everything I’ve ever seen, read, and experienced I sift through it all, looking for pieces that will fit together and build an interesting plot. The main sources of inspiration were a creepy portrait of a noblewoman I once saw at the Uffizi Gallery in Italy, and a short story I read long ago, in high school. What most influenced you to write this book?

Wake unto me by lisa cach