Getting to know Nancy Lee Badger #author #contemporary #firefighter #romance #fiction #mustread #Christmas #novel

Two months until Christmas! I have an author with a story to help get you in the mood, too! I’m happy to welcome Nancy Lee Badger to the interview hot seat today. I think you’ll be glad I did! Here’s more about her background and then on to the interview…

Nancy Lee Badger grew up in Huntington on New York’s Long Island. After attending Plymouth State, in New Hampshire, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree and met and married her college sweetheart. They raised two handsome sons in Rumney, New Hampshire, where Nancy volunteered as an EMT and firefighter while working full-time. When the children had left the nest, and shoveling show became a chore, she retired from her satisfying job as a 911 Emergency Medical Dispatcher and moved to North Carolina, where she writes full-time. She and family volunteer every fall at the NH Highland Games.

Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Triangle Association of Freelancers. She loves to travel with her husband and is never far from her laptop. She finds story ideas in the most unusual places.

You can find out more about her at her website, via her blog, or follow her on Facebook.

Betty: How many books have you written and published?

Nancy: Rescuing Christmas is my 27^th novel: 7 with small presses and the others I self-published. This book is a self-published novel, and since I am currently writing other books for a publisher, I am considered a Hybrid.

Betty: What themes or motifs did you use in your recent release and why were they important to your story?

Nancy: I wanted to try something different so my readers will find the plot and the characters at the heart of the story without the heat of physical love. Well, other than kissing or heated looks across the fire department truck bay. I also used my former small-town living, where I volunteered with the local fire department and rescue squad, to give the story life.

A Manhattan businessman in a Vermont ditch meets a muddy female firefighter. No snow since November might ruin the town’s annual fire department fundraiser. Can Elinor and Bradley stop their squabbling long enough to Rescue Christmas?

Buy Links are listed on her blog:  https://nancyleebadger.blogspot.com/p/books.html

Betty: Do you have any writing rituals while you write? Did you have a special drink, or music, or time of day that you gravitated toward?

Nancy: My favorite place is my dining room, where I can spread out my notes while watching people walk by the front window. It is a bit too close to the kitchen, which is why I am seeing a nutritionist. I try to drink lots of water every day. My cat. Blaze, watches me to make sure I continue working and not go off to watch Murder, She Wrote reruns!

Betty: Do you have a structured time to write or is it more fluid/flexible? Do you have to write between family obligations or do you set aside a block of time?

Nancy: I wish my writing life was more structured! Although I no longer work full-time outside the home, I am busier than ever. Travel, volunteering, and taking care of family takes time away from my writing. I seem to get less writing done when hubby is home from work!

Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?

Nancy: I love regency historicals followed closely by Highlander historicals. I have written several of the latter, and I have dabbled with the former, but I have no plans to release one of those as yet. Things change!

Betty: Do you have a “day job” or do you write full time?

Nancy: I am lucky to have a husband who agreed to my retirement from the State of New Hampshire 911, selling our home, and moving closer to my family. Now, I am able to write full-time.

Betty: What do you wish readers knew about the publishing industry?

Nancy: Since I submitted my first manuscript, trying desperately to get an agent or a publisher interested in my work, things have changed. There are only a few ‘Big Publishers’ and they do not look at un-agented manuscripts. The smaller publishers do have some perks such as free editing and book covers but generally do not offer much in the way of promotion except by posting my book on their website. The rest of ‘getting the word out’ is up to me. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets can be a time suck, but you have to get the word out somehow.

Betty: What advice do you have for new writers?

Nancy: Do not feel you need to do this alone. Join a writing group, check out your favorite author’s YouTube craft videos, enter a writing contest. Listening is a big part of learning this craft. And…don’t forget to read!

Betty: Any hints of what you’re next writing project might be?

Nancy: I am in the midst of editing Heaven-sent Flame, the third book in my Warriors in Bronze series. This paranormal romance set at an art museum in North Carolina will be released sometime in April 2020 by Soul Mate Publishing.

Sounds like Nancy has quite a lot on her plate! I hope you’ll check out her latest Christmas story featuring a firefighter out to rescue the holiday, too.

Okay, I’m off to ignore the idea of Christmas planning…for a little while yet anyway! But it won’t be long I’ll be grabbing a cup of hot chocolate and a good holiday story…

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween and Happy Reading!

Betty

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Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.