When the Heart Falls

We enjoy the cultural diversity and our girls are learning French and Russian from us, as well as Chinese at school. We want them to grow up with an awareness of other cultures and countries, and not have a myopic ethnocentric view because they are Americans.

As for where we want to settle down, we're in the perfect place for us, for now. At least while the kids are in school. We moved to this area for the school, and it was well worth it. We'll likely stay here until the last one graduates high school, then, who knows? We're open to anything.

8) Your book When the Heart Falls is set mostly in the city of love--Paris. Have either of you spent any time there?



Kimberly spent a summer studying at the Sorbonne and living in the same dorms as Winter and Cade. A few of their adventures are rooted in Kimberly's own experiences, like having to bring toilet paper to the bathrooms at the dorms, and having to balance over a hole in the ground to pee at an outdoor party. Fortunately, things weren't quite as crazy for her as they get for poor Winter.

9) The main characters of your story are battling personal issues that change how they interact with their world around them. Is this something either of you have dealt with personally?



We haven't dealt with exactly the same issues as Cade and Winter, but certainly we've each had life events, situations and people that have forced us to change our perspective and see the world differently.

When life gets difficult, when the screws start to tighten around you, you can either cave in to the pressure, or use it to help you grow. We try to use those experiences to help us grow as people, and as writers.

10) You write vivid peripheral characters. Without naming them of course, are there any characters in When the Heart Falls that are based off of real life people?



None of our characters are specifically inspired by anyone in particular. Their personalities are formed from archetypal characters and the strengths and weaknesses of humans everywhere. We hope that readers will see some of themselves in many of the characters (though there are a few we hope none of you can personally identify with!)

11) When you find yourself in a writing rut, what do you do to unblock your creative stall?



We might work on something else, take time off of writing and read, play video games or watch movies, or do something with our kids. Sometimes we just need a new view to get our minds uncluttered. We never get writer's block, but sometimes we can get burnt out and just need to recharge doing something else. We're always on the look out for great books to read!

12) Is there a tool you use (music, reading, movies etc.) that you draw inspiration from?



Reading is a big one. We love reading well-written books with rich characters. We also listen to a lot of music (and write to music), and watch a lot of movies. We dissect everything, talking about plot, structure, characterization, etc. It's a lot of fun!

13) Give us a peek onto your bookshelf and give us the names of those books you reread over and over.



Name of the Wind and that whole series by Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman (particularly his short story collection Fragile Things and his children's books), C.S. Lewis (The Narnia series), George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones (the early books), Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (the early books), Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, anything by Tamora Pierce and Anne Bishop. J.K. Rowling and Patti Larsen are also favorites of ours.

14) You mention a friend, Roland Bellugue, in the beginning of When the Heart Falls that you felt inspired your love of all things France. Can you expound on this mentor?



Kimberly: Monsieur Roland Bellugue was my French professor in college and took me (as part of a group) to Paris for a summer program at the Sorbonne. He was a French man who had lived in the US for many years, but retained his love of his country and culture and passed that down to many students. I got to know him and even spent time at his house for an interview and article I wrote for the Press Telegram about him and his French program. A few years after that trip, I heard from someone in our class that he had lung cancer. When I called him, he confirmed it. This was a man who hadn't been sick a day in his life, didn't smoke and was in top health. I couldn’t believe it. Several months later, I called him again to check on him and the phone just rang and rang.

He'd already died.

We named the French professor in When the Heart Falls after him, to honor his memory. He made learning French fun, and a few of the lines from the book are pulled straight from my time with him, including the little tidbit about 'le caput.'

15) What’s next for you guys?



So very much! We are continually expanding on the Seduced Saga, which is a fan favorite. That series may not ever end at this rate! We will also be writing more books in the Deveaux world, and while all of them will have romance, there will also be mystery, more literary coming of age themes, and even a Naughty Deveaux series with the bad boy half-brother of Daring. Fans are sure to love the naughty Damon Deveaux in The Naughty Live Longer.