Blog Tour + Author Interview w/ Lisa Carter, A Vast and Gracious Tide + Giveaway

Welcome to the blog tour and giveaway for A Vast and Gracious Tide by Lisa Carter, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: A Vast and Gracious Tide  
Author: Lisa Carter  
Publisher: Gilead  
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Genre: Inspirational Romantic Suspense  

A wounded veteran and the police chief's daughter must work together to bring a killer to justice

Caden Wallis lost friends, his girlfriend, and even his leg to the ravages of war. He arrives on the Outer Banks broken and still reeling, struggling to make peace with his new life.

McKenna Dockery has been stuck in limbo since her fiancé died three years ago. Now, when the handsome yet heartbroken Caden arrives at her doorstep, she starts to wonder if there may be hope for her heart after all . . .

But no sooner do they meet than a man is found murdered on McKenna's property--and Caden is the prime suspect. The two must learn to trust each other, or no one will be safe in the tangled web of conspiracy, greed, and deceit lurking in the tidal marshlands of the Outer Banks.  

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | CBD | Book Depository

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Interview with Lisa Carter

Hi, Lisa! Welcome to Stuff & Nonsense!!! We are so excited to have a sister Carolina girl here today. You know Rebecca and I are both from the mountains of North Carolina.

Your tagline is fabulous -- "sweet tea with a slice of murder." :)

Tell us a little about yourself and your writing journey.

Thanks Anne and Rebecca for hosting me and A Vast and Gracious Tide today.

I have written stories in my head as far back as I can remember. As a child, I “told” myself a story every night to go to sleep. I thought everyone did this until I got to kindergarten and realized some people might find this strange. I was the kid, aka Phineas & Ferb, who made up imaginary tales for the other kids in the neighborhood to act out during summer vacation. Those stories were heavily dependent on what I’d watched on television—a combination of Star Trek meets Little House on the Prairie. Apparently, I was writing steampunk without knowing what steampunk was. :)

I’ve been married for twenty-eight years and have two daughters. One daughter just finished college and has moved away to begin her first real job. The other daughter is still in college. As a teenager, I wrote stories to entertain myself and the habit continued into adulthood whenever I had spare moments. During my children’s baby years, naptime was writing time for me. I see that period in my life as a time of honing my craft.

At age forty-five, God sort of said to me it was time to get serious about writing. So I stepped out of my comfort zone to attend a writing conference. I heard the stories of how long if ever the path to publication took so I felt pretty safe thinking I’ve got years before I have to deal with the publishing side of writing. Best laid plans . . . God had other plans. I left that conference with my first contract. Three months later, I had three more contracts. Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

It’s been a whirlwind ever since. A Vast and Gracious Tide is my nineteenth published book and counting. The writing journey for me has been a strange mix of sheer terror and absolute dependence on God every step of the way. Which is probably what He intended all along for me.

What do you think makes a good story?

I write character-driven stories. To me, a good story must contain a main character with whom readers feel a visceral connection and with whom they can empathize in regards to the character’s situation. Readers must immediately have an emotional stake in the protagonist’s success and feel anxiety at the potential for a protagonist’s failure.

I like a strong chemistry between my hero and heroine. I adore snappy dialogue, showcasing the sparks flying between them. At their core, my novels are about two people falling in love while dodging bullets.

I also love exotic story settings. A hero and heroine who are fighting to stay alive while battling their inconvenient feelings for each other and utilizing a lot of humor in the meantime are absolute golden reads for me.

How did you come up with the idea for your newest book?

I spent about fifteen years making quilts for practically everyone I’ve ever known. I read about quilts of valor that are sent to wounded warriors at Walter Reed Hospital. I also became aware of the horrendously high statistics of veteran suicide. So the idea came to me about what would happen if a recent amputee who’d lost the will to live received a quilt like that. The quilt would have given him a lot of comfort during grueling physical therapy sessions. And suppose at the end of all hope for a future beyond his injury, he decided to return the quilt to the quilt maker identified on the quilt label, express his gratitude and then end his life?

An added inducement would be that the quilt originated on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and he’d never seen the ocean before. But what would happen if the old lady quilt maker he expected turned out to be a young woman grieving her own losses? Throw in a murderer on the loose and you have yourself a story.

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and just have to write down a thought? If so, do you keep a tablet on your bedside table or go to the computer?

I have notepads everywhere—in every room in my house, in my car, in my purse. You never know when inspiration is about to strike. You have to be prepared. I wrote a great many scenes for Under a Turquoise Sky sitting on the bleachers watching my cheerleader daughter at football games and the other daughter play in a church basketball league.

Where is your favorite place to write? 

I move around during the day—the couch, the antique channel-back armchair I inherited from my father, my standing desk.

Do you talk to your characters? Keep story boards or Pinterest Boards? You know we love Pinterest! If so, please share a link.

I create a storyboard on Pinterest for every novel I’ve written. https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/a-vast-and-gracious-tide/

I don’t talk to my characters in my head—that would make me psychotic. My characters talk to each other in my head while I listen—which makes me slightly less psychotic.

Where is the one place you would love to set a book but know you can’t possibly go there? Would you write it anyway?

Been there, done that. The Stronghold is set in the no man’s borderland between Mexico and Arizona. The drug cartels own that mountainous terrain. I couldn’t go there in person without the risk of dying, but I did my research, and my imagination did the rest.

There are very few places on earth I don’t want to travel to—it would be easier to say which places I don’t want to visit. North Korea and Syria would head that list. I used to include Cuba, but my daughter has been there now and lists change. So who’s to say where the next story inspiration will send me.

Everywhere I go story ideas come to me. It’s more a matter of where my publishers will allow me to place a story based on reader preference demographics versus where I’d like to set future stories. I’ve been to the Amazon—story already written in my head. Just got back from a trip to Thailand celebrating my oldest daughter’s graduation. Yep, storyworld complete before the wheels of the airplane touched down again in the USA.

Have story, will travel and vice versa. I write to feed my travel addiction.

Have you always had a love for suspense? You obviously have a gift for writing it since you’re a 2015 Carol Award Winner in Romantic Suspense and 2017 Daphne Du Maurier Award Winner in Mystery/Suspense! Congratulations on those accomplishments, by the way. 

Thank you. It was such a wonderful surprise winning those awards. I’ve been reading suspense since middle school. I grew up reading Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Peters among others. I love the mental challenge of figuring out the who-dun-it. As a writer myself now, basically, I kill people on paper. I get a lot of strange looks when I tell people that.

Do you have a favorite book? What about it makes it stand out from others?

It would be hard to narrow it down to one book. I read extensively across genres. I love all of the late, great Tony Hillerman books. I relate to the gritty Southern realism of fellow North Carolina author, Margaret Maron’s Deborah Knott books. I think many of my North Carolina set novels contain more than a trace of the Southern Gothic. I read those kinds of books, too. I love—and have told them so—Deborah Raney’s Beneath A Southern Sky and Gina Holmes’ Crossing Oceans. As far as contemporary romance, I read anything Becky Wade and Denise Hunter write.

In your spare time, do you have any hobbies you enjoy? Favorite sports team? ;)

I travel, a lot. I think I’ve mentioned that. J. I love to spend time with family. I love to read. I’m a big ACC Wolfpack fan. Both of my children attend/ed North Carolina State University. I like to garden. My husband would tell you I like to supervise him doing the hard, manual labor of gardening.

What’s the one food item you can’t live without?

I wish I could—I love bread in any form and fashion. Bread and I—we’re frenemies. I have a love/hate relationship with carbs.

Thanks so much for sharing a little of yourself and your writing journey with us today! 

Thank you, Anne and Rebecca, for allowing me to visit with you. Happy reading.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Lisa Carter describes her Southern suspense novels as “sweet tea with a slice of murder.” She is the bestselling author of seven romantic suspense novels, four historical novellas, and a contemporary Coast Guard series. Lisa enjoys traveling to romantic locales and researching her next exotic adventure. A native North Carolinian, she has strong opinions on barbecue and ACC basketball.

CONNECT WITH LISA: website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

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Don't miss your chance to enter this great giveaway prize pack! One winner (US only) will receive:

Print copy of A Vast and Gracious Tide by Lisa Carter
Sea glass jewelry set (see here)
Framed print of Psalm 93:4 (see here)

$65 value

Giveaway will run from midnight June 18, 2018 through 11:59pm July 2, 2018. It is subject to the policies found here.  

Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below.
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Follow along with the tour HERE for more chances to win!