Welcome to Kylie Brant's guest blog

Welcome Ms. Kylie Brant to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.

I’m delighted to be here, Danny! Thanks for having me


Did you always want to become a writer?

I’ve certainly always written. And I realize now that I always had plots running through my head. I used to think that everyone did. I wrote stories in elementary schools. In high school I graduated to plays featuring my friends—for entertainment purposes only! But it never occurred to me that I could do that for a living. Instead I went to college and grad school to be a special education teacher.

What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?

The most interesting in the creative input we get (when we get it!) for covers and the tidbits I uncover in my research. It is absolutely thrilling when the story starts to come together, when the characters begin speaking on their own. That happens somewhere around chapter four or five for me.

The least interesting is the constant deadlines, the having to put off fun stuff because I have to work. After a book is sent in, I’ll see it another two or three times as it makes it way through the publishing process for revisions, copyedits and galleys/page proofs. So at any given time, I might be working on three books at once, all in various stages of the process.


How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?

I don’t recall doing anything special to celebrate, but I do remember the first time I saw my book on the shelf. We had been shopping in a larger town nearby and went from store to store trying to find the book. Everywhere we went it was sold off and my husband thought it was hilarious that I was miffed about that But I really really wanted to see it next to the other books! Finally we found it somewhere and I’ll never forget the thrill that was. I think that’s when I finally truly realized that I was a writer.


How did your family react to fact that you also write romance novels? Have your family read your books?

When I first started, no one except my family knew I was writing. My kids and my husband all encouraged me. They were naïve enough to think that the fact that I read all the time meant that I’d surely get published. I didn’t know much about the industry, but I knew enough to realize that wasn’t true!
My husband isn’t much of a reader but he has read all my books. And now that my kids are grown, my daughter-in-laws read the books. My two oldest sons have read a couple of them now, too. My dad even reads them, and brags them up something fierce

With five kids, you can be sure I take my share of ribbing from them about writing romance, but my family is proud of my accomplishments.

Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

I clearly remember a time when I couldn’t read. I must have been four or so and asked my dad to read me the comics. I recall wondering when I was going to know how to read. What a disappointment it was on the first day of kindergarten to discover I wouldn’t start reading until the next year!

I always had a book in my hand after that. Even now, there will be books scattered in different rooms and I’ll read several novels at a time. Some of my favorites are Nora Roberts, Lee Child, Robert Crais and Tami Hoag.

Every one I read influenced my writing in some way. I think writers have to be avid readers. That’s how we absorb sentence structure, semantics, vocabulary, hooks, chapter endings and just the rhythm and flow of language.

Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?

My characters begin developing for the next book before I even finish the current one. I spend the first three chapters of the new book getting a feel for who they are. After that, the characters sort of take over

It’s difficult for me to write all day and then go out for the evening to a show or to dinner with friends. I’m still so fully immersed in the story, the characters are still speaking or moving on to the next scene. It’s hard to shift out of story mode back into the real world!

I can’t say I’ve ever based a major character on someone I actually know. The secondary characters, however often take their color and mannerisms from a variety of people I’ve seen or met.

Where do you get the inspirations for your books?

It’s always the ‘what if’ game. Maybe it’s a scene in a movie. Or a news story. But I start thinking, “What would have happened if. . .” and the new story idea begins to develop.

Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?

Love scenes are hands down the most difficult part of the book for me to write. The scenes have to be unique to the characters, to their situation and experiences. It always takes me two-three days to write the first love scene in a novel.

What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who are your favorite hero and heroine, and why?

I always say my favorite book is always whichever one I just finished! But right now my favorite would have to be WAKING EVIL, book 2 in THE MINDHUNTERS series which will be out in October. I love southern settings, and it takes place in a fictional rural town in Tennessee. The characters still resonate with me, although I finished the book months ago. Devlin Stryker is a laid back charmer with an intriguing occupation—a parapsychologist. And Ramsey Clark is a tough as nails forensic investigator who is able to deftly handle a homicide investigation, but has no idea what to do with the feelings Dev stirs in her. They’re such a mismatched couple on the outside, and I think that lasting relationships frequently start out that way.

Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?

WAKING THE DEAD, book 3 in THE MINDHUNTERS series was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. I think part of it was the fact that it was the final book in a killer schedule. I still teach full-time and I wrote four books (two categories and two single titles) in about seventeen months. So exhaustion began creeping in. It also required the most research of any I’ve written. The heroine is a forensic anthropologist so I had to research the setting, skeletal remains, defleshing bones, extracting DNA from bones, getting latent fingerprints from bones…it seemed like every three pages I had to stop and research something else.

The easiest book to write was FALLING HARD AND FAST, one of my books for Silhouette. The characters just emerged fully formed on the page and began speaking. It was just a matter of typing fast enough to keep up with everything they said!

If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?

Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I always write heroines that I really respect and admire. And they are tougher and much braver than I’d be! But maybe I’d choose Ava Carter, my heroine from TERMS OF ATTRACTION, a July release from Silhouette Romantic Suspense. As a female sniper on a local SWAT team, she has some intriguing skills! But the choices she makes, and the lengths she goes to protect her family are what I admire the most.

If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?

My favorite time period is pre-Civil War era of the south. There’s something so charming and elegant about that time period, with the lovely old mansions, the clothes, the balls… The country was still young and that would have been such an exciting time to be alive, knowing you were making history.

Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?

It’s funny, but although I learned to write in the midst of chaos, when my five kids were young, I can’t listen to music when I write. I had no trouble blocking the kids’ noise out, LOL, but music distracts me. I find I always stop to listen to the lyrics. And instrumental only evokes different story ideas, a diversion I definitely don’t need when I’m under deadline!

If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?


I think WAKING NIGHTMARE, book 1 of THE MINDHUNTERS series, to be released Sept. 1 would make a terrific movie. A serial rapist is preying on women in Savannah, learning their darkest fears…and then making them live them. It’s a dark and thrilling storyline and the characters are very vivid. Lots of twists and turns in the plot, and in Ryne and Abbie’s relationship!

Clive Owen would make the perfect Detective Ryne Robel. Dark haired, a little jaded, and somewhat flawed, I think he’d capture Robel’s steely resolve perfectly. For forensic profiler Abbie Phillips, Rachel McAdams fits the bill, if a little on the tall side!

Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?

Right now I’m working on another set of three MINDHUNTERS books. The first deals with a high profile kidnapping case that has forensic linguist Macy Reed and investigator Kellan Burke racing against the clock to find a missing ten year old girl before her kidnapper follows through on his death threats against her.