Author Interview-Dina Keratsis
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What inspired you to
become a writer?
I blame my mother. She read to me all the time. She read to
my son on the first day we brought him home from the hospital and I assume the
scenario was the same with me. Books were family from an early age and when I was
not reading, I role-played or wrote. My favorite excursion was always to the
library. At some point, reading wasn’t enough to satisfy me and so I wrote. I
love all books but the romance genre is my go to book for relaxation.
Who are your favorite
romance characters (besides your own?)
I’m glad you limited this list to the romance genre or this
could go on for pages! I started reading romances when I was thirteen so there
are many but these come to mind straight away: Jericho Barrons (Karen Marie
Moning), Elizabeth and Ian Thornton (Judith McNaught), Matt Farrell and
Meredith Banks (another McNaught), Mike Taggart (Jude Deveraux), Owen Armstrong
(Sarah Dessen), Jasper Finley (Mary Balogh), Dageus MacKeltar (Moning again),
Ash Burke (Teresa Medeiros), Emm and Johnny (Megan Hart) and any of Loretta
Chase’s heroines.
I have to add Sirius Black. I’m in love with Sirius Black
and secretly I think he is alive and breathing in a romance novel of his own.
Someday, J.K. Rowling will release this secret book and he will be one of my
favorite romance characters.
Tell me what inspired
this story.
Cake was inspired by a dream about King Arthur. I still
remember every detail about that dream – one of those lingering visions that
seemed so real I thought I may have gone back in time, a dream full of longing
and tragedy and imagery.
At the same time, in daylight hours, I had become obsessed
with an old building in my neighborhood that was once called Apollo Cake. I
fall in love with buildings all the time and the less I can discover about one,
the more obsessed I become. Apollo Cake was one such building.
Finally, at the time of Cake’s conception, I was in a baking
frenzy, trying to re-create my favorite cake from the closed El Morocco
restaurant in Worcester. I have yet to find its match.
Rune and Breena evolved from all these ingredients.
You can read more details about the creation story of Cake
at my website.
How do you balance
your day-to-day commitments with your writing life?
I used to get home from work, exercise, eat, and write for 2
hours a night
and four hours on Saturday or Sunday, more if I felt like it.
This schedule is impossible now that I have two little ones and a three-hour
commute to and from work.
I write when I can, aiming for 800-1000 words a day, five
days a week. I have a supportive virtual writing group with writers who share a
similar lifestyle balance, and I remind myself that it’s about crafting
something I love rather than producing to publish, but this is a constant war I
have with myself. Right now, though, children, and sleep so that I can muster
kindness toward said children, take priority.
Is there anything
else you’d like to share with our readers?
Just a thank you for reading about Rune and Breena and for
all the kind emails I’ve received. You guys are great, and it’s such run to be
part of such a loving reading community. Romance readers are the best readers!
She has nothing
left to lose.
When Breena Murphy stumbles into
the enchanted borderland of Cake, she is given the choice to return to her
world or face the unknown. Unable to bear returning to her empty life, she
embraces the challenge, much to the annoyance of the handsome, brooding Rune.
He wants
redemption.
Long ago, Rune failed in his duty
to guard the Queen Likely and vowed never again to let desire rule him. Then he
meets Breena, the last Likely, and least likely, to succeed. Sworn to protect
her from the killer who seeks to destroy Cake, Rune is forced to face his
awakening desire for the one woman he can never have.
Together,
they embark on a magical journey to save Cake and while Rune abandons his
heart, Breena discovers that she has everything to lose.
