Author Interview-Mary Frame

You’ve heard this story a thousand times.

Boy meets girl.

Boy and girl have a fake relationship.

Then they actually fall in love.

This is not one of those stories.

                 

It should be. I mean, he’s Brent Crawford. He’s the new tight end for the New York Sharks. He’s one of the sexiest men alive. But his sponsors are threatening to drop him, and his job is in jeopardy due to allegations of assault. He needs someone to help recover his image.

She’s Gwen McDougall, former fashion model turned photographer and newly minted local hero. She wants more from her photography jobs than premeditated shots of B-list celebutantes, and now is her chance. She just has to agree to help Brent shine up his tarnished reputation.

They’re both young, beautiful, and talented. They would be perfect together. 

Except she can’t stop making out with his brother.

This isn’t a perfect romance. Like most things in life, it’s rather imperfect.

How did the inspiration for this work come to you?

The female lead in Picture Imperfect, Gwen, is the sister of the female lead in the last Imperfect book, Practically Imperfect. I started thinking of ideas for Gwen after Practically Imperfect was released in 2016, but the story was put on the back burner while I worked on a different series (The Extraordinary Series). Once I completed that trilogy, I went back to Gwen’s story.

Gwen is a former model, so a lot of my story building revolved around exploring the theme of beauty and what it means for different people. The male lead, Marc, is scarred so it was fun to contrast Gwen’s perception of beauty with his. Her beauty causes problems since she’s trying to make it as a photographer and she’s frequently judged harshly and not taken seriously because of her past work and her looks. Marc has a facial scar and his brother (Brent) is a gorgeous, slightly famous football player, so he’s always felt self-conscious and doesn’t think women can see past his physical flaw.

I also wanted to play on the common trope of fake-relationship turns into romance, but with a twist. In this story, our heroine falls in love with the brother of the person she’s fake-dating.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Write every day. Study your craft and work on your writing skills, always. It’s great when the muse is on duty and the words are flowing, but if you’re serious about being a writer you have to push through the hard times—especially if you have limited time! Write when you’re tired, write when you don’t feel like it, write *something* even when it feels impossible. You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.

Who are your writing role models?

There are sooo many writers to admire! SK Quinn is a great one, a great giver of knowledge and supporter of fellow indie authors. Marie Force is another one that freely offers a lot of information and support to writers. Marie Force has a couple of groups on Facebook that I highly recommend joining if you write romance and/or are an indie writer. Author Support Network and Marie Force Author Services (side bar: I think she’s temporarily suspended adding members to Author Support Network because it’s growing quick).

What are your other passions outside of writing?

I really love food, does that count? :P I like cooking, mostly because I like eating. But other than that all of my spare time (which isn’t much) is spent reading, writing, and in the warmer months camping and hiking with my family.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

I write slightly steamy rom coms with quirky characters and no alpha-hole males in sight J If anyone is interested in checking out my series or signing up for my newsletter, go here: http://authormaryframe.com !