Meet Kate Rothwell

Summer Devon is the alter ego Kate Rothwell who invented Summer’s name in the middle of a nasty blizzard. At the time she was talking to her sister who longed to visit some friends in Devon, England–so the name Summer Devon is all about desire. Between them Kate and Summer have written books that have been a Romantic Time’s Reviewer’s Choice Nominee and a three-time finalist (she won this year) in the Passionate Plume Award as well as other awards.

Kate Rothwell went to art school in Boston, where she met her husband, who is a scientist. She has worked a service manager/parts runner in a Saab garage, an artists’ model, a day care center child care provider, a sales clerk, a bartender in an Irish bar in Boston (green beer on St. Patrick’s day), a reporter, a feature writer, a food prep chef (3 days), a cross-stitch kit instructions writer, a publisher and editor of a newspaper for children, and a substitute teacher (for about a month).

Julie: Welcome, Kate. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Kate: Hello! I’m Kate but I also write as Summer Devon — and most of my work is published under that name. My first published book was with Kensington, Somebody Wonderful (that’s a Kate Rothwell title). It’s a historical romance set in 1880s New York, one of my favorite times and places to write about.

I’ve written a bunch of novellas and novels – about thirty. I still love writing historicals but I’ve had great time with all sorts of subgenres. For example, I’m currently working on two contemporaries and one has a shape-shifter in it. All of my books, whether written by Kate Rothwell or Summer Devon, are romances.

Julie: What influenced you to get published? How long did it take for your first book to get published?

Kate: When my kids were tiny, I lived in Maryland and worked as a feature writer and reporter. I had local connections there, editors and other people I worked with. When we moved to Connecticut, I still wanted to write — but figured it would be more fun to make up my world rather than start trying to understand the local politics and movers and shakers in my new community.

I soon discovered how much fun it was to not have to check the facts and spell names the way other people wanted them spelled. I liked reading fiction more—makes sense I’d like writing it more as well.

Julie: Is music a factor for you while you are writing? Do certain songs put you in the right frame of mind to write certain stories?

Kate: I use Pandora when I write—especially when I’m out in public and need to stop eavesdropping on people at other tables. (I write a couple of times a week in a cafe with other people. Here’s my site that explains the point of creating a pseudo-professional worksite sites.google.com) Since I tend to write words when I hear them, I only listen to music without lyrics. The Movie Theme or New Age stations work for me.

Julie: What do you feel is the most important thing that a first-time author should know?

Kate: The self-publishing rage has changed everything, so the information I would have passed along a few years ago is fairly useless. Here’s a bit of advice that will never change: before you publish, enlist the aid of an experienced editor and proofreader (if you can manage the expense, have one of each). Do not throw your work up online without having someone–or several someones–read your story for content and then again for grammatical errors.

And hey, if you write historicals? Get an expert on your era to read your manuscript first. Eventually, no matter how careful you are, someone is going to read your book and give you a bad review because there were no hay bales in the middle ages or they didn’t use dry-mounted glass plates in the cameras until the late 1800s or the hansom cab wasn’t invented until 1834. You might as well try to avoid as many of those errors as you can.

Julie: What books are currently on your nightstand?

Kate: I just finished the most current book of the Naomi Novik series. Now I’m in the mood for some traditional Regencies, but I don’t have a new one so maybe I’ll read a vintage Jennifer Crusie I just discovered. That’s a comedy of manners.  I also have Jennifer Fusco’s Market or Die on my Kindle. It’s a fabulous book, and she’s an inspirational speaker, but as soon as she talks about branding, I get the shakes and have to go back to bed.

Julie: What can readers expect next from you?

Kate: I have a self-published novella out now, “Seducing Miss Dunaway” — 99 cents here at All Romance Ebooks. I’m eventually going to reissue another Kate Rothwell title, Thank You, Mrs. M. I just got the rights back.

The rest of my “Coming Soon” list will be published under the Summer Devon name. Coming soon to ARe (I hope) is Silk on Claws, a shapeshifting historical m/f/m I wrote with Linda Gayle, now available at Loose Id.

In December, I’ve got a contemporary release called Unnatural Calamities. And in January, Bonnie Dee and I will publish our fifth m/m historical romance. Both of those books are with Samhain. (The cover for Unnatural Calamities is up on the site already and I love it.) Bonnie and I will have a contemporary m/f out with Carina Press next spring.

At the moment, Bonnie and I are writing another contemporary m/f and I’m writing a m/m on my own. You’d expect I’d get whiplash from shifting genres but I hope the practice keeps me from getting stale. Also? It’s wicked fun.

Backlist:

As Kate Rothwell
Somebody Wonderful, Kensington
Somebody to Love, Kensington
The Last Mind-Traveler, Booksforabuck
Someone to Cherish, Booksforabuck
Seducing Miss Dunaway, self-published

As Summer Devon
Learning Charity, Samhain
The Knight’s Challenge, Samhain
Revealing Skills, Samhain
Taken Unaware, Samhain
Perfection, Ellora’s Cave
Futurelove, Ellora’s Cave
Invisible Touch, Ellora’s Cave
Irrational Arousal, Ellora’s Cave
Powder of Love, Loose Id
The Mad Baron, Liquid Silver
Direct Deposit, TEB

With Bonnie Dee:
Seducing Stephen, Loose Id
The Gentleman and the Rogue, Loose Id
The Nobleman and the Spy, Loose Id
House of Mirrors, Loose Id

With Linda Gayle:
Claws on Silk, Loose Id

Coming soon:
I’ll soon be self-publishing one of my favorites, Thank You, Mrs. M, Self published.
Unnatural Calamities, Samhain
The Psychic and the Sleuth (with Bonnie Dee), Samhain
Serious Play (with Bonnie Dee), Carina Press

Links:
My blog http://katerothwell.blogspot.com
My sites http://summerdevon.com
http://katerothwell.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/S.DevonAuthor
My twitter account http://twitter.com/KateRothwell

(Yup. I definitely spend too much time online.)

Filed Under: Behind the Books

Tagged: author interviews

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