An Interview with Bridget Blackwood

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Bridget’s in the House!!!

T: Good Morning Bridget thanks for joining me this morning. I hope the coffee is strong enough?

B: Coffee is perfect, thank you.

T: I promise for this set of questions I’m going to keep things fun and light (well light for me) so let’s get started. /v97

B: Awesome, I’m ready.

T: How did you start writing?

B: In fifth grade I wrote a short story for the school anthology. It didn’t get chosen but the teachers were impressed with my “imaginative world”. LOL

T: How did your World in Shadows Begin? What draws you to paranormal romance?

B: My husband was deployed in 2007 while I was pregnant with our second child. Pregnant women are said to dream more vividly, which is how the first chapter of Rising Shadows started. I needed to know more, how the characters move forward and where the story went from there.

T: Can you tell us about your Sci-fi and contemporary romance MS’s?

B: I can’t give away much about the Sci-fi story at this point. Human existence if very different for those characters, a lot harder. The contemporary story will hopefully end up being a series. To start we have a father needing to protect his daughter, a marriage of convenience, and a bunch of shenanigans in the East Texas piney woods region.

T: How do you juggle, writing and family?

B: Carefully. Family comes first because I’ll never get the time back. I try to slip writing in when the kids are occupied and Mr. B is still at work. If I can get an hour or two of writing done, then it is a huge win.

T: What changed your mind about going to Vet School?

B: The school part. LOL! I am not huge into academics. Math absolutely kills me. School is important and I 100% stand behind the need for an education, but I also wasn’t going to attend any more than I absolutely had to.

T: Do you do anything special for release day?

B: Yes! Dinner to celebrate with the family. Any excuse to get out of cooking.

T: Is there one song that gets the words flowing?

B: Not a song, but a musician. Amy Lee from Evanesence has a hauntingly beautiful voice. She’s insanely talented in both her singing and song writing. Halestorm is another go to for me when I need musical inspiration.

T: Where did you meet your husband?

B: We met on AOL! You used to be able to search for people online in the chat rooms local to you and in a specific age range. I was about to start high school as a freshman where he was already a senior. We were just friends for several months, talking online and occasionally on the phone. He had a girlfriend and I wasn’t interested in dating him. Things just sort of fell into place.

T: Do you try to get the kiddo’s to write?

B: Not really. They are verbal story tellers but I am not pushing them to write it down.

T: What makes you want to read Ransom over and over?

B: The strength of Gillian. She doesn’t just have an iron will but endures physical pain that would drop some men to their knees. Broderick is in awe of her. There is a scene where Broderick tells Gillian she won’t make a sound during the treatment of her injuries. It sounds mean but it was more of a challenge to give her strength. To sum it up, “You’re stronger than you know. You’re so strong that you are going to sit here and not make a sound.” After it is done Gillian goes outside to be alone and probably cuss a blue streak! Another soldier tries the same treatment Gillian just had and tells all of them it hurt like the fires of hell. Gillian is that strong and Brodrick sees it from the very first moment.

T: What animals live with you?

B: Dogs – Inigo Montypug is Boy’s best friend. Violet (Siberian husky) is my fur baby.

Cats – Zephyr is my husband’s tonkinese (Siamese/Burmese crossbreed). Ballerina has a cat named Bo, short for Boudicca after the Irish Queen. Mad Moxxie and Tiny Tina were named after characters in the Borderlands video game series. Moxxie prefers the basement with Mom. Tina is community property, meaning she loves anyone who will pet her. Last is Winter, a solid white girl (yes, named after the character).

Ferrets – Two boys named Jinx and Wiley, both a year old. A seven-year-old boy named Doctor Who, Doc for short. The only girl is named Rose and she is three years old.

Mom lives in the basement with her animals. Linus is a golden retriever and her two cat are Sassy and Jasmine.

Welcome to the Blackwood Zoo!

T: What word or phrase do you find yourself saying over and over?

B: Like and So get used often. I think I must be part Valley girl.

T: What video games do you play?

B: Dragon Age is my favorite. I enjoy Fable, Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, Lara Croft, Thief, Vampire: The Masquerade and any Aliens game.

T: Horror movie junkie? Which movie could you watch on repeat?

B: Aliens. I have seen it so many times I lost count. Mr. B loves it too. I even wrote a paper on it in college, LOL.

T: Do you have any tattoo’s? How many? Do they have meaning?

B: I have four tattoos. On my inner left wrist is a triskelion with the roman numeral four and two dots. Each piece represents part of my family. I have a purple flower between my shoulders for my mother. Mr. B has called me kitten for the better part of the last twelve or so years. I have kitty whiskers behind my left ear because of it. My last tattoo takes up most of my lower back. It’s a mermaid sitting on a rock in the ocean watching the sunset.

T: Who influences your writing?

B: Indirectly, I think anyone you read is going to influence you. It’s part of how you learn what sort of tropes, characters, and plots you like and don’t like. My family and friends influence me. They give me stories and real life experience to add.

T: How loud do your characters get when hubby is deployed? Are they just as loud when he’s home?

B: Mr. B finished his military career a few months after Ballerina was born in 2008. My characters have never been considerate of volume. They don’t have indoor voices, LOL

T: What comes next?

B: With Lost in Paradise written I am switching focus to Made of Stone. That story will focus on Tsura and Nikolai. Then the next book will be the couple everyone has been asking me for since Rising Shadows released, Winter and Varian.

T: Well Bridget that’s all I have for you today? Until next time thanks again for joining me, now get back to work and write your next book.

B: Thanks for the great interview, you really did your homework!