Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do? Jill Blake. Family medicine doctor, mother of three, and writer of contemporary women’s fiction.
What first inspired you to start writing?
Watching old reruns of “Bonanza” as a kid. Seriously. Even at age seven, I got annoyed over the fact that all the women seemed to move away or get killed off within one episode. None of them ever came back for a recurring guest role, so no “happily ever after” for the Cartwright boys. I rewrote the scripts, with yours truly in the starring role, and for several seasons I lived a double life: by day, elementary school kid, by night, daring and heroic foreman (forewoman?) running the Ponderosa ranch in 1870s Nevada.
Fast-forward a few decades, and I had accumulated several large, heavy boxes of miscellaneous writing—most of it unfinished manuscripts. With each move due to job change and/or growing family, those boxes came along. At my husband’s repeated prompting, I finally pulled out those moldering pages, and started reading. I remembered how much I loved the whole writing process. I enjoy it even more now that research can be done online, and storage requires no more than an itty-
And what attracted you to writing romance?
The guaranteed happy ending.
So little in life is under our control; add small kids to the mix, and you’ve got a state of ever-expanding chaos. (That thing they call entropy in physics.)
Writing provides at least the semblance of control over characters and their fates. On paper, I can create a world where, no matter what else happens, my characters will get their happily ever after.
What is it about your stories that adds something new to the genre?
I write about people with real-life problems, who have jobs and responsibilities, plenty of baggage, and need to rely on their own ingenuity and resources to get ahead.
The settings are also real: places readers may recognize if they’ve lived in the Philadelphia area, its suburbs, or in rural central Pennsylvania. And the medical backdrop against which the stories unfold is likewise true-to-life, informed by my years as a physician.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
My husband will tell you I’m a type-A personality. So in an otherwise chaotic world, writing provides me with at least the illusion of being in control. Mind you, my characters sometimes take me by surprise and decide to do their own thing. But at least I know that ultimately they’re headed in the right direction, toward a guaranteed HEA.
And the most challenging?
Two things: getting started, and taking the process through to completion.
Which author do you most admire and why?
Nora Roberts. Stellar writing, straddling multiple genres: historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, futuristic police procedurals. And she’s amazingly prolific.
What are you working on at the moment?
The third book in my contemporary romance trilogy, “Doctors of Rittenhouse Square.” It’s a tale of recovery and second chances, in which a vivacious young doctor loses her career to an act of senseless violence, and must rebuild her life with the unexpected help of an old flame.
Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
Taking a Chance is the second installment in my contemporary romance trilogy, “Doctors of Rittenhouse Square.”
When Samantha Winters’ career as a big-city doctor leads to major burnout, she applies for a temporary position at a small clinic in central Pennsylvania. She’s as out of place in the town of Oakridge as a pair of high heels in a cow pasture, but that won’t stop her from going after what she wants. And what she wants most—after rediscovering her passion for medicine—is a family of her own: a loving husband and kids.
Alex Kane is the local boy who made good. He’s spent years building his computer start-up into the biggest employer in Oakridge. Between that, and raising his sister’s orphaned kids, he’s ready for a break. What he really wants is to cut loose and have some fun. Too bad the new doc in town isn’t interested…. Or is she?
You can find out more on my Amazon author website, http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00B1ZIHKS, or my blog, http://jillblake.blogspot.com/.
Books by Jill Blake on Amazon:
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