Our interview is with Stephanie Queen who is the author of The Throwbacks (The Scotland yard Exchange Program). Before we get to the interview a brief book description: Vivacious young decorator Grace Rogers sets her sights for that picket-fence life she longs for with the unlikely world-weary British exile, the not-so-young David Young. The ex-Scotland Yard detective joins the Boston Police Department to salvage his career. He hires Grace to decorate his Beacon Hill townhouse to salvage his life. But this rogue detective’s plans for a new beginning are threatened when he can’t resist the seemingly unseemly romance with his too-young bombshell decorator. Grace turns out to be a key witness in his high-stakes kidnapping case–and like Kryptonite to his career and his well-being with her romantic notions of family life. David put his life on the line to save her from the kidnappers, but now is Grace willing to put her dreams on the line to save her real-life superhero from himself?
Interview with Stephanie Queen
Tell us about The Throwbacks, the first book of The Scotland Yard Exchange Program series:
It’s a romantic comedy suspense series that I dreamed up one day after watching the old black and white movie The Thin Man.
I said to myself, “What if I put an ex-detective and a dishy doll in Boston? And what if the detective was a rogue from Scotland Yard and he ended up back in Boston where he grew up as a kid? And what if one of his boyhood friends was the Chief of the Boston Police Department and he joined up with the BPD and became head of the a Scotland Yard Exchange Program?”
As it turns out, Scotland Yard–or as they call it in real life, The Metropolitan Police–does have an exchange program with the New York City police department. So I said “What the heck? Why not Boston? It could happen…”
What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
Boston is my town—I know it inside out pretty much and I love it. So it’s fun for me to set stories there and show readers around—so to speak.
What research did you have to perform to back up your story? Did you learn new respect for a profession?
My big challenge is that I’m not a Scotland Yard detective. Or Boston detective. Or involved with police work in any way shape or form.
Otherwise, I talk to people. I ask questions. I get around. In this case, I had to talk to cops. Much to my surprise, I discovered that law enforcement officials have the ability to be very witty.
THE HOT SHOTS is the next release in your Scotland Exchange Program series. Tell us about the premise:
THE HOT SHOTS is Book 2 of the Scotland Yard Exchange Program series and will be released in mid-November.
The snap on the story:
Would you jump off the USS Constitution into Boston Harbor with a perfect stranger? You would if that stranger was hot shot Scotland Yard detective Chauncey Miller, the usual tall-dark-handsome type, especially since he has an assassin with a score to settle who just caught up with him…
Decorator Sophia Alano’s career gets side-tracked from the moment she meets hot shot Chauncey. He’s on the run from a madman terrorist out for revenge when Sophia ends up targeted too. Now he must protect this spitfire while they’re hunted wherever they go. They escape to London to outwit the madman. But once Chauncey catches their would-be killer, how do they go back to the lives they had before?
How do you get past writers block or distractions like the internet?
Whenever I see the writers block, I just keep walking. As for the internet, I haven’t figured how to get past that particular distraction yet—it’s like it follows me everywhere! Except last week when we had the power failure.
Favorite book from childhood?
It’s a tie between The Secret Garden and Gulliver’s Travels. I know. Very Random.
What’s on your desk? Can you see your desk? Describe what you see when you look around.
My desk is in another state right now—I mean geographically speaking, not metaphysically speaking. But that’s okay. I write at the kitchen table a lot anyway. Kind of like Jessica Fletcher on Murder She Wrote, except on a computer and not a typewriter and my reading glasses are far more stylish with little rhinestone enhancements. Plus I don’t live in Maine.
Visit Stephanie Queen’s website at www.StephanieQueen.com.
Follow her on Twitter @StephanieQueen.
Stephanie Queen’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephanie-Queen/198484900209330
Buy The Throwbacks on Amazon.
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