Author Interview with Giveaway: Can’t Help Loving You by Eve Kasey

Posted April 29, 2022 by Lisa Mandina in author interview, Blog Tour, giveaway / 6 Comments

Book details:
Can’t Help Loving You
by Eve Kasey
Publication date: March 29th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Ava

What happens when you meet the boy of your dreams in a bookstore?

You pretend you’re not leaving for college in the morning, and instead spend the night falling hard for his blue eyes, dimples, and creative soul – even if Maddox is a poetry hater.

You pretend you don’t get that tattoo in his honor.

You spend the next ten years telling yourself that a corner of your heart isn’t taken by a boy from your past.

When you see those blue eyes again, you pretend you don’t feel seen—awake—for the first time in a decade.

You remind yourself that you said yes to a man you didn’t want to marry, and now you’re stuck.

You tell yourself that this is the life you wanted.

But it isn’t. Not anymore.

Maddox

What happens when you run into the woman you haven’t stopped thinking about for a decade? The wild-haired, free-spirited sunshine girl from your past?

You pretend she’s not at that brewery with her fiancé, your new friend. Leo. The man who can make or break your design career.

You pretend neither of you see that Leo is keeping secrets and close to breaking.

You pretend you don’t know how miserable Ava is with her life, how she only lights up when you’re around.

You tell yourself you don’t ache for the one woman you can’t have.

But you do. You want her as badly as she wants freedom, and the time has come to stop pretending.

Goodreads / Amazon

Author Interview

1. What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start? Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)? If you plan it out, how do you do that? Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?

I’m somewhere in between a plotter and a pantser. I daydream for months before I start writing (I lose so much sleep to book daydreaming!), so I can see the key scenes, but the in-between is usually pretty blurry until I start writing. I count daydreaming as step one of my process, followed by Spotify playlists, Pinterest boards, research, THEN writing. I keep an old-school bulletin board above my desk with character aesthetics, song lyrics, and setting inspiration to keep ME inspired as I go.

Can’t Help Loving You is my seventh book, and each one has followed a different process. I knew this one would be deeply character-driven, so I used notecards to plot out the story arc AND the character arcs. Even with the notecards and following a craft book, I had no idea how this story was going to end. I wrote six different epilogues, and actually got the final epilogue idea from an early reader! I hope that doesn’t happen again, though. It was stressful. Usually the ending is pretty clear from the start.

2. Do you edit as you go, or wait till you’re finished before you edit? How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look it over?

I wrote and published my first novel, Love in Stone, in 2014. It took SIX YEARS for me to write and publish my second, Touched by Love. A big part of that delay was that I could not stop editing it as I went. Once I gave that up (it was painful), I finally made progress. Now, I refuse to let myself edit as I go. I let myself read the last chapter I wrote and then continue from there. It’s the only way I’ve been able to make progress. Sometimes it’s a detriment, because I’ll forget minor character names or even where we are in the world, but it all works out!

I do a rough draft and self-edit or two before sending to what I call my alpha readers. They tell me if the story works or not, and what the big issues might be. Then I do another edit before sending off to be professionally edited. Then another one to two read-throughs before it goes out to ARC readers. By this time, I am thoroughly sick of the book and ready for the next one 😉 But all the eyes and hours are necessary to create the best version of the story, and totally worth it in the end.

3. Are you part of a writers group that gets together and helps each other with their writing?

I’m not part of an official group, but I’m active on Instagram and have found a deeply supportive romance author community there. We share advice and read each others’ stories and build each other up. It’s been a beautiful community to be part of. I also rely heavily on my tribe during my process. My alpha readers, beta readers, and ARC readers are all from my Instagram connections, and all make an impact on my work. The tribe is everything.

4. What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Just write.

Find your tribe.

R E A D.

Always hire an editor. They are worth every penny.

Don’t give up.

5. What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres Alllll the romance, but especially fantasy romance! It’s my dream to write a fantasy romance series one day.

Movies/TV Shows Anything that blends romance and humor. New Girl, Upload, and Parks and Rec are good examples. Oh, and The Witcher, cuz HENRY.

Music: All of my books have a playlist, and Dermot Kennedy shows up on every single one. The emotion he brings inspires emotion in me that I can then translate into fiction.

Food/Writing snack: Extra toasty Cheez Its! It’s a problem.

About the Author

Eve Kasey started composing stories in childhood, both in her head and with an electric typewriter loaded with pink paper. She writes for a design firm by day and reads independently published romance novels by night.

Eve writes contemporary romance that balances sweetness and steam while aiming to teach readers something new. Her books are where nerdy meets dirty. She believes romance novels can be a platform to portray healthy relationships and attitudes towards sex.

Eve lives in Washington state with her very stylish husband and two children.