Author spotlight: Marie Force
Marie Force is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 100 contemporary romance, romantic suspense and erotic romance novels. Her series include Fatal, First Family, Gansett Island, Butler Vermont, Quantum, Treading Water, Miami Nights and Wild Widows. She has also written 12 single titles, with more coming.
Her books have sold 14 million copies worldwide, have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list more than 30 times. She is also a USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller, as well as a Spiegel bestseller in Germany.
Her goals in life are simple—to spend as much time as possible with her young adult children, to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can and to never be on a flight that makes the news.
I got the privilege of interviewing Mari Force for the website about her newest release, In the Air Tonight.
About Marie Force as an author:
Leah: What initially drew you to the romance genre as a writer?
Marie: Thank you for having me! I write what I like to read, so it was an easy leap for me into romance
after growing up reading Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and other favorite authors.
Leah: You have been publishing for quite a few years now… is it hard to keep your ideas fresh?
Marie: I feel very blessed to keep having good ideas for books/stories that keep my readers coming back for more.
I have no idea where the ideas come from, but I’m not asking any questions as long as they keep coming. 🙂
Leah: Can you share any writing rituals or habits that help you stay focused and productive during the writing process?
Marie: I don’t have rituals, per se. I do try to write at least 2000 words per day, often seven days a week.
I find that keeps things moving at the pace I like and keeps my readers in 6-7 new books each year.
Leah: What challenges do you face when writing romance, and how do you overcome them?
Marie: The biggest challenge I face is having enough hours in the day for everything I
want to get done. I joke that I’ll run out of years before I run out
of ideas for books I want to write. I usually have two or three
books in progress at any given time.
Leah: How do you handle romantic tropes and clichés to keep your stories fresh and engaging for readers?
Marie: I honestly don’t spend one minute thinking about tropes when I’m writing a book.
If tropes appear in the course of writing, I’ll call them out in the marketing,
but it’s not a big focus for me. Sometimes I worry that the intense focus
on tropes is starting to make all our books sound alike, which is a concern.
Leah: Romance readers often have strong preferences when it comes to tropes (such as enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, etc.). Do you have a trope you love to write, and if so, what about it appeals to you?
Marie: I tend to write a lot of second-chance stories, so I guess that’s a favorite,
but not because it’s a “trope,” per se.
Mostly because I find redemption stories interesting.
Leah: What is one thing you want your readers to take away from your books when they are finished?
Marie: I think they can expect characters they can root for and situations
that keep them turning the pages. I’m also known for writing big,
*mostly* functional families with funny banter and dialogue.
About her newest release In the Air Tonight:
Leah: This story is heavy…were the words hard to get flowing, or did the story come easily?
Marie: This story was one that sort of wrote itself. It showed up fully formed
in my mind and wanted onto the page, which made it a really fun writing
experience. Parts of the story are heavy, for sure,
but there’s a lot more to it than the heavy stuff.
Leah: Are you a true crime/cold case fan and that was the driving force behind this story?
Marie: No, I’m not big into true crime, but I do keep an eye out for interesting
storylines ripped from real life. I write a DC homicide detective in my
Fatal/First Family Series, so I’ve been writing crime since 2006,
and keeping an eye out for interesting storylines involving crime.
Leah: Did you have hesitations/reservations about making such a serious topic the focus of the storyline?
Marie: No hesitations as the serious topic is one that forces readers to ponder
how they’d handle the situation my character Blaise finds herself in
and examines that interesting grey area between right and
wrong, where most of real life takes place.
Leah: There are multiple POVs in this book, and while you do that in some of your books, it doesn’t typically revolve around the same exact narrative…. Why did you make this choice?
Marie: I write organically, which means it comes to me as I go. I take the overall story
I want to tell and figure out the best way to put it on the page.
Often the “choice” you refer to in the question
is unconscious for me. It just happens as I write the book.
Leah: Did you have any concerns about the reaction to having Ryder’s POV in the story?
Marie: No, I felt his POV was interesting and important. I wanted the reader
to see and feel the impact of his actions on his current day life,
and the best way to do that was to put the reader in his POV as he came to understand
that life as he knew it was over, and he had only himself to blame.
Leah: This is very much a story about growth, healing, and the consequences of one’s actions… why the 16-year time gap and not smaller? (side note: yes the gap is 14 years… this was a mistype on my part)
Marie: The gap is 14 years, and I wanted all the characters to have real lives, careers, families,
children in some cases, mortgages, all of which made the stakes for the second part of the story
much higher than they would’ve been if the characters had been younger.
Leah: There is a TON of emotional chaos in Blaise’s life, but you gave us the romance aspect to her story as well… Was there a reason you went with her love interest instead of using a character from the past?
Marie: I wanted her to have a whole new direction and a new love interest.
I loved the way her story with Jack unfolded and how he turned out to be the best
thing to happen to her in the midst of a nightmare.
Leah: This is a far cry from your Gansett Island Series as well as some of your other ones… will we see more books like this from you in the future?
Marie: I like to shake things up and to give my readers new experiences. I have written
books like this one before, such as The Wreck, which has a similar theme of high
school situations echoing into adulthood, and my romantic suspense series
Fatal/First Family. I would like to write more single titles like this one, books
that aren’t part of series. We’ll see!
Thank you to Marie Force for taking the time out to answer these burning questions. Happy reading!
Marie Force Social Media:
Join Marie’s mailing list for news about new books and upcoming appearances in your area. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Join one of Marie’s many reader groups.
Contact Marie at [email protected].
