Interview + Giveaway: Myne Whitman and A Love Rekindled

Today I'm excited to welcome Myne Whitman to the blog to answer a few questions about her newest romance release, A Love Rekindled. She's also generously providing a PDF galley as a giveaway to one lucky commenter so be sure and check out the end of the post for all the entry details!

If you had to pick one book (outside your own) that represents everything you love most about the romance genre as a whole, what book would it be and why?

That would be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It was one of the first romance novels I read and the story started my love affair with the genre. I loved it because Jane was such a strong character, she didn’t have to change too greatly and she got the guy.

How much of your writing reflects your personal experiences with living in Nigeria and how much is outside/additional research?

A lot of my writing is shaped by my personal experiences even though the stories are not mine and are totally made up. I also have to use research for some of the characters and locations, places and careers I had no previous knowledge about.

What would you say is your favorite part of your writing day: starting out with all the creative possibilities for the story before you, or wrapping up those thoughts toward the end of the day?

I feel most energized at the beginning of the day. There is this excitement on those days when you sometimes dreamt about your story, or got an insight into a character that had not been there before. At the end of the day, I’m all written out and just want to close the laptop.

In an interview situation, what is one question you wish someone would ask and how would you answer?

The one question I’m getting tired of is about when I started writing. I don’t think that is very important. I’ll prefer to be asked about the future, and what my plans are for my books. I hope to write several more romantic fiction novels, and A Love Rekindled may be the first of a series – The Mukoro Twins.

A Love Rekindled deals with a couple given a second chance at love. If you could change the outcome of one literary couple’s relationship and give them another chance to find happiness either with one another or someone else, who would those two characters be and what would you change?

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. I first fell in love with Quasimodo in the Disney animated feature as a child even before I read the book later, and I wished that Esmeralda would too. In my own rewrite, he would definitely get the girl after the mad priest is vanquished.

Did you find this book, your second, easier to write than your first since you’d already experienced the full writing to self-publishing journey, or was it equally challenging?

I actually think the second book was harder. The first, A Heart to Mend, started off as excerpts shared on my blog with no expectations. I published it as a lark because some of my readers asked, and it was a pleasant surprise when it took off after I did a blog tour. For A Love Rekindled, I’m taking it more professionally, with full editing and I’m putting a lot more conscious effort into the marketing and publicity.

Is there one particular moment in A Love Rekindled you consider to be the most romantic or poignant?

There is a part that gets me teary-eyed when I was rewriting and even now, it still breaks my heart. It was the time Efe thought Kevwe had rejected her, and she’s crying with her girlfriends. She came to me so clearly then and told me what it could feel like when your heart is crushed from loss and immeasurable grief. I found it very poignant, and some of the beta readers have said so too. I hope it will touch everyone who reads the book.

Thank you so much for stopping by Myne! For more information on Myne and A Love Rekindled you can find her here:

Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook

GIVEAWAY

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on the interview as well as a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway will run through midnight on April 8th after which time a winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on the blog. Please note this is a PDF galley.
Good luck everyone!

A LOVE REKINDLED (from Goodreads)

Efe returns to Nigeria after years in the United States, dreaming of a happy, independent life. However, her nights become plagued by nightmares of Kevwe Mukoro, her ex-fiancé. Long hours at work and drinking in nightclubs only provide temporary relief, and when she encounters Kevwe's twin brother, she knows it's a matter of time before Kevwe is back in her life. Sparks fly when they finally meet again, but desire is no match for bitter memories of heartbreak. All these years, Efe believed she was rejected; now Kevwe claims he'd never stopped loving her. Stuck at a crossroads, Kevwe prefers to look to the future, but Efe is not so sure. Can the traumatic events of the past be resolved, and will she give in to rekindled love?