Lisa Dale’s third contemporary romance, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, was released on April 5. The author drops anchor with Perfect Romance to discuss writing the book, what drew her to her fiancé (they’re getting married this summer!), coffee…and scandalous tattoo placement!
1. Tell us a little bit about Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier. There are a lot of emotional moments; was it a particularly personal story for you?
All the stories I write are personal in some way. I think if a book wasn’t personal to me, it would fail.
Donald Maass has a great quote which I keep stuck to my computer: “[A premise is] any single image, moment, feeling, or belief that has enough power and personal meaning for the author to set her story on fire, propel it like a rocket for hundreds of pages, or perhaps serve as a finish line: an ending so necessary that every step of the journey burns to be taken.”
Whew! It leaves me breathless. I repeat it often, to myself and to others. A book has to have intense, personal meaning for me—meaning that is so compelling that it won’t burn itself out over the many long months and even years of revisions.
2. In Slow Dancing you explore teen love versus mature, adult love. What made you fall in love with your fiancé, and where do you think you two fall on the spectrum?
I don’t think there was one blinding and earth-shaking moment when I thought, “I love this guy.” Instead, it was the kind of realization that happens so subtly and quietly—like when you’re not looking—and then you just sort of look around one day and think, “Oh, so I’ve been in love all this time!” I think I was a little scared of falling—as so many adults are—so falling for my fiancé was a bit like being ever so slowly and yet inevitably swept into love. It was like walking and walking, only to realize that, at some point a few miles ago, my feet had come off the ground.
We are definitely on the adult side of the love spectrum (that sounds like the title of some erotic French film, doesn’t it?). We work well together. We live well together. We understand each other. And there’s passion. When he comes home from work, I can’t wait to see him and hear what he has to say. And it’s always been that way. That’s why we’re getting married in July!
