Next up is Dee Ernst. Her book, A Safe Place to Land, is nominated in the Contemporary Romance: Short category. Ernst is pantser (meaning she writes more on the fly instead of plotting like Hammerle) who claims Michele Pfeiffer as her favorite actress over forty. Ernst listens to classical music while she writes and describes her writing journey in five words as, “persistence, self-belief, determination, luck, stubbornness” a state of mind I’m sure we can all get behind!
A Safe Place to Land is a little tricky to describe. It tackles a lot of interesting and complex issues. We have an age difference, dead ex-husband, his secret adult child, and an eventual love connection between the two. I am very impressed by how much you packed into this Contemporary Romance: Short.
Donna: What was your inspiration for this story?
Dee: A good friend of mine moved down to the Eastern Shore, and a bunch of us visited her and we all fell in love with the town and the people, because of the natural beauty of the place, but also because of all the very interesting ‘characters’ we met. I was looking to write a series, and thought that her town, my Cape Edwards, and its citizens would be a perfect place to start.
A Safe Place to Land is book one in a series called The Eastern Shore. Can you tell us about the rest of this series?
The second of the series, Building Home, came out last fall and is about a woman starting over, renovating a house, and, of course, finding love. The third, yet untitled (I hope will be out this summer) is the return of a formerly disgraced brother of one of the characters introduced earlier. I also want a few novellas about the minor characters.
Have you always written Seasoned Romance? What would you say is the hardest part about writing main characters over the age of 35? The easiest most fulfilling part?
Yes, I’ve always written ‘older’ characters. The hardest part is getting editors to admit that there are readers out there who want to read about them! Are they easy to write? You bet. Women over 35 have lead a full life – they have husbands and kids and aging parents and great friends and I think are much more assured and confident. They have hundreds of stories and can teach us so much. I personally cannot imagine anything that a 23-year-old can teach me about love.
Tell us a little more about Dee Ernst. When did you start writing? What was your life like before you became an author?
I started writing after the birth of my daughter – I was 40 when she was born (don’t try this at home) After a few years, when I was going crazy home with a toddler, I heard a radio show about how women are always re-inventing themselves. This person – I wish I remembered her name because she literally changed my life – said that if you wanted to know what to do with the rest of your life, do what you were doing at the age of ten, because whatever you were playing at was probably something you loved. I was writing stories when I was ten, so I just sat down and started to write. I’d been a bookkeeper for years and had worked retail, but once I sat down to write, I knew this was it.
What were you doing, and how did you react when you received the RITA call?
I made it a point to have my phone with me that morning. I ran errands and then stopped at the library (I work there part time) I ran in, realized I’d left my phone in the car, and went back to get it. Sure enough, I was standing talking to my co-workers when the call came. I’m sure they thought it was bad news because I was in tears and kept saying…”Really?” Then I drove home, screaming “OH MY GOD” to myself in the car.
This year’s RWA Convention is being held in NYC on July 24 – 27. Winners will be announced at the RITA Awards Ceremony on Friday, July 26th. Congratulations to Julie Hammerle and Dee Ernst on their nominations. Thank you for representing Seasoned Romance in such an important and exciting way. Best of luck to you both!