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Thanks for inviting me to your blog today, Angela.

Thanks for stopping by! I can’t wait to hear about The Cavanaugh House. What intrigues you most about this story?

What most intrigues me about The Cavanaugh House is how the idea for the book came to me. The first sentence scrolled through my head as I drove along a busy urban highway on a road trip with my husband Rich. Other sentences followed and I knew a book was being conceived. Along with the sentences came the clear image of a house which I knew would play a major role in the story and was based on a childhood memory. I felt panicky because I was driving and couldn’t write my ideas down. When Rich woke up, I told him about the story in great detail hoping between the two of us we could remember. But those details were etched in my brain and stayed with me until I could commit them to paper. The next day, I saw the exact house I had imagined sitting desolate and deserted by the highway. My husband took photos of it, and one of them became my book cover. Add to that the tale of a ghost in a haunted winery we visited, and voilà, The Cavanaugh House was born.

Wow, that’s awesome. And the fact you actually saw the house while on your trip makes it more so. What was your favorite part of writing The Cavanaugh House?

I’m a pantser, that is someone who writes by the seat of my pants. My favorite part of writing all of my books is when I am surprised by a turn of events that I didn’t see coming, or some synchronicity that occurs and I don’t realize it until the book is complete. For example, in my first book, Love’s Destiny, someone knocks on the front door. I didn’t know who it was until my protagonist, Emily, opened the door and discovered that with me. I love that kind of stuff! Another is a connection between two names in The Cavanaugh House. I can’t reveal the connection because it gives away the ending, but it was pretty cool when I realized it. I thought, how the heck did that happen?

That’s always a great feeling, and I love it when we as writers are surprised by our stories. Do you have a specific writing style?

Writing The Cavanaugh House was very different from writing my two historical romances. In my first two books, I kept the language and dialogue more formal as it would have been in the 18^th century. I even searched my manuscript for apostrophes to eliminate any contraction like can’t or don’t. I wanted the language elevated to keep the atmosphere of formality. One editor caught a character saying, “Hello” and cut it because that word wasn’t used until the invention of the telephone. I had to use “Good morning” or “Good day.” It was a relief to set The Cavanaugh House in 1968 where I could use contractions, idioms, even slang if I wanted to. So my writing style for The Cavanaugh House was much more contemporary.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take one book with you, what would you take?

 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Even though I taught that book for years, I’ve never tired of it.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take one song with you, what would you take?

“Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey

Both great choices! Are you working on any projects right now?

I have two projects in the works right now. I’ve completed a rough draft of Buried Secrets, the sequel to The Cavanaugh House. I put it away for a while because I needed distance from it so I could come back and revise it with fresh eyes. I’ve also started the third book in my Passionate Patriots series, Love’s Courage. I love the plot line in this book, so it will be fun to research.

Do you see writing as a career?

Yes. I retired from teaching early so I could pursue writing full time. I work at my craft everyday, though as a hybrid author (both traditionally and self-published) I see marketing as a career as well LOL.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Start writing earlier in life. Don’t wait until you have time—make time. 

Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?

William Shakespeare. I love words, and many of the words and phrases we commonly use today were invented by Shakespeare. For example, arouse, blushing, undress (I see a pattern here) gnarled, varied, zany. Sometimes when I’m writing I want to make up words because I can’t find the exact word I need. In The Cavanaugh House, I thought I’d made up the word “scritch” for the sound Jesse hears when the ghost appears. I didn’t want to use “scratch” because it has too many connotations, so “scritch” was what I settled on—a softer sound, a haunting sound. But I discovered it’s been used before. Hey, Will, I gave it a try.

The Cavanaugh House excerpt:

This house held secrets. Secrets that wafted through rotting window sashes on the winter wind.  Secrets that spiders wove into webs anchored between the ceiling and walls. Secrets that scuttled on the feet of cockroaches across stained kitchen linoleum and scurried into its cracks. Secrets that peered from holes in the baseboard from glinting mouse eyes. This house held the secrets close to its bosom where they had slept for decades. No one had disturbed these secrets in all the years the house sat decaying from neglect. There was no reason to, and there was no desire.

The Cavanaugh House blurb:

When Jesse Graham unlocks the door to the deserted house she inherited from her Aunt Helen, she doesn’t realize she’s unlocking secrets that had lain dormant for years. Reeling from a broken engagement to acclaimed musician Robert Cronmiller, Jesse wants to leave the city where her name is linked to his in all the society pages. Her best friend Maggie, aka Sister Angelina, convinces her to take a job at a private girls’ school in the pastoral Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Anticipating a quiet, revitalizing life in her aunt’s deserted house, Jesse is instead thrown into a maze of danger. Questions about her aunt’s death lead Jesse to investigate events surrounding it and the people involved, but she uncovers a web of deceit that reaches far beyond the occurrences of over two decades earlier. Still dejected from her broken engagement, Jesse finds it difficult to trust anyone, even her self-absorbed mother. Joe Riley is irresistible, but secrets obstruct involvement with him until Jesse can solve the secrets of the Cavanaugh House. Someone doesn’t want those secrets unearthed and will stop at nothing, even murder, to keep them hidden.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.

Thank you for hosting me today, Angela.

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

My audiobook is now available and I am celebrating with a giveaway on my website. You can enter it below!

My books are available Amazon, and my audiobook is available on:

Audible

Amazon 

iTunes

Visit me at:

Website: www.elizabethmeyette.com

Blog: www.elizabethmeyette.com/blog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethfmeyette/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/efmeyette

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6153760.Elizabeth_Meyette

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bettymeyette/

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