Denise Weimer writes historical and contemporary romance and romantic suspense set in her home state of Georgia. She’s authored over nine novels (including her historical romance The Witness Tree, new in September 2019) and a number of novellas. As a managing editor of the historical imprints of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, she also helps others reach their publishing dreams. A wife and mother of two daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.
Visit Denise Weimer online
Fall Flip
The tragic death of Shelby Dodson’s husband—her partner in a successful Home Network house flipping business—stole love, status, and career. Now a bungalow redesign thrusts Shelby into the company of a new contractor. Scott Matthews remembers high-and-mighty Shelby from high school, and her prissy, contemporary style goes against his down-to-earth grain. When the house reveals a mystery, will its dark secrets—and their own mistakes—cost a second chance at love?
- ISBN: 1645261883
- Publisher: Candlelight Fiction, Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
Interview with Denise Weimer
Denise Weimer is the author of several novels and novellas in the contemporary, historical romance, and romantic suspense genres. She is also a managing editor for the historical imprints of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. When not working or spending time with family, she’s traveling to book events throughout Georgia, the setting for her books.
Denise, congratulations on your new release, Fall Flip, which delves into the world of renovation and house flipping. I love the title, Fall Flip, the cover with the falling leaves, and the caption about flipping her heart. Did you get a say in the cover design?
Thank you for hosting me today! And thanks … I also love the cover. LPC does allow author input, although they make the final decisions. Thankfully, I adored the cover the minute I saw it. And so did my mom and my teen and college daughter, which told me it would appeal to a wide range of ages.
Fall Flip sounds like a great read for autumn when many people are getting their homes ready for winter. Did you get the story idea from watching home reno shows?
Somewhat. I’ve written renovation romance before, in my Restoration Trilogy (time slip romantic suspense). My agent had mentioned that it can be easier to place contemporary romances, so I wanted to try my hand at that. And I thought, what’s popular now? HGTV and Hallmark movies. Fall Flip kind of combines the vibes of both.
What is your favorite type of home renovation show and why do you enjoy it? The cast, the homes, or something else?
I’ve enjoyed many an episode of popular house flipping shows like Fixer Upper and Home Town. I especially liked episodes which featured older homes, since I’ve long held a fascination with those. Don’t we all enjoy the big reveal and the amazing transformation? I love echoing those themes, and themes of spiritual transformation, in writing.
Your back cover blurb for Fall Flip hints at a mystery with dark secrets. Have you included mysteries in your other stories?
Many of my earlier novels do include a mystery subplot. In the Georgia Gold Series, an unsolved murder and missing gold. In The Restoration Trilogy, who is sabotaging the renovation process? The mystery surrounding the bungalow’s history in Fall Flip is only a single thread in the story, but it could have big implications for Shelby—threatening to become a PR nightmare that could wreck a career she’s desperately trying to resurrect.
What makes Fall Flip unique from the other novels you have written?
Fall Flip is my first full-length venture into contemporary romance (without even the historical back stories that were part of The Restoration Trilogy). It’s always a challenge when an author branches into another genre, so I’m working on building my modern romance readership. There’s still a good bit of history woven in with the renovation, but my two March 2020 releases won’t have any. Spring Splash is an athletic romance about an injured college swimmer who falls for a special needs swim team and their coach—inspired by my many years as a swim mom. And Traces is a gripping romantic suspense about a reality TV show gone bad, in which a PR executive and a former military policeman have to flee real-life techno hunters.
Does writing come easy to you, or do you struggle at the same place in every book?
Writing is hard work no matter what, but I have to say that my training as an editor helps me pace and correct myself as I go. It’s also helped move me from being a pantster to more of a plotter. I never want to adhere to a formula so much that my stories lose their uniqueness, but I do believe in planning challenges and reverses at certain points so that you avoid sagging.
Has your writing style changed much since your first book released? If it has, why?
I can’t believe how much it’s changed! And that’s a reflection of how much the industry has changed. When I was growing up, I dreamed of penning the next sweeping saga in the style of Gone With the Wind or Eugenia Price. Now it’s all about trimming the excess (including speaker tags), cutting to the action, and writing in deep point of view. And now I’m the editor helping authors to make those changes—not because the narrative, flowery old way is always technically wrong, but because it’s what publishers look for. It’s what readers want. And it does make for much more immersive, compelling reading.
How do you balance time for writing and professional editing against your other responsibilities?
When my kids were in elementary and middle school, that was a little easier. I’d write when they were gone. Now I have a high senior who’s dual-enrolled, a college student living at home (and planning a wedding!), and a husband with irregular work hours. And I work from the kitchen island! You see why I need lots of pumpkin spice? But I don’t want to miss a minute. All too soon, it’s going to be very different.
Your bio states you hold a journalism degree with a minor in history. Did you plan on a journalism career, or did you hope to be a novelist, but wanted something to fall back on if your books weren’t supporting you?
I have to chuckle a little here because I don’t really know any authors whose books are supporting them. Maybe one or two.
I knew I wanted to be a book author since age eleven, when I started writing romantic stories about all the historic sites my parents took me to. I knew I didn’t want to teach, so I decided against an English degree. That’s why I went for the journalism major. The basic training—and the history minor—served me well. Despite the journalism professors who told me I had to write for a newspaper before I wrote for a magazine or authored a book. (I never worked for a newspaper.)
What is your favorite period of history, and why?
Growing up, it was always the American Civil War. I became involved in living history and led a mid-1800s dance group for a number of years. But I’ve always loved reading books from any period of history. Of course, when I started writing, I set everything during the Civil War. Then I began to branch out to the Colonial era, blogging with Colonial Quills and setting my novella in The Backcountry Brides Collection during the Revolutionary War. I’ve finally come to realize my favorite setting for both reading and writing historicals involves the Eastern frontier up through the early 1800s. My other new release, The Witness Tree, is set in 1805 Cherokee Territory.
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Denise, congratulations on your new release, Fall Flip, which delves into the world of renovation and house flipping. I love the title, Fall Flip, the cover with the falling leaves, and the caption about flipping her heart. Did you get a say in the cover design?
Thank you for hosting me today! And thanks … I also love the cover. LPC does allow author input, although they make the final decisions. Thankfully, I adored the cover the minute I saw it. And so did my mom and my teen and college daughter, which told me it would appeal to a wide range of ages.
Fall Flip sounds like a great read for autumn when many people are getting their homes ready for winter. Did you get the story idea from watching home reno shows?
Somewhat. I’ve written renovation romance before, in my Restoration Trilogy (time slip romantic suspense). My agent had mentioned that it can be easier to place contemporary romances, so I wanted to try my hand at that. And I thought, what’s popular now? HGTV and Hallmark movies. Fall Flip kind of combines the vibes of both.
What is your favorite type of home renovation show and why do you enjoy it? The cast, the homes, or something else?
I’ve enjoyed many an episode of popular house flipping shows like Fixer Upper and Home Town. I especially liked episodes which featured older homes, since I’ve long held a fascination with those. Don’t we all enjoy the big reveal and the amazing transformation? I love echoing those themes, and themes of spiritual transformation, in writing.
Your back cover blurb for Fall Flip hints at a mystery with dark secrets. Have you included mysteries in your other stories?
Many of my earlier novels do include a mystery subplot. In the Georgia Gold Series, an unsolved murder and missing gold. In The Restoration Trilogy, who is sabotaging the renovation process? The mystery surrounding the bungalow’s history in Fall Flip is only a single thread in the story, but it could have big implications for Shelby—threatening to become a PR nightmare that could wreck a career she’s desperately trying to resurrect.
What makes Fall Flip unique from the other novels you have written?
Fall Flip is my first full-length venture into contemporary romance (without even the historical back stories that were part of The Restoration Trilogy). It’s always a challenge when an author branches into another genre, so I’m working on building my modern romance readership. There’s still a good bit of history woven in with the renovation, but my two March 2020 releases won’t have any. Spring Splash is an athletic romance about an injured college swimmer who falls for a special needs swim team and their coach—inspired by my many years as a swim mom. And Traces is a gripping romantic suspense about a reality TV show gone bad, in which a PR executive and a former military policeman have to flee real-life techno hunters.
Does writing come easy to you, or do you struggle at the same place in every book?
Writing is hard work no matter what, but I have to say that my training as an editor helps me pace and correct myself as I go. It’s also helped move me from being a pantster to more of a plotter. I never want to adhere to a formula so much that my stories lose their uniqueness, but I do believe in planning challenges and reverses at certain points so that you avoid sagging.
Has your writing style changed much since your first book released? If it has, why?
I can’t believe how much it’s changed! And that’s a reflection of how much the industry has changed. When I was growing up, I dreamed of penning the next sweeping saga in the style of Gone With the Wind or Eugenia Price. Now it’s all about trimming the excess (including speaker tags), cutting to the action, and writing in deep point of view. And now I’m the editor helping authors to make those changes—not because the narrative, flowery old way is always technically wrong, but because it’s what publishers look for. It’s what readers want. And it does make for much more immersive, compelling reading.
How do you balance time for writing and professional editing against your other responsibilities?
When my kids were in elementary and middle school, that was a little easier. I’d write when they were gone. Now I have a high senior who’s dual-enrolled, a college student living at home (and planning a wedding!), and a husband with irregular work hours. And I work from the kitchen island! You see why I need lots of pumpkin spice? But I don’t want to miss a minute. All too soon, it’s going to be very different.
Your bio states you hold a journalism degree with a minor in history. Did you plan on a journalism career, or did you hope to be a novelist, but wanted something to fall back on if your books weren’t supporting you?
I have to chuckle a little here because I don’t really know any authors whose books are supporting them. Maybe one or two.
I knew I wanted to be a book author since age eleven, when I started writing romantic stories about all the historic sites my parents took me to. I knew I didn’t want to teach, so I decided against an English degree. That’s why I went for the journalism major. The basic training—and the history minor—served me well. Despite the journalism professors who told me I had to write for a newspaper before I wrote for a magazine or authored a book. (I never worked for a newspaper.)
What is your favorite period of history, and why?
Growing up, it was always the American Civil War. I became involved in living history and led a mid-1800s dance group for a number of years. But I’ve always loved reading books from any period of history. Of course, when I started writing, I set everything during the Civil War. Then I began to branch out to the Colonial era, blogging with Colonial Quills and setting my novella in The Backcountry Brides Collection during the Revolutionary War. I’ve finally come to realize my favorite setting for both reading and writing historicals involves the Eastern frontier up through the early 1800s. My other new release, The Witness Tree, is set in 1805 Cherokee Territory.
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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are woven under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yields fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details. Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, The American Heiress Brides Collection, and The Secret Admirer Romance Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience. Discover more at www.anitamaedraper.com and www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/
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