Hello Terry, and welcome to FAR, it is good to have you with us today. Your readers are curious to learn more about Terry Spear.

Terry, you have a nice webpage and is easy to navigate. I see you are an author of Scottish Medieval Romance and Urban Fantasy. I also noticed you love to make bears and I must say they are quite lovely. They kind of reach out and tug at the heart. Now getting to your books, Heart of the Wolf, as well as your other wolf books, have great covers.

Thanks so much for having me, Linda!

Why not give the readers a bit of insight on this release?

While searching for clues of a lupus garou who is killing women in the rainy Portland suburbs, Bella Wilder becomes the hunted. She had run away from the gray pack who had taken her in when she was she young. And she will do so again before the brutish pack leader can have her.

Devlyn Greystoke has a mission-return Bella to the gray pack for safekeeping before she exposes their kind and gets herself killed. But little red wolves are in short supply and high demand and Bella's determined to be the bait to flush out the killer. Keeping her out of danger is only half the trouble Devlyn encounters as his compulsion to make her his mate grows and she fights being his, fearful the pack leader will kill him.

Volan Smith, the gray alpha leader, claimed Bella when she was young. Now that he has located her, he wants Bella back. And he will stop at nothing to have her.

I noticed you were once in the military, I, myself, was an Army Brat. How much of your personality and life experiences come out in your writing?

Mainly, since I've lived all over, many of my stories are set in places I've actually lived. I was an AF Brat also! Heart of the Wolf is set in Colorado and Oregon. We lived in Colorado when my dad was stationed at Colorado Springs and I used to ski up at Breckinridge a lot in later years. I love Colorado. But I went to college in Portland, Oregon and thoroughly enjoyed hiking in the woods in Klamath Falls, visiting the rough hewn beaches, and seeing Mt Hood, the old St. Bernard lying by the fireplace at the lodge there, while folks sat in the hot tub with snow all around them. Both Colorado and Oregon seemed like the perfect settings for Heart of the Wolf! I did have some hand-to-hand combat training as a Army ROTC cadet, obstacle courses, leadership reaction courses, confidence courses, water survival training, orienteering (compass navigation) and weapons training that I've used in my writing.

When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first manuscript?

I wrote children's stories at first, fun mysteries. One went to a senior editor and she said a similar story had just been done. So I quit writing children's stories and started historical romances. Then I learned the market was tough, so started writing paranormal, and really found my niche. Even with Winning the Highlander's Heart, which is a medieval romantic suspense, the heroine has premonitions of future danger and believes she's cursed as far as betrothals go. :)

Do you have a set schedule for writing?

I write all the time. I answer emails first thing in the morning and try to start writing immediately after that. But so much time is taken up with promotion, sometimes I get terribly sidetracked. Right now I'm trying to finish up Betrayal of the Wolf, and so I plan my day--I have three scenes I need to finish, then begin the total editing process all over again. By setting a goal, I can better accomplish it.

What is your writing routine once you start a book?

First, I decide the goal and motivations for the hero and heroine's goal. Then I figure out how I want them to meet. I'm a total pantser, which means I write by the seat of my pants. Except for the hero and heroine's goals and their meeting, nothing else is plotted. Once that happens, I set daily goes: Write 10 pages a day, or 5,000 words per day, and try to stick to it. Some days I make it and others I don't. Some days I write more. Often I try to leave a cliff hanger at the end of the day so the next day it's easier to pick up the writing. Also, if I'm stuck, I'll reread the last couple of chapters and then go on. This helps because I don't get sidetracked from the original story (since I don't outline or plot) and it allows me to continually edit so by the time I'm done, the first part of the manuscript has gone through several transformations and is pretty well ready to send. The last part, nope!

Do you have many interruptions after you begin writing?

Hahaha! Yes. Mainly from my widowed mother, who I love dearly, and who lives down the road from me. As I'm responding to the interview, she's just called me again. But beyond that, promotion takes up a lot of time. I just had to fill out a book cover sheet for a new YA that was contracted, a press release form for Heart of the Wolf, a different form for a vampire romantic suspense coming in November, and a blog tour release for Heart of the Wolf. And loop mail. It's constant. I write for 4 different publishers and I've got something going on with everyone of them most of the time.

Where do your ideas come from?

With the YA, The Vampire...In My Dreams, I read a short excerpt from an adult book online--premise, two women are trying to determine if a guy is a vampire and break into his house. That was it! The Vampire...In My Dreams was born. Two teen witches are trying to learn if a guy who's been frequenting the teen burger hangout is a vampire. The heroine, Marissa, is like, "Nah, he's a Goth." But her girlfriend insists for the money and glory, they have to prove he's a vampire because even though witches and warlocks are common place, vampires don't exist.

With Heart of the Wolf, I had never read a werewolf romance, but had seen the one with Jack Nicholson, not a HEA, but still, he loved a woman and tried to protect her from the other werewolf. I wanted to write a story where the werewolves are similar to real wolves in their wolf states, and still have some of these nuances when they're human, just like when they're wolves, they have their human sensibilities.

If you could go back in time, what time and place would you enjoy visiting and is there anything you would change?

Scotland, 1760's. My great great...grandmother was the daughter of the Duke of Argyle, Elizabeth Campbell. She threw it all away to marry a commoner MacNeill and ended up dying in the rugged Prince Edward Island wilderness. I'd want to make sure she either didn't run off with him and married someone of her own station, or stayed in Scotland where she probably would have raised her 3 children to adulthood. I'd love to write their story, and I have for genealogy magazines, but it just doesn't have a HEA!

What really draws your attention to a good book, the cover art, the genre, the author or the blurb?

Plaid on the cover, then I know it's a Highlander romance, and I hope to read another wonderful love story that ends in a good way unlike my ancestors' did! Also, I look for time travels. I love time travels, but it's hard to find them. And I love any paranormals, so if I've read the author, I'll buy them. I do read the blurb for new author's books and that will get my attention. Also, often I'll read the opening page.

Do you have any other website or blog, myspace that you would like to share with us besides this one? www.terryspear.com

http://wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com Paranormal Sourcebooks Authors' Group Blog
www.terrywildeteenbooks.com Teen books
http://www.myspace.com/terryspear Please friend me!

When it comes to New Year's Resolutions, to you ever make them or just brush that thought aside?

I always make New Year's Resolutions. It's usually writing goals and I try to do something new each year with promotions. This year my goal was to do a radio and tv interview. They'll be coming up a little later, but it's a scary thought!

What is your favorite beverage?

Not my favorite as far as taste, but I'm drinking it regularly--Green Tea--because I've read where the herbal side effects include fighting against blood clotting, rheumatoid arthritis, even help lose weight, and the caffiene helps with acne. The downside is that you have to drink about 10 cups a day! And the caffeine can cause sleep problems. My really favorite drink? Margaritas!

What would you classify as your favorite time of day?

I'm definitely a morning person.

Is there any secret about you that you have never shared with your readers?

Hmm, when I was about four, my parents took my sister and me to the Florida beaches (we were from Sacramento, California), and I ran to pick up a beautiful purple balloon on the beach. The biggest one I could find! Only it wasn't a balloon.

As soon as I grabbed it up (little kids can really run fast), my mother screamed, "No!"

Too late. It was a Portugese Man-of-War. Can you say "Ruin a Family Vacation in Two Seconds Flat?"

For your next works in progress, you are asked to rough it and live in a tent, would you do as your editor asked? And what beautiful location would you choose to set up your tent?

Ooooh, well, I have tented in the Army and with Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, and even with my family, but if I had to choose??? The Fiji Islands. Would I get any writing done? Hehehehe

Thanks so much for interviewing me, Linda! I hope everyone will check out Heart of the Wolf, April 1st! The Vampire...In My Dreams will be in print August 26, 2008, and I'm pretty excited about that too!

Interviewed by: Linda L.