Featured Interview With Celeste Straub
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m an award-winning writer of romantic suspense. My debut novel, Leather and Lies, earned an honorable mention award as a finalist in the 2018 RWA Kiss of Death’s Daphne Du Maurier contest and a 3rd place finish in the 2018 Valley Forge Romance Writer’s Sheila contest in the romantic suspense category.
I’m a hopeless romantic who enjoys plotting the harrowing journeys my characters go on before they finally reach their happily-ever-after. I enjoy a quiet country life in northeastern Pennsylvania, residing on a piece of the old family farm with my husband, son, and two cats. I also like to set my novels in and around Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley. Having been born and raised in this region, and now raising my family here, I believe the gorgeous natural beauty is the perfect backdrop for my characters to fall in love.
Writing as a hobby since childhood, I spend my days as the grant writer and operations director for a local non-profit agency focusing on public health issues. When I’m not penning steamy romance scenes in my spare time, my interests include traveling, visiting amusement parks, collecting baseballs, hiking, and reading.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was very young, early elementary school age. My school had a great program where we were encouraged to write short stories during free time. A team of volunteer moms would then take our stories, hand print them onto pages, and rubber cement them into a “cover” made of cardboard and wallpaper remnants. Then we would get to illustrate our “books.” I think I was hooked from that point forward. I read voraciously. My parents knew I would be a reader when I proclaimed that I loved reading because it was like imagining a movie in my head.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy an eclectic variety of genres including science fiction, fantasy, crime, mysteries, and romance of all sub genres. Some of my favorite authors include Janet Evanovich, Dan Brown, Brandon Sanderson, J.K. Rowling, and Amy L Gale. Janet Evanovich has been a strong influence on my writing. I strive to emulate her strong female leads and humor.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Leather and Lies is a steamy romantic suspense that couldn’t be farther from your mother’s trashy beach reads of the past. Sure, there are some hot bedroom scenes, but the plot is driven by my main character’s search for her missing cousin. And it takes her to some frighteningly dark places.
Skye Winters is a 24-year-old criminal profiler with the ink barely dry on her Masters Degree when her cousin, Kortney, vanishes into thin air. At 22, Kort’s party lifestyle has led her down the path of heroin addiction, leaving Skye little hope of finding her alive. As Skye digs deeper into Kort’s life, she begins to uncover clues that might be better left buried and has to rely more and more on the help of Wes Carson, the newest biker in her father’s motorcycle club. The chemistry between them is electric, but he harbors secrets that might lead Skye to the same fate as Kortney.
It took me nearly nine months to pen Leather and Lies. My husband dabbles in criminal profiling as a hobby and also rides a Harley, so he was vital as a resource. One of my biggest pet peeves about the romance genre is that is can be hard to find strong female lead characters, so it was especially vital that Skye never need a man to rescue her, simply to love her. I also found myself relying on my 6 years of work as a medical case manager, a type of social worker, when developing Kortney’s past and creating the novel’s main antagonist. When writing about sensitive subjects, such as drug addiction, I felt it was important to move my main character from a position of judgement to one based more in understanding. She doesn’t have agree or condone the behavior, but by the end of the novel, Skye grows and matures a great bit.
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