Featured Interview With Roxanne Snopek
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born in Hodgeville, Saskatchewan, a teeny-tiny town on the Canadian Prairies. Grew up in or around the metropolis of Saskatoon, however. For awhile when I was about ten, we lived on 40 acres, in an old one-room schoolhouse that my parents moved onto a basement and rehabbed. We had running water and electricity but no indoor toilet and no phone. I remember bathing in an aluminum wash-tub. It was an adventure – for me! For my mom, who gave birth to my brother sometime during that process, it was probably more of a trial. I mention this because my new series, This Old House, is about people who are rehabbing heritage houses in small-town Montana.
Now I live with hubby and kids near Vancouver, BC. Hubby shudders at the thought of construction-related tasks so we live in a new-ish house with full city services and too many TVs. Oh and we’ve got two miniature poodles, a spaniel, a large orange cat, a geriatric cockatiel… hm, that’s it at the moment. We had five cats for awhile, which was, I confess, overdoing it a little.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was reading before I went to school, probably around age 4. I was very lucky that my parents were huge book fans and read to us a lot as children. We were very involved in the church also, but I, being rather socially-inept child, spent a lot of time in the church library, hiding out with Danny Orlis and Grace Livingston Hill. Squeaky clean stories, in other words.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Now I read a huge variety of authors, from literary fiction to thrillers to women’s fiction, romantic suspense and contemporary romance. Barbara Samuel’s women’s fiction is fantastic, I adore Kristan Higgins’ humor and pathos (and the dogs), I love the suspense in Sandra Brown books, I reread Watchers by Dean Koontz every year, Carl Hiaasen cracks me up with his weird, wacky characters… and The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman had me completely entranced. Babies and animals are my catnip.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Cowboy Next Door is a story of sucking back your pride for the good of another. Or even the good of yourself. The hero is a really great guy, but he thinks he knows best. He’s justified; usually he *does* know best. He’s smart like that. The heroine – who’s made her share of poor decisions – is struggling to make a better life for her baby, while living in the add-on to her friends’ tumble-down house. Marching to her own drummer, you might say. Raising her baby with the help of her chosen family, no shame required. She’s off men and doesn’t need advice from strangers, thanks. Except the cowboy next door is persistent, really nice, unbearably hot and dang it all, he’s got great ideas. Ignoring him would be biting off her nose to spite her face. But letting him into her life brings all kinds of complications.
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