Interview with Elizabeth Camden & GIVEAWAY | The Engrafted Word————————————————————————-

A research librarian and associate professor, Elizabeth Camden has a master’s in history from the University of Virginia and a master’s in library science from Indiana University. She has published several articles for academic publications and is the author of four nonfiction history books. Her ongoing fascination with history and love of literature have led her to write inspirational fiction. Elizabeth lives with her husband in central Florida.

Learn more at http://elizabethcamden.com/

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Welcome to the blog, Elizabeth. I’m so honored to have you here today. Congratulations on your upcoming release, A Daring Venture. This book looks amazing!! And that cover is GORGEOUS! πŸ™‚

What do YOU love most about this book?

I love the romance….Nick and Rosalind are complete opposites, yet they get along like a house on fire. A lot of times romance novels will feature a couple in which one partner is deeply wounded or damaged in some way. Not here. Both Nick and Rosalind have been tested by tragedy, but they are both confident and successful people who immediately sense the off-the-charts chemistry flaring between them. The conflict comes in that they stand on opposite sides of a life-altering court case, so the stage is set for a bang-up rivalry between two people who are quickly falling in love with each other.

I’m completely hooked! I can’t wait to meet them. πŸ™‚

What first inspired the story? Was it a character, a historical event, a setting?

I read about a fascinating court case in 1908 that had so many twists and secrets that I knew it would be a great event to build a novel around. This case changed the way water is delivered to most households in the United States. It rendered diseases like cholera and dysentery a thing of the past, so it actually effected almost everyone living in America today….and yet, very few people have ever heard of it.

The novel is about Nickolas Drake, the newly appointed Commissioner of Water for the state of New York. He has sided with the plaintiffs in the court case, but falls madly in love with Dr. Rosalind Werner, an expert witness for the other side. Let the fireworks begin!

Although this is the 2nd book of a trilogy, it can easily be read on its own.

What do you hope readers will take away from A Daring Venture?

Most of all I hope people simply enjoy a deeply emotional love story. Both Nick and Rosalind have a lot of tragedy in their past, but rather than becoming embittered, they were inspired to become stronger people. I loved watching their natural sense of resilience power them through the challenges that get thrown at them. There are also a lot of ethical questions in the novel. Although Nick and Rosalind are fictional characters, the court case was real, as is the daring scientific quandaries it raised. There were no easy answers in this case, and it really throws a wrench into the romantic relationship between the lead characters.

What’s one of your favorite book covers?

I’ve been pretty lucky with my book covers, but my favorite so far is for A Dangerous Legacy. In addition to being an intriguing cover, it captures the tone of the book perfectly. I have to admit, when I first saw it I balked. The heroine is a middle-class woman who works as a telegraph operator, and yet we’ve got this very glamorous woman with a pearl choker on it. Now granted, the subject of that novel is a $40 million dollar inheritance, but Lucy grew up middle class, and I didn’t want readers to feel deceived of they thought this book would be about a high-society lady, so I had to explain those pearls! I re-wrote a subplot to make a grand pearl necklace part of the disputed inheritance, so it all worked out well in the end.

Oh wow, fascinating! Love hearing little behind-the-scenes like this. πŸ™‚ It’s a stunning cover!

What’s something your readers would be surprised to learn about you?

I got married late (thirty-five, to be precise.) Children weren’t in the cards for me and my husband, so I threw myself into my career. This is why most of my novels feature working women, since the domestic scene is simply something I don’t have much familiarity with!

You’ve been blessed with several book babies! πŸ˜‰ I love how authors’ lives influence the rich variety in the stories we read. Thank you so much for sharing with us today, Elizabeth! Is there anything else you’d like to add? Any upcoming projects you can share with us?

The third novel of the Empire State trilogy will release sometime in mid-2019. It’s called A Daring Hope and has the most gorgeous cover of the trilogy….I’m sorry I can’t show it to you yet, as I still have to keep it under wraps for a few more weeks. Looking forward, I just signed a contract for another trilogy. This one will be set in Washington D.C., which is one of my favorite cities to write about. There is so much potential for political intrigue, high society glamor, and daring visionaries. I plan to include it all!

That’s wonderful news all around, Elizabeth. Congrats on the new trilogy too! We can’t wait to learn more. Have a great summer!

GIVEAWAY!!

Elizabeth has graciously offered to give away a copy of A Daring Venture to one lucky winner. Enter below and it could be YOU! ;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for entering! Contest is open to US residents only. Contest ends July 10, 2018.Β  The winner will be notified by email. Happy Reading, everybody!