Nothing Serious Tour

This is my first blog tour and hopefully not the last, I am very excited.
For this stop we have the author's interview. Be sure to follow us along on every stop, there's a giveaway!

Author

Barbara Morgenroth 

I was born in New York City but now live somewhere else. By now, I think of myself as a country girl and know more about gardening and animals than how to ride the subway.
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Book 

  “I was mainlining my modem connection. Some people snort the Internet but I plugged it right into a vein. Very dangerous but all the big girls living on the techno-edge play with injectable Internet.” That’s how Paige Elliot described her life. She was living in a virtual world until she yanked the plug out of the wall, disconnected herself from the cyberworld and left New York City for the Catskills.

Going cold turkey from her computer addiction is much harder than she would have imagined. Paige experiences deep withdrawals and finds herself trying to score some computer time from her neighboring antique dealer on Main Street, the very attractive Jonathan “Blue is his color and he knows it” Macklin.

Interview
How did you choose the character’s names?
Sometimes I come upon a name I like and write it down in my notebook. Then I can go back later and see if any name fits a character I’m creating. Sometimes I go to various name your baby type websites like Nameberry.com and look for a name there. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s very difficult. I have named characters after readers of my blog which is fun for all of us.

Do you think the name of the main character is important? Why?
I think it’s very important to have the right name because it suggests so much about the personality of the character. Is it a soft name like Lily? Or is it a name like Spike. A name leads the reader to make assumptions about the character and how they will approach life within the story. Or you can play with it and take a character named Rose and make her an assassin. That’s fun.

Do you base your books on personal experiences or on anyone you know?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In my horse books, I drew on my experience as a rider. My Bad Apple series is inspired by having a friend murdered. Nothing Serious was informed by my experiences going to antiques auctions and knowing people in that business. Novels are always stronger when they have a truthful core that relates to life. It needn’t be actual events, it can be emotions or perceptions.

What made you want to write this book?
With Nothing Serious, I wanted to write something lighthearted, fun, and romantic. I wanted to take it to the edge but make it possible for the reader to say “Yeah, that could happen”.

How long did it take you to pick the title? What did you consider when coming up with it?
When I thought the book would be traditionally published, it was titled Disconnected. Paige really did disconnect herself physically and emotionally. It was perfect. Then when I withdrew it from submission to the publisher so I could publish it myself, I soon realized designing a cover with such a long word for the title and making it readable in thumbnail size was nearly impossible. That’s when I renamed the book Nothing Serious after Paige’s shop.

What were your aspirations on this book?
I wanted to tell an entertaining story that would make people laugh. That the romance would be between characters who behave like real people is just the way I work.

What or who inspired you to start writing?
I was teaching horseback riding on a farm and the owner wanted to go back to dairy farming. Since I hadn’t been able to get a job with a newspaper as a photographer when I got out of college, I had nothing to do but write. I was 24. My first book was published when I was 26, I did the cover photograph and it certainly changed my life.

Was there something you had to change in the final edition that made you upset or you felt it was important to include?
That’s the great thing about indie publishing—you make all the final decisions. There’s no one forcing you to do anything you think is wrong for the story or for the character. It’s the best time in the history of the world to be a writer.

Links
Blog -- Facebook
Tour Stops
Jan 25 -- Sadrina @ Books and their Wordly Realm
Jan 26 -- Renee @ Reading Renee
Jan 28 -- Rivie @ Bookshelf
Jan 29 -- GiGi @ Nightstand Novels
Jan 30 -- Bookotopia
Jan 31 -- The "A" - Jurnale