This interview originally appeared on RTBookReviews.com
If you’ve been craving rugged cowboys and haven’t yet checked out Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge series, then have you got a series to catch up on! Book 13, Slow Burn Cowboy, hits shelves April 18, 2017 and has such a heady, inspiring romance you’ll stay glued to the pages!
Both Finn Donnelly and Lane Jensen have been friends for years, and regardless of any other deep-seated feelings, they plan to keep it that way. That is of course, until one breathtaking kiss throws a wrench in their plans! We caught up with Maisey to talk Copper Ridge, what we love about slow burn romances and what to expect in future books.
RT: There are currently 13 books available for purchase in the Copper Ridge series, plus more on the way! With so many stories to share, how do you keep the series fresh and exciting?
Maisey Yates: I think it all comes down to the characters. People are all so different, even when they have similar backgrounds, or grow up in the same town. Everyone processes certain issues differently, and I think that’s what makes it exciting for me as an author.
I also think there’s a tendency to think small town life is simple. And in some ways, it can be. But you also have to be careful who you cut off in traffic, and which barista you lose your temper with … because later when you apply for a loan at the bank their mom might be processing the paperwork. Small towns have a lot of sticky personal connections to work with.
Both Lane and Finn are dealing with past demons. How do they work together to overcome their pasts and claim their HEA?
With Lane and Finn, what was fun about them was peeling apart the ways in which they’d enabled each other to stay safe. They covered the deficits in each other’s lives for a long time, and were very careful not to dig too deep into each other’s trauma. Sex throws a bomb into the middle of that relationship and it blasts through a lot of those protective layers.
So I think a lot of it is reluctant at first. Neither of them want to deal with the past. But they also love each other. This is a book that begins with a hero and heroine who already know they don’t want to live without each other. But they’ve kept their relationship contained to keep it from challenging them, and that’s where they start really making changes. When it becomes clear that for them it’s going to be all or nothing, and neither of them could stand nothing.
Finn isn’t much of a communicator and he prefers to keep the past buried deep inside. How did you overcome this obstacle so that he could form a meaningful relationship with his three half-brothers?
I think much like with Lane, Finn really doesn’t want to overcome anything. He wants his life left the way it is. But when his brothers show up and … won’t leave, he has to figure out how to bend, and that ends up requiring communication. Finn is a stubborn cuss, but he’s also never going to hurt anyone, or his ranch, on purpose. So for him, I think it’s a series of events that start breaking his walls down and really FORCE him to learn how to lean on other people.
One of the skeletons in Lane’s closet happens to be a prominent political figure. Did anything in particular inspire your writing?
Not really. It was the idea that fascinated me more than anything in reality. I was interested in the kind of life a well-liked politician would have to lead (one free of scandal), and the pressure he would have been under from parents putting him on that track. And how, in the present with the internet and a 24-hour news cycle, if your ex was famous you would have a tough time escaping him.
Lane sells all sorts of fun, natural, and most importantly, local food items at her store in Copper Ridge. Did you research Oregon’s regional delicacies in order to stock her store, and if so, was it the most delicious research experience you’ve ever had?
I research this subject a lot! LOL. I live in Oregon and I love the local food scene. Her store is based on shop on the main street in the little town I live in, and I do like to go in and sample olive oil and bread and all kinds of yummy things. My aunt makes jam with berries she picks herself, I’ve done a lot of eating my way up and down the coast and visiting stores like Cranberry Sweets in Bandon that make delicious truffles and little jelly candies made from locally grown cranberries. There are also a lot of new vineyards and wineries cropping up all over Southern Oregon. I can see one of them from my back deck. I personally don’t drink wine, but it’s a nice atmosphere.
Finn’s teenage niece Violet moved onto the ranch with her dad, and we can’t help but notice that she is the perfect age to usher in a new generation of romances within Copper Ridge! Once Violet is of age, do you envision her putting down roots with her own hero in Copper Ridge?
Ha! I think that would be really fun to do. And who knows? But that wasn’t my goal with her, necessarily.
In Slow Burn Cowboy you introduce us to Cain, a single dad who will become Copper Ridge’s next hero. His love interest, Alison, recently rebuilt her life after leaving an abusive marriage. Both seem a bit gun-shy about matters of the heart. How do you tackle these deeply personal issues with such sensitivity?
This is a nice question to end on, because my answer is similar to the first one. It’s all about the inpidual for me, about the character. I find people endlessly fascinating. I like to listen to them talk about their lives. And I think one of the most important skills an author can have is empathy. We may not have experienced everything our characters have, but it is so important to approach writing with really deep empathy. It’s important to try and understand people we disagree with, people who have different experiences than we do. I think when you do that it’s easy to approach tricky subjects with sensitivity and with respect.
And of course, no two people react to a struggle in exactly the same way, so you also have to look at your character as a whole person and ask how they would cope with these things, which all hinges on having created a full backstory, a full life story, for these fictional people that I believe in so completely.
