January 9, 2025 • 29 mins
Thanks to author Bethany Rosa for joining me to talk about her books and writing process.
Bethany's Books:
- Pursuit of Innocence (available on KU)
- Holidate Pursuit (available on KU)
- Dangerous Pursuit (available on KU)
Follow Bethany:
**Note - I read Pursuit of Innocence, but Dangerous Pursuit was too spicy for me and I didn't finish the novel. **
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and today I'mjoined by romance author of
Pursuit of Innocence, bethanyRosa, to talk about her latest
release, dangerous Pursuit.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Bethany.
Thanks, Kristen, for having me.
I'm excited to do this Me too.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So the first question I always ask everyone is what
are you currently reading?
Or, if you are writing rightnow and not doing a lot of
reading, which writers inspireyou?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I can answer both things.
I am reading.
I try to read all the time.
When I'm writing, though, Itend to stick to short stories
and novellas.
Oh, that's smart.
Yeah, I have not picked up abook over 200 words in what
seems like forever now, justbecause of limited time.
But I would say the authorsthat just have inspired me in my
(01:02):
career, and not because of whatthey write or or any of that,
it's more how they became anauthor, and I would say EL James
, stephanie Meyer and JK RowlingI mean I two, three different,
very different genres but alsojust how they got their start,
their first books.
Um, they worked hard, you know,they came out of nowhere and
(01:24):
did these books and just endedup rising through the ranks and
wrote something that justrelated to different people and
did really cool things, nothaving a long history of doing
it.
So that really inspires me.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Nice, and I'm glad that they have all that
information out for us to beable to see, so that way you can
kind of hear how everyone gottheir start, cause you probably
just assume, you know, oh,they're so famous, they just,
you know, wrote a runaway hitand that was it, and they were
good, but no yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, I love hearing their stories and their
backstories and what a struggleit was for all three of them to
just go through that process.
So it's really neat to to lookback on those.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Definitely, and what can you tell us about your
current work in progress?
I know you just released a newholiday novella, holiday.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Pursuit.
Yes, and it wasn't the bookthat everybody was waiting for,
so it was kind of a little sidenote surprise.
But I'm now finally finallyworking on the book that
everybody's just dying to read.
Regarding two of the charactersfrom my first book.
Everybody fell in love withthem and they asked for it from
the get-go, but it just didn'tfall in line and so I finally
(02:40):
picked it up Pursuit of Love,and it's Cece and Eli from the
first book, which everybody oh,there was something going on
there but nobody knew, and so Idecided I'm going to expand on
their story more and and it'staken me a while to figure it
out, but I just picked it upagain today so it's getting it's
, it's in progress.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So you're still kind of in the early stages of it.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I've plotted the whole thing.
I know what I'm doing with it,I know where I'm going with it.
But you know, plotting it's onething, and then you know you
plot, it's one sentence, fivesentences for that chapter, and
then you have to write 5,000words to go with that five
sentences.
So yeah, I'm working on itslowly but surely so yeah, I'm
working on it slowly but surely.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Was it easier to plot a story about characters that
you already kind of had somebackground, or was it a little
bit harder to try to figure outwhere they were going to go?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Both I think Easier because I knew where they
started, I knew where they camefrom and I had to decide where I
wanted them to go and I knowtheir personalities a little bit
from those previous books.
So that makes it easier to.
But it's also harder because Ihave to keep going back into the
previous two books, becausethere's so much that happens
(03:56):
within those two books and youhave to make sure you're on
track.
And okay, did I do this at theright time?
Was it the right month here?
Do I want to include that?
And so I think going back andforth a lot was hard, but now
that I've got the timelinedefinitely set, I think I'm
ready to go.
I think I could probably jamthis out pretty quick with
(04:18):
everything that I've done upuntil now.
And do you?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
know how long you want this series to be kind of
in total.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So it is slated for five.
So all five are on Amazon rightnow, but I think I'm going to
add one more novella.
So I did three books this yearin my first year, and then my
goal that's huge.
Yeah, I didn't expect it.
It was not on the docket, sonothing was on the docket other
than Pursuit of Innocence.
(04:46):
Actually, the only reason thatthis whole series came about is
because I had people asking meabout the other characters and
it just, you know, I didn't havea plan for my career.
I just thought, oh, I have thisone book, I want to do it, and
then it just kind of snowballedfrom there.
So I do.
I would like to stay on thattrajectory and do another two
(05:10):
full-size novels and one novellanext year and make it a
Christmas novella.
So that's my goal and then thatwill actually lead into the
next series.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So Okay, so you're going to go straight into
another series after you're donewith this one?
Wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I might take a little break.
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's because that's that is a lot of books.
In just a couple of yearsYou'll have a whole back.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, I, I go to these seminars and I see these
other amazing authors who havebeen doing it for a lot longer
than I, have some who haven't,and I just, I'm looking at their
, the amount of books thatthey're putting out, and I'm
just in awe, like I mean, ifthis was my full time and this
is all I did and I did nothingelse, I could probably, you know
(05:56):
, keep up on that schedule, butI just, I don't.
I, yeah, I take days offwithout writing, so that's yeah,
and it's hard to schedulecreativity you can't force.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I mean, you can kind of force yourself to write, but
not really if it's just notcoming.
So that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
One of the biggest battles?
Yes, definitely my husband.
Why didn't you write today?
I don't know, I just wasn'tfeeling it.
Yeah, trying to explain that tohim is impossible sometimes,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Do you typically work on one book at once or kind of
have multiple things going totry to keep up that pace?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I always do one book at once, but I have started kind
of pre-plotting the next book,so I won't start writing it per
se, but as I'm going now, I'vegotten in the habit of like,
while I was writing DangerousPursuit, a ton of notes were
made about Cece and Eli becausethey're in that book, so much.
(06:55):
So I just had to keep track of,like what I wanted to remember,
and so it just helps me when Igo to write that book.
But I definitely I don't thinkI'm ready to do two at once,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's a lot on your brain.
No One at a time, especiallywhen you have a full-time job as
well.
That's just a lot on oneperson's brain.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, and it's hard because I was still editing
Pursuit of, or I was editingHoliday Pursuit, while I did
start writing CC and Eli's storyPursuit of Love.
And it's confusing becauseyou're on one character and I
don't know what I was thinkingwhen I named my characters, but
I used a lot of the same letterswhich while I'm writing and
(07:44):
editing it, your mind is justlike oh, was that Lily Lucy?
It's crazy, yeah, so I can't dotwo at once ever.
I know that about me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Hey, you find the process that works for you and
you go with it.
Yeah, definitely.
So what inspired you to startwriting romance and how has your
process kind of evolved overtime?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
well, since it's already been a year, um, or only
has been a year, it's evolvedfor sure.
I was inspired.
So my first book I startedabout December a year ago and I
had a dream.
Well, there was two things thatcame involved.
(08:27):
I was reading I read 250 booksthe year before, wow, so I read
a lot, I'm a fast reader and Igot to this point of not finding
what I was looking for, like Ijust wanted exactly what I was
looking for and I kept like Iwould start a book.
It wasn't, I would startanother one, I would start
another.
And I was so frustrated and I'mlike, gosh, dang it, I'm just
(08:49):
going to write it.
And so that's kind of how Ifell into it.
And then, as I was, you know,having that thought and knew I
was going to do that, I wasreading a book and I had this
dream about the book that I fellasleep reading and I had this
dream on what happened in thebook and it was a really good
(09:10):
dream, but it didn't happen inthe book and I thought, well,
that sucks, because that's whatI wanted to happen.
So I wrote the scene downexactly how I dreamed it, and
then I wrote the book around it.
That was my first book, so thatwas the first scene, and then I
did it, and then I wrote thebook around it.
That was my first book, so thatwas the first scene, and then I
, and then I did it.
And so now, yeah, and there'ssome days where I think what, if
(09:32):
, what am I doing?
I could be reading every day.
I could read like two to threebooks, and instead I'm writing,
when sometimes I just, you know,want to read that next novel.
So, big reader, that's whatinspired me.
What genres do you typicallyread?
I only read romance.
That's so crazy.
But I will say I read allgenres in romance Romanticy, you
(09:55):
know, the alpha male, the smalltown, the Christmas historical,
you name it.
If it has romance, I'm readingit At least.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
romance is one of those genres where there are so
many little sub genres and somany different settings that you
could literally kind of findeverything.
It's not like a thriller thatkind of starts to you know,
sound the same?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, you can even do mystery romance.
I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Romantic suspense, all of those.
Yeah, yes, yes.
Have you found any specificroutines or habits that kind of
help you stay focused wheneveryou're in the middle of writing?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh, that was the one thing that I'm not really great
at.
I will admit that I'm terribleto focus unless I'm super into
it.
And so just today, what I didand I think this is going to be
my new routine I woke up and Ileft my phone in the bedroom.
I think that's the biggestthing for me is I cannot have my
(10:54):
phone near me because I dostill have four kids who don't
need my help all the time, butthey do.
They call me for things.
So you know, I just have to putthe phone away.
So I think what I have to do,what I've discovered is just
keeping my phone out of my hands, not in reaching distance, I
(11:15):
mean literally in another room,or even having my husband take
it away from me.
So occasionally I'll have himdo that as well, just so I can't
even go get it.
So the phone is the one thing,and no, I.
I just get in routines whereI'll write for eight hours a day
sometimes, and then I won'twrite for a couple of days.
So when I'm into it, I'm reallyinto it, and when I'm not, I'm
(11:38):
not into it, I'm just there'snothing.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I'm sure some days you open up your computer and
they're just art words that day.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, and on days like that, you know, I tend to just
go edit.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So I'm like okay.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I'm going to pick this book up and I'm going
to do something with it and I'lljust start editing.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And how do you approach writing chemistry
between characters in a way thatfeels authentic, especially in
a dangerous pursuit?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Good question and I think it's an interesting one
because, for me, I don't thinkit has to be always authentic.
I think what's nice aboutromance novels in general, and
one of the reasons I likereading them, is because it
doesn't have to be real, itdoesn't have to be true, it's
fantasy, it doesn't have to bereal, it doesn't have to be true
(12:26):
, it's fantasy.
Like you, can read these booksand think, oh, if only you know,
and it's not ever going tohappen, probably in real life.
But authenticity the otherthing that I think is authentic
means something different toeverybody, and so what one
person reads and says, oh my God, that would never happen or I'm
not okay with that DangerousPursuit, is a really good
(12:48):
example.
And I did not plan this and Ididn't even mean for this to
happen or think about it as Iwas writing the story.
But somebody did read it andthey did have a problem with the
age gap that I have in thestory.
It was an early beta reader andshe's like oh my gosh, I have
daughters.
I would never be okay with this.
(13:10):
And I thought I have fourdaughters.
In fact, I have a 19 year oldwho's dating a man who's 10
years older.
And I didn't even plan that, Ididn't think about it.
I don't think of my kids whenI'm reading these stories, other
than little personality traits.
But I thought of that and Ithought, huh, it's hard for me
because I think perspective isdifferent in everybody's life
(13:31):
and what's authentic to oneperson.
They would be like that wouldnever happen, but it might.
The stories that I have heardfrom some people on their love
lives and their love stories.
I'm just blown away sometimes.
So what you don't think is youknow real, it just might be.
And then as far as thechemistry and the steamy scenes,
(13:53):
that, to me, is where yourfantasy comes in.
And it's not about all that'salways going to happen, because
who would ever not, you know,stay married forever if
everybody's life was like aromance novel.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That makes sense, and I mean, I'm sure, even with,
like, just nicknames forcharacters.
You know, some people are goingto like nickname and some
people aren't going to like anickname, so that's so hard to
try to come up with that, I'msure.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Every book has people complaining about either way,
and I.
The hard part when you have theseries and what I've discovered
in writing multiple books nowis oh my gosh, you really have
to think of okay, well, I usedthis name for this party part in
the last book, so I don't wantthat name for this body part in
this book.
I want to switch it up so it'snot always the same.
(14:44):
And then nicknames oh my gosh,the main male character called
her this.
I don't want to do that again,Trying to think of all these
different nuances when becauseyou do have people that will
devour, If, if they're going tolike, if they like your writing
in one book, chances are they'reprobably going to like your
writing in all the books, and sothen you have to really think
(15:06):
about that.
If I have somebody reading fiveof my books in a row, you've
got to switch that stuff up.
So you know it's a hit or miss,unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's hard.
That sounds like a spreadsheetjust waiting to happen of like I
use this term or I use thisname and this.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, Just to be able to see see it all at once.
It's super funny.
So in the first book I used onename for a part.
In the second book I didanother, and then the third.
I thought, well, what am Igoing to do now?
And I intermixed it.
I used both.
So I thought, well, I'll try itthis way.
So it's just kind of a liketrial by error.
(15:45):
I don't know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And when you get feedback, like you did, from the
beta readers, how do you decidewhat to apply and what to kind
of go?
Okay, this is just more of apersonal preference.
I'm just going to go with whatI had.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So I look at it two ways.
One of my beta readers I paytwo really professional kind of
beta readers with very differentopinions than mine even and I
do it on purpose.
So on one hand I use herediting skills because she's a
really good editor and the otherone I pay definitely does not
(16:22):
like my books and I love thatabout her.
And I do that because therewill always be people that don't
like certain things.
And if I can tweak littlethings, I'm not going to change
major plot points or majorthings for this, you know,
because she says so.
But what I take out of it isyou know what that could be
offensive to somebody, and so Ican tweak that little thing, I
(16:45):
can make that little change andthat little change.
So I like hearing dissentingcomments because it just it
makes me think of the biggerpicture.
Who I'm willing to offend, whoI'm not willing to offend.
And you know, you can take areally Tessa Bailey, for example
amazing author, like queen ofdirty talk, love, one of my
(17:07):
inspirations, because I I'mreally big into dirty talk and
my steamy scenes and I literallyjust DNF one of her books
yesterday because I didn't likehow she did the dirty talk, and
she always does great dirty talk.
I love it.
I just didn't like thischaracter.
It wasn't my cup of tea, Ididn't.
I didn't like how he talked toher.
I didn't like the things hesaid and I thought, oh, I'm not
(17:28):
going to be able to get throughit, and that's fine.
That doesn't mean I don't likeall the rest of her books.
It's just so you know you'renever going to like it all that
is true.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
That is very true, especially with things that are
so personal, like that,everyone's always going to have
their own preference.
Yes, yes, what advice would yougive to aspiring romance
authors who are kind of juststarting out?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's a fun one to think about, you know.
I think the first thing wouldbe to just do it, stop thinking
about it and just write.
It's not going to be perfectthe first time around, so that
would be number one advice.
My second advice to that wouldbe just do it, but do it right.
Don't put something togetherand throw it out there and have
(18:16):
it be total crap.
If you're going to do ityourself, pay for the editor,
pay for the cover designer, payfor the second editor, pay for
the proofreader.
You know, do those things thatyou would have done if you were
doing it, you know, through apublisher.
First of all, and my last pieceof advice, I really wish, going
(18:39):
back, that I could have donethis because I did the first two
things.
I'm really big on paying to geteverything done professionally,
but I really wish I would havewaited until I had the first
three books done, at least evenmaybe a complete series, because
the time in between and thestress and knowing that, oh,
(18:59):
that's a good point, I don'tknow.
I'm just a very like.
I'm a people pleaser and if Iknow people are waiting for a
story, I want to get it done andI want to put it out there,
whereas if I had this wholeseries done and I was just
putting it out and I was alittle more relaxed during the
process, I think it would be ummore enjoyable throughout
throughout and I'd have moretime to do marketing.
(19:22):
Luckily I have somebody that'shelping me do that.
But you know, I think hugepiece of advice if you know
you're doing a series, at leastget your first three done, three
, if not the whole thing, and ifnot, then maybe get one or two
books done and yeah, it'll justmake you so much more relaxed.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So yeah, I saw something that BK Borson posted
the other day on threads and shesaid that she went from
self-pub to trad-pub and so shewas like, oh my gosh.
I was at first disappointedwith how slow trad-pub moved,
but then she was like I'm nowthree books ahead and she was
like what it did for my mentalhealth was so, so much better
(20:06):
being able to just kind of havethat breather in there and not
have to feel so stressed out,trying to write all the time and
crunch them out.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, yeah, and having somebody have your back
doing all that for you.
I mean I.
There are pros and cons to eachfor sure, and I think that's
leading to the rise of thehybrid author, which is doing
self-publish and traditionalpublishing, which I think is
probably the best way to go, andsomeday maybe I'll be doing
(20:38):
that as well.
But the self-publishing is sucha great thing.
For those like me who I don'thave any kind of history with
writing, it's the first time.
You know well, where did youlearn to write?
I didn't, I just read.
And so to be able to dosomething like that and put it
out there without having to goto all the you know go hundreds
(21:02):
of publishers and editor or yeah, publicists to try to get out
there, it was, it's, it's neatto be able to do this for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Especially when you found a hole in the market, you
could just fill it beforeeveryone else figures it out too
, and you didn't have to try towait and query and all of that
kind of crazy stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes, yes, it is.
So I was talking to anotherreally big author the other day
at a book signing and I wasshocked.
So she has made a really bigname for herself in a, in a
certain genre, I mean a world.
She's definitely knownworldwide and she's been
(21:41):
publishing for probably aboutfive years I want to say four or
five years and her originalbook, her original plan, was to
go traditionally published andshe got picked up by a major
traditional published publishinghouse.
Well, now we're four or fiveyears into her career and her
first traditional published bookis coming out next month.
(22:03):
Meanwhile, all of her worldthat she's created has been
self-published.
It's just like hearing storieslike that is just.
That's why self-publishing isgreat, cause it's like okay, I
wrote the book, it's going out,you wrote the book, it's going
out two or three years from nowor, in her case, four or five.
It's just crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
True, and I'm sure with self-publishing you can
also kind of test things andlearn things that you know it
would have taken so long TriedPub to get the book out, and
then you would have realized,and then you might have already
written the next three books,and then you would have to go
back and adjust.
Versus Self Pub, you get tohear reader feedback it seems
like a little bit easier andthen make adjustments and then
(22:47):
apply that moving forward.
Yeah, yep, definitely.
Are there any themes or tropesthat you're excited to explore
in future books, since theseries is not complete yet?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
So, yes, I'm not going to divulge what the next
one is.
Everybody will see that it's asurprise.
So, and the last book and I wasthinking that I do try to hit
different tropes in every book,you know, I've got the age gap,
workplace romance in book three,I've got the holiday, and then
(23:20):
I love my alpha male.
I will always love my alphamale billionaire trope, which
was book one.
I tend, you know, part ofreading romance to me is to make
the reader feel good and happyand fantasize, like we talked
about.
And so I do tend to stick towealthy main characters, just
(23:42):
because for me I, you know, I'mlike putting myself in these
people's shoes, like, oh,wouldn't that be cool, wouldn't
that be great, oh, this is sucha great story.
And so I do want to write aboutpeople you know, things that
you don't have or things thatyou would you know want.
So I think all of my characterswill always be more fortunate.
(24:03):
I think that's just something Iknow in all of my books will
happen.
My next series is going to besmall town, so I'm going from
Sandy to to.
I'm moving the series over tomy hometown, actually a Bozeman,
so I'm moving it over to smalltown and then I'm going to do
some ex Navy seal andfirefighter in my next one.
(24:23):
So I have the series mapped outand it's interconnected somehow
.
But if I could do anything Iwanted, I would write a book a
month and I would haveparanormal and I would have
vampires and I would havewerewolves, I would have all of
it, because there's so manydifferent genres that I love
that I wish I could just diveinto.
But I've already started downthis path, so I'm going to stick
(24:46):
with it until I run out of this, maybe that next two series,
and then I'll go write somevampire, werewolf stuff, I don't
know, just for that's reallyfun, cause then you're still
sticking within romance, but youget to try something a little
bit different and you have a lotof options.
Yeah, and I think really whatmakes people like books is not
just the genre but the author'svoice.
(25:09):
I've crossed into differentgenres with the same author and
you're still getting that samevoice.
So if you tend to like anauthor, you're going to like.
You know, any, almost anythingthey write.
As long as it's not somethingyou absolutely like, can't stand
.
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, and then, lastly, what's something that
you've learned from yourprevious books that you're going
to carry into what you'recurrently working on now?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just tying everything in.
And one thing I didn't do whenI first started was plot.
So I think now, before I starta book, I plot a character, I do
their personality test, I puttheir whole lives, where they
grew up, what their history is,what their fears are, and I just
plot the characters really goodnow.
(25:55):
And then I now map out.
I think it's really importantto map out your series and I
wish I'd known that earlier,because you can tie in things to
the previous books and lead in.
And so now that I've figuredthat out by the third, I am now
starting to like part of writingthis book that I'm writing now
(26:19):
I'm actually trying to figureout the story of the next one so
that I can put that lead intoit.
So I know where they're comingfrom.
But, yeah, pre-plotting,pre-plotting the whole thing and
editing I will never I feellike I'll never have a routine
for editing, but if I do one day, my life would be much happier.
(26:41):
So I think, yeah, I'm learningevery, every time.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I get better.
Is there anything else youwould like listeners to know
about your books?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You know they are steamy, they're good and I do
try to hit, you know, a littlebit of trope for everybody and I
think, like I said, if you likethe writing style of one,
chances are you're going to likemost of them.
And one thing I think I reallytry to do because of what I like
(27:12):
when I read my steamy scenesare very I like dialogue.
I don't like steamy sceneswhere it's just descriptive and
it says what happened and thisis what happened.
I'll skip over scenes like that.
So if you like a lot of dirtytalking and you like dialogue
during your steamy scenes, Ithink that's something that I
(27:33):
think I've perfected.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
And would you suggest them reading in publishing
order and starting with Pursuitof Innocence, or really they
could skip around, you know ifthere's a trope you absolutely
hate, don't you know?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
you don't have to make yourself miserable.
All of my books are standalone.
Make yourself miserable.
All of my books are standalone.
They have enough backstory andlead in that you can read any of
them without the others.
The nice thing is is whenyou're reading it you can read
them out of order and you canalways go back and say, oh well,
they sounded like reallyinteresting characters.
(28:07):
I don't love the trope, but Iwant to go find out about them.
You can do that.
Nothing in any book gives awayor or gives you know, ruins the
book before it.
So they're all fun and and Iand the rom the holiday pursuit
that I just holiday pursuit thatI just released is kind of was
kind of a little attempt at arom-com.
(28:29):
So I I don't feel like I amsuper funny in my writing, but I
feel like I stepped it up alittle bit with the holiday one.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So I think I did it, and that's it for today.
Thanks for listening to when ILeft Off a bookish podcast.
You can purchase Bethany'snovels through the links in the
show notes and follow her onInstagram and, as always, they
are also available on KindleUnlimited.
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and today I'mjoined by romance author of
Pursuit of Innocence, bethanyRosa, to talk about her latest
release, dangerous Pursuit.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Bethany.
Thanks, Kristen, for having me.
I'm excited to do this Me too.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So the first question I always ask everyone is what
are you currently reading?
Or, if you are writing rightnow and not doing a lot of
reading, which writers inspireyou?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I can answer both things.
I am reading.
I try to read all the time.
When I'm writing, though, Itend to stick to short stories
and novellas.
Oh, that's smart.
Yeah, I have not picked up abook over 200 words in what
seems like forever now, justbecause of limited time.
But I would say the authorsthat just have inspired me in my
(01:02):
career, and not because of whatthey write or or any of that,
it's more how they became anauthor, and I would say EL James
, stephanie Meyer and JK RowlingI mean I two, three different,
very different genres but alsojust how they got their start,
their first books.
Um, they worked hard, you know,they came out of nowhere and
(01:24):
did these books and just endedup rising through the ranks and
wrote something that justrelated to different people and
did really cool things, nothaving a long history of doing
it.
So that really inspires me.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Nice, and I'm glad that they have all that
information out for us to beable to see, so that way you can
kind of hear how everyone gottheir start, cause you probably
just assume, you know, oh,they're so famous, they just,
you know, wrote a runaway hitand that was it, and they were
good, but no yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, I love hearing their stories and their
backstories and what a struggleit was for all three of them to
just go through that process.
So it's really neat to to lookback on those.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Definitely, and what can you tell us about your
current work in progress?
I know you just released a newholiday novella, holiday.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Pursuit.
Yes, and it wasn't the bookthat everybody was waiting for,
so it was kind of a little sidenote surprise.
But I'm now finally finallyworking on the book that
everybody's just dying to read.
Regarding two of the charactersfrom my first book.
Everybody fell in love withthem and they asked for it from
the get-go, but it just didn'tfall in line and so I finally
(02:40):
picked it up Pursuit of Love,and it's Cece and Eli from the
first book, which everybody oh,there was something going on
there but nobody knew, and so Idecided I'm going to expand on
their story more and and it'staken me a while to figure it
out, but I just picked it upagain today so it's getting it's
, it's in progress.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So you're still kind of in the early stages of it.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I've plotted the whole thing.
I know what I'm doing with it,I know where I'm going with it.
But you know, plotting it's onething, and then you know you
plot, it's one sentence, fivesentences for that chapter, and
then you have to write 5,000words to go with that five
sentences.
So yeah, I'm working on itslowly but surely so yeah, I'm
working on it slowly but surely.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Was it easier to plot a story about characters that
you already kind of had somebackground, or was it a little
bit harder to try to figure outwhere they were going to go?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Both I think Easier because I knew where they
started, I knew where they camefrom and I had to decide where I
wanted them to go and I knowtheir personalities a little bit
from those previous books.
So that makes it easier to.
But it's also harder because Ihave to keep going back into the
previous two books, becausethere's so much that happens
(03:56):
within those two books and youhave to make sure you're on
track.
And okay, did I do this at theright time?
Was it the right month here?
Do I want to include that?
And so I think going back andforth a lot was hard, but now
that I've got the timelinedefinitely set, I think I'm
ready to go.
I think I could probably jamthis out pretty quick with
(04:18):
everything that I've done upuntil now.
And do you?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
know how long you want this series to be kind of
in total.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So it is slated for five.
So all five are on Amazon rightnow, but I think I'm going to
add one more novella.
So I did three books this yearin my first year, and then my
goal that's huge.
Yeah, I didn't expect it.
It was not on the docket, sonothing was on the docket other
than Pursuit of Innocence.
(04:46):
Actually, the only reason thatthis whole series came about is
because I had people asking meabout the other characters and
it just, you know, I didn't havea plan for my career.
I just thought, oh, I have thisone book, I want to do it, and
then it just kind of snowballedfrom there.
So I do.
I would like to stay on thattrajectory and do another two
(05:10):
full-size novels and one novellanext year and make it a
Christmas novella.
So that's my goal and then thatwill actually lead into the
next series.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So Okay, so you're going to go straight into
another series after you're donewith this one?
Wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I might take a little break.
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's because that's that is a lot of books.
In just a couple of yearsYou'll have a whole back.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, I, I go to these seminars and I see these
other amazing authors who havebeen doing it for a lot longer
than I, have some who haven't,and I just, I'm looking at their
, the amount of books thatthey're putting out, and I'm
just in awe, like I mean, ifthis was my full time and this
is all I did and I did nothingelse, I could probably, you know
(05:56):
, keep up on that schedule, butI just, I don't.
I, yeah, I take days offwithout writing, so that's yeah,
and it's hard to schedulecreativity you can't force.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I mean, you can kind of force yourself to write, but
not really if it's just notcoming.
So that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
One of the biggest battles?
Yes, definitely my husband.
Why didn't you write today?
I don't know, I just wasn'tfeeling it.
Yeah, trying to explain that tohim is impossible sometimes,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Do you typically work on one book at once or kind of
have multiple things going totry to keep up that pace?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I always do one book at once, but I have started kind
of pre-plotting the next book,so I won't start writing it per
se, but as I'm going now, I'vegotten in the habit of like,
while I was writing DangerousPursuit, a ton of notes were
made about Cece and Eli becausethey're in that book, so much.
(06:55):
So I just had to keep track of,like what I wanted to remember,
and so it just helps me when Igo to write that book.
But I definitely I don't thinkI'm ready to do two at once,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's a lot on your brain.
No One at a time, especiallywhen you have a full-time job as
well.
That's just a lot on oneperson's brain.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, and it's hard because I was still editing
Pursuit of, or I was editingHoliday Pursuit, while I did
start writing CC and Eli's storyPursuit of Love.
And it's confusing becauseyou're on one character and I
don't know what I was thinkingwhen I named my characters, but
I used a lot of the same letterswhich while I'm writing and
(07:44):
editing it, your mind is justlike oh, was that Lily Lucy?
It's crazy, yeah, so I can't dotwo at once ever.
I know that about me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Hey, you find the process that works for you and
you go with it.
Yeah, definitely.
So what inspired you to startwriting romance and how has your
process kind of evolved overtime?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
well, since it's already been a year, um, or only
has been a year, it's evolvedfor sure.
I was inspired.
So my first book I startedabout December a year ago and I
had a dream.
Well, there was two things thatcame involved.
(08:27):
I was reading I read 250 booksthe year before, wow, so I read
a lot, I'm a fast reader and Igot to this point of not finding
what I was looking for, like Ijust wanted exactly what I was
looking for and I kept like Iwould start a book.
It wasn't, I would startanother one, I would start
another.
And I was so frustrated and I'mlike, gosh, dang it, I'm just
(08:49):
going to write it.
And so that's kind of how Ifell into it.
And then, as I was, you know,having that thought and knew I
was going to do that, I wasreading a book and I had this
dream about the book that I fellasleep reading and I had this
dream on what happened in thebook and it was a really good
(09:10):
dream, but it didn't happen inthe book and I thought, well,
that sucks, because that's whatI wanted to happen.
So I wrote the scene downexactly how I dreamed it, and
then I wrote the book around it.
That was my first book, so thatwas the first scene, and then I
did it, and then I wrote thebook around it.
That was my first book, so thatwas the first scene, and then I
, and then I did it.
And so now, yeah, and there'ssome days where I think what, if
(09:32):
, what am I doing?
I could be reading every day.
I could read like two to threebooks, and instead I'm writing,
when sometimes I just, you know,want to read that next novel.
So, big reader, that's whatinspired me.
What genres do you typicallyread?
I only read romance.
That's so crazy.
But I will say I read allgenres in romance Romanticy, you
(09:55):
know, the alpha male, the smalltown, the Christmas historical,
you name it.
If it has romance, I'm readingit At least.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
romance is one of those genres where there are so
many little sub genres and somany different settings that you
could literally kind of findeverything.
It's not like a thriller thatkind of starts to you know,
sound the same?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, you can even do mystery romance.
I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Romantic suspense, all of those.
Yeah, yes, yes.
Have you found any specificroutines or habits that kind of
help you stay focused wheneveryou're in the middle of writing?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh, that was the one thing that I'm not really great
at.
I will admit that I'm terribleto focus unless I'm super into
it.
And so just today, what I didand I think this is going to be
my new routine I woke up and Ileft my phone in the bedroom.
I think that's the biggestthing for me is I cannot have my
(10:54):
phone near me because I dostill have four kids who don't
need my help all the time, butthey do.
They call me for things.
So you know, I just have to putthe phone away.
So I think what I have to do,what I've discovered is just
keeping my phone out of my hands, not in reaching distance, I
(11:15):
mean literally in another room,or even having my husband take
it away from me.
So occasionally I'll have himdo that as well, just so I can't
even go get it.
So the phone is the one thing,and no, I.
I just get in routines whereI'll write for eight hours a day
sometimes, and then I won'twrite for a couple of days.
So when I'm into it, I'm reallyinto it, and when I'm not, I'm
(11:38):
not into it, I'm just there'snothing.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I'm sure some days you open up your computer and
they're just art words that day.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, and on days like that, you know, I tend to just
go edit.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So I'm like okay.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I'm going to pick this book up and I'm going
to do something with it and I'lljust start editing.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And how do you approach writing chemistry
between characters in a way thatfeels authentic, especially in
a dangerous pursuit?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Good question and I think it's an interesting one
because, for me, I don't thinkit has to be always authentic.
I think what's nice aboutromance novels in general, and
one of the reasons I likereading them, is because it
doesn't have to be real, itdoesn't have to be true, it's
fantasy, it doesn't have to bereal, it doesn't have to be true
(12:26):
, it's fantasy.
Like you, can read these booksand think, oh, if only you know,
and it's not ever going tohappen, probably in real life.
But authenticity the otherthing that I think is authentic
means something different toeverybody, and so what one
person reads and says, oh my God, that would never happen or I'm
not okay with that DangerousPursuit, is a really good
(12:48):
example.
And I did not plan this and Ididn't even mean for this to
happen or think about it as Iwas writing the story.
But somebody did read it andthey did have a problem with the
age gap that I have in thestory.
It was an early beta reader andshe's like oh my gosh, I have
daughters.
I would never be okay with this.
(13:10):
And I thought I have fourdaughters.
In fact, I have a 19 year oldwho's dating a man who's 10
years older.
And I didn't even plan that, Ididn't think about it.
I don't think of my kids whenI'm reading these stories, other
than little personality traits.
But I thought of that and Ithought, huh, it's hard for me
because I think perspective isdifferent in everybody's life
(13:31):
and what's authentic to oneperson.
They would be like that wouldnever happen, but it might.
The stories that I have heardfrom some people on their love
lives and their love stories.
I'm just blown away sometimes.
So what you don't think is youknow real, it just might be.
And then as far as thechemistry and the steamy scenes,
(13:53):
that, to me, is where yourfantasy comes in.
And it's not about all that'salways going to happen, because
who would ever not, you know,stay married forever if
everybody's life was like aromance novel.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That makes sense, and I mean, I'm sure, even with,
like, just nicknames forcharacters.
You know, some people are goingto like nickname and some
people aren't going to like anickname, so that's so hard to
try to come up with that, I'msure.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Every book has people complaining about either way,
and I.
The hard part when you have theseries and what I've discovered
in writing multiple books nowis oh my gosh, you really have
to think of okay, well, I usedthis name for this party part in
the last book, so I don't wantthat name for this body part in
this book.
I want to switch it up so it'snot always the same.
(14:44):
And then nicknames oh my gosh,the main male character called
her this.
I don't want to do that again,Trying to think of all these
different nuances when becauseyou do have people that will
devour, If, if they're going tolike, if they like your writing
in one book, chances are they'reprobably going to like your
writing in all the books, and sothen you have to really think
(15:06):
about that.
If I have somebody reading fiveof my books in a row, you've
got to switch that stuff up.
So you know it's a hit or miss,unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's hard.
That sounds like a spreadsheetjust waiting to happen of like I
use this term or I use thisname and this.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, Just to be able to see see it all at once.
It's super funny.
So in the first book I used onename for a part.
In the second book I didanother, and then the third.
I thought, well, what am Igoing to do now?
And I intermixed it.
I used both.
So I thought, well, I'll try itthis way.
So it's just kind of a liketrial by error.
(15:45):
I don't know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And when you get feedback, like you did, from the
beta readers, how do you decidewhat to apply and what to kind
of go?
Okay, this is just more of apersonal preference.
I'm just going to go with whatI had.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So I look at it two ways.
One of my beta readers I paytwo really professional kind of
beta readers with very differentopinions than mine even and I
do it on purpose.
So on one hand I use herediting skills because she's a
really good editor and the otherone I pay definitely does not
(16:22):
like my books and I love thatabout her.
And I do that because therewill always be people that don't
like certain things.
And if I can tweak littlethings, I'm not going to change
major plot points or majorthings for this, you know,
because she says so.
But what I take out of it isyou know what that could be
offensive to somebody, and so Ican tweak that little thing, I
(16:45):
can make that little change andthat little change.
So I like hearing dissentingcomments because it just it
makes me think of the biggerpicture.
Who I'm willing to offend, whoI'm not willing to offend.
And you know, you can take areally Tessa Bailey, for example
amazing author, like queen ofdirty talk, love, one of my
(17:07):
inspirations, because I I'mreally big into dirty talk and
my steamy scenes and I literallyjust DNF one of her books
yesterday because I didn't likehow she did the dirty talk, and
she always does great dirty talk.
I love it.
I just didn't like thischaracter.
It wasn't my cup of tea, Ididn't.
I didn't like how he talked toher.
I didn't like the things hesaid and I thought, oh, I'm not
(17:28):
going to be able to get throughit, and that's fine.
That doesn't mean I don't likeall the rest of her books.
It's just so you know you'renever going to like it all that
is true.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
That is very true, especially with things that are
so personal, like that,everyone's always going to have
their own preference.
Yes, yes, what advice would yougive to aspiring romance
authors who are kind of juststarting out?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's a fun one to think about, you know.
I think the first thing wouldbe to just do it, stop thinking
about it and just write.
It's not going to be perfectthe first time around, so that
would be number one advice.
My second advice to that wouldbe just do it, but do it right.
Don't put something togetherand throw it out there and have
(18:16):
it be total crap.
If you're going to do ityourself, pay for the editor,
pay for the cover designer, payfor the second editor, pay for
the proofreader.
You know, do those things thatyou would have done if you were
doing it, you know, through apublisher.
First of all, and my last pieceof advice, I really wish, going
(18:39):
back, that I could have donethis because I did the first two
things.
I'm really big on paying to geteverything done professionally,
but I really wish I would havewaited until I had the first
three books done, at least evenmaybe a complete series, because
the time in between and thestress and knowing that, oh,
(18:59):
that's a good point, I don'tknow.
I'm just a very like.
I'm a people pleaser and if Iknow people are waiting for a
story, I want to get it done andI want to put it out there,
whereas if I had this wholeseries done and I was just
putting it out and I was alittle more relaxed during the
process, I think it would be ummore enjoyable throughout
throughout and I'd have moretime to do marketing.
(19:22):
Luckily I have somebody that'shelping me do that.
But you know, I think hugepiece of advice if you know
you're doing a series, at leastget your first three done, three
, if not the whole thing, and ifnot, then maybe get one or two
books done and yeah, it'll justmake you so much more relaxed.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So yeah, I saw something that BK Borson posted
the other day on threads and shesaid that she went from
self-pub to trad-pub and so shewas like, oh my gosh.
I was at first disappointedwith how slow trad-pub moved,
but then she was like I'm nowthree books ahead and she was
like what it did for my mentalhealth was so, so much better
(20:06):
being able to just kind of havethat breather in there and not
have to feel so stressed out,trying to write all the time and
crunch them out.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, yeah, and having somebody have your back
doing all that for you.
I mean I.
There are pros and cons to eachfor sure, and I think that's
leading to the rise of thehybrid author, which is doing
self-publish and traditionalpublishing, which I think is
probably the best way to go, andsomeday maybe I'll be doing
(20:38):
that as well.
But the self-publishing is sucha great thing.
For those like me who I don'thave any kind of history with
writing, it's the first time.
You know well, where did youlearn to write?
I didn't, I just read.
And so to be able to dosomething like that and put it
out there without having to goto all the you know go hundreds
(21:02):
of publishers and editor or yeah, publicists to try to get out
there, it was, it's, it's neatto be able to do this for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Especially when you found a hole in the market, you
could just fill it beforeeveryone else figures it out too
, and you didn't have to try towait and query and all of that
kind of crazy stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes, yes, it is.
So I was talking to anotherreally big author the other day
at a book signing and I wasshocked.
So she has made a really bigname for herself in a, in a
certain genre, I mean a world.
She's definitely knownworldwide and she's been
(21:41):
publishing for probably aboutfive years I want to say four or
five years and her originalbook, her original plan, was to
go traditionally published andshe got picked up by a major
traditional published publishinghouse.
Well, now we're four or fiveyears into her career and her
first traditional published bookis coming out next month.
(22:03):
Meanwhile, all of her worldthat she's created has been
self-published.
It's just like hearing storieslike that is just.
That's why self-publishing isgreat, cause it's like okay, I
wrote the book, it's going out,you wrote the book, it's going
out two or three years from nowor, in her case, four or five.
It's just crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
True, and I'm sure with self-publishing you can
also kind of test things andlearn things that you know it
would have taken so long TriedPub to get the book out, and
then you would have realized,and then you might have already
written the next three books,and then you would have to go
back and adjust.
Versus Self Pub, you get tohear reader feedback it seems
like a little bit easier andthen make adjustments and then
(22:47):
apply that moving forward.
Yeah, yep, definitely.
Are there any themes or tropesthat you're excited to explore
in future books, since theseries is not complete yet?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
So, yes, I'm not going to divulge what the next
one is.
Everybody will see that it's asurprise.
So, and the last book and I wasthinking that I do try to hit
different tropes in every book,you know, I've got the age gap,
workplace romance in book three,I've got the holiday, and then
(23:20):
I love my alpha male.
I will always love my alphamale billionaire trope, which
was book one.
I tend, you know, part ofreading romance to me is to make
the reader feel good and happyand fantasize, like we talked
about.
And so I do tend to stick towealthy main characters, just
(23:42):
because for me I, you know, I'mlike putting myself in these
people's shoes, like, oh,wouldn't that be cool, wouldn't
that be great, oh, this is sucha great story.
And so I do want to write aboutpeople you know, things that
you don't have or things thatyou would you know want.
So I think all of my characterswill always be more fortunate.
(24:03):
I think that's just something Iknow in all of my books will
happen.
My next series is going to besmall town, so I'm going from
Sandy to to.
I'm moving the series over tomy hometown, actually a Bozeman,
so I'm moving it over to smalltown and then I'm going to do
some ex Navy seal andfirefighter in my next one.
(24:23):
So I have the series mapped outand it's interconnected somehow
.
But if I could do anything Iwanted, I would write a book a
month and I would haveparanormal and I would have
vampires and I would havewerewolves, I would have all of
it, because there's so manydifferent genres that I love
that I wish I could just diveinto.
But I've already started downthis path, so I'm going to stick
(24:46):
with it until I run out of this, maybe that next two series,
and then I'll go write somevampire, werewolf stuff, I don't
know, just for that's reallyfun, cause then you're still
sticking within romance, but youget to try something a little
bit different and you have a lotof options.
Yeah, and I think really whatmakes people like books is not
just the genre but the author'svoice.
(25:09):
I've crossed into differentgenres with the same author and
you're still getting that samevoice.
So if you tend to like anauthor, you're going to like.
You know, any, almost anythingthey write.
As long as it's not somethingyou absolutely like, can't stand
.
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, and then, lastly, what's something that
you've learned from yourprevious books that you're going
to carry into what you'recurrently working on now?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just tying everything in.
And one thing I didn't do whenI first started was plot.
So I think now, before I starta book, I plot a character, I do
their personality test, I puttheir whole lives, where they
grew up, what their history is,what their fears are, and I just
plot the characters really goodnow.
(25:55):
And then I now map out.
I think it's really importantto map out your series and I
wish I'd known that earlier,because you can tie in things to
the previous books and lead in.
And so now that I've figuredthat out by the third, I am now
starting to like part of writingthis book that I'm writing now
(26:19):
I'm actually trying to figureout the story of the next one so
that I can put that lead intoit.
So I know where they're comingfrom.
But, yeah, pre-plotting,pre-plotting the whole thing and
editing I will never I feellike I'll never have a routine
for editing, but if I do one day, my life would be much happier.
(26:41):
So I think, yeah, I'm learningevery, every time.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I get better.
Is there anything else youwould like listeners to know
about your books?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You know they are steamy, they're good and I do
try to hit, you know, a littlebit of trope for everybody and I
think, like I said, if you likethe writing style of one,
chances are you're going to likemost of them.
And one thing I think I reallytry to do because of what I like
(27:12):
when I read my steamy scenesare very I like dialogue.
I don't like steamy sceneswhere it's just descriptive and
it says what happened and thisis what happened.
I'll skip over scenes like that.
So if you like a lot of dirtytalking and you like dialogue
during your steamy scenes, Ithink that's something that I
(27:33):
think I've perfected.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
And would you suggest them reading in publishing
order and starting with Pursuitof Innocence, or really they
could skip around, you know ifthere's a trope you absolutely
hate, don't you know?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
you don't have to make yourself miserable.
All of my books are standalone.
Make yourself miserable.
All of my books are standalone.
They have enough backstory andlead in that you can read any of
them without the others.
The nice thing is is whenyou're reading it you can read
them out of order and you canalways go back and say, oh well,
they sounded like reallyinteresting characters.
(28:07):
I don't love the trope, but Iwant to go find out about them.
You can do that.
Nothing in any book gives awayor or gives you know, ruins the
book before it.
So they're all fun and and Iand the rom the holiday pursuit
that I just holiday pursuit thatI just released is kind of was
kind of a little attempt at arom-com.
(28:29):
So I I don't feel like I amsuper funny in my writing, but I
feel like I stepped it up alittle bit with the holiday one.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So I think I did it, and that's it for today.
Thanks for listening to when ILeft Off a bookish podcast.
You can purchase Bethany'snovels through the links in the
show notes and follow her onInstagram and, as always, they
are also available on KindleUnlimited.
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