Hello again, everyone! The weather has been surprisingly fall-like in my neck of the woods, so I’m ALL IN with fall. Decorations, football, pumpkin-flavored baked goods…although I have to say, I am not a pumpkin spice latte person. What about you all? Is it still summer where you live, or are you starting to experience the wondrousness that is autumn?
Today’s guest is the fabulous Alexis A. Goring, whose latest contemporary romance, Love in Pictures, is available now! Here’s the blurb:
Wedding photographer Michelle Hadley has a passion for diversity and believes that love comes in all colors. So, she’s working hard to convince editors to feature her clients’ images on the covers of the mainstream bridal and wedding magazines.
Despite having a career that focuses on celebrating forever love, Michelle has never actually been in a romantic relationship, and she’s not looking for love, until she meets the one man she cannot forget.
Since his fiancée broke his heart, Logan Emerson’s focus has been on his career. He’s won awards for his work as a print journalist and dreams of greater success on television as a broadcast journalist. But his personal struggle presents many challenges that might prevent his dreams from coming true.
Michelle doesn’t date often, and since his heartbreak, Logan has shied away from the dating scene. But something about Michelle awakens Logan’s desire to love again.
Welcome to the blog, Alexis! Thanks for being here!
Thank you so much for having me!
Which character in Love in Pictures was easiest for you to write, and why? Which one presented the greatest challenge, and why?
They were all easy to write. Lol. Logan was a bit of a challenge only because I needed to really do my homework in researching his stuttering problem and the methods of speech-language pathology that help him cope.
My husband and I are different races, so I love seeing interracial couples represented in fiction! What challenges did this premise present for you as a writer?
There weren’t any major challenges apart from finding the balance between being real about race-related issues that happen in the real world and trying to not offend anyone through how my characters deal with injustice. Honestly, I watered down the race related issues in my book. Real-world realities that affect people of color can be a lot worse and oftentimes are not easily resolved or resolved at all. I didn’t want to make this story a heavy, depressing read. But I also wanted to do justice to the race-related issues that many people of color—especially interracial couples—face in the real world.
What do you hope your readers take away from Love in Pictures?
I hope that my readers take away several lessons from this fiction but true-to-life story:
Lesson #1: We all deserve to be treated with genuine kindness, regardless of our different races and physical features.
Lesson #2: Race related injustices are real and still take place today in 2018. So we should again, try to be kind to everyone because we’re all dealing with an issue, race-related or not.
Lesson #3: True love should always win! Fight for it.
Looking back on your journey to publication, what event or connection that may have seemed insignificant at the time turned out to be enormously important?
No event in my life or connection made has ever seemed insignificant to me because everything and everyone has a purpose. But one of my online writer friends and I connected at the first writers conference that I attended and years later, that connection led me to working with my publisher who gave me my first writing contract in January 2017. It was a blessing from God! Looking back, I know that He orchestrated those connections and opened the door for me to become a traditionally published author. God is good!
What are you working on now?
I’m working on another standalone story that focuses on a bakery in the heart of a major city, and the characters that love it. The plot involves a formerly fat pastry chef who is now every woman’s dream catch. But he cannot commit because his heart is still set the one girl from high school who he loved form afar. What he doesn’t know is that she grew up to be a food writer and works for a magazine that’s located down the street from his bakery!
That sounds great, especially the bakery part! I can’t wait to drool over/read it!
What do you do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing, I’m making/eating good food, watching movies, spending time with loved ones and thinking about my next book!
If you could have coffee/tea/gratuitous amounts of carbs with any author(s), living or dead, who would you choose? What would you discuss?
I’d love to visit Vanessa Riley at one of her famous dinner parties because she has a Regency kitchen and cooks food that looks like it tastes so good (as seen on her Facebook posts)! Either before the guests arrive or after they leave, I’d like to talk about food recipes and fiction stories because not only can she make delicious food like a seasoned chef/baker, she can write. I’m not usually a fan of Regency Romance stories but if Vanessa Riley wrote it, I’ll read it because her writing is that good!
Meet Alexis
Alexis A. Goring is a passionate writer with a degree in Print Journalism and an MFA in Creative Writing. She loves the art of storytelling and hopes that her stories will connect readers with the enduring, forever love of Jesus Christ. She loves to connect with readers on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, her website, or at the “God Is Love” blog.