Sophia Johnson Interview

Please welcome Sophia Johnson to my site. Sophia is a super sweet lady who writes awesome medievals. She will be a guest blogger here on Wednesday so get those questions and comments ready!

Without further ado....Meet Sophia!


Welcome to Deb's Interview with Sophia Johnson!

Sophia, Welcome to the Bookstore! We’re happy you could take time out and chat with us.

Thank you for asking me to join you today.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, family, pets, etc.

Once upon a time, I was born. In Key West, of all places. Truly. Don’t believe my sister, because she always tried to convince everyone I was hatched. Dad didn’t help when he called me his “little ostrich egg.” I had freckles. We moved to Panama when I was six months old. It was a wonderful place to live with lush jungles, lots of parrots, wild life and cute kinkajous. We also had not-so-charming snakes, crocodiles, tarantulas and bats. I survived—with a horrid fear of spiders—to return to Key West seven years later.

Key West was nothing like it is now. No way could my siblings (the eldest is my brother, followed by two sisters – I was the brat) or I get into trouble. Mom and Dad would hear if we misbehaved before we got home. We moved to Miami when I was a teen, and I met my sweet Gil. We have two wonderful daughters and four of the sweetest grandchildren in the world. Gil and I are retired and live in the rolling hills of north-central Florida. Two small dogs keep us company. The eldest (4 years old) is Jamie, a beautiful long-coat black and white Chihuahua. The neighborhood calls him The Terrorist. He needs sessions with the Dog Whisperer. We also have a beautiful sable and white Papillon. Konner is five months now. Jamie’s been on the contest page of my website, and I’m adding Konner this month.

For our readers unfamiliar with your work, tell us what kind of books you write.
I love writing medieval romances set in Scotland and England. My heroes are always Alpha, and the women in their lives are more than their equal. No silly heroines for me. Nuh uh! If you believe women should be subservient or should defer to men then don’t read anything I write. I put myself in the women’s shoes and react the way I would expect if I was suddenly back in medieval times.
Women then couldn’t be the weak nothings we thought they were. Take Queen Bodicea of Ancient Britain as an example. Read about her and her daughters, and you’ll see what I mean. How could women have been weak and survived all the hardships they went through. Some women held down the castle while their husbands were away fighting. And don’t forget to look at the Queens of England and of other countries.

Unfortunately, America has never had a woman president. Sissy us.

Everything I have ever read about you, including reviews talks about how rich your books are in history and that they are just wonderful reads! That has to make you feel good to know others think so well of your books.

I write what I call books with wallpaper history. The history is the background of the time; the stories are character-driven (with strong plots) sensual romances, medieval style.

Oh, I more than feel good, when others think well of my books. I love it when a reviewer gets the story, understands the underlying emotions of the characters and why they do something. I get a kick out of remembering that my wonderful critique partner Delle hated Rolf in Risk Everything. She sent notes on the ms saying, “This guy’s a jerk!” I grinned; I crowed! I wanted that reaction from a reader, because he was being a medieval jerk. That made his changing so much more fun.

Wait until I get Masked Desires published and see what I do to a reclusive monk. *heh, heh* I had such fun! By the last page, everything about that poor man changed after what I made him do.

How did you get started in your writing career? Was this something you have always wanted to do or did it just evolve over time?

I have loved reading since I was five. Mom and Dad had a library room with books and a piano leading from the parlor through an archway. We used to sit on the floor surrounded by encyclopedias. That was a wonderful set. I can still smell them. They had light rose covers, and each book had a beautifully illustrated story or fairy tale in the very beginning of the volume. You know, if they came out with something like that now, maybe our children would be better readers. It sure started all of us!

Rats. I’m rambling. I started writing when my daughter and son-in-law came to spend the Christmas holiday one year. When they arrived, my son-in-law carried in three or four big boxes and set them down at my feet saying, “Merry Christmas, Mom. Now we want you to stop reading all those books and start writing your own.”

Well, now, I couldn’t disappoint them, could I? After New Years, I started researching the Norman Conquest and I was hooked.

Are you a full time writer now? What kind of jobs have you had before pursuing your writing career? Did you have a best or worst job?

Yes, I write full time. I often feel it’s more than full time, because it’s Monday through Sunday. I’m not writing all that time, because the other things that go along with being an author interfere. Web site updating, contests, advertising, answering fan mail, fighting with the computer and cursing the danged thing when it acts up.

I was an executive secretary when I was a young woman, then after we had our girls, I went back to school and went into computer programming. I became a Systems Analyst for a major institution. I wrote systems for mainframe computers, and I loved every minute of it.

I know you are a fairly new published author but you definitely have a following with your wonderful medieval books. How many books do you have out now? Does this include your newest release ALWAYS MINE?

Thank you for calling them wonderful. The stories that are out are part of the Blackthorn Castle trilogy. Always Mine actually began the trilogy, Risk Everything ended it, and yet to be renamed Mereck’s Bride is the middle story.

You were one of the new Zebra Debut authors with your first book, RISK EVERYTHING. Tell us about your road to publication. How long did it take you to be published and how did you become one of the Zebra Debut authors?

When I joined RWA in 2000, I had been writing about a year. I was a Golden Heart finalist in 2002 and seriously started seeking a publisher then. Two years later, I sent Lord of Vengeance to Kensington and two other publishing houses. Hilary Sares called me about two weeks later and offered a contract. I grabbed it, of course, and I am forever grateful that she liked my writing. She was a great editor to work with, very good for a writer’s morale and self-esteem.
By the way, Lord of Vengeance became Risk Everything.

I understand that you love to travel and research the books you write. This time period has always fascinated me and I would love to go tour a castle. How much research do you do for each book and approximately how long does it take you for each book? Have you always been drawn to this time period? Will all your books be medievals or do you have other time periods you want to write about?

I’ve always been drawn to the medieval time period, since those early encyclopedias. I do love to travel, and I’ve spent a lot of time tromping over castle ruins in England, Scotland and Wales. I feel the stones, rub my hands all over the old walls and talk to them. I imagine the people who touched that same spot all those many years ago, and they talk to me. I imagine what those walls have seen. Lydia in Always Mine was doing all I have done when visiting ruins. I don’t have the same empathy for castles of recent centuries, the ones that are still intact and have people living in them or caring for them. They’re too young to have the personality of the people I dream about.

For me to write a tale of love through the ages and do it well, it takes at least eight months. It takes a lot of time to find the right names for characters, sometimes a week before I’m satisfied. I search through medieval names websites, and I mean search. In Risk Everything, the man’s name is Rolf MacDhaidh. Well, someone read the synopsis and snorted. He thought I should have used Ralph.

Tell us about RISK EVERYTHING and your newest release, ALWAYS MINE. I believe they are connected books. Please tell about them and how they are related. Will there be more in this series?

I think I’ve answered this a little. The Scottish characters, Meghan and Damron, are cousins living at Blackthorn Castle where he is Laird. The third book is about Mereck, Damron’s bastard half-brother born just minutes after him. I love Mereck. He’s such a sexy, wonderful man. His story has more humor than the other two books. Mereck can hear people’s thoughts, by the way. Lynette of Wycliff had better watch what she’s thinking around this guy!

How do you keep up with all the pertinent details of your characters and storylines, especially with a series? Your books are so wonderfully rich in detail and make the reader feel like they are right there in medieval times, it must be a huge undertaking to remember all that detail! Do you use a log, notes or perhaps a computer program to help you keep up with all this wonderful information?

I think of my characters first, hunt for pictures in magazines and then make a bulletin board with them. I use 5 X 8 cards and put their name, age, color of hair, eyes and describe their faces, their scents, any oddities on them. I also put their horse or animals names, their banners, all personal info so I can grab a card and see if he has brown or blue or green eyes. I also do a personality sketch using 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. I type and print their character study and keep it with the card on the person.

Your characters are so strong and definitely kick a**. I love reading how they interact and butt heads with each other. Is this something you originally planned or did it just the characters develop this way while you were writing? Have they ever surprised you and taken off in another direction than you planned for them to go? If so, what does this do to the story?

I’m so glad you like the strong women. I’ve had two people write that they didn’t like their being so independent and how they fought (I call it standing up to) the hero. I like to think any strong woman who valued herself would react that way to a medieval man and how he tried to treat women.

Yes, I plan them as being women to be reckoned with, but they do develop their full personalities while I’m writing. Oh my, they surprise me all the time. I wrote one beautiful woman into the monk’s story and planned to kill her off toward the end. Well, the blasted woman startled the heck out of me. She wasn’t supposed to be nice, but she went and did something so totally surprising that I didn’t have the heart to kill her. So, she gets her own story in the new Raptor Castle series.

As for the men, I often wanted to whap Rolf alongside his head, kick Damron’s shins and sneak up and pinch Mereck’s wonderful, er, arse.

Are you a strict plotter and outliner or are you more relaxed in your writing style?

I HATE to outline a story and try not to if I can help it. It totally ruins the writing for me. I get the plot formed in my mind and start writing. I guess I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer. I like the surprises the characters give me. I can hear the women giggling and the men growling in the background when they rebel and take off on a tangent. I let them tell me, else they’ll be silent and I can’t find the words to put down. The page would be blank, that terrible white space that makes me panic.

How long goes it take you to write a book? Does this include revisions? Approximately how long does it take for you to see it on the store shelves after you turn it in? Is it different with each book?

Like I mentioned, I need anywhere from eight to ten months before I feel confident to send it out. Risk Everything took eleven months from the time Kensington bought it to the publication date. Then there was thirteen months between it and Always Mine. Mereck’s story is slated to come out fourteen months afterward in December of 2007.

What was your reaction to seeing your first book on the store shelves? I know I would have been over the moon!

It’s a wonderful feeling, but kind of unreal? I’m an awful introvert. I’d love to be bold enough to pick my book up off a shelf, hold it high in the air and holler, “Hey, you! People! This is MY book. Come buy it. You’ll really love the sexy stuff!”

What else are you working on? Any more to the current series or have you started something totally new? Any idea when we can look forward to another book by you? Hope it’s soon! They are definitely worth waiting for!

I’ve started a new series that isn’t under contract yet. Masked Desires, a monk’s story, begins the Raptor Castle tales. I’m planning on four books, starting with Masked Desires then Beloved Sacrifice, Honor Bound and Dreams Fulfilled. Four major characters demand their stories to be told, and I’m trying to accommodate them. Maybe then they’ll let me sleep.

What do you do for fun? Any special treats or hobbies you like to indulge in after a hard day?

Now and then we take a day to browse around antique shops with Gil, my brother and his wife. Sometimes we go into Ocala for dinner with them, or out to breakfast with friends. My husband takes charge of food, else we’d starve to death. I forget to eat unless he cooks and calls me to dinner. Indulge? I love peanut butter cups, but I’ll only allow myself one. Those things are habit forming. If I’m depressed, I’ll forget my control and grab two or three.

Give us an example of a typical day in your life. Do you try to keep to a specific writing schedule or number of pages written per day?

We get up usually around 6:30, not because I want to, but Gil’s golf times are usually early. If he’s not playing, he’s helping to build houses with Habit for Humanity and has to be there early. He’s free Wednesday and Sunday, so we sleep until 8:00. Yippee! Uh, that’s if the dogs let us..

MWF I go to Curves for 45 minutes, and I’m usually in here by 9:30 or 10:00. I try to at least write five pages a day once I start a ms. It all depends, though. Lately, everything seems to get in the way.

If you had one piece of advice to give to a writer just starting out, what would it be?

If you think it’s going to be easy, forget it. It isn’t, but don’t be discouraged. Anything worth having is worth fighting for. So be stubborn. I have a quote on the bottom of my terminal. Want to know what it is? Too bad if you don’t. I’m going to tell you anyway.

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through by Rosalyn Carter. I should have it tattooed to my forehead.

Sophia, thanks so much for stopping by to chat with us. It’s really been fun! Continued good luck in your writing career!

The fun’s been all mine. Thanks for letting me talk my head off.


You can learn more about Sophia Johnson and her wonderful books at her website. http://www.sophiajohnson.com

Be sure to stop in tonight and tomorrow while Sophia guest blogs with us! We love your comments.

I'll be giving away a goodie bag to one winner of the people to blog with us. What are you waiting for? Invite your friends and have fun!