**GIVEAWAY** Author Interview Lisa Verge Higgins - Random Acts of Kindness

Today I'm so happy to bring to you a great author and wonderful friend Lisa Verge Higgins, stick around while she tells a few secrets and enlightens us about her debut novel in her brand new series just released today!!
She's also generously offered one lucky reader US ONLY a copy of her new release Random Acts of Kindness, details below.

So sit back enjoy the interview, enter the giveaway and then head on over and sign up HERE to Lisa's FB release party which starts later today, she's got great guest authors and prizes too!!!

• ISBN-13: 9781455572854
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 3/25/2014
• Pages: 368

Lisa is offering 1 copy of Random Acts Of Kindness
to one reader US ONLY
use Rafflecopter form below to enter
Good Luck!
Thanks Lisa!!!

Lisa welcome back to The Reading Frenzy.
 

I LOVED Random Acts Of Kindness.
Tell us a bit about the novel.

Thanks, Deb, I’m so thrilled to be here!  When I’m here I always feel like I’m around friends.   *waving*

About Random Acts of Kindness:  Have you ever wanted to step out of your life for say, a week or two?  Just chuck all your troubles and do something irresponsible and impulsive?  I know I have—more than once!—and it was from that sensibility that RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS was born. 

Jenna Hogan kicks everything off when she decides what she needs to do to survive the shock of her unexpected divorce is to find someone who has bigger problems than her own. So she seeks out two friends: Claire, an ex-Buddhist nun who just underwent a mastectomy and is desperate to get out from under the smothering care of her sisters; and Nicole, a Life Coach who can’t even control her own son.  To them she offers a random act of kindness: A three-week road trip to their hometown of Pine Lake, thousands of miles away.  The trip is winding and full of discoveries, but it’s only when they reach Pine Lake that they discover how far  Jenna’s act of kindness has rippled out into the world, changing them—and their friends—in ways they never expected.

What made you pick this title?

I just adore this title because reflects the themes of the book so well—the concept of healing ourselves by reaching out to others, of seeking perspective in other people’s points of view, and the importance of the bonds of friendship.  It also made the naming of the second book in the series very simple:  Book Two will be called SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY.

A series, Wow and Yay! I love series.
Did you know from the start of this project that this would become a series, or did it happen during the writing?

I knew from the start I’d be writing a series around the fictional Adirondack town of Pine Lake, a quirky summer tourist village nestled in the woods with a small nearby college.  I vacation up there frequently, and it’s been fun to dream up a whole new place from the hiker’s lairs and the biker’s bars and the Dirty-Dancing camps and the Great Lodges that I’ve visited.

Is there a set number you have in mind?

I’ve imagined twelve women in this group of high school friends.  Since I usually focus on three characters per book that works out to four books.  But I could always add more.... 

Let’s go back into your wicked past for a moment.
Is there a character from back then that you’d love to bring back?Ah, my wicked past . . . you know about that, do you?  *blushing*   Well, because of the advent of indie publishing, I’ve taken those stories out of storage with an eye toward reissuing them.  I’m having great fun rereading the lusty, adventurous tales I wrote in my misspent youth!    I just re-released part of that backlist, the Celtic Legends Series, two novels and a novella that take place in medieval Ireland and Wales, and include the RITA finalist THE FAERY BRIDE. 

About bringing back a character . . . someday I may write the story of Aileen and Rhys’s son, Liam (from THE FAERY BRIDE), just to see what kind of paranormal gift he’d develop.

Lisa congratulations on the news that your daughter has just signed her own book deal.
I actually asked you about this very thing in our interview in 2012 when we chatted about One Good Friend Deserves Another. Your answer was to Marry Well, but then seriously you said that she should write what’s in her heart.
Did you have a mini-me from the get go or did she get bitten by the writing bug later?

Oh, she’s mini-me, all right, just smarter and better-looking!  The science/writing thing must run strong in our genes because the parallels are startling.  I majored in Chemistry and sold my first book at 24 years of age, and my eldest daughter majored in Physics and just sold her first three science fiction novels—at 22.

Is it okay if I just sit here for a moment and beam with pride?  

Frankly, she was always a writer, and I should have seen it sooner.  A couple of years ago, I found a box of horse figurines under her bed.  She was off to college but she wouldn’t let me donate them or throw them away.  “Mom,” she told me, “those horses have backstories.” 

Fans of yours will know about your Bucket List that started as a result of your last novel, Friendship Makes The Heart Grow Fonder.
So what’s at the very top of your own Bucket List and does it have anything to do with the Red Sox?  :)

Well, I think I already checked off at least one item related to the Red Sox:  Win the World Series in the 21^st century!  Three times!  ;) 

Aww, don’t worry, Deb, the Cardinals will be back next year, I’ve no doubt!

Lisa as a full time novelist do you write on a schedule and where’s your writing lair located?

I literally write in a garret:  My office is in the attic of my home.  It’s closed off and away from everything, so I can pretend I’m at an office far, far away.  This room is the reason why my hubby and I bought the house twenty years ago.

I do write on a regular schedule, whether I’m in the mood or not, that’s just what you have to when you’re on frequent deadlines!  I only have one school-age girl at home now, so I arrange my writing schedule around her school schedule, cello lessons, etc.  Generally I write in the morning and do business in the afternoon, five days a week.  Weekends, too, when I must.

Lisa I’ve had authors who’ve told about the chaos their family goes through when they’re on a deadline. In fact one author described it as a “cerebral odyssey”.
Does your house go on lockdown when you’re on deadline or is it just another day in the lives of the Higgins family?

Having written through pregnancy, nursing, and three toddlers, I’ve learned to plan waaaay ahead of time some extra days in my schedule for those things you can’t plan for—sudden sickness or ailing parents or family emergencies.  If they happen, then I don’t have to panic.  So far we haven’t gone on lockdown . . . but with my next book due in three weeks I just may!    

Come to think of it, I recently spent a long weekend at the most wonderful writer’s colony in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. I could see myself holed up in there, devoid of any house or family responsibilities, finishing those last ten thousand words....  Oh, the temptation!

Lisa thanks for the visit and for the giveaway! Thanks especially for being such a staunch supporter of my blog; the successes are from friends like you.
Good luck with the new novel and the series.
Will there be any signings/events for fans to meet and greet you?

Lots!  You can check them out on my website at www.lisavergehiggins.com.  Also, please join me on Facebook www.facebook.com/lisavergehiggins and Twitter @lisaannverge for up-to-the-minute information.

Thanks so much for having me, Deb!  You’re the best.

Go Cards! (At least until the World Series)  ;)

MEET THE AUTHOR:

While studying for her Ph.D. in chemistry, Lisa Verge Higgins wrote and sold her first novel. Now an author of fifteen books, this opera-loving mother of three has been twice named to Barnes & Noble's General Fiction Forum for their top twenty novels of the year. Her stories about women's lives and women's friendships have been described by reviewers as "joyous, uplifting life lessons" that "inspire us to focus on what's really important in our lives." When not writing stories, Lisa works as a reviewer for The New York Journal of Books. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three teenage daughters, who never fail to make life interesting.

CONNECT WITH LISA - WEBSITE - FACEBOOK 

Lisa's other novels

My review courtesy RT Reviews Magazine

Random Acts Of Kindness by Lisa Verge Higgins
4.5 stars **TOP PICK**

Three high school friends who haven’t laid eyes on each other in a multitude of years, all at a precipice in their lives, suddenly find themselves car-mates on a cross-country road trip.
Jenna; the shy misfit whose world is quietly falling apart, Claire; the bohemian whose search for answers has her asking more questions, and Nicole; the life coach whose own life is chaotically spinning of control.
They’re attempting to return where some say it’s impossible to go; back home again.

Higgins page-turning series debut further confirms her master storyteller status. Her narrative beautifully chronicles the friendships and adventures with a heady mix of belly-laughter, tears and empathy giving a fly-on-the-wall view of her people, places, emotions and things, her fusion of co-stars and her socially opposite stars are picture perfectly portrayed in all their glories plus she’ll give readers a glimpse of future tales. (April 2014, Grand Central Publishing, 368 pp., $15.00) Debbie Haupt

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