A Quick Chat with River Ames

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

As is unfortunately common with a lot of people, I grew up in a broken home. I was the oldest of three children and had the responsibility of making sure they had clean clothes to wear to school, food to eat, and provided with adult supervision at night.

I assumed these responsibilities at 10 years of age. Looking back, it breaks my heart to realize how inadequate I was for the job. Being poor and regularly evicted from the places we rented, we moved around a lot.

I went to 27 different elementary schools. One of them for only three days before we moved somewhere else. I think that’s where my passion for writing began. I was always the new girl. I’d get the tour the first day and try to remember where my class was, who my teacher was, and where the lavatories were located.

I spent a lot of time watching the other kids instead of interacting with them. I think being a “watcher” was a way of being safe. Since I was on the outside, looking in, I think it was a natural step for me to assume a role of observer. And, isn’t that what a writer is, or does? Observes.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?

All of them! I think my four contemporary romances: To Each His Own, Bachelor in the Boondocks, Every Good Deed, and Detour to Paradise would make terrific Hallmark movies. My western novels are just begging for cinematic life. Gideon’s Justice, Youngblood’s Rules, and McKenzie’s Law (a western trilogy) are set in the Colorado Territory. That’s some might beautiful country for a backdrop. When my heroes and heroines spar with each other, their dialogue sizzles. My heroines are not shy about expressing their grievances. Nor, are my heroes reticent about speaking the hard truths they think the heroines need to hear (all for their own good, of course).

Which of your books most resembles your life?

Every Good Deed tells the story of Erin Clay who married while still in college. The man who won her heart was sophisticated, wealthy, and charming. When she becomes widowed, Erin learns some things about her late-husband’s true character that shatter any remaining affection she might have have felt toward him.

When an old friend, Linc Severance, shows up, Erin doesn’t trust her judgment to recognize real love and take the risk of opening herself up to possible disappointment. After all, she has a young son to raise and safeguard. The question for Erin is, can she believe enough in herself, in the woman she’s become, to give her heart again.

For Linc, who’s always secretly yearned for Erin, can he give himself permission to claim the woman he’s loved from the first moment he saw her?

About Bachelor in the Boondocks

Bachelor in the Boondocks by River Ames
Genre: Clean Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Jared Sherman has been coerced into spending six months of his life in the small Missouri town of Green River. His uncle wants to merge their businesses, but before the older man will talk business, he’s made it a pre-condition of the agreement that his nephew move to Green River.

Jared, a big city sophisticate, is having trouble wrapping his mind around country living. He feels as if he’s traded in his life in the fast line for a sojourn straight out of a rerun of the “Andy Griffith” show.

Except, Jared doesn’t remember an episode that had Sheriff Andy standing in the buff with only a flimsy pair of frilly curtains preserving what’s left of his dignity while being surrounded by the broken glass of his bedroom window.
Cue Amelia Greene.

“Call 911, and I’ll break your arm.”

She can understand him not wanting anyone else to see him in this bizarre situation, but his tone is unacceptable.

Being the good neighbor that she is, and because it was her younger brother whose baseball smashed through Jared’s window, Amelia helps Jared free himself from the shards of glass essentially holding him hostage.

Jared Sherman is a man who’s counting the hours until he can escape the confines of country living. Another countdown is underway, however.
He’s counting down the next time he can steal another sweet kiss from a woman who’s so devious he can’t figure out how she manages to be so darned seductive.

Maybe by wearing her flaming hair in a bun, going about in long-sleeve blouses, and forgoing expensive perfumes, she’s discovered a sure-fired way to entice even the most dyed-in-the-wool bachelor.

Who would have ever thought the natural look could inflame a man’s desires?

Good grief, she was literally the girl next door.

But, he was a man who had no intention of living in the boondocks, minus the docks.

Add to your Goodreads shelf.

Purchase on Amazon.