A while ago I asked author Fran Fisher to participate in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop.  She had some delays due to family emergencies, but she’s here now to tell us about her most recent book, Harbor Breeze!

1: What is the title of your latest book?

My latest book is Harbor Breeze, the second book in the Bayou Cove Series.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

My husband and I live on a quiet little bayou harbor on the Gulf Coast. On most afternoons, our neighbors and passing boaters can find us sitting outside watching the activity on the harbor. Before Hurricane Katrina, there was a two story building directly across the harbor with a neighborhood store on the bottom floor and an apartment on the second.

We were talking one afternoon about how much fun it would be if there had been a nice bar and grill where the store was located.  That’s all it took for my imagination to take off. Hence, Captain Jack’s Bar and Grill was formed in my mind with all the imaginary characters that frequent it.

3: What genre does your book come under?

Harbor Breeze is a stand-alone contemporary romance.

4. What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

For the hero Ryan Browden, I see Matthew McConaughey but with darker hair and for my blond-hair heroine, Reese Witherspoon.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Annie Briggs comes home to Bayou Cove to put the past behind her, but with her ex-husband stalking her and unexplainable events happening around the harbor, she can’t risk resurrecting a long-dead romance—but now that Ryan Browden is back in town, his lure is impossible to resist.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

It’s an Indie that has gone through many readings with extensive copy-editing.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first draft took about seven months, but after a series of editing, I decided the book needed something. I put the story aside while I wrote and sold other stories. When I returned to this one, it was easy to rewrite the draft.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

When I think about the Bayou Cove Series, I can see similarities to some of Barbara Freethy’s books, not so much in the stories themselves, but in the themes, the sense of place, and the characterization.

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As I said earlier, I live on the harbor that inspired this story, but because I have lived on the Gulf Coast all of my life, most of my books use the waterways and the islands as my setting.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The themes in Harbor Breeze deal with redemption and forgiveness, family strife and, of course, finding love. Captain Jack’s Bar and Grill, the rundown restaurant on the bayou harbor, gives Annie and Ryan a place to work through their many problems, but more importantly helps them find a sense of belonging in a small community that both of them left behind.

The book incorporates a little mystery, a lot of love, and nice dose of local color.   Life in the small community of Bayou Cove moves in slow, rhythmic circles, but beneath the idyllic setting, the men and women of the coastal community face day-to-day turmoil as they search for love and happiness, and in Harbor Breeze, there’s lots of day-to-day turmoil.

The series includes Book I, Threads of Steel, and Book III, Cooling Waters, which will be released in March 2013.  Are all stand-alone books set in the fictional Gulf Coast town of Bayou Cove.

Buy Harbor Breeze:

Trade Paperback: http://amzn.com/1481030752

Kindle: http://amzn.com/B00AP7VMFA

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harbor-breeze-fran-fisher/1113982796?ean=2940016104423

Kobo: http:// http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Harbor-Breeze/book-JDaX-n1870GNMCJk9io_4A/page1.html?s=oSfZ1XscgUWlFH8y0fVQcQ&r=1

Visit Fran Fisher at www.FranFisherAuthor.com or for sweeter romances with no adult content, visit her at www.FranMcNabb.com