I had the pleasure of interviewing Roxanne Snopek the other day. Her new book, Resisting The Rancher, just came out today! Below you will find both a description of the book and Roxanne’s answers to my curious questions.

Country veterinarian Celia Gamble is in trouble. A misunderstanding from her past is rearing its ugly head and the only person she can turn to is Jonah Clarke—her family’s lawyer and, as it turns out, her brother Zach’s best friend and her childhood crush. She always wanted Jonah to see her as a bona fide woman, but as a woman who’s being wrongfully blackmailed for seducing a married man? Not on her life.

He left ranching long ago… but still misses it.

A Writer’s Sketchbook: What was your inspiration writing Resisting the Rancher?

She’s a veterinarian, but she’ll always be a rancher, first.

Roxanne Snopek: When I introduced Celia Granger in His Reluctant Rancher, readers HATED her. But that’s only because they didn’t know her! So I knew then that she had to have her own story. And Jonah, of course, is… … well, he’s Jonah.

AWS: What was your favorite part of writing it?

R: I found the banter between the two of them so much fun! It came out so naturally, I had to type fast to keep up with them!

AWS: Family is certainly an important theme in your books. How important to you is family in real life?

R: Put it this way, if something’s wrong in my family, nothing else in my world is right. Nothing else matters.

AWS: In the book, Celia receives a makeover. What is your advice for anyone looking to transform into a woman themselves?

R: Get a proper bra fitting! And for goodness sake, stand up tall. Oh, and like Celia’s sister-in-law Desiree tells her, there’s nothing like a good haircut to make you feel like a queen!

AWS: Resisting the Rancher is number four in a series of books, but they can all stand alone. When you go to start a new book in this series, does it feel like you’re still writing in the same world, or do you feel like they are all separate because of the focus on different characters?

R: You know how one person can go to Vegas and love people-watching, while another person is freaked out by the crowds? Same world, different experiences. I’ve really grown to feel at home in this world of Lutherton, but the focus shifts to a different couple each time. Every character has their own particular world-within-the-world that shines a different light on everyone and everything around them.

AWS: Do you have any advice for people looking to write series like this themselves?

R: Three things:
1) Advance planning. You can seed cool things into your early books if you know what’s coming.
2) Build a time-line. With seasons and everything. Or you could end up with a baby that’s born before conception. (A completely hypothetical scenario!)
3) Create a series bible. I’ve had too many mental breakdowns searching within all my books for little details that I *should have* written down all in one place, right from the start. Note to self: remember to do this next time!!

Thanks for having me here today, Lindsay! It was great chatting with you!