Interview: Laura Trentham author of When The Stars Come Out

1. Who inspires your books?

Unlike some authors, I’m not inspired by actors or anyone in particular when I write. I don’t keep a “vision board” or a Pinterest board of character inspirations. I don’t want to taint the image the reader has drawn of my characters in their head as they read. It’s so disappointing to watch a movie of a book you’ve read and loved and the actors bear no resemblance to how you pictured the characters. It sounds a little tutti-frutti, but to me, the characters I write are as real as the people I interact with on a day-to-day basis. They just so happen to reside in my brain. Does that mean I need therapy? Lol.
So, it’s less of a who than a what. And, I get inspiration for plots all the time. Listening to news stories or music or even from commercials. The book I’m working on now was 100% inspired from a thirty second car commercial and asking “what happens next?”

2. How did you come up with the Cottonbloom series?

The original trilogy was a request from my publisher (St. Martin’s Press) for a “summer series.” They had the release dates already set; they just needed the books! I got out my old fashioned paper atlas and flipped through it looking for a setting. The east-west running border between Louisiana and Mississippi caught my eye, and the idea of competing summer festivals across a town split over the state line snapped into my head within seconds. I knew even before I pitched it to my editor, it was a winner. Sometimes writing feels like bleeding on the page and sometimes it’s pure magic.
Fun fact: The town was originally called Cottonwood, but the cover designer misheard the name and wrote Cottonbloom on the cover art. My editor and I decided we liked Cottonbloom better, and I changed the town name after I had written the first book!

3. Do you have any upcoming books coming out?

Set the Night On Fire, Book 6, releases July 31st. Later this year, I will release Book 4 in my Spies and Lovers Regency romance series. In 2019, I will have two military themed Women’s Fiction/romances release from St. Martin’s Press.