Heather Slade - Romance With Heat and Heart

Posted on 29th of July, 2017 by Naomi Bolton

Heather Slade is an Amazon best-selling author whose books are filled with all the things she likes: music, wine, skiing, families, artists, and cowboys. Her book, The Promise, the first in the Butler Ranch series, is no exception. As our Author of the Day, Slade tells us all about her writing habits, how her first book came to her and reveals what we can expect from her pen next.

Please give us a short introduction to what The Promise is about?

Can fulfilling a promise to his dead brother bring love into Brodie Butler’s life again?

When Butler Ranch winery manager Brodie Butler’s brother is killed in action in Afghanistan, his mother enlists him to fulfill a promise she made to her older son. She needs him to find Peyton Wolf, his brother’s lover, and deliver a sealed box to her.

Brodie expects to deliver the news and the box to Peyton then return home to deal with his own grief. But instead of closing a chapter in his late brother’s life, Brodie opens a new one in his own when he meets a woman he could envision himself being with forever.

But would Peyton ever be able to love him like she loved his brother? And could he deal with his guilty conscience for wanting the woman his brother had intended to have as his wife?

Tell us a bit about your journey as an author - how did you become an Amazon best seller?

Prior to writing my first book, I was an editor and designer for a small press that mainly published non-fiction. On the plane ride back to Colorado after visiting my hometown for my fiftieth birthday, a story came to me. I got off the plane and told my husband I was going to spend the next few weeks writing a book. And I did. And then I wrote eight more.

What inspired you to write the Promise?

The Promise is the first book in the Butler Ranch series, set in the Paso Robles wine region on the Central Coast of California. I’d planned to write the series for a couple years, but it lingered as an idea. And then I went to the grocery store and saw someone who looked hauntingly familiar . . . I came home and wrote and wrote. The story flowed out of me faster than I could type—an author’s dream, really, when writing is magic. That’s how this book was for me.

How do the books in the Butler Ranch series tie in together?

There are three single brothers and one single sister in the Butler family, and each is the hero or heroine of their own book. The family members show up in every book in the series.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I taught social decorum at the United States Air Force Academy, and am also a second-tier Executive Sommelier.

Talk to us a bit about your writing habits. Do you write early in the morning, or through the night? Pen or laptop?

I love to write early in the morning, and then all day if I can get a good start on it. I don’t write much at night. I write on my laptop so I can move around throughout the day. We have amazing views from our house in Colorado. I like to take advantage of all of them. My family spent last week in a house right on the water in Grand Lake. I wrote every day inspired by that amazing view.

Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?

A good day of writing for me would be more than 3,000 words. I aim for 5,000.

What are the top three things you think every good romance book should have?

Heat and heart. Not just steamy love scenes, although those are important, but also a storyline that warms you heart. And third, characters who are developed well enough that the reader feels as though they know them, and understand why they fell in love.