Author Interview with Rachel Sharpe

Today I have author, Rachel Sharpe on Carly’s View. Rachel is the author of the Jordan James, PI series from Soul Mate Publishing. Thank you for joining me, Rachel.

CJ: Tell us a little about yourself.

RS: I was born to Baby Boomers during the Reagan era when the Cold War was still…cold. I’m married to a great guy who can put up with the eccentricities of an author and have an adorable son who gives me a different perspective on life.

CJ: Tell us about your road to publication. 

RS: I’ve always wanted to write. Being a second generation English major, that comes as a shock to no one. While it’s always been a goal, I didn’t think it would actually happen. “Cold Ambition,” book one of the Jordan James, PI series, took about four months to write, but over two years to get published. After countless rejection emails, I finally got a publishing contract and it was from Soul Mate Publishing.

CJ: What advice would you give to a new author?

RS: Keep writing and don’t get discouraged if you get rejected. Take it as a challenge. If they offer any suggestions, use them. It can’t hurt. And read, read, read. If you don’t keep reading, you can’t improve in your writing.

CJ: How did the idea for the Jordan James series come about?

RS: I was born and raised just outside of New Orleans, but my dad’s family is from New England. I absolutely love the area. I knew whatever I wrote I wanted to set there, but I wasn’t sure of a plot. I had a childhood dream of becoming a private investigator thanks to the show, Magnum, PI, that I watched religiously with my dad. I wouldn’t say I had an epiphany or anything and from it came this series – the two loves just kind of meshed and Jordan James was born.

CJ: Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?

RS: Besides writing and reading, I like to work out and travel. I love exploring new places and seeing familiar places in a different light. Even your hometown can be an adventure if you look at it from a different perspective.

CJ: Where do you see yourself in five years?

RS: Hopefully still writing. Whether it’s continuing Jordan James or starting a new series, I hope that I’m still writing and able to bring readers the same joy I experience in writing my stories.

CJ: What is your favorite character from any book you have read and why?

RS: Dean Koontz’ Odd Thomas comes to mind. He’s an unlikely hero who takes a supernatural affliction most would consider a curse and uses it to help others. Anyone with that kind of positive spirit is worth favoring.

CJ: Who are some of your favorite authors?

RS: Dean Koontz and James Patterson. I also really enjoy Erica Spindler, another New Orleans author I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know.

CJ: Have you ever had a brush with fame? (met an actor/actress, author, politician) If so, who was it?

RS: I got to get a picture taken with Jay Leno before the taping of one of his last episodes of the Tonight Show back in 2013. Waiting in line before the show, I struck up a conversation with a woman from London whose husband had been transferred to L.A. and she was a regular audience member. She told me before the show started to ask him for a picture. I did and I got to go on stage and talk to him for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.

CJ: If you could have dinner with anybody in the world, who would it be and why?

RS: Ellen Degeneres or the late Joan Rivers. They’re both hilarious. Anytime with either of them would be well spent.

COLD AMBITION

"It was my life-long dream to become a private eye. Little did I know that with my very first case, that dream would become a life-threatening nightmare..."

When Jordan James decided to embark on a career as a private investigator, she never could have imagined that a chance encounter would lead to her staring down the barrel of a gun on the roof’s edge of a high-rise building. As she begins to investigate her first case, the puzzling murder of a prominent businessman that has left Boston’s finest mystified for more than two decades, she finds herself suddenly immersed in a treacherous underworld brimming with betrayal, raw greed, and political subterfuge of international proportions. In the midst of this, she discovers she is falling for her mysterious client despite the hints of his dark past. Can this feisty Southern girl with a penchant for trouble solve this baffling case or is she doomed to become another tragic chapter in an international conspiracy?

"COLD AMBITION" Available Now on Amazon! http://www.amzn.com/B00L2OLQPG/

LOST DISTINCTION

“It all started with a favor…”

When private investigator Jordan James agreed to search for the missing son of a U.S. Ambassador, she didn’t realize she was walking into a case one hundred years in the making. The deeper she delves into this unusual assignment, the more shocking, and the more dangerous, it becomes. With time running out and lives at stake, Jordan must race to identify the culprit of an elaborate plot while also uncovering a far more personal truth too intimate to ignore...

"LOST DISTINCTION" Available Now on Amazon! http://www.amzn.com/B00Q5OGCS4

COMING SOON FROM SOUL MATE PUBLISHING:

RETRIBUTION 

What happens when Jordan joins her best friend on location in Colorado for filming an episode of America's favorite primetime series?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Rachel Sharpe is the author of Cold Ambition and Lost Distinction, the first novels in the Jordan James, PI series. Although born and raised in the South, "Yankee" relatives first led Rachel to historic New England, which she has come to consider her second home and is the setting for the series. 

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in English, Rachel began dedicating her free time to her childhood passion, writing, and in the fall of 2013, she signed with Soul Mate Publishing. An active member of Sisters In Crime, Rachel currently resides with her husband in the Greater New Orleans area.