Stephanie, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! Please tell us about Headlines, Deadlines, and Lies.

Headlines, Deadlines, and Lies by Stephanie LaVigne

Genre Cozy Mystery / Sweet Romance

Book heat level (based on movie ratings): PG-13

If you like quirky amateur sleuth heroines, intriguing puzzles, and slow-burn romance, then you’ll love Headlines, Deadlines & Lies! A story about friendship, family, and finding your passion, Stephanie Lavigne’s newest book is a genealogical mystery set in a charming beach town along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Piper Harrington’s life is a blur. Between raising two kids alone and scrambling to keep up at work, she craves a chance to prove her own dreams are valid. When she’s given her lucky break to vie for a feature column at the local paper, she jumps at it…even though it requires telling one teensy, tiny lie.

Scrambling for a topic to keep readers hooked, Piper dives into the world of genealogy…something she knows absolutely nothing about. When her investigation turns up more questions than answers, her findings threaten to open up a Pandora’s box that can’t be closed.

The cut-off is fast approaching, but between a Type-A boss, a distractingly magnetic new crime reporter, and racing between school drop-offs, she discovers that some secrets want to stay buried.

Can Piper uncover the truth and deliver a show-stopping story by the deadline?

Or will her career ambitions end up relegated to the obituaries?

QUICK

Do you write more than one genre? If so, what are they?

I do! I write in both mystery and romance. Then, within each of those genres, I’ve written in sub-genres. For example, in Romance, I’ve written in Sweet, Small Town, Regency, Contemporary Western, and others. I’m really excited to start writing more within the sub-niches of Mystery now as well. My current books are lighthearted stories that are considered Cozy Mystery and Amateur Sleuth. I’m currently working on a quirky Police Procedural which is a ton of fun, too.

How do you come up with ideas?

A combination of ways. For my romance books, I generally choose a location first, then a place or person within that location that would be interesting to write about. Then I start filling the story about from there.

For my mysteries, I keep an ongoing list of news headlines and plot ideas that I come up with. I usually start with a character who is in a situation, then I have to figure out what got them into that situation and how they are going to get out of it.

What is the single most important part of writing for you?

Enjoying it, I think is first and foremost. If I hated writing or found it painful, I don’t think it would be the right profession for me. I feel like I’m doing work that I was meant to do. Luckily, that means it doesn’t feel too much like work, even though I work very hard and a lot goes into writing and publishing books.

Second to that rather selfish reason, the most important part of writing for me is knowing that people enjoyed it. At the end of the day, I want to do my part to contribute, and the way I know how to do that is to write something that makes someone else feel good, and maybe provide a few laughs along the way.

When did you write your first book?

I wrote my first full novel length book in college, which thankfully has never left its three-ring binder. I wrote another first book many years later when I decided to leave my career in the film industry. It is also housed in a three-ring binder. I wrote my “real” first novel after I decided to leave my career in photography and do the thing I had been putting off for all those years. I got paid for that book and it never had its own binder. ?

Easy

Coffee or tea? Coffee! (Though I own enough tea that my husband would probably question my answer.)

Sit down dinner or drive through? Sit down dinner. I am the slowest eater on the planet.

Fold laundry immediately or let it sit? Ugh, I wish I could say fold it immediately, but alas, laundry is a herculean effort to stay on top of in my house. Piles of it are folded and sitting as I type this, and will sadly be there still waiting tomorrow.

Unload dishwasher right away or use dishes from it? Dishes are even harder than laundry to stay on top of! But I unload them right away. I read this great book called How To Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind and I try to run the dishwasher every night to save my sanity.

Driving for pleasure or avoid driving anywhere? Totally for pleasure! I love driving. I once drove five hours to Key West while I was thinking through something, got out of my car, watched the sunset, then turned around and drove home. (I obviously did not have kids yet, haha.)

Talk or text? Talk. Though I completely abuse the auto-dictate feature on my texts, so both forms of communication have blurred together a bit these days.

Emoji or smilie? (I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be similie or smile, haha, so I’m going to do my best here.) I am very expressive in real life, which causes me to find emojis useful because I don’t think people will understand how emphatic I am in a text. Apparently, my life is me constantly shrugging, smacking my hand against my face, and laughing with one tear.

Where to buy Headlines, Deadlines, and Lies

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Headlines-Deadlines-Lies-Sunshine-State-ebook/dp/B08ZXZDZYY

Stephanie LaVigne’s Social Media

Stephanie LaVigne is a bestselling author of mystery and romance novels. From sailing across the Atlantic to mushing a Canadian dogsled and more, she’s been lucky enough to have all kinds of adventures alongside real-life characters. Her whirlwind of a life keeps her imagination active and her stories flowing. Her books are quirky, relatable, adventurous, and witty. She lives in South Florida surrounded by palm trees, peacocks, a few wild kids, and one wild husband.

Website https://stephanielavigne.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thestephanielavigne

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thestephanielavigne

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14291865.Stephanie_LaVigne

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/stephanie-lavigne

Twitter https://twitter.com/stephunderwater

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-LaVigne/e/B014DUTKOY

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