Meet Author Liz Flaherty

I’m excited to introduce you this month to author Liz Flaherty. I haven’t read all her romance novels yet, but I’ve read enough to know I love her writing style.

Retired from the post office, Liz spends nonwriting time sewing, quilting, and wanting to travel. The author of 20-some books and her husband Duane share an old farmhouse in North Central Indiana.

Liz thinks one of the things that keeps you young when you quite obviously aren’t anymore is the constant chances you have to reinvent yourself. Her latest professional incarnation is as a fledgling women’s fiction author, and she is enjoying every minute that she’s not scared to death.

She can be reached at lizkflaherty@gmail.com, or please find her at any of the places listed in Linktree at https://linktr.ee/LizFlaherty?subscribe.

Q. When did you start writing, and what title was your first published book?

A. I started writing when I was nine, when my aunt let me practice on her Royal portable typewriter to get me out of her hair. I wrote a very dramatic story a half-page long, single-spaced, in which I made countless errors and used the word conscientiousness when I meant consciousness.

My first published book was Always Annie, a Precious Gems release from Kensington Publishing.

Q. How many books have you written? How has your writing changed along the way?

A. About 20, I think, and several novellas. I think my writing has matured, but it’s still flawed. I’ve learned—I think—to let go of the last story before starting the next one.

Q. Tell us about your Second Chances series books, which are being rereleased under the new series name of A New Season through Singing Tree Publishing. What is Singing Tree Publishing?

A. Singing Tree was meant to be Singing Trees, which is what I called the farm where my dad grew up and where my brother and sister-in-law still live. The creek was bordered with cottonwoods, and they sing as the wind rushes through them. I’m not sure how I dropped the S from Trees, but I most certainly did.

Q. You have been married to the same man for many years, so where does the second chances concept come from?

A. A few rough times in those many years, when the “same man,” who isn’t the same at all, and I, who am not the same, either, have had to fall in love again. But that’s just the start of my reasoning. I think second chances are very important to any relationship that matters.

Q. Harlequin Heartwarming just released Lights, Camera, Christmas Town, a collection of stories, one of which is yours. What was the process for working on this anthology?

A. We’ve been writing Christmas Town stories ever since Melinda Curtis, Anna J. Stewart, and Anna Adams released Christmas, Actually in—I think—2014. We’ve celebrated all kinds of things—Valentine’s Day, class reunion, bake-offs—but the Christmas stories are always my favorites.

This year, a movie’s being made of a previous Christmas Town romance, and the entire cast and crew seems to be finding love, whether they’re looking for it or not! 😊

Q. Fun question: If you had the time and skill to add another totally different occupation in your life, what would you like to do?

A. Totally different? There are two. I’d like to have a user-friendly quilt shop OR a writer-friendly coffee shop. So, since I’ve written quilt shops more than once and coffee shops … yeah … more than once, maybe not too different.

Q. Anything else you’d like to add?

A. I’m at the winding-things-down stage in my career, and it makes everything sort of bittersweet, with me thinking This may be the last time I do this … about different things. I’m always so happy to talk to other writers, though, so no matter where I’m at, thanks for inviting me to your place!

Q. What is your favorite grammar—or general writing—pet peeve?

A. How long do you have? One, which I think is fairly regional, is “I seen …” Another is the constant mix-up of their, they’re, and there. Yet another—and I’ll stop now—is the attempted hijacking of the Oxford comma.

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