Interview: Cherry Adair, author of 'Ice Cold'

With her red hair, bright smile and brilliant sense of humor, USA TODAY and New York Times best-selling romantic suspense author Cherry Adair manages to live up to her first name. Transplanted from Capetown, South Africa, she ran an interior design business in the San Francisco area before turning her creative talents to fiction. She struck gold with her T-FLAC series, which sends strong heroes and equally strong heroines on quests around the world to bring down the bad guys. We caught up with Adair and chatted with her about the amazing support she gives to aspiring novelists, the release of Ice Cold — her 17th T-FLAC novel — and the surprising reason why she, a writer of romantic thrillers, doesn't care much for firearms.

Pamela: Welcome to HEA! You're known for the support and advice you give to new authors through your website, workshops and speaking engagements. Why is it important to you to help aspiring novelists?

Cherry: I have a passion for helping new and aspiring authors. I know how hard it is to break into this business. I wrote 17 complete manuscripts before I sold (all of which have since been shredded over a lovely glass or two of good wine). There are a million questions, and as many insecurities that pop up, even for those of us who don't appear to have any insecurities. If I can help even one person attain their goal of publication, I'm ecstatic.

Pamela: You're also known for bluntly telling people who want to write books that writing is hard work that involves keeping their butt in a chair. What's the hardest part of the writing process for you, the one that feels like the most work?

Cherry: Sitting my butt in my chair. It's the first step, and one would think it an easy step, but I, like so many other writers, have taken procrastination to an art form. Second is writing the first draft. I loathe everything about it. Sometimes I have to set my timer for 10-minute increments to force myself not to get up and race outside to see if one of my roses has a new bud or a worm has come up in my lawn. Now, once that torture is over — the first draft, not the worm sighting — you can't get me away from my keyboard. I love layering and texturing and polishing and don't move unless forced to go to the bathroom. Even eating is overrated when I'm polishing a book. (Chocolates are always on hand for nutrition.)

Pamela: I think I can see where the humor in your stories comes from. But I digress …

You were an interior designer at one point. Tell us about your workspace. Where do these luscious stories get written, and what features were important for you to include in your workspace?

Cherry: A high-backed, comfortable chair was my first priority, since I'm in it 12 hours a day. LOL! I have a lovely office with a view of my front flower garden (and the agility course my husband built for our two Standard Schnauzers). The walls are a deep smoky green, and the carpet is the same color. One wall has all my framed covers, and the others are all cream-painted ceiling-to-floor bookcases holding about 5,000 of my keepers. My dogs sleep under my desk, or in the winter, sprawled out in front of the fireplace. All my research books are piled on my desk and credenza depending on which series I'm writing at the time. Between books I shovel everything away neatly, but while I write I have papers and books on every flat surface, including the floor. It's my Happy Place. : )

Pamela: It sounds like a space any writer would love. Your heroes and heroines know how to take on the bad guys. How do you research the weapons aspects of your stories? Do you practice shooting and have access to the firearms and other technology that your characters use?

Cherry: I have several weapons expert guide me, and I go to the shooting range when I write about some new and interesting weapon to see how it looks and feels. But unlike my characters, I'm not that fond of guns at all. I was shot many years ago in an armed robbery — accidentally, which I must admit is a little insulting as far as story-telling goes. LOL! The robber was aiming for the guy next to me, and shot me in the knee instead. LOL! I didn't realize I'd been shot until I accompanied my friend to the hospital, and the doctor wanted to look at my leg. The second he told me I'd been shot as well, I passed out cold. : ) (Blood loss, not cowardice, I promise. OK, a little freaked out at the sight of all that very red blood on my person. And then the pain when I realized ... Never mind. That's another story, and the introduction of a fiancé. : ) )

Pamela: Now that's a story — accidentally shot by a bad guy who was robbing a bank? Not many romantic suspense authors can say they know what it's like to be shot. (Thank goodness!) I hope your knee is OK and that the shooter did some serious time in Club Fed. You say fiancé there. Yes, I spent 20 years working as an investigative journalist and notice obvious things like that. Is that how you met your husband?

Cherry: I'd love to say yes. And if my life was as neatly tied in a bow as a novel, this of course would be the case. However, real life rarely reads that romantically. (Hence sex always being mind-blowing on paper.) Alas, it was all about after-danger sex and a shared experience. The engagement barely lasted as long as the adrenaline rush.

Pamela: Isn't that the way of things? Ice Cold is your 17th T-FLAC (Terrorist Force Logistical Assault Command) novel. That's really an achievement! What does it take to keep a series growing and evolving for so many years through so many adventures and happy endings? How do you keep it fresh for yourself?

Cherry: I love my T-FLAC operatives. I don't mean I just like the characters — I love the whole T-FLAC world. They're real to me. I know where each one is when they're not on the page, and what they're doing when I'm writing a Cutter Cay or Lodestone book. I love what I do. Be it one of my Cutter brothers or one of my Lodestone agents, but T-FLAC was where I started, and writing a new T-FLAC book is like coming home.

Pamela: What would you say is special about your incredibly hot T-FLAC heroes? And what is special about the heroines?

Cherry: They have a sense of humor. And if one or the other doesn't at the beginning of the book, I make sure they do by the end (sometimes by force if necessary). Being able to laugh at ourselves makes us human. And while my characters are a little over the top, I like to ground them, and humor does that.

Pamela: It certainly does. What can you tell us about Ice Cold?

Cherry: A brief synopsis? Running-chasing-shooting-falling-down icy-weather hot-sex-romance. : ) The main characters are two counterterrorist operatives. Honey is cybercrimes, and Rafael is bomb disposal. Together they have to track down an old enemy responsible for bombing banks worldwide. It's a cat-and-mouse game, with plenty of twists and turns. And while Ice Cold is an action adventure, at the heart of it, it's the story of two people learning each other and eventually falling in love.

Pamela: What should readers expect from you next?

Cherry: Next is a Lodestone novel in March titled Relentless, followed by a Cutter Cay novel next June titled Stormchaser, and later in 2013, another T-FLAC novel, followed by a nice long nap in 2014. : )

Pamela: Enjoy that nap! You've earned it. In the meantime, thanks so much for hanging out with us today. Best of luck with Ice Cold!

For more about Cherry Adair and her books, visit her very cool website at CherryAdair.com.

Pamela Clare is an award-winning journalist and nationally best-selling author of both historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense. She loves coffee, the Colorado mountains, and her two grown sons. Her website is PamelaClare.com.