Spotlight on Ramona Richards and Face of Deceit

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RAMONA RICHARDS has been spinning tales since she was a kid, and she started getting paid for it when she was 18. The author of 5 books and numerous magazine articles, she has won awards for fiction and nonfiction, including first place in the 2008 From the Heart Romance Writers Best Proposal Contest (the Lories). A frequent conference speaker, Ramona loves working with other writers and speaking to women's groups. As an editor, she has worked on staff with a number of publishers and is now an editor with Thomas Nelson Publishers. She has also freelanced for more than 20 magazine and book publishers.

Her first Love Inspired Suspense book, A Murder Among Friends, received 4 ½ stars from Romantic Times magazine, and The Face of Deceit was an Romantic Times Top Pick for September 2008, also receiving 4 ½ stars. Her next book, The Taking of Carly Bradford, releases in May 2009.

Ramona lives with her daughter near Nashville, Tennessee, in a cottage swamped with far too many books, DVDs and CDs. She escapes occasionally to go hiking, scuba diving, or singing in her church choir.

FACE OF DECEIT
by Ramona Richards
Published by Steeple Hill / Love Inspired Suspense

ABOUT THE BOOK

Her parents were killed as she looked on, but artist Karen O'Neill has suppressed that childhood horror. Now, years later, someone is destroying her famous "face" vases. Art expert Mason DuBroc suspects that the creepy face Karen molds points toward murder. Karen must know something she shouldn’t. Something a crazed killer will do anything to keep buried . . . with Karen.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1. What gave you the inspiration for this story?

The idea came while I was shopping in a local gift shop that has its own pottery studio attached. I saw a plaque with the raised image of a face on it, and I asked the potter whose face it was. Her response, "No one in particular," left me wondering. By the time I got home, I had the basic plot about a potter who witnessed a murder as a child, and as an adult, the face of the killer begins appearing in her art. That's how my heroine's "face vases" were born.

2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that are theirs and theirs alone?

If my characters were all based on me, my readers would get bored quickly! :) Most of my characters are based on a combination of people I know or observed, their experiences, tidbits I've learned from books, and some of my own background. In THE FACE OF DECEIT, for instance, Mason's first time on the wheel mirrors my first time with one, but he lost his parents when he was a teen. My parents celebrated their 48th anniversary.

3. If one of your characters were an ice cream flavor, what he/she be and why?

Mocha. She loves her Kona coffee and has a deep spirit and rich faith. She's had a very "rocky road" in her life, but she’s a survivor, and she inspires Mason.

4. What themes exist in Face of Deceit that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the story progressed?

That home is less about a house or a town than the people around you who do love and support you. In the end, I hope they see, as Karen does, that building a life is more about making wise choices and relying on God to work in your life than what happened to you in the past.

5. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

I LOVE writing the ending, of finally bringing all the pieces together. The hardest part for me to write comes near the end, when Karen and Mason think they've lost each other. I cried every time I had to work on it.

6. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

THE TAKING OF CARLY BRADFORD releases in May 2009. It's about Dee, who is slowly recovering from a devastating loss when she becomes involved in a child abduction case. It's the last book in my Jackson's Retreat series, set in New Hampshire, and finally gives the local police chief (who has been in all three books) a chance at romance.

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Thank you, Ramona, for being in the spotlight with us.

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