Q&A Series— Women Writers: Karla Sorensen
KARLA SORENSEN is an Amazon top 20 bestselling author who refuses to read or write anything without a happily ever after. When she's not devouring historical romance or avoiding the laundry, you can find her watching football (British AND American), HGTV or listening to Enneagram podcasts so she can psychoanalyze everyone in her life, in no particular order of importance. With a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Grand Valley State University, she made her living in senior healthcare prior to writing full-time. Karla lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys and a big, shaggy rescue dog named Bear.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
A lot of my earliest research tends to focus on jobs/careers. Making sure the ins and outs are realistic and I can speak intelligently on what they do (even if it doesn't take a lot of page space). A LOT of YouTube videos, googling interviews of people who do those things, checking education requirements, etc. And depending on what the character's background is, I'll do pretty substantial reading on the emotional/psychological impact of whatever they might have experienced. With the Ward sisters, I did a lot of reading on parental abandonment and how that would play out into adulthood, etc. If the character has a very different life experience than mine, I'll watch TV shows or documentaries, talk to someone who's life experience matches the character. When I wrote Joss in Baking Me Crazy, I watched a reality show about women who live in LA and are all in wheelchairs for various different reasons. I had a sensitivity reader who was gracious enough to let me interview her. Those types of things.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Depends on what I'm writing! Some days, sitting down and getting the words is harder than others, but in general, I always feel really good once I'm finished. The most energized I feel is when I'm writing the really emotional scenes. LOVE those. It's hard for me to write 'filler scenes'. I like to keep my stories tightly paced, so each scene serves a purpose to push the story forward, but sometimes you just need to show your characters living life, and those tend to be harder for me for some reason.
What’s your favorite romance trope to write? Which one do you find most challenging to write?
I LOVE hate to love and opposites attract. There's a very specific tension in those stories that makes them so much fun to read and write. I find Second Chance to be the most challenging (which is probably why I haven't written many! lol). I don't like reading or writing flashbacks, so you're trying to set the emotional foundation of something that happened in the past. It's a challenge!
What is the most valuable piece of advice you want to give to people aspiring to be romance writers/writers in general?
Know your genre! Pay attention to the books that really suck you in as a reader, what is it about them that affects you that way. As an example, I absolutely love Kerrigan Byrne's books, and she is able to build so much tension in her scenes, simply by the word choices she makes. It's something that pushes me when I'm writing my own books. I'd also encourage aspiring writers to learn about the craft of writing. That type of education should never stop, no matter how books you've written. I'm still picking up tidbits from the women I've been fortunate to get to know, and I think staying curious and keeping a humility about how you can improve is key.
Let’s talk Washington Wolves; what was your inspiration for writing this series?
Football! I've always loved/watched football. And I loved the idea of having a female own the team, but not really having any idea what she was getting into. It's a ton of built in conflict, the learning curve she has, the bias she'd face. And also... fun sexy power dynamics with the hero, haha.
Logan + Paige and Allie + Luke were two of my favorite fictional couples you’ve written about. If you could make a movie about their stories where you’re in charge of script and casting, who would you cast to play them?
OH my GOSH. The possibilities are endless. If I'm going based on an acting resume (and not just merely looks)- I could see Jensen Ackles as Luke, Theo James as Logan, Margot Robbie as Allie and younger Angelina Jolie as Paige (I KNOW, her hair isn't red).
Back to Paige and Logan for a second – I keep thinking about the part where Paige puts her aunt’s inheritance in a trust for the girls when they’re older (so sweet); we didn’t see it in the epilogue, but what do you think Logan’s reaction to that would’ve been?
Oh, I'm sure his reaction was something along the lines of, "I picked the best wife ever."
Favorite place to write?
My house! I can't write around people. I'm either on the couch in my living room or a comfy chair in our bedroom if I'm writing on the weekends.
What can you tell us about your future projects for this year?
I'm working on my fourth book with Smartypants Romance, it's a second chance/unrequited love story with SO much pining and longing and ugh, I love it. The working title is Bidding my Time, and it'll come out in the fall. I'm also going to write my next book in this current football series! I can't say much more about it because my original plan for the book kinda went out the window, haha.
Can we please have another Paige and Logan book (can you tell that I love them)? :)
Lol! I love them too! I promise you'll get more glimpses of them this year, but I can't write another full book for that couple. To write a good story, you need some conflict, and my heart can't handle the idea that they'd hit a rough patch.
Lastly, if you could be any historical woman for a day, who would it be?
This is a tough question! I'm going to take a slight spin on the answer and say that if I could *spend* the day with any historical figure, I'd probably go for someone like Jane Austen, because I'd want to pick her brain on how she views love and also tell her that she's a romance badass over 200 years later, and everyone is still obsessed with her books, lol.
