by
Dora Machado
Hello everybody. I heard through the grapevine that our very own Aaron Paul Lazar has added a new award to his credits. So I thought I should ask!
Welcome Aaron and huge congrats! What's
this we hear about a new award for your latest romance, The Seacrest?
Hi, Dora.
Thanks for asking!
;o) I was really thrilled when a few months ago, The Seacrest was announced as a finalist for this year’s FOREWORD
book of the year awards (we find out June 29th if it won its
category!), but then last week I was surprised to discover the book has also
WON the romance category of the Beach Book Festival 2014. It’s very gratifying,
because as you and our MB4 fans may know, this was my first foray into writing
a pure love story, after writing dozens of mysteries over the past decade.
This book is set
exclusively on Cape Cod, in Brewster, Mass, at a mansion by the sea called The
Seacrest. It rotates across time by chapter, telling the story of a young Finn
McGraw at age 16 who falls madly in love with a girl he meets on the beach
named Sassy, and the current day story of Finn as an adult who has suffered
great losses and is about to be slammed with many more horrific surprises,
while still pining away for his long lost love.
But most of the
scenes include sand, waves, seagrass, and a salty tang on the sea breeze. There
are lovemaking scenes in a cove on the beach, horseback riding in the surf, and
many poignant moments spent down on the shore. ;o) So in my humble opinion,
it’s a perfect beach read!
How does it feel to cross genres, to
step out of your usual genre and be so warmly welcomed into the romance genre?
Dora, I’d always said
with tongue-in-cheek that I might someday write a romance. I’d never read any
romances, per se – unless some of the romantic suspense novels I’ve read could
qualify. But I knew I had at least one great love story in me, and frankly, a
lot of my mysteries included subthemes of love, or unrequited love, or love
lost. I enjoyed writing those subplots in my mysteries, and played them up a
bit more in my newer Tall Pines Mysteries. Finally, last year I began to think
about Cape Cod again. We’d been planning a vacation there (first time in 9
years!) and I was really psyched about it. I started writing The Seacrest and was partially done by
June 2013, when we returned to Brewster, Mass, a gorgeous village on the bay
side of Cape Cod.
Once we arrived, I
resumed my love affair with all things “Cape” and found plenty of great color
and local plant life and scene details to fill in the rest of the story with a
genuine feel of Cape Cod. I took hundreds upon hundreds of photos, and still
look back at them with great enjoyment. We’re about to go back there this
month, and I am seriously thinking about writing a sequel to The Seacrest. Maybe this vacation will
be the inspiration for my next great love story? We shall see!
Congratulations again, my friend. Well
done!
Dora, thanks for
asking about my newest award and have a wonderful weekend!
Yes, have a wonderful weekend
everybody!
Aaron
www.lazarbooks.com
Thanks so much for interviewing me today, Dora!
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