An Interview with MB4's Aaron Paul Lazar

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 29^th 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.

That's awesome, Aaron. Why is The Seacrest perfect for the beach this summer?

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