Aloha to Robin Kaye and CALL ME WILD

I offer you a fun pick-me-up for Hump Day - Robin Kaye!  From her bio,

Robin Kaye was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge next door to her Sicilian grandparents. Living with an extended family that’s a cross between Gilligan’s Island and The Sopranos, minus the desert isle and illegal activities, explains both her comedic timing and the cast of quirky characters in her books. She’s lived in half a dozen states from Idaho to Florida, but the romance of Brooklyn has never left her heart. She currently resides in Maryland with her husband, three children, a dog, and a three-legged cat with attitude. 

Kim:  I miss Maryland! What is your favorite sight, sound, and smell of the DC area? 

Robin:   Sight: The full moon over the Mall (specifically the WWII Memorial) on a crystal clear night.

Sound: The opening bars of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center. My daughter danced The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center with The American Ballet Theater one year. It was a thrill for all of us. 

Scent: The first scent of the ocean while driving to Ocean City.

Brooklyn Bridge
wikipedia.com

Kim:  Can you share a favorite memory of the Brooklyn Bridge and/or Sicilian grandparents? 

Robin:  Wow, there are so many memories of my Grandparents in Brooklyn... Walking with my Nanny to the Street Market, pulling her little shopping cart behind us while she sang to me in Italian and English.

The fish man coming to the house on Fridays and being allowed to play with the octopus she’d soak in the bathtub before she cooked it for dinner—Yeah, I thought every kid got to play with their food before it was cooked. 

I remember going to Greenwood Cemetery for walks—They copied Greenwood Cemetery when they designed Central Park (minus the graves that is). I thought the cemetery was a virtual playground and park. My uncles used to take me there and taught me to walk backward to the graves after the first snow, and my aunt and uncle were engaged on the bench overlooking the pond. It’s still one of my favorite places to go when I visit Brooklyn, they have wonderful tours and parrots that populate the grounds all year round.

Greenwood Cemetery
wikipedia.com

Kim:  Who or what helped you along the path to publishing?    

Robin:  RWA and Kate Duffy. 

RWA because of the contests and the incredible workshops. I entered my first book, ROMEO, ROMEO in The Golden Heart contest and finaled. One of the final judges emailed me on the day I arrived at the national conference and said she loved the book and wanted to talk to me about it. I sold the book even before I won the Golden Heart—it was an amazing conference. 

Kate Duffy was a wonderful friend and mentor to me. I got to know her over several years at The Washington Romance Writer’s Retreat and every other conference we attended together. 

Kate completely destroyed me at Washington Romance Writer’s version of American Idol—Kate played Simon Cowell to a tee. The first page of my manuscript was read and Kate got stuck on the fact that my heroine’s aunt sprayed a bit of spittle while calling Rosalie a puttana (a whore in Italian) because she’d been dating her boyfriend for two years and still wasn’t engaged. Mine was one of the first pages read, and after every page following it, Kate would say “Well, at least there’s no spittle in this one!” 

Ten minutes after American Author I had an editor appointment with Kate. We all went out to the porch for a short break and I did not go and sit with Kate like I usually did. She spotted me on the other side of the patio and asked me if I was avoiding her. I said I was and explained that I had an appointment with her in ten minutes and didn’t want to seem like a brownnoser. She said, “Stop being stupid and come over hear and sit down.” I did.

Ten minutes later we parted ways. When I was escorted to the table for our meeting, Kate stood, shook my hand, and introduced herself. This was the first rendition of ROMEO, ROMEO and I had written the heroine in first person and the hero in third not knowing any better. I sat down and said something like “If I take the spittle out of my manuscript, will you read it?” She said, “Take out the first scene and Robin, you write in third person, not first. Fix it and send it to me.”  

I thanked Kate and shook her hand. She said, “Take my card.” That was ridiculous; I had her home and office addresses and phone numbers. I told her I knew where she worked. She insisted that I take her card, so I did, and shoved it in my wallet and left her after our minute-long meeting. 

Months later I was cleaning out my wallet and found her card. She had written a note on the back that said, “Robin, I really do want to read it. Send it to me.” 

I made the changes she requested, entered the Golden Heart, and sold my manuscript before I had the chance to send it to her. We always said that someday we’d work together but we never got the chance. Not sending Kate my manuscript is my biggest regret. Still, I was blessed to have her friendship and hers is the voice in my head—I can still hear her yelling at me, “Write the damn book, Robin!” I miss her every day.

Kim:  Tell us about CALL ME WILD!

Robin:  CALL ME WILD is a story about Jessie James, a sports reporter who is laid off from her job at The Times.  She takes a dare from her best friend to sublet her apartment in Manhattan and go to live in his second house in Boise, Idaho rent-free to write the book she’s always talked about. Since she needs to make money quickly, she decides to write a romance—after all they’re formulaic, so how hard could it be? Jessie buys a dozen romances to find out exactly what the formula is since she’s never read one and doesn’t believe in romantic love.

When Jessie meets Fisher Kincaid, she draws so many wrong first impressions it’s comical. He sets his sights on Jessie, finds out what she’s trying to do, and offers himself as a research assistant. When his crazy family gets involved, all hell breaks loose.

Boise, Idaho
wikipedia.com

Kim:  What's next for Robin Kaye?

Robin:  I’m really excited about a new series—Bad Boys of Red Hook, I have coming out in December. HOMETOWN GIRL, a novella to introduce the series will be out early in the month, and BACK TO YOU: BAD BOYS OF RED HOOK will be released December 31st. I’m thrilled to be writing about Brooklyn again! The series is a little grittier than my Domestic Gods series, but still has plenty of humor in it. It’s been a lot of fun to work on.  

I’m also working on A LITTLE ON THE WILD SIDE—Trapper Kincaid’s book—the next installment in the Domestic Gods Gone Wild series, and planning a book for Karma and maybe even one for Andrew (who you’ll meet in CALL ME WILD). I’m amazed by all the fan mail asking me to make sure Andrew gets his happily ever after—people are genuinely worried about him. That, in my book, is the highest of compliments.

Mahalo, Robin, for joining us at SOS Aloha!   CALL ME WILD is now available for your reading pleasure:

She doesn't know a single thing about relationships...

Unemployed sportswriter Jessie James plans to make a killing writing a bestselling romance novel. She's never read one, but really, how hard can it be? Moving cross–country to a borrowed house in Idaho, Jessie starts her research with the first gorgeous guy she runs into...

Luckily, he knows everything...

Sports doctor Fisher Kincaid notices Jessie right away—the transplanted Easterner sticks out like a sore thumb in the small town. When he discovers she's researching attraction and romance, he graciously offers himself as a test subject. That's when everything starts to go wrong, and they both find out how much they need a few good lessons in love...

To learn more about Robin and her books, check out her website at robinkayewrites.com.