Author Interview: Kristi Ann Hunter

Y’all. I am super excited about my blog guest today!! Because it’s KRISTI ANN HUNTER!! I got to meet Kristi at the Christian Fiction Readers Retreat last August (and I’ve heard rumors she might be at this year’s CFRR in Cincinnati on August 12th!), and she is super fun! I actually sat across the table from her at lunch and tried very hard to behave myself and not fangirl squeal all the way through the meal 😀

Kristi Ann Hunter graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Computer Science but always knew she wanted to write. In addition to several pre-published contests, Kristi is a Rita award winner and has also been a finalist in the INSPYs, Christys, and GRW Maggie Award of Excellence. (However, NOT the Carol Award, despite what Amazon erroneously maintains. 😉 ) She lives with her husband and three children in Georgia.

You can connect with Kristi Ann Hunter at her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Her newest release, An Uncommon Courtship, is the third book in her Hawthorne House series from Bethany House Publishers.

Life for Lady Adelaide Bell was easier if she hid in her older sister’s shadow–which worked until her sister got married. Even with thepressure of her socially ambitious mother, the last thing she expected was a marriage of convenience to save her previously spotless reputation.

Lord Trent Hawthorne couldn’t be happier that he is not the duke in the family. He’s free to manage his small estate and take his time discovering the life he wants to lead, which includes grand plans of wooing and falling in love with the woman of his choice. When he finds himself honor bound to marry a woman he doesn’t know, his dream of a marriage like his parents’ seems lost forever.

Already starting their marriage on shaky ground, can Adelaide and Trent’s relationship survive the pressures of London society?

Hi Kristi! Welcome to the blog! I’m so excited to be chatting with you today!

Kristi: Hi, Carrie! Glad to be here.

I start all of my guests out with a fast four:

Kristi: Oranges. With apples I’ve either got to deal with the core and the mess around my mouth or I have to get a knife or the apple cutter dirty. I like anything that avoids creating dirty dishes.

Carrie: I’d never thought of oranges that way before … as a means to avoid dirty dishes. But you make a valid point!

Kristi: That’s a tough one. I guess winter, though really I prefer fall. When it’s cold enough for sweaters and hoodies but I don’t have to break out the ice scraper for my car.

Carrie: I accept ‘fall’ as a legitimate answer to this question 🙂 Fall is great – crisp temps, crisp apples, warm drinks.

Kristi: Dogs, though I don’t have either. Dogs in general are more playful and cuddly than cats. Plus I have a lot of family and friends that are allergic to cats.

Carrie: Zuzu highly approves of this answer, though she would like me to point out that dogs are WAY more cuddly than cats. lol.

Kristi: Hot chocolate. Because coffee and tea are gross.

Carrie: Amen & amen.

Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Kristi: To eat anything I wanted and never exercise but still be in the same shape as those crazy cross-fit women. 🙂 No, honestly, I think I’d like to be able to teleport. I hate having to drive to places.

Carrie: I would happily take both of those. Yes please.

When you walk into a bookstore, where do you head first?

Kristi: The clearance section. I love a good bargain. Actually, the first thing I do these days is go see if they have me on the shelf and if my books are facing outward. 🙂 After that I hunt for bargains, then stroll through the Christian fiction and romance aisles.

Carrie: haha! So if I happen into a bookstore and see all your books facing outward, I’ll know you’ve been there 😉

Writing spaces are as diverse as authors and books. Where is your favorite space to write?

Kristi: When at all possible, I write at my desk. That’s where my plotting board is, my post it notes, and my split ergonomic keyboard. I’m glad that I have a laptop so that life doesn’t have to be completely put on hold for my writing career, but my wrists tend to hurt if I have to do a lot of typing on my laptop keyboard. The rest of my family thinks my keyboard is weird, but I love it. 

Carrie: Ok that keyboard sounds awesome!

Two of my fave topics in fiction – Regency romance and a marriage of convenience – can be found in your newest release An Uncommon Courtship. Why do you think we as readers are so drawn to both topics?

Kristi: Well, the Regency is just awesome. But seriously, I think people like the Regency era because there are a lot of parallels to our current society. It’s a time of cultural and technological shift. Plus you get the pretty dresses without having to talk about corsets and bustles.

As for marriage of convenience stories (side note – I’ve never understood that term. Most of the time the marriages are decidedly inconvenient.) I think people like them because we don’t always get to choose the people in our lives but we can choose how we treat them. When the relationship begins with marriage, it removes the option of walking away. The stakes are raised and we get to relate to having to figure out how to learn to love someone you are essentially stuck with.

Carrie: Lol – that’s so true. Those marriages are rarely convenient at all! And I think that’s a fantastic point… it emphasizes the fact that love is ultimately a choice.

Trent Hawthorne has his own fan club, and I’m pretty sure the president is my buddy Annie from Just Commonly 😉 I’ve also heard that you think “llama” is a fun word. (Bear with me… I promise these are connected lol) Using only FUN WORDS (heehee), describe Trent for us. And if you really want bonus points, you can talk about Adelaide too…

Kristi: Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious. According to Mary Poppins that gets me out of answering this question, right?

Ok. Here we go. Better get your dictionary cause I had to read for some of these.

Life goes all cattywampus for Trent, a pugilist and swashbuckling swordsman whose life is festooned with ataraxia. He’s never had much drudgery in his life and he’s aghast at the rumination that God will make him the duke, leaving his brother cadaverous and pushing up daisies. His only desideratum is to find a smitten damsel to make googly eyes with and create progeny.

Adelaide is flummoxed by the idea that she might need to use her own cognition to ponder out her comportment. Life has always been more commodious if she lets alternative folk tell her how to acquit herself. If they’re euphoric, life is less deviant.

The hilarity will make you want to spit like a llama while the touching moments may leave you blubbering.

Carrie: You deserve allllll the bonus points in the world after that wonderfully fun answer!! 😀 And hopefully you only hate me just a little bit 😉

What do you most want readers to take away from An Uncommon Courtship?

Kristi: That you can choose love. We so often think of love as a feeling we fall into, that we can’t help who we do and don’t love. But there is a significant portion of love that is a choice. When you choose to put that person ahead of yourself, that’s love. When you read about love in the Bible it doesn’t say love is fuzzy, warm, glowy, and sudden. It says love is patient and kind. It says that love is sacrifice. These are things we choose to do. We can choose to love. 

Carrie: So true. But oh so tough sometimes.

Again thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Kristi: Gladly! I just turned in the manuscript for Griffith’s book which is coming out in September. I love his story so much. I cannot wait to share it with everyone. Griffith has had control over his life and his family for way too long. It’s about time a lady he wasn’t expecting comes along and knocks him on his butt. 

Carrie: YAY!! I know that will be a delightful read as well 😀

What about you? What’s your favorite fun word to say?