5 Questions with Author Ava Miles

Author Ava Miles is an inspiration.

With a gentle spirit, yet a fiery commitment to her writing career, Ava quit her long-time job working for a non-profit to follow her dream and focus fully on writing—and it has paid off. Her debut contemporary romance, Nora Roberts Land, was chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by USA TODAY. The next month, she landed on the USA TODAY's Best-Selling Book list. Since then, she's been a busy writer with five more releases, which have received rave reviews from readers.

Today, Ava stopped by to answer five questions about her book series and her latest contemporary romance, Country Heaven.

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1. Country Heaven is the first book in your Dare River Series. Can you tell us the thread that binds this new series to your Dare Valley Series?
   
   Country singer, Rye Crenshaw, first appeared in my Dare Valley series as the best friend to one of my main heroes, poker champion, Rhett Butler Blaylock. Rye helped his friend write a song for the woman he was in love with in THE HOLIDAY SERENADE. I knew Rye needed his own story, and one book wasn’t enough for Rye. Loving the limelight, he wanted his own series. So, some of the characters from Dare Valley will be featured in Dare River and vice versa as the two series continue. It’s going to be fun.
    
2. French Roast, book two in The Dare Valley Series, includes recipes as an added bonus for readers. These recipes were taken from your experience as a chef. Country Heaven, featuring sexy country singer Rye Crenshaw as the hero, contains songs that you wrote. Do you have a musical background that inspired you to pen these lyrics?
   
   My family has always been musical, with my mom and her sisters being featured on the radio singing, my sister being in a band, and my brother as a member of the Stanford choir. Our family performances at church talent shows were great fun growing up, with my favorite being our rendition of “Elvira” by The Oakridge Boys. We won The Best Family Talent Award. So, between loving to write and loving music, the lyrics just came together with Rye whispering them in my ears. ☺
    
3. Often writers are asked if their stories or characters were based on real life. For the Dare Valley Series, you took inspiration from places you’ve lived and family members and their experiences. Nora Roberts Land, the debut book in this series, was inspired by events surrounding your sister’s divorce. How did her divorce provide the catalyst for Nora Roberts Land, and why did you feel compelled to write this story?
   
   When my sister called me that fateful day and said her now ex had blamed their issues on her reading Nora Roberts books, I was totally shocked. They’d put “ideas” in her head, he said, making her want some unrealistic happily ever after. Our two other sisters and my mom all had the same reaction. We couldn’t believe it! We love Nora, and his accusation was pure crap. A few years later, I was calling in a new contemporary romance novel idea, and bam, a plot around my sister’s experience popped out of my subconscious. My heroine, Meredith Hale, would go a step further though. She’d return to her hometown to prove her ex wrong and show everyone you can have a happily ever after—or what Meredith’s mom calls Nora Roberts Land. I wanted to show the evolution of a divorced woman’s journey, recovering her sense of self, recovering her sexuality, and believing and then experiencing the transformational power of love. Meredith learned a lot of lessons on her journey like we all do, and I wanted her story to make people feel less alone and to be inspired in happily ever after again.
    
4. Both of us like stories about strong heroines. Not necessarily the kind who can slay a slew of zombies, but who are strong emotionally and confident. Stories where the hero and heroine work together to help one another find their true potential and build a relationship based upon respect and equality. Can you share with us the relationship you enjoyed writing about the most in your series?
   
   Gosh, that is such a tough question because all of the stories mean so much to me. But if I had to pick, I’d say it was Deputy Peggy McBride, a single mom and the deputy sheriff in Dare Valley. She’s as tough of a heroine as I’ve written, jaded by life and totally in command of her own toughness. Then she meets Mac Maven, a hotel maven and poker champion, and he opens up all the parts of her she’d put to bed after her tough experiences. With Mac’s understanding and love, she blossoms on the page. It’s messy, and Peggy doesn’t like that one bit. But in the end, theirs is a love so powerful because he doesn’t ask her to change. He accepts her as she is and just asks her to do the same for him. That to me is the best partnership any of us can ever be lucky enough to find.
    
5. Dare Valley, the town featured in your series, is a mix of Midwestern charm inspired by communities where you spent your childhood, Colorado where many members of your large family lived, and the small university town in Utah where you attended graduate school. However, you are more than a small town girl—you are a world traveler. Can you share with us one of your favorite places outside of the United States, and if that location may provide a setting for another book someday?
   
   Well, if I started to write about those places, they would be very different books. But who knows? We’ll have to see what might occur. One of my favorite countries is France. Hands down. There is nothing more incredible than the joie de vivre, joy of life, that infuses everything there: the art, the food, the strolls along the Seine in Paris, the casual walks through the vineyards in wine country, and the fashion, and even the wine. As for another place, I’d have to choose Lebanon. It is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It has the sea and mountains, and some of the best food you’ll ever savor. It’s riddled with sleepy villages and awe-inspiring historical sites thousands of years old. It’s a magical place, and I’m lucky enough to have friends there. I’ve traveled to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, and I can’t wait to check those off my list.
    

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A down-on-her luck cook uses food’s magical properties to tame a beastly country singer after he hires her under false pretenses to restore his image. When famous—and infamous—country singer Rye Crenshaw saunters into the diner where she cooks, Tory Simmons is certain she’s got him pegged. He’s a bad boy who indulges himself in all things, women included. But while she couldn’t care less about country music or arrogant men, Rye makes her an offer she can’t refuse when he asks her to be his private chef on his multi-city concert tour. The job is the answer to all her prayers: it will clear out her debt and finance the fresh start she desperately needs. Rye is certain his sassy new cook is the last woman who’d ever tempt him, but spending time with the wholesome girl next door will do wonders for his damaged public image, whether she likes being forced into the spotlight or not. Her food also happens to be the best he’s ever eaten, both comforting and seductive. But spending time with Tory on the road shows him a new side to her—one that’s as impossible to resist as her food. And when an emergency in his family whisks him home, he does the one thing he’s never risked: he lets a woman into his heart… Soon the emotions Rye faked for the tabloids become all too real, but will the country heaven he’s found in Tory’s arms survive in the real world?

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USA Today Bestselling Author Ava Miles burst onto the contemporary romance scene after receiving Nora Roberts’ blessing for her use of Ms. Roberts’ name in her debut novel, NORA ROBERTS LAND, which kicked off The Dare Valley Series and brought praise from reviewers and readers alike. Much to Ava's delight, USA Today Contributor Becky Lower selected it as one of the Best Books of the Year. Ava continued The Dare Valley Series in FRENCH ROAST, which Tome Tender says “raised the entertainment bar again” and then THE GRAND OPENING, which reviewer Mary J. Gramlich says “is a continuation of love, family, and relationships.” The next books in the series, THE HOLIDAY SERENADE, was met with high praise and her ode to the early 1960s, THE TOWN SQUARE, what she calls Mad Men in a small town with a happy ending, melted reader’s hearts. Ava based her original series on a family newspaper, modeled after her own. Her great-great grandfather won it in a poker game in 1892, so Ava is no stranger to adventurous men and models her heroes after men like that—or like Tim McGraw, her favorite country music singer. Now Ava shares the Dare River series, set in the deep South, telling the story of a country singer and a beautiful cook. A former chef herself, Ava used her culinary background to infuse the story with family and personal recipes, but she also used her love for music to write country music songs to set the stage in the novel, creating a unique book experience. Ava—a writer since childhood—now lives in her own porch-swinging-friendly community with an old-fashioned Main Street lined with small businesses.