Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Reading and Winen Interviews TJ Lutgring


We'd like to welcome TJ Lutgring to Reading & Winen, please raise your glass and toast our guest, with our wine glasses raised a big cheers from all of us to you. We would like to thank TJ Lutgring for spending an hour with us.


We had the privilege to interview up and coming author TJ Lutgring, author of The Difference Between Soccer and Football, which she plans to turn into a series. She lives in southern Indiana with her loving pets. She is a feature writer for her local newspaper and a volunteer PR/Communications talent to a local semi-pro indoor soccer team. TJ Lutgring also works as a soccer editor for AerysSports.com. She loves to spend time watching soccer and going to USMNT games. She also religiously follows Manchester United and Columbus Crew. We hope you enjoy reading our interview as much as we had fun interviewing TJ Lutgring.

What inspired you to write a Chick Lit/Romance about soccer?
 I felt that there weren’t any books that represented that particular sport in that genre. I’ve always seen romance books about football & basketball and I felt that the soccer needed a good romance book too.
How many books will the series entail?
I'm thinking the series will contain 3 books. The first book was The Difference Between Soccer and Football, the second book will be Football is Easy. I don't have a title for the third book yet.
Do you have the plot lines figured out for the books?
I have an idea for the second book Football Is Easy, but nothing is set in stone. I'm not a structured writer, I go with the flow. Some writers are good at creating an outline and knowing what kind of dialogue will be discussed. I let the character voice out what they want to say, it's almost as if the character is living and breathing. 
Can we get an inside scoop of who the next book will be about? Who will be the main characters?
In the second book Football Is Easy, the main characters will be Katie & Jack. Someone is getting married! The characters from Difference Between Soccer And Football will make re-appearances and there will be some new characters. (We got the inside scoop as to who it is, but decided not to ruin it for you. It's going to be good! )
We are dying to know who inspired the character Cris?
Cris is a combination of different soccer players. It's not anyone in particular. I just took a little of each player that I like and admire, and developed the character. Once I had the character developed, he just took on a life of his own and became Cris Davis. A lot of people believe it's Cristiano Ronaldo,but it isn't, I just want to clarify that.  

Can you clarify if the character Marisol was at all inspired by Irina Shayak? That character has been bugging me! I can't stand her!
LOL! No, she wasn't the inspiration for Marisol. I get that question a lot also. I can see why the readers would associate her with that character. I don't know how she came about, but she just did. It was actually fun to write her in the book. It's fun playing or should I say writing the bad girl. Well let me just say, you wrote a pretty darn good bad girl. We hated her so much we wanted to slap her! Ugh, she killed us!

When did you fall in love with the game of soccer?
I fell in love with the sport during my freshman year of college. This guy in my speech class was the defender for our university's team and invited us to watch him play. I decided to go see him play and cheer him on. Well, he ended up not playing, but that was okay because I fell in love with soccer. It was the most exciting game I had ever seen. After that, I wanted to know everything about the sport. I went home and researched everything I could and started to watch games. It became a love affair and I have never looked back. I love the sport!
How do you feel about FIFA's new rule of not allowing players to remove their shirts?
LOL! I'm against the rule! I think the players should be allowed to celebrate their goals in any which way, that's not offensive, please. I think the players at the moment of achieving a goal get wrapped up in their emotions.They don't think about what kind of celebratory dance or if they will take off their shirts to celebrate their achievements, they just go with the flow. They should be allowed to celebrate it freely without being penalized. Plus on the other hand it's a great marketing ploy to get more women to watch the sport, so they can admire the players. LOL! Which is a bonus right? We couldn't agree more with you Trista. Let see more fabulous Abs and muscles. Le sigh.


When you write a love scene in your stories, what goes through your mind? How do you mentally prepare for it? Do you listen to a certain song or music? Or watch a romantic movie?
LOL! I honestly write a love scene right before I'm about to go to bed. I take that hour before going to sleep, when I'm in a daze and just write the scene. I don't think about what I'm going to write or the dialogue. I just write the scene out. Otherwise I will over analyze the scene and question if he would do that to her, or if she would say that to him. I would just pick the scene apart. So I just write it out, and then go over it later. I also listen to music. Actually music is a big influence in my writing. I like to listen to classical music to get my creative juices flowing. I also wrote The Difference Between Soccer and Football to particular songs. I made up my own soundtrack, if you will, to the book. I think I will post the list of different songs on my FB page or my video blog. I can also give you guys a list of the songs to you if you want. We would love that! 
What is your favorite curse word?  LOL, Son of a bitch.
What is your favorite Romantic/Chick Flick movie of all time?
I can only pick one?! Oh man that's hard. Okay. We know it’s hard, so we'll give you 2 movies. It would have to be the recent BBC version of Persuasion and also Pride & Prejudice with Kiera Knightly. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan. I love anything by Jane Austen

What is your favorite adult beverage?
I'm normally a wine drinker. In Southern Indiana ther are about 13 wineries. One of the wineries here makes a blueberry wine which is actually really good. I prefer my wine sweet. At times, I enjoy Cranberry Juice, Vodka & Red Bull. I like it because it perks me up.

If you could only recommend one book that is a must read, which one would it be?
Wow! That's a hard one. I have like 3 boxes of books here that I absolute love. One book, huh? Hmmmm, well I guess it would be Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor Series #1) by Jill Shalvis. The Lucky Harbor series is fantastic and I absolutely love them. I read the series when I need a pick me up. It's one of those books I can read again and give a collective sigh. Sounds like a fun read! We'll just have to check it out. Okay, I will be the one to ask the embarrassing question. How is the men and the sex in the book? LOL, the men are hot and sex scenes are pretty HOT aslo. Yes! That's what we like to hear, not that we care. Though it's fun to read sometimes. (Blushes)

If you were stuck in a luxurious hotel room with any man, drinks and a book? Who would it be? What drink and what book?
Well the guy would be a soccer player his name is #%$^&*$#^*^^*. LOL! Actually, TJ Lutgring was kind enough, to divulge who it was. We just decided to keep it a mystery. We did look him up and he is HOT. As for the drink it would have to be wine. The book would have to be Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor Series #1) by Jill Shalvis.

So what is the difference between soccer & football?
LOL! There is no difference between the two. I think if anything the difference is on how the sport is viewed in America vs internationally. I think I named the book that because Maddie is from America and she viewed soccer from the American stand point. We see what you mean,  little kids playing for AYSO or MLS. Yeah, we get what you are saying. It makes sense! As opposed to internationally where the sport is followed as a religion and with a lot of pride. I do think that America is starting to open up more to the sport. Which is great!

I know that you released the book The Difference Between Soccer And Football last year. Which you know that WE loved it! However you had a couple of not so nice reviews. Which gutted you. Now with your re-release of the book, what made you change your mind? How do you feel now?
Thank you ladies for being so supportive and wonderful about the book. When I released the book I had a lot of positive feedback. It never crossed my mind how I would feel or react to negative reviews. So when I did encounter that, it broke me. I was heart broken and I took the book down. I felt as if all my hard work was not good enough. I doubted myself as a writer. It was the lowest point in my career so far. 

So what made you change your mind and push on thru with the book? Which by the way, pleases us to no end! Since we are dying to know what happens in the series. 
Honestly, I took a moment to let the bad reviews sink in and deal with the emotions. I thought about the bad and the good reviews that were said. I got so much love from my readers, they are awesome. I got so many people complimenting me about the book. I felt I couldn't let you guys down. If anything those bad reviews made me stronger and made me realize that not everyone is going to like my book and that is okay. I'm okay with that.  

We were all taught this as little kids "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." Perhaps adults should practice that in book reviews or at least be civil about it. Well you know that you have fans here! We love your book and patiently wait for the next book Football Is Easy. We look forward to working with TJ Lutgring for a future fun giveaway. We see great things coming from this author. 


Ciao Bellas,
Molly 

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