Novelist Anna Jeffrey likes heroic heroes, off-the-wall characters, and romance nurtured deep in the heart of West Texas. Read on ...

MB: What or who inspired your novel?

AJ: Well, believe it or not, I was driving home from town one day and I heard a radio news blurb about a privately-owned town in West Texas that had just been auctioned on eBay for $1.3 million. Being from West Texas, I was curious about it, so I researched it a little.

The more I learned about it, the more I thought it was a good hook for a story. Knowing that quite a bit of that part of Texas is remote and sparsely populated, it wasn't a stretch to imagine the characters.

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

AJ: I like the characters. But then, I always like the characters I write about. I enjoyed making Marisa a scrappy survivor with a heart of gold and I enjoyed making Terry an aloof guy who was fascinated by her in spite of his determination not to be. I liked the off-the-wall secondary characters, too. Only people who had chosen reclusion for one reason or another could be content in the isolation in Sweet Water. And only people with survival skills, even if they were a little crazy, could make it.

MB: Who is the most heroic person you know?

AJ: My husband.

MB: Who's your romance hero: dark, brooding bad boy or white knight in shining armor?

AJ: How about a dark, brooding knight in shining armor? I like heroes with a dark side, but I also like heroes to be heroic, like Luke in my first novel, "The Love of a Cowboy."

MB: Answer the question you wish an interviewer would ask.

AJ: Hmm. That's a tough one. I've been asked many questions by various interviewers and I can't think of a time when I came away from the experience wishing the interviewer had asked me this or that.

I suppose the best question would be what do I have planned for future endeavors? ... And the answer is something a little meatier. I'm working on a murder mystery/romance now, with a mainstream flavor and told mostly from the hero's POV. I just hope I can make it a good book that readers will enjoy.