Hi guys, we have Lissa Reed stopping by today with her debut novel Definitely, Maybe, Yours. We asked Lissa a couple of questions, we have a great excerpt and a fantastic giveaway so check out the post and click that Rafflecopter link <3 ~Pixie~

Definitely, Maybe, Yours

Lissa Reed

Seattle-based baker Craig Oliver leads a life that is happily routine: baking cupcakes for an enormous family reunion, managing Sucre Coeur for its frequently absent owner, and closing out his day with a pint at the local pub. He has a kind heart, a knack for pastry, and a weakness for damaged people.

Habitual playboy Alex Scheff is looking to drown his sorrows, but instead discovers that he may have a weakness for Englishmen who carry cookies in their pockets. Can a seemingly incompatible pair find the recipe for love in a relationship they claim is casual?

Interview with Lissa Reed

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Lissa Reed, author of Definitely, Maybe, Yours.

Hi Lissa, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Hello and thank you! I’m a writer who works as a software specialist to pay the bills, and I live in Texas with an ailing container garden (it’s too hot!) and my two cats, Trilby and Mina. Writing’s been a part of me for as long as I can remember, my longest-lasting affection. Definitely, Maybe, Yours is my debut novel, and it’s the story of Craig the bakery manager who moonlights as a freelance writer, and how he met Alex, who just got out of a bad sort of thing with a sort-of ex and is feeling a little wary and angry and interested in Craig despite himself. It shouldn’t last more than one night, so it surprises them when it just keeps going…

1) Tell us something no one else knows about your characters.

Alex—whose mother is Russian—says he can’t cook, but the truth is he can cook exactly one thing well and that’s a Russian dumpling dish called pelmeni. The problem is that he only knows how to make it in bulk, and isn’t skilled at reducing recipes at all, so he doesn’t have much time or freezer space for that these days.

Craig’s favorite movie is Room With a View. Or really anything in the later Merchant-Ivory oeuvre. He and his mother used to watch the films during late nights when neither of them could sleep. It’s not a thing he’s ashamed of, he’s just not found anyone else he wants to share his foolproof delightful insomnia remedy with…yet.

2) Have you ever written something that made you cry?

I have in the past killed off a character to whom I had become greatly attached, and it was a huge, unpleasant surprise to me when I realized I had to do it. Talk about killing your darlings! It was the first time I had ever committed murder (fictional murder…not that I have ever committed any other murder apart from the mite-like things that like my tomato plants) and it was just such a shock and so upsetting. Though once I had done it I was like, “Well, now I can do that any time I need to, can’t I?”

3) Have you ever co-written with someone before?

Not really! I think I am too controlling over my vision…lord, that sounds pretentious. What I mean is that I like to have things go a certain way when I have a story to tell, and I am not sure how someone else’s ideas about the same thing would work with that. Best for me not to aggravate other people, I think.

4) What is the most difficult part of writing for you?

Allowing it out into the world and understanding it’s not mine now!

5) Name your four most important food groups.

Wine

Pasta

Cheese

Tea

And it shows. Boy, does it ever.

Excerpt

With a wink, Craig pulls a ten-dollar bill out of his left coat pocket and a carefully bagged almond and raspberry-lemon croissant, Katie’s all-time favorite baked good, out of the right. He passes them across the bar as if he’s James Bond—a very cheeky and cheery sort of 007. “You know I’ll always look out for you. Keep the change.”

Katie squeals and flops across the bar to squeeze him breathless, and her ponytail slaps him in the nose. She bounces off with her treat in hand and Craig shakes his head and pulls long black and red hairs from his face, as he does every time this happens. Katie really is his favorite bartender at The Order of the Garter, hell, his favorite bartender in Seattle and maybe even the world. Much too good to be working at a grotty little pub, fending off unsavory advances and spilled drinks four nights a week; that’s why Craig will bring her any bakery treat she wants, anytime she wants it, until she finally wises up and gets the hell out of this place.

Time for another sip of this excellent, excellent stout: Craig reaches forward. It’s a good Thursday.

Of course, that’s when it takes quite the sharp turn, leaving every Seattle-pub-Thursday Craig’s ever known in the dust.

“Well, aren’t you a hit with the ladies,” comes a surly drawl from his left, startling Craig just as he’s got his fingers around his glass. “Was that a croissant in your pocket, or were you actually happy to see her?”

“Both,” Craig replies, shifting around to lean on his elbow and survey the formerly silent pile of misery hunched over two stools down, the limp guy at the end of the bar Craig had spotted on his way in. He is not unconscious after all, much to Craig’s surprise; judging by the row of empty shot glasses upside down in front of him and the distinct aroma of tequila emanating a good four-foot radius from his person, he should be. Craig winces and turns away as the fumes burn his nose.

“Baked goods. That’s a new one. Never saw anyone use baking to hit on the ladies before.” Mr. Misery sways his head upright, pushes a wild flop of brown hair out of his eyes and swings around until he locates Craig. He blinks. “Does it work?”

Surprised by the color of the eyes meeting his—an unusual shade, gray, not blue-gray or blue, but the gray of a sky covered in early storm clouds—Craig answers without thinking. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t hit on girls. Katie’s my friend, not my type.”

About Lissa

Lissa Reed is a writer of fiction, blogs and bawdy Renaissance song parodies. She traces her first interest in becoming a writer to the fourth grade, when her teacher gave her the gift of her first composition book. A former newspaper editor, Reed shifted her focus to romance and literary fiction early in her writing career. She lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and is currently working on her new novel, Certainly, Possibly, You—the sequel to Definitely, Maybe, Yours.

Where to find the author:
 Blog | Tumblr | Twitter |Goodreads | Facebook

Grand Prize: $25 Interlude Press gift card.
Second prize: One of five e-copies of ‘Definitely, Maybe, Yours

Lissa Reed Rafflecopter giveaway!

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