Sword & Silk is pleased to welcome L E Todd.
Her novel, The Spoiler, is a Contemporary New Adult Romance comparable to The Hating Game and Boyfriend Material.
Rose—who suffers from OCD—is fed up with her brother’s best friend, Tristan, spoiling all of her movies and is ready for revenge.
Long Blurb:
Rose Maraczek (21) loves movies. Not just any movies, but sweeping period dramas that take her far away from who she is. Her obsession started in high school when a box of movies appeared on her doorstep and she discovered the relief they could give her from her debilitating OCD. What Rose hates are spoilers—especially those that ruin the escape she seeks.
Tristan Moore, Rose’s former crush and her brother’s best friend, is the bane of her existence. Always at their house, everything he does gets under Rose’s skin, the worst of which is his consistent dropping of movie spoilers. Fed up, Rose sets out to find a new apartment, but it’s while trying to distance herself from Tristan that he reveals one final spoiler—one that makes Rose realize it was Tristan who left all those movies for her years ago.
Now it’s Rose’s turn for revenge as she forms a movie-spoiler plan of her own: Destroy Tristan Moore.
Bio:
LE Todd lives with her family in a wooded northern Michigan haven. When not writing, she spends her time painting character portraits for her books, traveling, fantasizing about future stories, and creating floor plans for houses she’ll likely never build.
An Introductory Interview with LE Todd
Tell us a bit about yourself!
I started writing books in college, completing my first manuscript at twenty-two. It took twelve years for me to feel confident enough in my work to really attempt getting published. At year twelve, I sat down and did a lot of work on that first manuscript. The following year, I wrote its sequel, then got the idea for The Spoiler, which I wrote in just under six weeks. In addition to writing, I spend a good amount of time on my artwork, painting character portraits and scenes from my stories. I’m also a regular reader, an avid baker, and a Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera fanatic. Though I grew up in the metro Detroit area, I now reside with my family in woodsy northern Michigan.
Where did the inspiration for your book come from?
The majority of the inspiration for The Spoiler came from a discussion I had with a friend who enjoys spoilers. She’s rather impatient, while I happen to be quite the opposite. I often won’t even watch movie trailers or previews because I feel they give too much away. The use of movie spoilers as a device in an enemies-to-lovers story popped into my mind soon after, then the other pieces came together as I created the characters.
What is your writing process? Plotter or Pantser? Are you a morning or evening writer? What is your tried and true method for getting words on the page?
I’m kind of both a plotter and a pantser. I often start with an idea and opening pages come to me, so I’ll get going right away on them before I really get the full idea of the story. Once I know where things are heading, I slow down and do some form of an outline so I don’t get too derailed. Even still, within each scene, I’m usually just going along with thoughts as they pop into my head.
I am definitely a night owl and feel I do my best work in the dark, though I usually have to take advantage of daylight hours for edits or revisions.
Authors often impart pieces of themselves into their stories. Which character best reflects you? Do you share any personality traits with your protagonist?
I can usually find bits of myself in every character I create, even if I haven’t intentionally created them in my own image. As for The Spoiler, I most closely identify with Rose—her prominent characteristics and problems, her closeness with her family, her anxieties, her natural tendency to be alone. I drew from personal experiences in many ways, including the more difficult parts of childhood, like being picked on. I also identify with Rose’s mom—her personality, plus every bit about loving Detroit hockey and her dad having played well into his 60s is true for me. I bleed red and white for Hockeytown and grew up watching the Red Wings religiously.
What drew you to your genre as an author?
I focused on writing adult fantasy for years before stumbling upon a specific set of books that drew me in to romance. Those books were written by Lexi Ryan—specifically The Boys of Jackson Harbor series. Though I think The Spoiler has a different feel overall, I would never have written romance if not for Lexi Ryan. I’d had a very different view of what the genre had to offer previously, and her books changed my mind and heart forever. I’m happy to be continuing both with fantasy and contemporary romance as I build my career.
If you could give your teenage self one piece of advice what would it be?
It all happens for a reason. I used to be someone with a fair amount of regret and pain harbored in my heart over difficult relationships and friends of days gone by. I stopped writing for over a decade after some emotional hardships that stilled me in my tracks. But, looking back at how everything transpired in my life has led me to believe that I would not be here, accomplishing so much all at once, had I not endured and persevered. I needed that fuel for my fire.
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