Kame and I *love* Ruthie Knox's books, especially her Camelot series! (Don't believe me? Check out our reviews: book 1, book 2, book 3, and book 4). So we jumped at the chance of interviewing all the lovely characters from Camelot. I let Kame take the reins today; she came up with far better questions than I! The following interview is a bit long, but I had a blast reading it and I hope you do, too!
Plus, Ruthie's giving away 3 ecopies of Making It Last---check the bottom of this post for more information!
WELCOME BACK TO THE BLOG, RUTHIE! :)
Ruthie Knox figured out how to walk and read at the same time in the second grade, and she hasn’t looked up since. She spent her formative years hiding romance novels in her bedroom closet to avoid the merciless teasing of her brothers and imagining scenarios in which someone who looked remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis recognized her well-hidden sex appeal and rescued her from middle-class Midwestern obscurity. After graduating from Grinnell College with an English and history double major, she earned a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably little use. These days, she writes contemporary romance in which witty, down-to-earth characters find each other irresistible in their pajamas, though she freely admits this has yet to happen to her. Perhaps she needs more exciting pajamas. Ruthie abhors an epilogue and insists a decent romance requires at least three good sex scenes.
Where to Find Ruthie:
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Today on the blog we are going to do
something a little different. Ruthie Knox, author of the Camelot series, has
rounded everyone up, and we are having one big interview to celebrate the latest
installment in the Camelot series – the novella Making It Last.
Kame: Hi Everyone, thank you all for
joining us at TBQ's Book Palace today.
I can tell you TBQ and I are HUGE Camelot fans. I myself grew up in a
small college town, but I ended up moving away when I graduated college. Caleb and Katie, did you both always intend
to someday move back to Camelot?
Caleb: Yes.
Katie (at the same time): No.
**they
both laugh**
Caleb: You go first, Katelet.
Katie: Nah, you go ahead.
Caleb: I think, you know, I had the
wanderlust thing, too, but it only lasted for about seven minutes of Basic
Training. After that, I was Ohio boy to the other guys — they all called me
Buckeye — and I bought the house a long time before I left the Army. I figured
Camelot was home, and I went through all those months in Iraq and Afghanistan
knowing exactly what I wanted to come home to. **he looks at Ellen and Henry** Although, I have to say, it's even
better than I thought it was gonna be.
Katie: Oh my god, the sap. **she laughs, and Caleb shoves her shoulder**
Well, unlike hearth-and-home boy, I never thought I'd come back. I thought I
would stay in Alaska forever, or travel around the world with Levi, or go live
in Paris—as long as I can remember, I was hatching some plan to get out. It
wasn't until I'd been away from home about ... I don't know, five years? That I
started to get really homesick. Now I can't wait to get done with school in LA
so Sean and I can move home.
Sean: It's a guh-good place. I mean,
anyplace c-can be good, if it's where yuh-you want to be.
Katie: And if you're with who you
want to be with.
Sean: Yeah.
Kame: Okay, this question is to
everyone but Katie….were you shocked to find out she had secretly married
Levi? Now I don’t know for sure, but I
think I need to give credit to Tony and Caleb for not tracking him down and
giving him a piece of their minds for how he treated Katie.
Caleb: I just keep reminding myself,
"He has a mother," you know? Somebody loves him, even if he's a
hopeless dickbag.
**Tony
laughs**
Tony: Seriously, though, I think we
were all shocked. For me, you know, Katie was in high school when me and Amber
got together, and I remember when she left. Nobody was real happy about it.
Except Katie, I mean. Amber was worried about her for a long time.
Amber (to Katie): Well, you never
came home. It was hard to know how you were really doing, and we just had to
hope, you know, that Levi would turn out to be less of a . . .
Caleb: Hopeless dickbag.
Amber: Yeah.
Katie (reaching for Sean's hand): It
was a learning experience. I figure it made me stronger. And I'm glad Caleb and
Tony managed not to go off on any revenge rampages, since they'd probably get
their asses thrown in jail, and then we'd all have to figure out how to bail
them out.
Kame: Katie – how are you enjoying
life in LA? My sister lived there for seven years and when she moved back east
she said she missed the seasons the most.
Did Sean do an okay job picking a place to live?
Katie: LA's okay. I like my classes,
and Sean's having fun with the business end of stuff. It's so different,
though, you know? I've been in Anchorage, but that's nothing like LA — LA just
goes on forever. And the traffic. Oh my god. It rains, like, half an inch, and
the freeway comes to a dead stop. You'd think acid was falling from the sky.
Sean: The traffic sssucks. B-but
it's not like yuh-you ever drive, babe.
Katie: It's not like you ever let me drive.
Sean: Because you're ssuch a b-bad
driver — you should sssee her in LA, she's like a m-maniac.
Katie: I'm not a maniac. I just like
to take the offensive, whereas some
people—
Caleb: C'mon, Kate. Answer the
question.
Katie: There was another question?
Ellen: About the apartment.
Katie: Oh! Yeah, the apartment's
nice. It's swanky. Sean was all, "We're going to live in the ghetto,"
but really it's, like, the nicest place I've ever lived. I had to buy new
bookcases because my cinderblocks-and-two-by-fours looked really bad there.
Sean: Those fffucking b-bookcases.
Took me ssix hours to p-put those together.
Katie: I told you, you should've let
me do it.
Tony: What was wrong with them?
Sean: They were from Ikea. All those
instructions, and hardware in little b-baggies . . .
Amber (to Kame): You should ask
another question. If Tony gets going on Ikea, we're going to be here until next
week.
Kame: Sean – So is the poster still
up – or did she banish it to the garage?
Sean
(grinning): Place of honor. Right over the bed.
Kame: I'm surprised Katie allowed
it.
Katie
(blushing): I had . . . sentimental reasons.
Kame: Tony and Amber – thank you so
much for sharing your story with us in Making
It Last. It moved me to tears. I know how hard it is to take time for you
as a couple. Has it gotten easier, have there been some added benefits to your
“plan” that you hadn’t thought of? How did you families respond when you
started your plan in motion?
Amber: You're welcome, Kame. I think
. . . I think it's maybe not easier, but it feels
easier, you know? **she looks at Tony**
It wasn't easy to sell the house. Probably it was harder for Tony, but for both
of us, you know, we have so many memories in that house, and it's hard to close
the door on that.
Tony: Would've helped if we didn't
get reamed on it.
Amber: But the market being the way
it is—
Tony: Yeah. I know, hon.
Amber: And the family's been so
supportive. Way more than I ever . . . I guess we maybe should have asked for
more help. In the first place.
Caleb: Anything you needed. You know
you can always ask.
Tony: Thanks, Caleb. We knew that. I
mean, there was never any question, but I guess we were pretty caught up in a
lot of stuff, between my family and Derek being in the hospital, recovering, and
all the work. We're trying to find the right balance with all that stuff now. I
think we're getting better at it all the time.
Amber: Mom's been taking the kids,
and Caleb and Ellen did once.
Caleb: I don't know how you put up
with those monkeys twenty-four-seven, swear to God.
Amber (smiling): Tony and I got to
go up to Toronto for a long weekend, which was . . .
Tony: . . . fucking awesome.
Amber: Yeah.
**they
gaze at each other**
Katie: They do this now. All the
time. It's actually kind of gross.
Amber: Bite me, little sister.
Janet: Language, girls.
**Katie and Amber laugh**
Kame: Caleb, what does Henry call
you? Is he still helping with home improvements and maybe some fixes you do
over at the apartments?
Caleb (leaning back, propping his
head in his hands): He still calls me "Cabe." Ellen says it's gonna
be a while before he can make that "ell" sound—
Ellen: Like a year, but that doesn't
stop Caleb from trying to teach him all the time. "It's
Caaaaayyyyy-luuuub."
Caleb: It worked on the pronoun
thing.
Ellen: It so did not work on the pronoun thing.
Caleb (grinning): You just can't
stand it when I'm right.
Ellen: If you were ever right, we
could test that out.
Caleb (looking back at Kame): Point
is, he'll get it one of these days. He's pretty handy with a screwdriver now. I
take him over to the apartments most weekends so he can hang with me and Grandpa
Derek and Ellen can put her feet up for a few hours.
Jamie: You mean "So Ellen can
work," right? Because the idea of her putting her feet up—
Caleb: Nah, she doesn't work
weekends anymore.
Jamie: You're kidding me. Ellen, is that
true?
Ellen: It's true. Caleb talked me
into it.
Jamie: What did he say?
**Ellen blushes**
Katie: Dude, when she says
"talked me into it," she doesn't mean "talked." She
means—"
Jamie (holding his palm up): I'm
just going to stop you right there.
Katie: Probably wise.
Ellen: Caleb's a good dad. Henry
adores him. And he's . . . he's a great husband. The best husband. In every
possible way.
Kame: Do you have any interest in
working in some sort of function for Camelot Security – it seems it getting to
be the family business?
Ellen: Ha! No. No no no noooo.
Caleb: She's got her hands full
saving the world.
Ellen: Plus, you would drive me cray-zee.
Caleb: Why? We could set you up with
a little office next to mine. Have lunch together. Take turns working and
hanging out with Hank . . .
Ellen: We would always be working. You would never, ever stop. At least now, when
it's five, you come home.
Jamie: Where he finds you working.
Caleb: Exactly.
Ellen: I'm not that bad! I'm getting
better.
Katie (to Kame): It would be such a
disaster. It's just way better to have them overcompensating for the weaknesses
of everyone else in the world in their separate
careers. If you put them in the same office?
Sean: P-probably it would c-create,
like, a quantum ssingularity.
Katie: Or a black hole.
Sean: A black hole that wuh-would
eat humanity.
Katie (laughing): Yes.
Kame: My last question is to
everyone – I know I don’t want to see the Camelot series end, and I know the
story I would love to read; but I am wondering what your thoughts are. Should Ruthie write another book about
Camelot, and if so what story needs to be told?
Janet: If she could stop torturing
my children, that would be great.
Derek: She wasn't torturing them, hon, she was—
Janet: She made them cry! All of
them.
Caleb: Whoa. I never cried.
Janet: You moped. And when men mope,
it's worse than crying.
Ellen: God. Yes.
Katie: I second that. You weren't an
attractive moper, Caleb. Wandering around bleeding from the knuckles for, like,
a week.
Derek: He threw a screwdriver, too.
Ellen: You threw a screwdriver? At what?
Derek: Off the roof of the
apartments.
Caleb (to Ellen): Sweetheart, it was
a bad few days. Let's not talk about it.
Amber: There's definitely no more
books coming about Tony and me.
Tony: We're done being book-worthy.
Unless she just wants to write a bunch of sex scenes, which—
**Amber
smacks his arm**
Tony: What? You always let me do the
good stuff when she's writing a book about us.
Amber: Shut up.
Janet: You children. You have no
class. It's like you were raised by wolves.
**Derek
howls**
Amber: I think, though, seriously,
she should write a book about Patrick.
Tony: Nah, hon, I don't—
Amber: Really. Because she could
give him a happy ending, and if anybody deserves a happy ending, it's your
brother.
Tony (to Amber, after pulling her
into his chest and kissing the top of her head): You're good people, you know
that?
Amber: Let's hope. You married me.
Janet: Just so long as we're done
with the Clarks.
Katie: We're done with the Clarks,
Ma.
Sean: You ssure? Yuh-you haven't let
me m-make an honest wuh-woman of you yet.
Katie: We'll get there.
Sean: We better.
Janet: So that's that. She can have
Patrick. Hands off my kids.
Kame: Thank you all for stopping by today –
this was so much fun. I hope you enjoyed it too!
Caleb:
Thanks, Kame. I think I speak for all of us when I say it was . . . interesting.
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Making It Last by Ruthie Knox
Publisher: Loveswept (July 15, 2013)
Series: Camelot, 4
Genre: Contemporary Romance
RITA finalist Ruthie Knox returns with a brand-new eBook original novella, the finale of her delightfully sexy Camelot series!
A hotel bar. A sexy stranger. A night of passion. There’s a part of Amber Mazzara that wants those things, wants to have a moment — just one — where life isn’t a complicated tangle of house and husband and kids and careers. Then, after a long, exhausting “vacation” with her family, her husband surprises her with a gift: a few days on the beach . . . alone.
Only she won’t be alone long, because a handsome man just bought her a drink. He’s cool, he’s confident, and he wants to take Amber to bed and keep her there for days. Lucky for them both, he’s her husband. He’s only got a few days in Jamaica to make her wildest desires come true, but if he can pull it off, there’s reason to believe that this fantasy can last a lifetime.
Where to Buy*:
More Info:
Read our Double Review HERE--Kame and I both loved this book! :)
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Ruthie is being AWESOME and giving THREE lucky readers an ecopy of Making It Last!
How to Enter:
Leave a comment, answering Ruthie's question (or ask one of your own!). Please leave some way to contact you (email, Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads name, etc).
Giveaway Rules:
Open INT.
Giveaway will end
July 25th.
Winners will be picked via Random.org.
Winners will be announced on the blog (as well as FB and Twitter)
July 26th OR 27th.
Winners will have
48 hours after the day of the announcement to either email me OR reply to the email I send (only applies if you leave an email addy in the comments).
Three prizes = three winners!
GOOD LUCK!
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Thanks for such a fun day, Ruthie! :) I loved seeing the Camelot gang all together like this; we'll have to do it again sometime! And a big thank you to Kame for doing the interview--great job!
Don't forget Ruthie's questions--answer them all, or pick one:
Who do you want to see more from in Camelot?
Or do you have a fave moment that stands out in the whole series, or a favorite character?
I think you already know what I want to see from Camelot--PATRICK! :D Otherwise, wherever you take the series from here, I'll happily follow!
* NOTE * : I have heard from some readers that they are having problems leaving a comment. I'm terribly sorry; I'm not sure what the problem could be, if it's on my end, Blogger/Disqus' end, or a problem with the browser readers are using. I am looking into it though, and I hope that everything is soon fixed. Until then, if you are unable to leave a comment, PLEASE email me, with your comment, and I will manually add your comment (this also allows you to still be entered for the giveaway!). The_Book_Queen (at) yahoo (dot) com
Thanks!
Enjoy!
Until Next Time,
*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!
Award-winning author Sarah M. Anderson may live east of the Mississippi River, but her heart lies out west on the Great Plains. With a lifelong love of horses and two history teachers for parents, it wasn't long before her characters found themselves out in South Dakota among the Lakota Sioux. She loves to put people from two different worlds into new situations and to see how their backgrounds and cultures take them someplace they never thought they’d go.
