Loreth Anne White had a wonderful year. Her novel A Dark Lure became one of the biggest hits in 2015. The book topped the Amazon rankings, but it wasn’t enough for the good friend of Land of Books.

If you miss our previous interview with Loreth Anne White, please check it here.

– Loreth, welcome once again at Land of Books. What the readers will find in your new book In the Waning Light?
– To win back her fiancé and a chance at a future she thinks she wants, Meg Brogan, an emotionally-shuttered True Crime writer must return to her small Oregon coastal hometown to tackle the one story everyone says she cannot write—the story of her sister’s brutal murder, and her own family’s demise 22 years ago—only to find that ‘The End’ was not what everyone thought it was, that the real killer could still be lurking in Shelter Bay, and that her future might just lie with a man from her past.

– How came the inspiration about the book?
– It was a trip down the Oregon coast with my husband and our black lab, in a camper, that sparked the initial nugget of an idea for IN THE WANING LIGHT. On that trip we stayed at a tiny marina, and went crabbing in a small boat on Nehalem Bay—all inspiration for Bull’s Marina, which is run by my hero, Blake. That, and the eclectic jumble of seaside towns along that stretch of ocean, the gnarled trees being strangled by invasive ivy and blackberry vines, the incessant rain and brooding mist, and the moaning fogohorns in the night—it all became fodder for my fictional town of Shelter Bay. I was intrigued by the local characters of that area, and how they were, in a sense, an extension of their environment. And how the weather up that coast could change moods. I wanted to capture something of this in the story.
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– For me the challenge, again, was in trying to create a strong female lead who also has credible feelings, fears, vulnerabilities. Sometimes in trying to make a heorine appear ‘strong’, or ‘kick-ass’ we as writers can forget this very real human angle. My hope is to show the fear, but have my character face it anyway.
– Tell us something more about your main character? Is she close to someone from your real life?
– Meg is not modeled on anyone in real life, but I do believe that every single character we write—the good, the bad, and the ugly—are all in some ways extensions of ourselves, and our past experiences with people.
In creating Meg I was casting around for a heroine with a non law-enforcement background who would have reason to investigate a crime from a civilian’s angle—the classic amateur sleuth.
I also have a fascination for true crime writing, and in order to write a true crime story the author cannot be intimated by authority. She has to be able to look into the eyes of victims who have suffered terrible pain, and ask them what it felt like. Plus a true crime writer needs the ability to see the humanity in even the most remorseless and violent of criminals. This became a tenet of my plot: I wanted those attributes to define my heroine, and I wanted to show the humanity in those who lie, and who do wrong, and how the consequences of those actions can ripple across a community for years. And how someone like Meg could bring closure in the end, heal herself in the process. And finally open herself to love.
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– This is always a tough question for me to answer, because the trip that inspired the final book happened some years ago, yet the ideas kept simmering in the back of my mind while I worked on other material. And then there was additional reading/research that I did while also working on other things. But once I’d committed to the actual story idea, it probably took about five months, start to polish.
– A Dark Lure received almost 3500 Amazon reviews with average 4.5 stars. Did you expect such a success by the novel?
It was a wonderful and very welcome surprise to see those numbers climb like that!
– Did you change something into your writing or daily routine after you made the break with A Dark Lure?
– My writing routine still remains pretty consistent at the moment.
– What is next for you?
– My next Montlake/APub book, IN THE BARREN GROUND, releases next summer. It’s a dark, atmospheric romance and police procedural with gothic/horror overtones set in a remote fly-in community just south of the arctic circle.
I’m also presently working on a more mainstream (well, that’s the goal!) thriller/suspense novel, as well as developing a female-driven procedural series with a over-arcing romance.

To learn more about Loreth Anne White check out her Website
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Take a look at her books:
The Perfect Outsider (Perfect, Wyoming)
The Missing Colton (The Coltons of Wyoming Book 3)
Guarding the Princess (Sahara Kings)
The Sheik Who Loved Me (Silhouette Intimate Moments)
The Slow Burn of Silence (A Snowy Creek Novel)
A Dark Lure
In the Waning Light