I am thrilled to have interviewed author Rochelle Allison, who shared with us details of her writing life, her book ‘The Sweet Spot‘, which was released on 14th February 2023, and answered a few fun questions. This post contains affiliate links.

Born and raised on the beach and in the sun, Rochelle Allison has been living in her imagination since she was a little girl in the Caribbean.

Nowadays, Rochelle lives just outside of Atlanta with her one true love and their kids. When she’s not making up stories, she can be found hiking in forests, swimming, having coffee with friends, playing Wordle or taking pictures. She can almost always be found with a
book…and chocolate.

Most of all, she loves love. A little salty, a little sweet.

For Wren’s story in The Sweet Spot, I was inspired by a podcast I was listening to where a girl spoke about finding her father through a DNA search. She hadn’t even really been looking for her dad, she’d been looking for family members in general, but they found each other. I thought it would be neat to zero in on the emotions behind that.

I have tried and tried to outline my books, but I’m better as a ‘pantser’, meaning, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when writing. I always have a few specific ideas for scenes, and I know who I want my characters to be. As long as I hit on certain plot points, I’m good to go. Any ideas that I want to incorporate along the way either go on Post-it notes next to my computer, or into an ongoing story bible in my notes app.

I chose the title for my book after I was done writing it. My editor had to help me because I was stumped!

I keep lists of names that I like in my notes app. I also have Pinterest boards full of writing stuff, including name lists. I found Wren and Luca’s names on Pinterest!

I actually didn’t have to cut anything vital from this story. I tend to be a more precise writer, so, if anything, I usually flesh out certain bits more afterward.

I chose contemporary romance because it’s one of my favorite things to read, as well as write. All of my books are either new adult or young adult romance.

It took me a couple of years to write this, but that’s because I wrote most of the initial draft (over a few months), and then didn’t look at it for about a year and a half! Once I came back to it, I was done within months.

The Sweet Spot is: beachy, sweet, sexy.

The hardest part of being a writer is disciplining myself to do it even when I don’t feel like it.

Readers should pick this book up because it’s well written, romantic but realistic, and satisfying. Also, people tell me that the way I write creates movies in their heads, as in it’s very visual. (I could totally see this on Netflix!)

Alas, I do not have any pets. (I would love a cat, though.) I prefer to write solo, but I have a couple long-distance friends that I do writing sprints with occasionally.

I do my best work earlier in the day. I need either complete silence or chill music with no words.

I write at my office desk most of the time.

In this movie, I’d love to play someone having fun on the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Maybe having ice cream as one of Wren’s customers!

“What happens with all of Wren and Luca’s friends? Will we get to find out about them, too?”

A big thank you to Rochelle Allison for sharing her writing life with us and for a wonderful interview.