Interview with Sweet Romance Author Anita Higman

Best-selling and award-winning author, Anita Higman, has thirty-seven books published. She’s been a Barnes & Noble “Author of the Month” for Houston, Texas and has a BA in the combined fields of speech communication, psychology, and art. Anita is married with an empty nest. She loves good movies, traveling with her husband, and brunch with her friends. Please visit her website at www.anitahigman.com and drop her a note by clicking the “Contact Me” button.

“This was a delightful story full of humor with three love stories intertwined together. It was fun to follow the lives of six different characters and see what direction their lives would take them. Immediately I knew that one couple was mismatched and I wondered how Anita Higman was going to get the right ones together. She developed her characters very well and it was hard to put down the book. She really knows how to weave a love story together with beautiful descriptions of love.” –Review by Linda Weaver Clarke, Author of Sweet Romances

Hello, Anita. Please tell us about your sweet romance, A Marriage in Middlebury.

Charlotte Rose Hill, who loves serving up country delicacies and uniquely blended teas, discovers that while she's been faithfully caring for her tearoom customers, she'd also been quietly turning into an old maid. Charlotte did fall in love with a young man, Sam Wilder, when she was 18, but his family forced her to walk away from their relationship. Now, more than a decade later, Charlotte finds that she still has feelings for her first love. Initially thrilled to learn that Sam has come home to Middlebury, Texas, Charlotte is then devastated to learn that he's brought someone with him: his fiancée. But all is not lost when one of the loveable but meddlesome townsfolk decides to get involved. Will the next marriage in Middlebury be for Sam and Charlotte?

Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

The idea for this book came from my absolute love of tearooms in Texas. In fact, here’s my note to readers on that very subject: More than a decade ago I met a woman named Linda Becker who opened a tearoom in the Houston burbs called, Tea for Two. Her eatery and gift shop did so well, she opened a second shop. Over the years I’ve enjoyed her wonderful tearoom fare as well as the quaint ambiance. Linda’s tearoom isn’t just a café—it’s a gathering place for friends, a place to eat home cooked food, and a place so cozy you don’t want to leave. As a writer I thought it might be fun to create a heroine who owns a tearoom similar to Linda’s and set her shop in a small town on the gulf coast of Texas. So, that’s how the novel, A Marriage in Middlebury, was born. Even though my story, the characters, and the town are fictional, Linda’s tearooms are real places you can visit and enjoy. Thank you, Linda, for the great food, and the fellowship, and the inspiration.

I love it when authors tell what inspired them while writing their stories. What kind of research did you have to do?

I didn’t have to do a great deal of research for this novel, because I had a knowledge of small-town life. You see, I grew up on a farm near a small town. I also knew about Southern tearooms, since I’ve been a big fan of them for decades!

So you’re a country girl, huh. So am I. I was raised in southern Idaho on a farm. Who is one of your favorite characters in this story and what do you love about him or her?

I like the heroine, Charlotte Rose Hill, because she is the kind of big-hearted woman I want to be when I grow up. She is generous and caring to a fault, but that’s why the townsfolk adore her so. They don’t just go to her tearoom for the food, but also for the love.

I feel the same way about Charlotte. I have read your novel and enjoyed it very much. You put a lot of personality and humor in your characters. Does humor come naturally for you?

I’m not totally sure. I don’t think I’m all that funny in person. In fact, some people might say I come off pretty serious, but when I write a scene I suddenly see the humorous side to what the characters are thinking and doing. That part does come naturally. So glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you, Anita, for this wonderful interview and for sharing a part of yourself with us.