What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
Romance first, always. I'm a romance reader before I'm anything else, and my favorite shape of a love story is the one where he falls first and she is not buying it. Under Pressure started with that shape and something deeper: the role of athletic trainers. Every team has them, nobody writes about them, and they're the last honest person in a building full of people paid to say they're fine. I wanted that job to get a heroine worthy of it. Someone whose principles don't bend for a famous patient, whose whole loyalty is to the body in front of her, and who writes down the real number when he says his pain is a two. Then I gave her Grant Hale, the most generous man in Texas, who has never once been generous with the truth about his pain.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
Grant: "Fix You" by Coldplay. Quinn: "Yours" by Russell Dickerson.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
Absolutely the same. Romance is where my heart is, and I read all across the genre: sports, small town, whatever promises me the ending. I write the shelf I read. It's the only honest way I know to do it. Second comes fantasy and sci-fi; I grew up on Tolkien, Frank Herbert, Zelazny...
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
The Hedge Burner by Morgan Stewart is next.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
Without spoilers: near the end, Grant gives a press conference. He's funny (he can't help being funny), and for once he's completely open about something personal. Writing a man who's entertaining a room and telling the truth in the same breath was the hardest scene in the book and the one I loved most, because that's the whole man: the joke and the ache in one paragraph.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
Tea. I don't think I've written a chapter without a cup within reach. Whether I drink it is a separate question; I've found a lot of cold ones next to the laptop, and I don't believe in reheating them. I have a newborn, and I spent a lot of hours rocking him and researching odd topics like how many screws go into a Lisfranc repair.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
The things that matter get built when nobody's watching. I heard a variation of that some time ago at a conference, and I can't get it out of my head. I feel like it has become a silent theme across my books and my life.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
Somebody out there can see you. The real you, the part you keep behind the smile. It might take years to find them, or they might be standing right in front of you while you insist you are fine. Let them in.
Alia Turin is the author of the new book Under Pressure (San Antonio Outlaws Book 2)
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