What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
I was on vacation in Canada and Alaska, and the landscape made a real impression on me. So much so that two years later, I’m still thinking about it often and plotting my return. Seeing the northern lights had been on my bucket list for a long time, and we were there just at the start of the aurora season.
I booked us a midnight tour, and our tour guide drove around all night trying to find a break in the cloud cover to see it (sadly, we did not). But I was riding up front, chatting to the guy about the lights and the landscape and the NOAA facility up there. We had hot dogs and cocoa and s’mores. The van hurtling down dark dirt roads, through the trees. A bear cub darted across the road. And a song came on the stereo (The World Has a Heartbeat by Vicetone). Suddenly, it all felt magical. Otherworldly. Infinite. I was hooked on the feeling. I came home with the idea for a contemporary romance involving a tour guide named Nick and a girl from the city who went to Alaska for a summer job.
I wrote my notes in my idea file and went back to working on a completely different writing project. Two years later, I pulled out my contemporary romance idea, and it bloomed into a small-town paranormal romance almost overnight. A week later, I had an outline; three months later, I’d finished the draft. And I loved it. The world became my favorite place to inhabit, and I wanted to keep living there.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
Music was a huge part of writing this book. I have a whole playlist, but if I had to pick, it’d be between two Noah Kahan songs: Northern Attitude is very much Nick, and Staying Still captures how he feels about Ellery as he’s falling for her.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I mostly read contemporary and paranormal romance, as well as some romantasy and sci-fi. I love writing paranormal romance because I like integrating those supernatural elements into contemporary settings, but I have some contemporary romance ideas in the notebook for a rainy day.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
Love You to Death by Jenna Levine, Fangs with Benefits by Kath Richards, and I’m eagerly awaiting Only One Island by Catherine Walsh.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
Probably when Nick takes Ellery to ‘his spot’ to see the aurora. I wanted to put all that otherworldly awe I felt in Alaska on the page. And the epilogue. From the beginning, I knew how I wanted the book to end, and I loved writing that dramatic moment.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
Not really. As long as I have a steady supply of coffee and a playlist, I’m good.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
I try to find awe in the everyday. The small, simple, maybe mundane things that are kind of amazing if you stop for a second to notice them.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
“Make you laugh and then hit ya right in the feels” is how one reader described it, and honestly, that’s my entire life goal as a writer right there.
Rebecca Arden is the author of the new book A Visitor’s Guide to Guarded Vampires (Ravenslight Creek Book 1)
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