A Hands on type of girl

I'm sorry I'm running late today, its been a strange few days. But today I have a very special guest,Vivian Arend, one of my all time favourite authors so i'm just going to say hello and let her tell you all about her exciting life.

You’re a very hands on type of girl, your bio says you have hiked, biked and paddled your way around, you also have two high adventure series, Xtreme Adventures and very soon the first book in the series Adrenaline will be available. What activities do you enjoy and how much of an expert are you?

I've been teasingly called a Jack of all Trades, master of none. This applies to my outdoor abilities as well. I grew up in a family that loved to downhill ski, so I started out fairly proficient at that sport. When my husband and I started dating we went hiking together and expanded our wilderness excursions from there. Backcountry skiing (with a backpack of supplies) to get to remote cabins was our typical 'drop the kids off at Gramma and Grampa's and get away' at least once a year. It was inexpensive and took us some beautiful places in the Canadian Rockies.

We then moved into the "lake country" of Alberta, and took up canoeing. Same idea--with all our camping gear loaded up we'd head into the wilderness for a few days of quiet and fishing. The neatest trip we did like that was into an area in northern Saskatchewan when we had to portage 19 times (pick up the canoe and carry it and the gear) --the shortest over only a few metres, the longest for 1 1/12 kilometres.

When we moved closer to the Pacific coast, kayaks became the way to go. When we moved into a rock climbing mecca, I learned to climb. 

Hmmm, maybe all the moving we've done is why we like so many activities!

I know your building your own home, and again I get the impression you are actually doing some of the building yourself, do you want to tell us about it? Did you design the house? I’ve always wanted to design and build my own home.

We are doing some of the work ourselves! (Jack of all trades, right?) My husband is doing far more than I am, but we find there are things that he likes to do that I don't, and the other way around, so it works in the end. We contract out the things we can't do--because of legal or manpower reasons--or the things we don't WANT to do, and somehow manage the rest.

We designed the house in terms of doing a layout--living room here, kitchen here, laundry and bath and etc. Then we get an architect to do the official drawings so there are actual measurements etc on the page. I designed the kitchen myself using excel spread sheets to set up measurements, and my husband is building the cupboards to put it together. With all of the steps involved in house building, there is always something to work on.

We're now at the stage where I'll be spending time painting the walls while my husband and daughter stain the windowsills and paint the trim. Floor tile, hardwood flooring, putting in the plumbing... Okay, I'm getting too tired thinking about it, but it's fun when you do it step by step and see the results bloom. makes the hard work worthwhile.

Just one question about your writing, you have, what some what some would consider the wrong lead characters, people who have disabilities, I love the realism of it, not everyone is perfect, but why did you decide to use them from so early in your writing?

Robyn (heroine from WOLF SIGNS) was the one who started the entire writing journey for me. Her being deaf was a natural expansion of reading a book where the mates could hear each other speak mentally. I thought how wild that would be for me to experience...and how much more for someone who couldn't hear in the first place. The rest of who she is and how she responds to situations are also fairly natural--I've met many people over my life and one truth shines out hard: attitude matters far more than any physical issues we have to deal with. Writing a strong, capable woman who happened to be deaf made sense.

And the more I've written, the more I try to keep my eyes open to see real people who are simply living their lives, making a difference. Like an abused woman who gets out of the relationship to save herself and her children. Like a badly injured climber who's regaining control of her life and pushing to find happiness again.

I'm less likely to read a book about a billionaire and a perfect life. I'm not interested in reading books about super angsty situations--I want to read about moving forward into a positive future. I guess that's why I try to write those kind of books.

And finally what are you up to this year?  

The first book in the Adrenaline series is coming March 5. HIGH RISK is my first mass market/digital release with Berkley, so that's a fun thing to look forward to. Book 2, HIGH PASSION, will be out in September, and yes, this is the series with lots of action and mountain activities.

I'm continuing the Six Pack Ranch series with a couple more novels digging into the lives of my contemporary Alberta cowboys. The Takhini Wolves book 3 DIAMOND DUST comes out in August (Still not telling anyone who the hero/heroine are, although people are beginning to guess.)

And I'm hoping in my spare time (HA!) to do a three novella spin off of the Granite Lake Wolves. More details TBA as I get my act in gear.