Author Spotlight: Liza Malloy Has a New Book!
Bonjour, mes amies! It’s always such fun to feature a fellow Midwest author on the blog, so I’m delighted to welcome back Liza Malloy.
Liza Malloy writes contemporary romance, women’s fiction, new adult romance, and fantasy. She’s a sucker for alpha males, bad boys, dimples, and muscles, and she can’t resist a man in uniform. Liza loves creating worlds where her heroine discovers her own strength and finds her Happily-Ever-After.
When Liza isn’t reading or writing torrid love stories, she’s a practicing attorney. Her other passions include gummy bears, jelly beans, and the occasional marathon. She lives in the Midwest with her four daughters and her own Prince Charming. Her books are available in both paperback and ebook, and can be found on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more!
Check out her Linktree to connect with her on social media, learn how to get free books, or visit her website.
Today she’s going to tell us about the inspiration for her newest novel, Love All. Liza, the floor is yours…
Thanks, Nan, I’m glad to be here today.
I am a distance runner, and for the past decade, I’ve done the majority of my runs on a treadmill in my basement. With multiple young kids, the only time I could squeeze in a good run was during their naps. To keep myself entertained over the miles, I watch music videos. Amidst the monotony of running in place, these videos are fully captivating and often send my imagination wandering.
When I first saw the music video “Colors” by the singer Halsey, I jumped to conclusions about the song’s message. The video features wealthy tennis players and I assumed the song was about a young woman -who didn’t quite fit in–falling for a rich young man and for his father. Later, I read that “Colors” was actually about relationships where the vibrancy of one of the lovers slowly fades.
The fact that I’d been so off-base about the meaning of the song amused me, but something about the video still drew me in. Over my next few long runs, I started daydreaming about a couple of college tennis players with starkly different backgrounds falling for each other. The enemies-to-lovers trope was an obvious fit for the story, especially when I decided to flaunt the notion of first impressions and assumptions (like mine about the song) turning out to be completely off base. I’m not normally a fan of enemies to lovers stories, but I am obsessed with the witty back and forth banter between the two main characters.
Olivia emerged as the immensely talented main character, a woman whose fierce determination and downright stubbornness have taken her far in life, but may ruin her chances at love. Her counterpart, Nate, starts the story filling the part of the stereotypical spoiled rich man, but as the story develops, the reader will soon realized they may have misjudged Nate as much as Olivia does. Much like with the song, “Colors,” there are many layers to the characters that eventually show everything is not as it seems in their lives.
When I wrote this story, I’d just finished reading several books which included the popular grumpy-sunshine trope, but in each of those books, the hero was the grump. I personally think women can do anything men can do, including filling the role of the grump, so you’ll see this trope in Love All, but rest assured, sweet Nate is nothing but sunshine.
I trained for a full marathon while writing this book, and I spent the majority of my runs plotting the story right down to specific dialogue exchanges. After my post-run shower, I’d sit down at my laptop, and the words would fly onto the page as quickly as I could type. Normally, when I write a book, I spend about as much time (if not way more) staring at the computer screen and thinking about what to type as I do actually “writing” the words, but not with Love All. This story was truly composed on the treadmill.
Moments after I completed a nineteen-mile training run on the treadmill (yes, you read that correctly… I spent HOURS on the dreaded treadmill), I learned my upcoming race, the Kentucky Derby Marathon, was cancelled due to Covid. Initially, I was devastated, having spent months of my life torturing myself to train for a race I could no longer experience. But while I never got my medal for crossing that 26.2 mile finish line, I did get a completed book… and that’s pretty cool, too!
My only regret with this story is that I tied up all the loose ends. I fell in love with these characters and their chemistry—just as I know you will—and I would’ve loved to see another story with these characters. However, Love All is truly a stand-alone book.
Love All
College students Nate and Olivia are a perfect match on the courts and in the sheets. Everywhere else, they’re polar opposites and sworn enemies. But as the chemistry builds, a figure from Olivia’s past unexpectedly pops back into her life and the couple realizes they have more in common than they thought. Are these star-crossed lovers doomed to repeat their parents’ mistakes, or can they build a life together once the final set is played?
5 Comments
Roseann McGrath Brooks
Perfect “match” with that title!
Liza Malloy
Hahaha right? Luckily this one came to me easily 🙂
Liza Malloy
Thanks so much for having me on your gorgeous blog today, Nan! It’s been a while since I’ve published a standalone book (I’ve been busy with my mafia series for a couple years now), and I’m so excited about this story! I’ll check back later today and answer any questions readers leave in the comments.
Liz Flaherty
This reminds me–for no good reason–of a music video back when music videos were new–that my husband and I watched. The stories we “got” from both the video and the song differed from each other in every possible way, but they both worked. They both satisfied. Your book sounds wonderful, and good luck on the next marathon.
Liza Malloy
Haha yep. Always happens to me with music videos! Thanks so much!