THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
SWEET DREAMS Series
Get a behind-the-scenes all-access pass to Sarah Peis' Sweet Dreams Series!
SYNOPSIS:
All of the books are based in the small fictional town of Humptulips, Colorado.
They are about a group of friends who navigate through the ups and downs of life, sticking together through thick and thin.
Each book is a standalone romcom and about a different couple.
What is the sub-genre and trope? Did your characters lead you to this genre or
was that decided before the story began?
All books in the series are romantic comedies. Tropes: friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, boss-employee, alpha male, billionaire, surprise wedding, surprise baby, forced roommates
I adore reading romcoms so always knew I wanted to write them. My other passion is romantic suspense and I’m currently writing the first two books in a new romantic suspense series coming early next year.
Are you more character or plot driven?
I am mostly character driven and love to follow where they lead me 😊
With many main and secondary characters, how
do you keep them separated in your mind?
Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?
I have a lot of character outlines saved all over my computer that I usually can’t find when I need them lol.
I have been planning on putting a vision board together since I first started writing three years ago but it still hasn’t happened… maybe next year.
I know from previous interviews that
characters take on a life of their own.
Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own
direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?
Definitely! Willa is the most vocal character I’ve ever written, and she refuses to take any direction.
Another strong character who knew what she wanted was Kinsley, who unfortunately didn’t make good choices in her life haha - at least until she finally realized she was meant to be with Landon!
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you
know?
Haha God no, all male POVs are part of my imagination!
Are any of the female POVs based on anyone
you know?
For this one I have to say partly yes. I have been known to base characters off people I know, but only certain traits. No character has ever been exactly like a person I knew in real life.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
I hated writing the scene when Kinsley walked away from Landon in Some Call It Devotion. But she was determined to see it through, so I just had to go with it.
What is your favorite book in the series? (if
applicable)
That’s a tough one! All of the books in the series are equally as important to me (just like all my children lol). I’ve written them at different stages of my life and have given each one all I had at the time.
I know that we aren’t supposed to have “favorites”
as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
That’s something I could never say out loud, just like you’d never tell anyone who your favourite child is lol
Series question - Who is your favorite couple
and why did you decide on their dynamics?
That’s another tough one, since they are all so different.
I love Willa and Jameson, because to me they’re meant to be together and are the perfect example of opposites attract. They’re also what started the whole series, so they’ll always be special to me.
But then there are Stella and Mason, who really needed each other. And I don’t know if Stella would have ever realised her full potential without Mason by her side.
What I love about Maisie and Oliver is that she was always it for Oliver. He knew from the start that she was the other half of his soul. And he wasn’t afraid to show her.
And of course there’s Landon and Kinsley, the love-at-first sight with a slight hiccup couple. They were always meant to be together. And after a few misunderstandings and poor decisions they finally got their HEA.
And you’ll just have to wait for Some Call It Attraction to release to find out why Rayna and Grayson also hold a special place in my heart 😊
How do you get inside these character’s heads
to find their perfect HEA?
Imagination and a lot of chocolate and wine lol
What scene in this book/series sticks out the
most for you? Why?
I always think about the scene when Kinsley realises there is no way she can be friends with Landon.
Or when Stella finds out that Mason confronted her mom and freed her from her toxic influence.
Or the scene where Oliver proves to Maisie that she means everything to him.
I think it’s the pivotal scenes that show how much the characters love each other that do it for me every time.
Series - Were any of the books harder to
write than others?
The hardest was probably Some Call It Love – but only because it was one of the first books I’d ever written and the first in a series.
How long did it take you to write this book/series?
The series so far has been taking me three years to write. I’ve said I’m done about three times, and then go on to write another one. But I go where the characters take me, and to be honest Rayna’s story needed to be told. I had no choice lol
How did you come up with the title for your
book and (if applicable) series?
I wanted a title that had something to do with love. And so the series was born.
If you met these characters in real life
would you get along?
Absolutely. I love cupcakes as much – if not more – than Willa. And who would want to say no to a coffee and cake from Sweet Dreams? I’d love to catch up with everyone there and cuddle their babies.
Series question – Did you know in advance
that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the characters in
book one demand their own story?
I didn’t plan to write a series, but the characters demanded their stories to be told. So here we are, three years and nine books later (includes four novellas) 😊
If your book/series were made into a movie,
which actors do you see as playing your characters?
Haha, I haven’t really thought about it. And I also don’t have vision boards with photos of what I think my characters look like. Every reader pictures them differently and I want to encourage that.
Can you give us a hint as to what we can
expect next? Whether a new book and
series or a sequel to an existing series?
Can you share a small tease?
I just finished writing two novellas in the Sweet Dreams series (but then that’s it. No more books in this series… ). One is called Glamour and part of an anthology called “Snowed Inn” coming out December 2. This is the prequel to Some Call It Attraction.
The other one is called Spark, and Clay’s story. It’s part of a Valentine’s anthology called “With every beat of my heart” that releases in Feb 2022.
Excerpt from Spark:
Clay shifted again, his arm brushing mine. The small contact grounded me. And reminded me exactly why Roger and I weren’t meant to be. We were soggy biscuits and lukewarm coffee. Clay and I were top-shelf whiskey and juicy burgers.
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2023/02/author-at-glance-sarah-peis.html
BIO:
Connect with Sarah:
Email:
sarahpeisbooks@gmail.com
Website:
http://www.sarahpeis.com
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Hello, my name is Willa, and I’m a walking, talking cupcake eating disaster. Need to accidentally get arrested? Just ask me how, I’ve been there. Want to know how to send the most embarrassing text messages to your crush? You guessed it, I’m your woman.
But what I do best? Bail my dad out of jail. And apparently pay off his debts. Which is how I find myself working for Jameson Drake, aka hot boss, who takes broody alpha to the next level.
I wish that was where the mess that was my life ended. But I seemed to have caught pesky feelings. And I simply can’t fall for Jameson. Only it might be too late.
Just kidding.
This is not a fairy tale. Just a story about a girl who changed the course of her life and found more than she could have ever hoped for as a result.
But let me start at the beginning. The part where I got away from my controlling family and had to figure out how to make it on my own. Because turns out the only skill I had was how to match my outfits.
Now I was left with no place to live, a new job I wasn’t qualified for and an unhealthy obsession with Mason Drake.
But the one thing I could never do was give in to the temptation that was Mason. Because I needed my job now more than ever. And he was my boss.
My whole life I dreamed about meeting my knight in shining armor, but it turned out he was just a loser covered in tinsel. After I picked up the pieces and put myself back together, I swore to never let anyone else break my heart again.
Call me a cynic, but after the mess I made of my life I didn’t think a happily-ever-after was what fate had in store for me.
At least that’s what I thought before I met Oliver, who thinks we're meant to be together and is determined to prove it to me, no matter the cost.
But Oliver has secrets of his own. And they are catching up to him. Now I just have to figure out if he is worth risking my heart again.
Tracking down my husband was easy, getting him to sign the divorce papers wasn’t. Because Landon West has an agenda: He agrees to sign the papers if I live with him for twenty-one days. If I still want to get a divorce at the end, he’ll give it to me.
I agree to the deal and realize my mistake as soon as I move in. Landon is everything I’m not. Fun, easy-going, loved.
He might be my opposite in every way, but he is also the only one who sees the real me. The only one I can truly be myself with. The only one I want to be around every second of every day.
What happens if I don’t want our marriage to end once the twenty-one days are up? Because that’s not an option. I’m engaged to another man and supposed to marry him in less than three months.
He’s used to champagne and caviar; I’m used to burgers and boxed wine. We were as opposite as two people could get, yet we became best friends, anyway.
Turns out all it took to tear us apart was a lie.
The last thing I expected was to see him again years later on the set of a reality TV show I’m a contestant in. It doesn’t take long for us to fall back into an easy friendship I thought I’d lost forever. But the feelings I tried so hard to ignore refuse to stay dead and buried.
What will he do when he finds out that I lied all those years ago? Because I can’t walk away a second time. Not even when being with him could get me kicked off the show.
This is Rayna’s story and a second-chance, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy.
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