The Writer’s Desk with Lisa Phillips

Lisa Phillips is a USA Today and top ten Publishers Weekly bestselling author of over 50 books that span Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line, independently published series of romantic suspense, and thriller novels. She’s discovered a penchant for high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after.

Lisa is a British ex-pat who grew up an hour outside of London and attended Calvary Chapel Bible College, where she met her husband. He’s from California, but nobody’s perfect. It wasn’t until her Bible College graduation that she figured out she was a writer (someone told her). When she’s not writing, you can find Lisa with a proper cup of tea and her nose in a book.

Connect with Lisa on her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, BookBub, and sign up for her newsletter here.

More about Cold Dead Night:

The FBI betrayed her. Now they need her.

Private Investigator Kenna Banbury lost everything two years ago at the hands of a serial killer. From the ashes of that encounter, she’s built a life she believes in, searching for the lost and forgotten all over the western US.

Bringing her own brand of justice.

When a series of murders drags her into an FBI investigation, Kenna finds herself back in the place where it all went wrong. Struggling to make sense of the case, Kenna’s past and present collide in a deadly plot that risks another betrayal and threatens to shatter everything she’s built.

Kenna faces the darkest part of her past in this first book of a brand-new series from Lisa Phillips.

Purchase a copy of Cold Dead Night.

Q&A with Lisa Phillips

TG: Everyone always asks for an interesting fact, we’re going to flip the question. What is one boring fact about yourself?

LP: I dye my hair.

TG: Where did you get the inspiration for Cold Dead Night?

LP: I wanted to write about someone who had suffered a trauma and is trying to still live their life, such as it is.

TG: Do you have any habits or rituals as a writer?

LP: I show up at work every day.

TG: What habits would you encourage others to take up to be a more productive writer?

LP: Learn what process works for you, and keep looking for ways to optimize it.

TG: What do you snack on or drink while writing?

LP: Fizzy water.

TG: How do you overcome writer’s block?

LP: It either means creatively you’re burned out — in which case you need to recharge those batteries. Or it means there’s something wrong with the story, even if you can’t tell what that is. You have to figure out which it is, and then work the problem.

TG: Are you an “edit-as-you-go” writer or do you wait until the very end before you do any editing?

LP: I get the story down, writing a list of things to fix as I go. At the end, I go back through and edit.

TG: What would you say is the most common mistake new writers make?

LP: Thinking a story is just about what the characters are saying and where they’re going. The story is actually about what they’re FEELING and why it matters.

TG: What is the best piece of writing advice you’re ever received?

LP: Don’t name the emotion (Susan May Warren). You have to show the reader with action and thought what the character is feeling. Saying “She was angry.” or “She felt scared” is flat and evokes nothing.

TG: What is coming up next for you?

LP: I’ll be alternating between this new series (Brand of Justice) and a new romantic suspense series, Benson First Responders. And in 2023 – Sunrise Publishing, and Last Chance County Fire and Rescue!!