Interview with Devon Vaughan Archer | Sound Authors Radio

December 6, 2008

Dr. Kent: It was the start of the Beijing Olympics; that will be this evening. I have one Olympic guest on the show today and that will be a great honor. That’s Paul Kingsman, he’s a medal winner and he’s going to chat with us about his book and his business. At the end of the show will be the German born musician Marcus Rill in the true international spirit of an Olympic show singing in the style of Texas songwriters gorgeous music, and my first guest is a multi-faceted author. He’s written many books and his latest book is called Destined to Meet. It’s a romance novel and what’s better than to have romance at the Olympics. So, let’s talk with the author of Destined to Meet, by Devon Vaughn Archer. Welcome to the show.

Devon Vaughn Archer: Thank you, happy to be here.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit about this romance novel.

Devon Vaughn Archer: Well destined to meet is a 3,000 watt love story. Its takes place in a place called Lake Barri, Colorado when children’s book author and widow Courtney Hudson agrees to go out to a nightclub with her cousin Phoebe. She had no idea that a night of passion awaited her with a sexy Alaskan detective named Lloyd Grand. Unfortunately the night was marred by tragedy when Phoebe was killed by a hit and run driver.

Lloyd was assigned to handle the investigation so right away they face a situation here that takes away from their relationship and adding to their conflict is the fact that Lloyd had dated Phoebe previously. So he not only had to investigate her death but Courtney had to deal with the fact that he had been dating her cousin and so she wasn’t quite sure where that had ended. They had to deal with that conflict as well as the issue of the hit and run investigation that kept things slightly off balance even as they continued to grow together romantically.

Dr. Kent: So, how do you sit down and plan out a plot for a romance novel? Do they just spill out of you or do you have to sit down and say alright, I have to have this happen in the plot and this happen and of course romance novels always end positively. So how do you go about that process?

Devon Vaughn Archer: Yes, well basically you just sit down and map out the strategy as to what types of conflict might be interesting to the reader and how might they be resolved in a way that’s reasonable and realistic. Then you make sure you have enough romance and passion that you can keep the pages turning.

Dr. Kent: Have you ever thought about doing an Olympic romance novel?

Devon Vaughn Archer: Yes actually I have. I’m sort of building towards that now. I’ve had several romances published and I’m hoping those will be the stepping stones to one great classic.

Dr. Kent: Now what I meant by that is see, Olympic also means great and very successful but I actually meant say you’re at the Beijing Olympics and say you’re a famous athlete and you get into a big romance.

Devon Vaughn Archer: Oh yes! Absolutely yes. That would be wonderful and I could see that.

Dr. Kent: Do you follow the Olympics?

Devon Vaughn Archer: What’s that?

Dr. Kent: Are you excited about the Olympics starting?

Devon Vaughn Archer: Oh absolutely yes. I’m really excited to see that. I look forward to that every four years and I’m sure that the US representatives will do well this year especially in basketball.

Dr. Kent: As part of the Olympics we think about many different countries many different kinds of people. How do you write, now does a romance novel have to be two certain kinds of people or could a lets say an Asian be involved with a Mexican?

Devon Vaughn Archer: Yes absolutely right. I would say for me as a writer I actually like to have different cultures of class or nationalities. I think that it makes the romance more interesting if you cross the boundaries if you will and be willing to explore the races between various ethnic racial groups. Or people living in the south versus the north. It’s amazing how many differences there are amongst people but at the same time we’re all bound by the same rules and romance in essence if two people connect and have the right chemistry irrespective of their race, religion, ethnicity, nationality or culture.

Dr. Kent: You’ve done many different books. Tell me a little about those and also how you started to do romance. It’s a great market; you’ve obviously had some success. How did you get into romance novels? It’s a very different genre than some of the other things you’ve done.

Devon Vaughn Archer: Well I got into romance writing mainly because I’m a bit of a romantic myself. I am fortunate enough to be married to a beautiful woman, my college sweetheart and she helped instill the love, romance in me and that along with my writing talent that I had already explored in other areas including mystery writing I was able to turn that into writing romances. I already had my own system, which is sending candy and flowers, opening doors and stuff so I already had the romantic spirit if you will instilled in me so my wife felt that this would be a great way for me to express that side of myself while showing that men can be just as capable of writing a page turning romance novel for women.

I was influenced a great deal by some of the other male romance authors who have been successful such as Robert Waller, Richard Evans and Nicholas Spark to name a few. So I wanted to lend my voice to the genre as well. There are so many opportunities available for male romance writers and I have been very fortunate to be successful in writing these types of books and giving readers, predominantly women, a choice so they don’t have to assume that it’s only female writers or nothing at all. They could get a male perspective on romance and passion.

Dr. Kent: What’s your next project? Are you continuing to write a couple more in the series? What’s your next plan?

Devon Vaughn Archer: My next one is called Kissing The Man Next Door. I actually finished that one up and just sent it to the publisher. This is about a divorcee with a teenage son whom she sends to live with his father. Her name is Mackenzie Reed; she’s a hair stylist and part time lounge singer. She has a new handsome neighbor move in right next door. He’s a disc jockey and part time musician who has an aversion to children. He’s been single all his life and isn’t looking for a family type situation. Things between him and his neighbor get pretty rosy and romantic until Mackenzie’s 15 year old son returns home saying he wants to live with his mother again. So the two protagonists have to deal with the issue of her having a son and is having to make the adjustments necessary so the romance doesn’t die in the process.

Dr. Kent: So would you like to keep writing these romance novels? Do you have more mystery in you? What’s your goal as an author?

Devon Vaughn Archer: My goal is to write novels that readers love to read. That’s really my goal, whether I’m writing romance novels or mystery novels I really just am interested in writing because I love to write and I just happen to be talented enough to write in more than one genre. I just want to be able to fulfill that passion in me to write as well as I can and have as big an audience as I can. So writing in more than one genre has given me the opportunity to spread my wings if you will and build a nice fan base at the same time.

Dr. Kent: Where can we find out more about you?

Devon Vaughn Archer: You can find out about me, I’m really well ensconced on the internet so I’m really accessible there. I have a MySpace page; www.myspace.com-devonvaughnarcher.

Dr. Kent: You update that MySpace and interact with fans and all that?

Devon Vaughn Archer: Yes I do and I actually have a website as well.

Dr. Kent: And we can find your books of course all over the web and in book stores. That latest book is called Destined To Meet. What are your other books called?

Devon Vaughn Archer: I have one called Christmas Eve; that came out in December last year. Also Love Once Again, Slow Motion and under a pseudonym I have a number of mystery novels out there. Ones called Case Evidence, another is Justice Served and another is Persuasive Evidence.

Dr. Kent: Well it’s been a real pleasure chatting with you on this Olympic Friday and I wish you all the best and we’ll all go check out Destined to Meet, the newest romance novel from Devon Vaughn Archer. Thanks for being on the show.

Devon Vaughn Archer: Thank you, my pleasure.

Dr. Kent: My next guest after a short break is a man named Paul Kingsman. He’s an Olympic medalist and he’s going to chat with us about Beijing and about his own Olympic adventures. Come on back for that.

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