Thia Finn Interview Published on: 18, Jun 2020

Growing up in a small southern town is like having a village to raise a child. Memories of Halloween, of trick-or-treating over the entire town because my parents knew who lived in every house, always comes to mind. Walking to school, going home for lunch, and attending football games hold some of my favorite memories, too. We would go to our friends’ houses for lunch too.

I attended UT for a short time because I returned home to be married but that year of my life changed everything. People from all over the world come to UT for an excellent education, so for the first time I found myself the little fish in an ocean. I went alone, no friends, no family, and no roommate but I quickly learned to navigate the waters by making new friends, learning to ask for help when needed, and trusting my own instincts.

My husband of forty-four years and I married in May of 1976. I graduated in 75 at seventeen, left for a year, and came back home to marry the following year. We managed, on our own, to cram four years of college into three years. I did NOTHING but study and with a degree in English Literature, that was long hours of reading and writing.

After retiring I started writing again. He’s been supportive of my new career but hates when I buckle down and write hard to complete a new book, so I try not to push deadlines. He doesn’t like attending signings with me though. He’s not a reader and doesn’t understand the enthusiasm readers have for books.

Teaching middle school was the best. It’s a new world everyday with those kids. One day, they want to be adults, the next a kindergartner all over again, so it’s never a dull moment. When I started working on my teaching certification, I always felt like I would teach high school. After subbing in one, I decided I wasn’t cut out for that level of maturity (or lack of). Middle school was the perfect fit. I loved teaching. Honestly, those who don’t love it should quit and do something else because their negative attitude is picked up on quickly by the students. I hate that schools are forced into teaching to the test in most states. We did testing but not to the degree that it’s forced on schools now. If you’re doing a good job of challenging your students on a daily basis and covering the curriculum, then you shouldn’t need to teach that way.

The school district I finished my last twenty-two years in was very strict with the students so discipline was not much of an issue. As the librarian, I had the pleasure of becoming “friends” with the kids who skipped lunch to read, kids that didn’t have many friends because they weren’t the social butterflies who lived for a crowd, and kids who needed a quiet place to escape every day. I got to know those kids very well. We had time to discuss books, genres, tropes, characters, etc. I learned to love some fantasy and sci-fi at their insistence and they learned to at least try historical, relationship, and family stories they would otherwise never pick up.

I retired because I felt like it was a great time. My daughters were through with college and I wanted to do other things before we got too old to enjoy them. My husband retired two years before me and really wanted me to retire so we could go and do.

Sophie and Becks are the characters in Becks. These two are looking for something in their lives that they’ve failed to find so far. They both want to make it in the music world but Becks has more outside interference that Sophie is drawn into. Together, they make it work and come out stronger in the end.

Blue’s character attitude is based on guys I knew going to high school and college. That “football boy” with the ego, the talent, the swagger is a combination of many guys. His story is very loosely based on a young man I know who actually played college ball and had that injury happen to him. The story and situation is totally fictitious though. I asked a few young men I know how they would handle that situation and got mostly joking answers. It was as though they couldn’t fathom such a tragedy.

I love writing romance because I love an HEA. I feel like nothing’s ever resolved in many other genres.

I had finished my rockstar series, Assured Distraction and wanted to branch out to something else. I’ve been attending football games my entire life. My dad was a huge football fan and loved the Longhorns. And, It’s Texas, remember? My town is a football town. UT is a football college. I know football. I knew stories, the game, the players so it was a natural to jump over to write football romances.

I intend to write at least two more books for that line of stories. I have the cover done for book three.

I depend on the wonderful photographers I’ve become friends with to find my models. Wander Aguiar and I are good friends. Christopher John worked and found the Becks for me. Reggie Deanching was so kind to me when I started with His Assurance and wanted to use a guy who a friend knew from her gym.

I meet models all the time at signings, too. Most are great guys to visit with. They live dedicated, interesting lives. I only wish I could be as dedicated as those guys are to keeping their bodies in such shape. Their diets and workout routines would be difficult for most of us to even consider following, yet most of them get up, while the rest of us snooze, and hit the gym.

Andrey Bahia, Wander’s partner, always knows what I’m looking for in models. He sends me shots to drool over and tempt me with. Roddy Hanson was one of them. I’ve only spoken with Roddy online because he’s living in another country promoting his businesses. I look forward to meeting him sometime soon.

Offroading in our polaris RZR is a great way to spend time in the woods, the dunes, or the beach. We go as often as possible, meeting family in east Texas. We’ve traveled over Utah, Colorado, and West Virginia riding. It’s a wonderful way to see places you can’t see from a plane or on a highway. Most of our frequent riding is in the fall and spring because it’s hot in Texas in the summer. We go to other states in the summer to ride. I want to go to Idaho to ride soon.

Cover of the Month made me get out of my comfort zone and ask people for help getting the book in the top ten. I never expected to win, so top ten became my goal. I spend a lot of time connecting with people I haven’t spoken to in a while as well as those I talk to weekly. So many people jumped in to help me out with it, too, otherwise I wouldn’t have met my goal.

I would love to say the next Fall Boys will be this fall but honestly, it’s hard to write with the world around me in such turmoil. The pandemic, the social isolation, and now the hated being spewed from everywhere makes me get inside my own head a lot. I can’t write that way. I can’t focus enough to do what I need to. I have two books that are 90% finished and 50% finished that I have to get done before I can think about Fall Boys again.

I found the monthly contest on another author’s page and voted. I kept looking at the site and reading what it had to offer. I hate marketing and felt like AllAuthor would provide me with another way to get my books out to the masses without too much work on my part. Anything that helps without too much time devoted is what I’m always searching for. I just want to write. Some authors live for the marketing. Not me. Just let me do what I know. Let the experts so the rest.