Q&A With Kira Archer

Kira Archer is the USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary romances novels and under her Michelle McLean name, the author of historical romances! Some of Kira’s many series is The Crazy Love Series, The Sweet Love Series & I Ducking Love You Series. One of Kira’s standalones is 69 Million Things I Hate About You. Under Kira’s Michelle McLean name, her historical romance series are Blood Blade Sisters, & The McGregor Lairds. Michelle McLean’s standalone historical novels are To Trust A Thief, Romancing The Rum Runner & Wish Upon A Star. 

Q: Kira, would you like to give a brief description of your series and standalone books under both your Kira Archer name & Michelle McLean name? 

A: Of course! 😊 There’s a few so I’ll be as brief as I can! 😊Under Kira Archer, you’re going to find contemporary rom coms, lots of opposites attract and enemies to lovers. 

• The Crazy Love series starts with Oz and Cher, a mechanic and socialite who get stuck on a road trip together. Book 2 features Oz’s single-mom baby sister Lena, and Cher’s reformed playboy brother Elliott at their destination wedding. Book 3 takes place at the same time as book 2 with Lena’s BFF Iris getting snowed in in Chicago on her way to the wedding. Iris meets rancher Nash on the plane, and they have an amazing night galivanting around the city while they wait out the storm.
• The Sweet Love series starts with Truly Madly Sweetly (which was adapted as a Hallmark movie in 2018). These features baker Natalie and her “man in finance” Eric who joint inherit his aunt’s bakery and start cooking up some magic together. Book 2 features Natalie’s free-spirit BFF and business partner who meets sexy officer Rick while she’s staking out who has been vandalizing her cupcake truck. And book 3 features Jenny, Rick’s baby sister, and Jared, Eric’s BFF – they are both commitment-phobic and only in it for some fun and games…until the condom breaks.
• The Winning the Billionaire series follows two groups of friends – the men, 4 billionaires—a tech wizard workaholic, a playboy, a dashing Brit, and a golden boy adrenaline junkie; and a trio of friends who win the lotto in book 1. 69 Million Things I Hate About You (soon to be an Amazon movie!) is Cole and Kiersten, tech wiz and his long-suffering assistant who wins the lotto and decides to stick around and see how much she can get away with before he fires her. Shenanigans ensue. Book 2 is Brooks and Leah, the playboy of the group and a pregnant Catholic school teacher who enter in a fake engagement to save her job. Book 3 is our Brit Harrison and Nikki who agrees to be his assistant for the summer…but stumbles into his bed in the middle of the night making his family think they are engaged. And book 4, Chris, our adrenaline junkie, and Charlotte “Charlie”, an insurance investigator who must decide if he’s safe enough to insure when his company goes public. She joins him on a romp around the world that changes both their lives.
• Pretending with the Greek Billionaire (standalone) features a Greek playboy and a woman who runs a children’s home on the island who are thrown together when the media gets a pic of them together and it goes viral. And Say Yes to the Mess (standalone) which features newly divorced mid-30s Summer and sexy mid-20s Garrett who pretends to be her boyfriend to put her ex in his place.
• I Ducking Love You series coming soon

As Michelle McLean I write Historical romances:

• The Blood Blade Sisters series follows a trio of Robin Hood-esque bandit sisters – book 1 is set in post Gold Rush CA, book 2 in Boston right before the Civil War, and book 3 in the South post Civil War.
• The McGregor Lairds follows 4 sexy Highlanders and their feisty ladies. Book 1 is a Taming of the Shrew meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days tale. Book 2 features a highwayman and the woman he didn’t mean to kidnap. Book 3 features a lady and the Highlander she blackmails into helping her escape an arranged marriage. And book 4 features a faithful clansman and the woman he accidentally takes prisoner when he assumes she’s a spy.
• The How to Marry a Gunslinger series – book 1 features an aging gunslinger who just wants to retire and the feisty woman who unfortunately needs his skills. And book 2 follows a gunslinger/gambler who is on the run and looking to lay low but instead finds himself married to a woman who is dealing with demons of her own.
• The Brelsford Brothers series – this one release book 1 in Oct and features 3 Regency romances that are inspired by some of my favorite 90s romcoms. Book 1, So the Marquess Married a Murderess is inspired by So I Married an Axe Murderer; book 2, You’ve Got the Marquess’s Mail is inspired by You’ve Got Mail; and book 3, While the Marquess was Missing is a Regency mashup of Housesitter and While You Were Sleeping.
• Standalones are:  

• To Trust a Thief – a Victorian romance when a thief and a lady team up on a treasure hunt.

• Four Weddings and a Duke – a Regency that features a botanist “Sheldon Cooper” type hero and his former wallflower arranged marriage wife.

• The Duchess Takes it All – set in the same world as Four Weddings, this one follows a widowed duchess who falls for a German count who is forbidden by his family and society’s laws from wedding her.

• Romancing the Rum Runner – a fun romp through 1920s Chicago when a gumshoe detective falls for a woman he doesn’t realize is the notorious rum runner he’s been hunting

• Wish Upon a Star – a bit of a fun departure for me, this one is a zombie apocalypse novella loosely based on Pinocchio.

Q: What drew you into writing contemporary romance & historical romance? 

A: Historical romances were my first loves (starting with fairy tales and then moving into gothic romances by Victoria Holt and on from there). So, when I decided to try writing my own book, I naturally gravitated to historical romances. After writing a few for my publisher, I heard they were looking for some new romcoms – which is my favorite flavor of movie 😊 I wrote The Crazy Love series and absolutely fell in love with writing romcoms. My historical romances already had a lot of humor in them and, especially the more recent ones, are what I would classify as historical romcoms. So, moving into contemporary romcoms was sort of a nature evolution.

Q: How do your ideas for both contemporary & historical romance novels come to you? Does it take longer to write historical romance novels because of the amount of research it takes to write anything historical vs writing contemporary romance novels? 

A: It depends on the book 😊 A lot of them are sparked by things that happen in my own life or things I see or hear…occasionally I’ll have a really good dream that turns into a book 😊 69 Million Things for example was sparked by a conversation with my husband who was complaining about the micromanaging of his bosses and how they wouldn’t let him fire a couple employees who really deserved to be fired, and how if he ever won the lotto he’d be out of there so fast. I said yeah but it would be kind of fun to see how much you could get away with before they fired you (because the other employees were getting away with everything – my hubs was the manager). Really, how much would it take to get fired? The idea percolated and 69 Million Things was the result 😊

As for does it take longer to write historical romances? Yes, it does so. And yes, mainly because of research. I do a decent amount of research for my contemporary romances as well, but nothing like what is required for historical romances.  

Q: What made you want to write historical romance under the pen name Michelle McLean? Do you prefer writing contemporary romance more or historical romance more?

A: I don’t prefer one over the other. They sort of scratch different itches LOL After doing several contemporary romances, it’s nice to delve into some historical romances. I do get burned out on them though if I do too many of one in a row, so I prefer to switch back and forth. And I like to throw some nonfiction in as well which scratches an entirely different itch. My very first published book was a book on how to write essays and term papers (it was called Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers and was published by Career Press, but I got my rights back when they closed and it’s now called So You Have to Write a Paper). I also have one on writing poetry and am working on one on how to write literary analysis essays. I also wrote medical articles for several years as a ghost writer. 

Michelle McLean is my real name and is the one I started publishing under. When I started writing contemporaries, I decided to use a pen name, Kira Archer, to help with branding mainly. At the time, when designing my website and social media, I found it difficult to decide how to brand things. Should I have castles and ballgowns or more contemporary images, etc. Plus, while there is a decent overlap of historical romance readers who also read contemporary, there don’t seem to be as many contemporary readers who also read historical romances, so I wanted my readers to be able to find what they were looking for easily. Hence the pen name. In hindsight I probably would have preferred to stay under one name, just to cut back on double websites/newsletters/social media, etc 😊 But I don’t make a secret of the fact that I am both people (it’s in all my bios/websites etc) so that helps!

Q: What do you hope readers get out of reading your romance books whether it’s resonating with characters & lessons within your stories & any strong emotions they may feel?

A: I just want my readers to be entertained. To have a nice escape and come away with a smile. If they find deeper meanings in some passages and resonate with my characters and/or the situations they find themselves in, that is also amazing. I want my book to be something you pick up when you’ve had a tough day because you know it’s going to make you feel better. If my stories can be the bright spot on a day like that, if you are happier coming out than you were going in, then I have done my job 😊

Q: What was it like having Truly Madly Sweetly being made into a Hallmark movie and now 69 Million Things I Hate About You being made into a movie by Amazon? Have they started casting for 69 Million Things I Hate About You yet & does Hollywood have the rights to the rest of your work? 

A: Ohhh so much fun! 😊 Very surreal lol I didn’t get to be very involved with Truly Madly Sweetly. Once the contracts were signed, that was pretty much it. But the lead actor, Dylan Neal, was also the script writer and he was very kind and kept me in the loop. He’d send me pics here and there so I could see how things were going. And there was an account on Twitter at the time that followed movie filming’s and would post when they saw things. That was the first image I saw – someone tweeted a pic of the cupcake truck sitting on the street they were filming on. That moment was amazing!

69 Million Things I get to be more involved with which I love. I’ve spoken with the script writers and producers several times so far. It’s been a completely different experience. They are still in the early stages, but things are moving along, which has been very fun to watch. Last time I spoke to the writers, the script was just about finished and I don’t know if they have started formally casting yet, but I know they are talking to various people and I’ve heard some names 😊 Truly, not sharing info I’m not allowed to share yet is the hardest part of the process LOL I had to sit on the initial movie announcement for MONTHS! Hollywood does not have the rights to all the rest of my books, but there are a few more projects in the works that I can hopefully share more info about soon. =)

Q: Congratulations on your books being on the USA Today Bestsellers List! How does it feel knowing your books are USA Today Bestsellers? 

A: Wonderful! I love that my books are in that many hands. I just hope people enjoy reading them 😊

Q: Can you reveal any new projects you are working on and upcoming releases whether they are standalones, a part of an existing series or a new series all together? 

A: As Kira Archer, I am currently working on edits for I Ducking Love You. I don’t have a set release date for that one yet but I believe it will be in the fall of next year. I am also working on several new projects, including two books that I am writing with a good friend of mine, Lisa Rayne. It’s been a while since I’ve released new Kira books, so I am looking forward to getting all these new books out on the shelves! I will likely have a new indie book release (I hope by the end of the year) as well.

As Michelle McLean, I am currently writing a Regency series for Dragonblade Publishing – the series inspired by 90s romcoms that I mentioned in my books list earlier. The first book, So the Marquess Married a Murderess is releasing at the end of October of this year.