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Indie Support Sunday: Ivy Beck

If you’re ever looking for an incredibly supportive indie author, then Ivy Beck is the person. Every week, her Instagram feed is filled with promotions and posts for fellow indies, celebrating their releases and upcoming stories. This is one of my favorite things about the community—we’re all out there supporting each other in whatever way we can, because we can. It’s also how I found Ivy in the endless sea of authors.


With six books out right now, Ivy has written a couple of contemporary romances and some romantic suspenses as well as two shorter stories. Whatever you’re in the mood for, Ivy probably has it for you! I recently read and really enjoyed Lucky Girl and can’t wait to pick up another one of Ivy’s books!


You can get all her books in Kindle Unlimited. Constructing a Work Of Heart: New Addition releases January 31st and will also be in KU!


BEING AN AUTHOR

Who or what inspired you to write?

I don't know if there was a who, but as a kid I always thought of stories and built families and scenarios from experiences with my friends. Those stories just got more detailed as I got older, changing from notebook paper to Word docs.  


What’s the best and worst part about being an indie author? 

Best: Freedom to write topics I want, at my own pace, design my own cover, give my books a title I love…..being a part of a writing community full of people going through similar paces with either helpful insight or questions about the process. We can all lend each other a hand.


Worst: Marketing, marketing, marketing and sales.


Why did you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route?

I sent two of my books to two different publishing houses in 2022. They sat on one book for four months and the other for over six months with no word. It was excruciating. Especially to be told my book wasn’t the right fit for their line or that their line was already full, but they liked my story. Thinking that I’d rather just get my books out into the world and take care of all the details myself (with an amazing NYT and USAT best seller turned indie author bestie at my side for step-by-step hand-holding and encouragement), I opted for self-publishing.


When you’re not writing, what do you do to get the creative juices flowing?

I’m either editing other authors' books or living my normal life as a wife and mom. I find ideas everywhere I look. I usually have a scene playing in the back of my head while I’m gardening or walking the dogs, so I can think through the next step. Driving my mom taxi for drop-offs and pick-ups allows me time to work through plot holes or what I need to do next in my marketing strategy. 


If you were to recommend books to me (in any genre), what would they be?

I love anything written by Cynthia Eden, Kaylea Cross and Toni Anderson. All are romantic suspense, some are military, some are FBI…all are excellent!


What are your top 5 tips or pieces of advice for aspiring authors?

  1. Start writing. 

  2. Keep writing. 

  3. Don’t stop writing. 

  4. Find time to write when you can…I won’t say you have to write every day because sometimes that’s impossible. If you write five words today, or edit the last scene, or knock out two thousand words, then be proud of yourself, because you’re doing it, you’re a writer. 

  5. Connect with a writing community online or in person and lean on them for advice, expertise, support and encouragement. It’s not a competition, but a community.  


ROMANCE AS A GENRE

Why did you choose romance as the genre to write in? What is your favorite thing about the genre?

The happily ever after is my favorite part of the genre. I love romance. I’ve always been a sucker for a love story, especially rom-coms. I love to see how people connect and make that lasting commitment to one another. So when I started writing I knew romance was going to be the focus. I also have two books out that are romantic suspense. Sometimes I like my characters to have to go through some shit in order to come out of it stronger together. 


YOUR BOOKS

What inspired your published stories? How and when did you come up with these stories and plots?

I have no recollection how I came up with my debut, Heartstrings. It was definitely not a write-what-you-know experience since I know nothing about fashion or (at the time I wrote it in 2008) had even been to New York. 


I thought up Snapshot after I was pulled over by a state trooper…luckily, I didn’t get a ticket! Lucky Girl is my write-what-you-know story. I taught marine science for fourteen years at an education facility similar to the one in the story. I thankfully didn’t have the drama to deal with that the main character goes through.


Unexpected Arrival came to me while I was on vacation in Alaska with my husband. He was on a work trip, I was there to write and get ideas. And I did! This is my only published work that was thought up and written in 2023. (All the others originated back around 2008 when I first started writing heavily…then life got in the way and these stories got pushed aside.) Back Where You Belong was also started back in 2008 when I was into online dating. I moved the focus of the story off this topic, but it still plays a role. 


Can you briefly tell me about your books?

Heartstrings is a second-chance contemporary romance set in NYC and is about a reporter and a fashion designer. They were lucky to find each other the first time, but a terrible secret wrecks their happiness. Fate allows them a second chance when they find themselves in each other’s orbit once again. With time and patience, and finally understanding and acceptance, the two work hard to win their happy ever after, for real this time.


Constructing a Work Of Heart Is a short story about an artist needing a contractor to convert her carport into an art studio. It’s just a day in the life but there’s a cute meet-cute and lots of steam.


Snapshot is a romantic suspense set in a small southern town in Georgia and is about a photographer who needs help from the newly hired cop when her studio has an intruder, then gets ransacked, and things start happening to her. They must find out who is behind the violence before they can have their happy ever after.


Lucky Girl is also a romantic suspense set in a small beach town on the west coast of Florida with the Gulf of Mexico as the backdrop. It’s about a marine educator, Joni, and Luke, a newly hired coral reef scientist at her family legacy research lab. Joni is reluctant to get involved with anyone she works with and Luke brings some extra baggage into the relationship. They have to work through some kinks and keep each other alive before they can find their happy ever after.


Unexpected Arrival is a steamy novella (contemporary) set in Alaska on the Inside Passage. This story is about a Miami native, Angelina, who’s never been outside the state of Florida having to travel to Alaska in the middle of a snowstorm for a business meeting. Luckily she runs into Noah, the owner of a not-yet-open barndominium drowning in grief who reluctantly helps give her shelter during the storm. Angelina’s spunkiness snaps Noah out of the fog of grief and back to life. Angelina falls in love with the landscape and the man who calls this place home. Now she wonders how she’ll be able to go back to her regularly scheduled life in Miami once the storm passes.


Back Where You Belong is a contemporary romance set on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. This story follows Emerson Taylor’s experiences when she returns to her hometown in south Alabama to care for her ailing mother. She takes a leave of absence from her high-stakes, high-energy lifestyle on Wall Street and finds that being home again is actually good for her health. Nick Valentino realizes the infatuation he’d felt for her as a teenager hadn’t completely disappeared in the twelve years she’d been gone. The timeline for returning to her normal life is fast approaching. Can Emerson walk away from the warmth and happiness she feels with Nick to return to the grind of the financial world? Or will she realize that a life with Nick Valentino could bring her more satisfaction than her high-profile career can?


Deck This House is a steamy contemporary Christmas novella set in Tinsel, Tennessee in the heart of the Smokies. Holly Noelle has a happy, jolly soul, but she’s feeling stretched too thin this Christmas, taking on too many responsibilities. When she decorates the house of a grumpy retired Marine by request from his buddies, she discovers a man who is healing from a tattered past. Can her joyfulness bring him some Christmas cheer and melt his Christmas-hating heart?


Do you already have a favorite character from the stories you’ve written?

I like Joni Mitchell from Lucky Girl the most because I have a lot in common with her. I always add a few of my likes, dislikes, and quirks to my female characters, so that I can connect with them as I’m writing them. 


How much of yourself do you put into these characters?

I definitely add little quirks of mine to each of my FMCs. Whether it be physical or the amount of creamer she must have in her coffee to make her day complete.


What is a story/stories that you really want to tell?

I have a long list of ideas. I’ve got the next three ideas front and center and notes jotted down. I love reading a series but have never written one before. So I’m going to try my hand at that next with Sweet Spot, book 2 that follows Snapshot. I’ll have to come up with a series name and all that at some point.


Is there one common element that readers can find in all your stories?

Since it’s romance, the happily ever after will always be present…but how they get to that point will be different in each book, as it is different for every couple in real life. And that’s the joy in creating characters, who then decide when, where, and how they will do the things that you think you want them to do….some have a mind of their own! 


What’s next on the bookshelf for you? Anything you can tell us about a future project?

My short story Constructing a Work Of Heart is expanding to novella length and readers will get a chance to know more about Bowen McDaniel and Jessie Austin on January 28th! In the short story we experience one day in their lives–the day they meet. The extended version will take us through how their sizzling instant attraction develops into a happy ever after.   


When you write these stories, what are you hoping your readers will feel?

All the feels—joy, sadness, pain, love, heat


AUTHOR’S CHOICE

  • Paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks or audiobooks   

  • Contemporary, fantasy, historical or romantic suspense  

  • Single or Dual POV

  • Standalones, series and standalones in a series

  • Open door, ajar door or closed door romances

  • Music or silence when writing

  • Plotter, pantser or plantser

  • Water, tea, coffee or….wine?

  • Cold or warm weather

  • Write better in the morning, afternoon or night?

  • Illustrated or photo cover?


Ivy can be found on Instagram and Facebook. Visit her website for more updates and also sign up for her newsletter!

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