As part of Loving Book’s Book Blitz today, I’m having a cup of herbal tea with author Miki Bennett and we’re talking about her latest release, Run Away to the Keys. But first, let’s find out more about her!
A. Quickies
1. Tea or wine?
Herbal Tea
2. Read or jog?
Read, of course!
3. Cats or dogs?
Dogs. I have my own little dog, Emma.
4. Heels or flats?
Flats, especially flip flops.
5. Boxers or briefs?
Briefs! Definitely!
6. Milk, dark or white chocolate
Dark Chocolate – yummy!
7. Sweet or savoury
Sweet! But I can’t eat much sugar.
8. Sea or mountains
This is an easy one – the sea. I love, love, love the beach!
B. Five likes and five dislikes
Five Likes:
- The beach
- Crocheting
- All kinds of music
- Like trying all arts & crafts
- Bright tropical colors
Five Dislikes:
- Smoking
- Really cold weather
- Mean people
- Jelly Beans (Ugh!)
- Horror movies
Three things on your bucket list
1. Go zip lining
2. Go parasailing
3. Spend a year traveling all around the United States and Canada
D. What triggered this specific story?
“Run Away to the Keys” comes from a character that was in my previous book “Forever in the Keys” – Garrett Homes, a marine biologist. When I wrote my first book “The Keys to Love”, it seemed as I finished the story, a “character” wanted their own story to be told. As I finished my second book, it was as if Garrett wanted his story to be written next. I love the storyline of the older man, younger girl; wealthy versus middle class. But it is the romance that triggers the story every time!
Miki Bennett is a stay at home wife who has an intense love for the beach. Her passions include art and various crafts where she has won numerous awards over the years. She also calls herself the resident family tech geek, always checking out the latest gadget that comes out on the market. Most of all, she loves visiting the beach as much as possible, trying to fit all family vacations close to an island or beach if possible.
Miki began working for her parent’s family business when she was just eight years old and continued until they sold the company in 2007. At this time, she wasn’t sure of her next step in life and started learning as much as she could about the things that interested her the most: website building, painting with acrylic paints, new crochet techniques, photography, and many other venues trying to find out her next stage in life. This lead to her newest pursuit: writing.
She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, Jeff and their little dog Emma. They are a blended family with three grown children thus consider themselves empty nesters. Miki graduated from high school and went on to the College of Charleston but her interests were so varied that she couldn’t decide on a particular degree so she decided to learn on her own. Her life long pursuit of knowledge has lead her in many directions.
Miki is also a cancer survivor after having treatment in 2002 for Uterine Cancer. In 2013, she was diagnosed with Mastocytosis, a rare, incurable disorder in which patients can have life threatening allergic type reactions to the simplest things even though they are not truly allergic to the item: food, water, sun, heat, cold, sound, etc. Miki had lived with symptoms since she was a teenager but was given one diagnosis after another ending up with twelve different ones before she found the true cause. And since she looked fine on the outside, many didn’t believe she truly was ill. Once receiving the correct diagnosis, she is now on a mission to help others who deal with “invisible diseases” since these can be so hard on the patients. To the outside world patients look perfectly healthy though inside they deal with symptoms both physically and mentally.
