About Smothered, by B.T. Clearwater
Annie Brown's life could use some renovation. She's in trouble at work, her ex-boyfriend is stalking her, and she's just inherited a dilapidated Victorian home from her late mother, who hasn't quite moved out yet. The last thing Annie needs in her life is a man, but when handyman Mike Tolbert comes to fix her dishwasher, she lets him demo her doubt.
Mike doesn't need the distraction of a relationship either. An Iraq War combat veteran and divorcee, Mike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is dealing with a manipulative ex. Yet, something about Annie snags his heart and he finds he cannot walk away from her.
Annie's mother doesn't approve of their relationship, and she's willing to cross from the realm of death to that of the living to control her daughter. With the ghost of her mother haunting them, Mike and Annie face his PTSD, her troubles at work, and a deadly plot to steal her childhood home, all while fighting to keep their love alive.
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Interview with Author B.T. Clearwater
In your novel, Smothered, you delve into some deep topics about emotional health and the human psyche. What enticed you to develop characters rooted in these personal struggles, such as a narcissistic mother for Annie, and PTSD for Mike?
Well,
all characters in any story need to encounter obstacles and overcomes
hardships, both external and internal. I suppose using PTSD for Mike's
big internal struggle came naturally, as I work for the Army, and see
people with this condition quite frequently. And while Annie's struggle
seems to stem from her mother, it flows much deeper than that, and has
to do a lot with her failures at prior relationships. I wrote this in
the time building up to my second divorce, so failed relationships
appeared in a lot of my work then.
Do you enjoy writing in the genre of paranormal romance? What inspired you to create a story within this style?
I
enjoy writing in every genre, but not for the reason you might think. A
story is a story. If you tell it right, including using the right
genre, it'll be fun to write. The "fun" of any story is, afterall, the
resolution of a situation that we've built around our characters. A
situation that seems impossible at first, and gets worse from there. But
somehow, our protagonist figures it out in the end, overcoming those
internal and external hangups. It's kind of like playing classical music
at a monster truck rally. It puts the story in the wrong context, and
changes the way both your characters and your reader are going to think, feel, and act. So if you're trying to shoe-horn a romance into the
structure of a western, it's going to feel off. Unbalanced. Oh, and one
more thing. This is, technically, a Supernatural Romance, not
paranormal. The latter has an element of science to it, which lends
credibility and provides skeptical readers some hooks into their
reality. Supernatural shirks science and turns to magical solutions to
aid the characters' struggles. As Jim Butcher put it, "Paranormal is the
X-Files, Buffy is supernatural."
Do any of your characters remind you of someone? Is that why you wrote the character? Or, is it that you recognize the similarities in hindsight?
This
is a tricky question to answer in this modern world of lawsuits and
victim mentalities. If I say a character is based on so-and-so from real
life, I open myself to litigation and lawsuits if that real person
takes offense, or just needs a few bucks. So officially, no. My
characters are not like anyone else.
In all
honesty, though, I use existing people to model them physically and
emotionally. It's not that I just notice some day that Annie looks like
a young woman I know, or that Mike says something that sounds familiar.
Every character anyone has ever written is based on a series of
someones starting all the way in a person's infancy. We store in our
minds images, words, sounds, smells, movements, and so on about the
people we come across in life. We build them from skeletons to fully
meat-suited as we remember those people, and as our memories warp and
reshape them over time.
So in short, yes. And no. 1
Have you ever experienced a haunting? Seen a ghost? If not, would you ever take an adventure to a haunted location to gain that experience? If so, what was your experience?
The
closest I have come was after my late father's celebration of life last
year. At one point, I could almost swear I felt him there in the house I
grew up in. I never saw, heard, smelled or otherwise detected anything
with my five senses, but that sixth one sure made up for the lack. And
for a moment, I knew he was looking after my mom, and that he would
watch over my sister and me too. Damn but I miss him.
And no, I
wouldn't want to change the way I see the supernatural world by
tainting it with commercialized ideas about what a haunting is supposed
to be like. I have a viewpoint that seems to ring true with readers. Why
change that?
5. In the game of life, your characters, Mike and Annie, seem to be holding the short end of the stick. As a writer, do you use the literary device of adversity to create hope? A happy ending? Or, do you write the downward spiral to an unfortunate end? Which do you prefer writing comedies (happy endings) or dramas (sad endings)?
Those
aren't the only types of endings, though. In fact, the romance genre
itself has Happily Ever After (HEA), Happy for Now (HFN), For Now Not
Forever, and a few more, less used, including tragic endings. In a
romance, you won't generally see those very often. It's not what the
reader is looking for. And the other endings are best used in book
series, where each ending comes with hope that the lovers will get it
right in the end. And "Happy" isn't the only non-tragic ending
descriptor. A character can resolve all the loose strings of their
storyline, defeat the antagonist, and sail off into the sunset, and yet
not find happiness. Take Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. He has
spend his whole life searching for the six-fingered man who killed his
father, yet when that killer offers him money, power, and anything he
wants, all Inigo can say as he drives his sword into the man's chest is,
"I want my father back, you sonofabitch!" Inigo got his revenge, but
nothing can bring his father back.
Which ending you choose depends largely on how you want your reader to feel when all is said and done.
Anything else you would like to add?
Yes! My next supernatural romance
should come out in the summer of 2027. It is currently untitled, but the
story is like a cross between the movies "This Means War" and "The
Devil's Advocate."
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The Giveaway
Leave a comment at each stop to let us know you were here
and get an entry for a chance at one of three digitals
copies
to given away in a random drawing at the end of the tour.
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Support Great Artists
The writer of this career memoir deserves your support!
Make a purchase and keep creativity alive during this Winter Frost season.
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About B.T. Clearwater
B.T. Clearwater grew up writing stories, winning Literary
Student of the Year for Lake George Central High School in 1984. He holds a
Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Western State Colorado University,
graduating both Summa Cum Laude, and is a two-time alum of the Superstars
Writing Seminars run by Kevin J. Anderson. B.T. routinely judges the Zebulon
writing contest for Pike's Peak Writers, and has published fiction under the
science fiction, fantasy, romance, western, horror, and crime genres under
different pen names. B.T. Clearwater lives in Colorado Springs with a dog, a
cat, and a cast of fictional characters for company.
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Blog Book Tour for Smothered
Mon. 6/1: Reading:
Annie’s Opening Scene (Chap. 1) – Writing to be Read: https://writingtoberead.com/?p=61490
Tues. 6/2: Reading: Mike’s
Flashback (Chap. 11) – Roberta Writes: https://roberta-writes.com/2026/06/02/roberta-writes-smothered-by-b-t-clearwater-book-blog-tour/
Wed. 6/3: B.T. Clearwater
Interview with DL Mullan – Undawnted: http://www.undawnted.com/2026/06/undawnted-presents-blog-book-tour-for.html
Thurs. 6/4: Reading: A
Ghostly Appearance by Mother Mary (Chap. 10) - Writing to be Read: https://writingtoberead.com/?p=66122
Fri. 6/5: Reading: Annie and
Jason (Chap. 5) - Poetry by Mich: https://michnavs.wordpress.com/?p=16043
Hotel by Masticadores: https://hotelmasticadoreshouse.wordpress.com/2026/06/05/smothered-tour-day-5/
Masticadores Phillipines: https://masticadoresphilippines.wordpress.com/2026/06/05/smothered-tour-day-5/
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