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*** SPECIAL FEATURE - July 2014 ***
About the Book
Coerced into partaking in a tryst, Julia soon found her agreement to be a severe miscalculation. Locked now in a battle of will and lascivious demands with the handsome Adonis himself, the simplicity of lust quickly spiraled into rivalry, as both drudged further in their quest to outwit, outlast and outmaneuver the other.
An Interview
How did your life as a writer begin?
Writing for me started with puberty, though it eventually became a long drawn out, well overdue process, so much so that it was almost eerie when the decision was finally made. Thankfully, once I committed myself, I took to writing like a fish to water. I absolutely loved it. All the years I spent locked in a world overrun with my imagination, now set free, sprung fully to life.
What makes you feel inspired to write?
It’s the emotions that resonate from whatever the scenario or how, and the fluidity of that process that usually moves me. Sometimes it comes as a faint whisper, at others it’s like a bombardment. The inspiration to be creative is like a long lost friend, an enemy and a lover all rolled in one. It comes to you in the dark or in the midst of a crowded room, yet even so it always grants you intrigue.
How did you come up with the idea for your current story?
Sadly, it feels more factual to say the story came to me. Dites Oui is the result of what seemed an ongoing barrage of dialogue spanning almost fifteen years. The characters Michael and Julia were just the loudest, the most persistent and the most intense I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. I’m not sure how most writers get the voices to simmer, but I learned over the years that if you listen and put the ideas on paper the intensity ease. Michael and Julia, for reasons I have yet to understand, did not do that, so when I finally decided to write an actual book that others would actually read, there was only one choice.
Tell us about your writing process. Do you outline, or are you more of a seat of your pants type of writer?
I think I’m more fixedly a mixture of both. When an idea comes to me, the process, after a time, slowly falls into focus and the “how” in that scenario, many times, walks just as clearly alongside the plot. But there are also times when all you have is the certainness of how a scenario ends, and your only option then is to write until you get the essence of the story to feel the way you sense it should.
What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
Oddly, it’s rather like a mother giving birth to triplets then asking her to pick which of her infants to give away. It’s really very hard to choose, but I think I finally narrowed it to two. The first is Julia’s trek to Michael’s house after agreeing to have a weekend tryst, and Michael’s proposal. In the first, I thought Julia was so rigidly locked away from the world and even herself that I felt someone like that would likely forget to ask the most basic information needed, information most would have likely thought to ask. She also needed to be placed outside her perfectly constructed box, and challenged some. Her experience was like getting a small tap from reality. In Michael’s proposal, I thought it suited his personality of being a public figure yet really wanting much of himself to remain private. Only someone as waggishly devious, confident and as keenly complex as Michael would think to outsmart everyone in as blatant a way as he did.
Did any of your characters inherit some of your own quirks?
Happily, no. No character traits were taken from me, I think my personality is a little too atypical for that, but Rachel and Richard are well spliced with the personalities of my children.
What is your most interesting writing quirk?
As of this date, I haven’t notice any writing quirks to speak of, only my lack of discipline in the process. In all aspect of my life, I am organize, discipline and thorough. Yet somehow I find myself being someone almost fully opposite of that when I write. My desk, more often than not, is a cluttered, dusty mess.
Do you read? Who are your favourite authors and how have they influenced your writing style?
I am an avid reader. I can, and have, given up just about anything to read, sleep, food and life outside of the pages of my book is of no value. Jane Austen and Kathleen Woodiwiss are two of my favorite authors. I’ve read and reread their books too many times to comfortably list, but something about their writing relaxes me. If either author had an influence on my writing it would have to be in the way each women honed their descriptive. I love the language used in both their writing styles, but mostly I love the pictures they grant you from such beautiful descriptive. I like to see the story unfold in my mind as I read and I hope as a writer I’ve done that for my readers.
Can you share with us something off your bucket list?
I’m sure it sounds very strange, but I don’t have a bucket list. I’m an only child and an introvert, trust me I’ve come a long way since childhood, one who probably secretly wished to be an extrovert. I’m fascinated by things, many things, and with that curiosity comes my need to learn. I’ll research anything; if something pulls my attention then I want to know more, which eventually include experiencing what it’s all about. I try always to embody the list instead of making one and experience everything I can. Earning the freedom to travel more would be all there is, and of course to experience what comes with that.
Is there some stories tucked away in some drawer that was written before that never saw the light of day?
Yes, many. I have enough notebooks tucked away to hurt the hearts of tree lovers everywhere, myself included. For some reason letting anyone know I actual wrote seemed so presumptuous to my young mind, something an introvert just could not do, so I spent a near lifetime scribbling and tucking them all away in boxes. The current book I’m working on is the first story that I ever took the time to plot from start to finish. I have about six in similar condition, all of which I hope to finish in the coming future
About the Author
A ravenous reader with equal passion for travel and the plotting of anything new, my love of words seemed, at times, a blotch on the very core of my DNA, and has been the recurrent source of many jests from my children—the title nerd has been established more than once. Yet the sound, meaning and inference, cannot be more beautiful than those in the notes of a newly toned word, or in the coupling of such to lay forth a vision. With as little as a single word we can open the world to those around us, garner a smile or lay bare intrigue. Yes, such morpheme can wrought a symphony when showcased at its best, doth those cords strum you as it does me? Then smile, as I am with you. Salacious and sweet, it wrung further forward as your key.
As you can see, I’m clearly odd in my thinking, odd in my views and downright peculiar in my descriptive and the structure in which I write. Among my many faults, a fact I’m sure you’ve already surmised, emotions are my perpetual weakness. I’m wooed by it, seduced and persuaded by it, touched and enthralled by the various colliery of it all. Whatever the scenario or the plot that charged through my thoughts, the emotional furor in each turn scramble just as eagerly through, be it harsh or be it sweet, the significance is still the same. It’s the medicine I search for when I read, it’s the way I interact with my children and, in many aspect, the way I live my life.
Giveaway
1 Paperback Copy for US Residents
1 Digital Copy for International Readers
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