Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
To be perfectly honest, most people wouldn’t consider my life interesting at all. While I’ve had some pretty interesting (weird) jobs such as a feather cooker, I’ve spent most of my life working and taking care of my family…my youngest brother was HIV positive when Aids was at its height, my mother had Parkinson’s and my stepdad suffered a stroke. I have a beautiful daughter and three fabulous grandkids and fantastic friends. I have eclectic interests from camping and horsebacking riding to shopping at flea markets and yard sales to making jewelry and a lot of things in between. Truly Blessed is the first book I’ve published but I have several others that I’ve written and shoved aside but am currently re-writing or editing and plan on publishing them as well, now that I’ve worked up the courage to do it once. My very first book and one I’m redoing now is called My Angel My Heart. I wrote it years ago and my mother and daughter nagged me to send it to publishers even though I kept telling them it wasn’t ready. Of course it was rejected and even though I expected it I didn’t write again for a long time. Then I met my own private angel named Glenda who re-ignited the desire to write.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Truly Blessed is the first book I’ve published and it took years to work up the courage to put it out in the universe. I wanted my grandkids to have the courage to follow their dreams and I couldn’t preach that if I didn’t do it myself. As for what inspired it I’m really not sure. God maybe. I woke up one morning with an inkling of an idea and couldn’t get it out of my head until I started putting it on paper (actually the computer). Once I started writing it just flowed until I finished.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know that I have any particular writing habits. I start with a general idea, the main protagonist and maybe a few minor (or they’re supposed to be minor) characters and actually let the characters build the story.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m not sure any particular books or authors really influenced me because I’ve always been an avid reader of different genres. Whatever happens to catch my attention at the moment. I love Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Al Franken, John Meecham, Louis L’Amour and Fannie Flagg just to name a few but I don’t think I write like any of them. To this day, two of my favorite books I read as a kid are The Secret Garden and A Wrinkle in Time.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a story about two boys building a better life for themselves after being homeless. I’m also editing and rewriting the first book I ever wrote about a young woman who (because of a unusual ability) was raised in a mountain cabin seeing the modern world for the first time.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Since Truly Blessed is the first book I’ve ever published I’m still figuring out how to promote it BUT I would definitely recommend Awesome Gang. I’m looking at different sites and this appears to be at the top of the list.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Listen to your characters! My daughter laughs about the people living in my head (when I’m writing. I’m not Sybil lol) but I’ve found that no matter how hard I try to follow MY idea, if I don’t listen to the characters (my daughter’s right and they are alive in my head) and follow their lead the story doesn’t work. So I guess my advice (for what it’s worth) would be…let the characters develop the story and follow their lead.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I know it sounds silly but one of the best things I’ve ever heard was from the movie Sister Act 2. Whoopie Goldberg tells one of the students about a young man who asked a famous author to read his stories and give him his opinion. The author told him “If you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is writing, than you’re a writer.” For most of my life I’ve written, whether it’s fanfiction, stories for my friends, my grandchildren or just for myself but I never really considered myself a writer because I’d never been published (except for my fanfiction on the web) until I heard that quote in Sister Act 2. That’s when I realized that even if no one ever read a thing I wrote, I was a writer. I found my joy in writing. I hope anyone who spends their life putting words to paper realizes the same thing.
What are you reading now?
I’m not at the moment. As much as I love to read, I don’t read when I’m working on a project because I don’t want to take a chance on even accidentally stealing someone’s idea or even part of that idea. If I have the uncontrollable urge to read while working on a project I usually read fanfiction because those stories are based on established characters and tv shows.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I honestly don’t know. I’m just concentrating on my current books and enjoying my grandchildren. Of course I think like any writer (if they’re going to be honest) I would like to see Truly Blessed turned into a movie. That would be cool. Of course I would have to insist on casting approval lol. I know the characters. I see them in my head. I know what they look like and how they act and the right casting can make or break a movie…at least that’s what I’ve heard.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That’s a really hard question but I’m not totally stupid so I would definitely take The Dummies Guide to Survival lol. If I could only take three others I think it might be The Secret Garden, A Time to Kill and whatever Janet Evanovich book had just hit the shelves.
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