Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: My love of nature and my obsession with interpersonal relationships influence my writing as well as my everyday approach to life.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A: I’ve written one novel, The Damnable Legacy, and one short story collection, Women on the Brink. Both are published.
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: I’m putting the finishing touches on another novel, which is currently called Bear Medicine. I’m hoping it will be released in 2017.
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
A: I’d probably call it “Relationships and Nature” although that sounds more like nonfiction.
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: It’s about the messiness of life from the female point of view. Whether it’s right or wrong, our society is oppressive of women while at the same time holding up expectations of them, and most of us plod along while stuffing some of our deep desires, dreams, and despairs. These stories shed light on a relatively small collection of issues that women face in our everyday world and hopefully serve as a launchpad for necessary conversation.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A: I’ve raised three adopted sons, and it wasn’t always easy. Still isn’t.
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
A: I don’t have a favorite author. It depends on my mood at any moment of any day. I love some of the classics like Virginia Woolf and Flannery O’Connor and Jack London; I also enjoy present day writers like Anne Lamott and Tana French. Trying to decide who my favorite author is, is like trying to say what my favorite food is. It changes all the time.
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: I absolutely have some ideas of what I’m going to write about, and some loose goals, but I always let the muse go where she wants to go in early drafts. In revision, it’s another situation entirely. I still let the creative juice flow, but I control its pathway more closely.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I write because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about life that I want to express, and I also have a rampant imagination. Being able to weave these two together, and then to share the resultant stories with others, is incredibly satisfying.
Q: Do you read your own work a lot? If so, what does it do for you?
A: I read my own work as I’m working on it—a lot. Once it’s out there, I rarely return to it. It’s like a lover from whom I’ve moved on.
Q: What is your favorite type of music? Is there one genre (or song, band etc...) that brings out your creativeness more than others?
A: I don’t listen to music when I write and I can’t say that music inspires my creativity or writing. But generally I prefer singer/songwriter, acoustic music. The lyrics have so much more power when they’re accompanied by only one or two instruments.
Q: As an author, I find that the hardest thing to write (for me) is the synopsis that will be on the back cover or book’s description. When you write, what is the hardest line to write, the first line, the last line or the synopsis for the book?
A: The back cover blurb is the hardest. You’ve invested years in a book, and you’ve written and re-written it over and over, and then you have to summarize all that into a couple of sentences. That’s like trying to describe what it’s like raising a family in a few short sentences. Also, when I write my blurb I’m forced to consider whether the narrative really fulfills my goals. Often times it doesn’t, and I have to go back and revise again.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: Writing is a life-affirming art form, and I developed an entirely new understanding of what it means to be an author—and appreciation for the work--when I devoted myself to this craft. My hope is that, somehow, my love for the work and my compassion for my characters will show on the pages.