 |
| Fox Home Entertainment; Not Rated; 94 minutes; Amazon |
In 1995, I read a book called High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and was blown away. The first person narrative was so real, like being inside the main character’s head. It reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, but the subject matter was so much more relatable to me (the trials and tribulations of dating and relationships). It was also very funny. This made me want to write about my own experiences but first I had to learn about how to go about formatting a story.
The e-book short read, Loot (2015). Loot was inspired from my childhood experiences. Growing up during the seventies and eighties in a NJ town transitioning from a farming community to suburban commuter zone, I got the best of both worlds. There were a lot of fun places to hang out and things to do but there was also open and wooded areas to explore with my friends without parental supervision. The story was written in the spirit of Stand by Me and The Goonies.
The Girl from the Woods was inspired by my love for romance and the paranormal. I’ve always been a hopeless romantic so that aspect of the story flows quite naturally. I grew up in the eighties, which were a scary time to be a kid. Every summer the theaters were invaded with horror films like Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The films used familiar settings, which lead to a lot of sleepless nights for me. But I also fell in love with horror and the paranormal.
Probably when I was a little girl. I used to listen to my favorite aunt tell endless stories about things that happened to her. She’s the one who should write books; she’d be a best-seller. I started writing for fun after high school one summer when I took my manual typewriter outside to our picnic table under the trees and wrote a Civil War love story.
The first book I published was Wellington Cross, the first book in my historical romance series. I self-published this book after many rejections from literary agents and after revamping the book probably four times till I finally got it the way I wanted it. One of those literary agents did give me some good advice about the beginning of the book, developing a character more, and I took that advice and she was right; it made the story better.
Wellington Beaus is book five in my Wellington Cross series. Originally, I wrote three books in the series plus a little Christmas novella, and that was all I wanted to do at the time. I then wrote two paranormal romance books, and then decided I wanted to come back to the Wellington series and add a few more books. I had new stories that came to my mind. Wellington Beaus picks up right where book four ends. This book focuses on the two Wellington brothers, Bertie and Godfrey. Godfrey, the older one, is married and expecting his firstborn child, but when tragedy strikes, his whole life is turned upside-down. Meanwhile, Bertie proposes to Amanda Adams, but when an old flame comes to live and work at the boarding house, trouble follows her and being the deputy, Bertie gets involved.
I am a lot like the character Amanda in that she is the jealous type. She doesn’t like to see her fiancé talk to his old girlfriend, and when she discovers a secret between the two of them, she gets mad enough to give Bertie the engagement ring back. I would be the same way. She gets pretty sassy too, and my good friend, also an author, gave me the new nickname of sassy, ha ha.
Ever since I can remember, I have loved story telling. I wrote my first story when I was in grade school, based on a dream I had. Although I didn’t get serious about publishing until recently, I have written stories all my life.
Eolyn, Book One of The Silver Web, was released in its first edition by Hadley Rille Books in the spring of 2011. At the time, it was a stand-alone novel. Later, after crafting the sequels, I re-released the trilogy under the title The Silver Web.
As with all the books of The Silver Web trilogy, Daughter of Aithne was inspired by the amazing women I’ve known and also the women I’ve read about in history; in particular medieval women, and how they managed to wield and manipulate power in a society so steeped in patriarchal values. In writing Daughter of Aithne, I asked myself, “What would happen if barriers to power were removed and women could rule kingdoms and even wage war just like men?”
Once you’ve been through this many novels with the same characters, they become independent entities, and it’s hard to see yourself in any of them. Though we are not really all that much alike, my favorite character to work with in this book was Taesara, the woman who leads the war against Eolyn.
Taesara makes her first appearance in Sword of Shadows, and many of my readers did not like her. This kind of surprised me, because I’ve always sympathized with Taesara. Yes, she can be unpleasant, but only when she has good reasont. As a result of my readers initial reaction to Taesara, I wanted to come back to her in Daughter of Aithne and let her be seen in a more sympathetic light. I think I succeeded in doing that.
The idea for Twisted Princess came from my love of the classic fairytales and how much darker they are than the Disney versions. As a child I remember reading about Blue Beard and the Little Matchstick Girl. For Twisted Princess we wanted to come up with stories featuring Disney Princesses without the happy ending.My story, The Beast Within, features Izzy, a young woman who works as a security expert for supernatural beings. I tried to turn the story of Beauty and the Beast on its head. In my story, Izzy wants the normal life and to marry Gavin, a male model. The beast is Adam, a werewolf who was cursed by a witch to fell terrible pain when he turns.Adam comes across as mild mannered but he becomes obsessed with Izzy.I think there was a good range of stories from some very talented authors. I would like to do a future boxset maybe on the origins of some of the Disney villains.The boxset is only 99c on Amazon and is available on KU.
I have always been an avid reader and found it to be a useful escape from everyday problems. As I got older, my imagination began to play up during my school lessons, constantly leading me into new worlds and never giving me a moment of peace. When I was eight, I decided to try and write down the things that came to me. One idea sparked another and soon I had three short stories before me. Sadly, I do not own a copy of my first attempts at storytelling as the computer spontaneously combusted.
Quite ironic that I discovered 3 ½ floppy disks a week later. A week too late.
Although I self published novellas when I was younger, these were only for me and were always kept private.
The first story that I published since growing into adulthood was the first edition of my Fantasy novel, Phoenix, which was originally entitled Sweet Surrender and published with an Indie Publishing Press. Unfortunately, the company I had joined turned out to be bad news and so I chose to leave, with any royalties I had earned with-held from me.
When I first began drafting Phoenix, I had recently suffered a devastating break up. The person I had been seeing had appeared sweet at first, with a kind heart. Then, after time began to pass, they seemed to transform into someone else.
First, it was like another personality was bleeding through the mask they had created, then it began to take over. This is how I came up with the infamous yet charming Emperor Ryore. He is a tortured soul who wants to feel love, but is only able to feel obsession. Violetta's story is in part the journey I went through to learn that not everything is as it seems and that each of us is stronger than we might initially believe.
Prince Arlas of the Air Realm is probably the least like me out of this cast of characters. He is crude, cunning and has the appearance of a folklore vampire.
Along with being immortal, Arlas has incredible power at his disposal and uses it for his own sadistic purposes. He doesn't care who he hurts, as long as he gets what he desires.
