In the Limelight with...
D.A. Serra
PRIMAL
Welcome and thanks for being part of this blog.
I thought it a good idea to catch up with you and see what
you are up to since the last time I reviewed a book for you. I reviewed Deborah Serra's Book Primal in January of this year.
I simply loved this book, raved about it to every one that gave me a moment to say something. From beginning to end this book was gripping, thought provoking and an exceptional read.
So when Deborah agreed to be part of this celebration I was livid with excitement. To me Primal is in the same category as Heinz Konsalik's books. Great story teller.
That is enough about me though.
Here is her answers to my questions.
Hope you enjoy as I did when preparing this post.
1.
Are you famous is the general question I get when
family and friends introduces me to their friends. It always left me with a
pause as quick comebacks filters through my mind but ending up saying something
like ….”Oh gee thanks” and give a shy smile. Silly I know. I mean if I was you would not have asked it.
(a) Does this happen to you and
(b) What do you say?
Actually I don’t think I’ve been asked if I’m “famous”. Although I have been asked once or twice for
an autograph, which I find bizarre and embarrassing. The two most often asked questions I get once
I’ve been introduced as a writer are: do
I
know anything you’ve written; and where do you get your ideas? For the first question, I have to keep
frustration out of my voice, as I’ve heard it so many times and it is such an
absurdly phrased question because I have no idea what someone else has seen or
read – so I smile and do the best I can.
For the second, I explain that many of my creative thoughts start with
just a phrase or a particular character that enters my mind from, I suppose, my
unconscious.
2. In general do you like to talk about your writing and
published books or are you very close-lip about it? If not, why?
I really hate talking about my writing and I have a tendency
to stumble around mentally when I’m forced to.
I’ve spent so much time and effort working for the perfect illustrative phrase,
and the perfect emotive moment, that I want it to be read – for the work to be experienced in the way intended. Some books and stories don’t lend themselves
well to the thirty seconds most people are willing to give you at a cocktail
party. My thriller, Primal, has always been slightly easier to talk about and I think
that is because thriller readers are so in-tune with their genre that they are
along for the ride as soon as you start talking.
3. What book/s are you currently writing and what is it
about?
As mentioned, I hate summarizing, but I know I must get
better at it, so, for this particular book I’ll speak conceptually: I’ve just completed a novel (literary fiction
– The Blurry Line) about the line
between conscious and unconscious decision-making and how our new knowledge of brain
function damages our beloved concept of Free Will. I am very proud of this work. It is currently being considered by editors
at three different publishing houses and I’m hoping for the best.
Meanwhile, I am half-way through a humorous travelogue I’m
writing with my sister. It is about a
trip we took together after our youngest left for college and we felt
disoriented and sad so we took off for Ireland.
It was a funny and poignant trip and the book is called 2 Broads Abroad: Sisters Fly An Empty Nest –
Out After Curfew and the Kids Don’t Know.
4. Why this particular genre?
I have always moved between genres. First, I put Primal out into the marketplace.
Primal is a thriller with a
mother and child at the core, then I finished The Blurry Line, and now I’m doing a humorous memoir – moving
genres allows me to stretch into different worlds and voices. For the twenty years that I wrote for TV
& Film, I constantly shifted from one format and genre to another.
5.
What inspire or motivate you to write?
I cannot remember a time when I was not writing so motivation
has never been an issue. If I get to a
spot where I don’t feel particularly inspired I just go read some Charles
Dickens. Sometimes his genius spurs me
onward, and sometimes it just makes me feel crappy about myself, but either way
it always leads me back to the words.
6. What is the writing process like for you?
I start very early in the morning before the requirements of
the day overwhelm me and I write for about five or six hours.
7. What is the best and/ or worst part of being a writer?
The worst part of being a writer is waiting for others to
read. The best part is that one sentence
that has the perfect metaphor – that one flawless phrase.
8.
Any advice for struggling writers?
Try to work on two projects at a time: one that is the love of your life, and one
just for the money. Understand that it
is a business as well as an art and approach it that way. There is no crime in writing commercial
material as long as you’re working on what matters most as well. I always encourage writing students to have
two projects going all the time.
9. What is your favorite genre to read or write?
I read so many different genres but I do love literary
fiction where both the story and the language matter.
10. Favorite author?
I appreciate so many writers for different reasons: if
I’m reading history I love Thomas Cahill and I’ve read his hinges of history
series several times; for essays, to my mind, there is not a living or dead
writer who can match David Foster Wallace in psychological insight, humor,
vocabulary, or erudition; for fiction, I will always read Ann Patchett and
Barbara Kingsolver. All that said, if I
were forced to choose one writer, just one, I would have to be Charles Dickens.
Dickens is in a world of his own. His
fiction writing literally changed society, influenced child labor laws, helped
to abolish debtor prisons, and gave a human face (however ugly) to both sides
the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
He makes me laugh and cry while composing some of the most beautiful and
often recited passages in English literature.
Can anything more be expected of a writer?
11. Do you have a favorite spot to read and write?
I’m a cuddle up on the soft sofa girl.
12.
What do you like to do when not writing?
I have taken ballet my whole life, so I continue to take 3
classes a week. I am also quite an
intrepid traveler having been in 7 countries in the past two years. Also, I have a very close and overly involved
family – and yes, I love that.
13.
Do you have a bucket list and would you share at least
two things on it?
I would love to take a boat from the ancient site of Troy
(located on the coast of northern Turkey) and follow the path of the Odyssey
with a Homeric scholar onboard. I know
National Geographic did a trip like this once and I wish I could have gone but
it was really expensive. Still, I
haven’t forgotten it.
14.
What have you done so far on this list?
As a traveler I have:
trekked into the Congo and been touched by a wild baby Mountain gorilla
in the Virungas; I have been helicopter skiing in New Zealand, dog-sledding
along the Canadian border, seen the Kermode Spirit Bear in situ in British
Columbia, traveled by myself to central China where I saw the terra cotta
warriors, sat in the Church of the Split Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia, and I
lived for a month in a 16th century Scottish castle. This is the traveler who is always restless inside
of me.
15.
Most daring thing or experience you have done you
would like to share?
I would count getting off the plane in Xi’an, China, with no
language skills whatsoever, all alone, and just getting a cab to the hotel as
my most daring moment.
16.
This or that questions:
·
Coffee or Tea - coffee
·
Sweet or sour – sweet
·
Home make meal or takeouts – home made
·
Winter or summer – winter
·
Night-owl or Early-Bird – early
·
Telephone or visits – visits
·
Which social network do you prefer? none
·
Blogger or website? Website www.deborahserra.com
·
What does your family say about your career?
Supportive or Clueless - Supportive
And Finally
Buy links of the
newest books you would like the readers to know.
If you like thrillers please buy Primal.
Our time is up and once again I want to thank D.A. Serra for being part of this blog.
This was a good Interview and I loved the answers. Thanks Deborah for joining us today. You are an inspiration to the rest of us. Hope that the book will do well and that your other ventures will be fruitful.
Remember as always support the authors.
Next time on In The Limelight with....
April 24, 2013
Sylvia McDaniel
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