J. Jeffrey
Welcome and thanks for agreeing and 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 the novel The Second Daughter. My 4 Star review for this contemporary woman's fiction can be read HERE.
Author’s Interview Questions
- 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 but the idea unsettles me. (a)Does this happen to you and (b) what do you say?
I have a small wee bit of fame -- I’ve written a number of
successful “philosophy for the general reader” books under a different name
which get me some name recognition, but that translates not at all to
recognition in the fiction department … I don’t see anything desirable from
fame per se other than that it would be nice to sell more books ….
- In general do you like to talk about you writing and published books or are you very close-lip about it? If no why?
The only reticence I have is that I have published my novel
under a pen name (for reasons driven by the plot) -- but otherwise I’m as open
as can be, and am in the process of giving lectures at local libraries to talk
about my experience writing and publishing my debut novel, The Second Daughter
…
- What book/s are you currently writing and what is it about?
The Second Daughter was so much fun, so rewarding and
fulfilling, that I’ve decided to write a second novel -- this one is well underway
and couldn’t be more different from the first -- The Second Daughter is a
roughly contemporary dysfunctional family story with unintended positive
outcomes … the novel I’m working on now is a historical murder mystery with a
philosophical air …
Here’s the blurb for The Second Daughter:
The Second Daughter
It
had started out well. Umbrellas tangled.
A storybook romance followed. A wonderful wedding. A beautiful, sweet first
daughter. They were complete, a family, happy.
And
then they went and had another daughter.
The
charming fraud of a father starts disappearing, then worse, coming back. The once
sweet older sister resents her new sibling, and the sisters are at constant
war. The poor harried mother is so busy what-iffing about the life she might
have had that she overlooks the life she is actually having. Everyone blames
younger daughter Debra for pretty much everything
as the family disintegrates. Along the way there are secrets and lies,
heartbreaks and betrayals, plus the dramatic unexpected death of a central
character at a pivotal moment. Debra, now a young woman, finds herself living
awkwardly alone with her embittered mother when one night the phone rings—and
her mother’s secret past suddenly crashes back into the present. Their life may be
about to change forever; or rather, perhaps, revert back to what it should have
been all along.
But not because of that phone
call, as it turns out.
Because of the remarkable second
daughter. For what Debra Gale has is
unyielding determination. What she has is an irrepressible capacity to
love.
And
now at last what she has is a chance.
The
complex dynamics of a changing family. Mother, daughters, sisters, and the
father who both divides and unites them. A fair amount of banana cream pie, and
a truly unique love story—between husband and wife, between parents and
children, but most of all between a mother and her second daughter. Welcome to The Second Daughter: a funny but
poignant, achingly beautiful love story.
- Why this particular genre?
Why
not? The Second Daughter is based on some issues I’m rather familiar with
(surprisingly), in particular the complicated relationships sisters can have to
one another particularly while growing up -- so the ‘literary fiction/women’s
fiction’ labels seem appropriate … The new novel I’m working on is based on
some true historical facts, including a true murder mystery, so naturally falls
into its genre as well.
- What inspire or motivate you to write?
It’s not the big bucks, the long hours (months years), the
fun of getting rejected by agents and publishers, that’s for sure … I write
because it’s fun, because nothing is more fun than a day writing, and it’s what
I would do anyway if I were rich and didn’t have to work …
- What is the writing process like for you?
I need large blocks of time -- several hours a day at least,
preferably mornings, multiple days in a row and I sit and just fill up empty
pages, inventing plot as I go along and then going back and revising earlier
sections as new ideas arise in later sections …
- What is the best and/ or worst part of being a writer?
Best
-- fun, you’re totally autonomous, you can take breaks if/when necessary (to go
get a snack, watch internet, pick up the kids etc) … worst -- all those same things … Or more
seriously: awfully huge investment: can take a couple years to generate a novel
and then it can fall dead stillborn from the press …. Or worse receive vicious
criticism … You can pour your heart into the project for years and then some
random anonymous person gives it one star and no comments … heartless!
8. Any advice for struggling writers?
Only
do it if writing is more fun than almost any other thing you can think to do --
since, statistically speaking, your chances of success (i.e. big success, fame,
money etc) are vanishingly small ….
9. What is your
favorite genre to read or write?
I like all kinds of good writing!
10. Favorite author?
Too many to list!
Well, my day job is a college professor of a subject that is
NOT literature …
12. Was it a life
long dream or triggered recently?
Life dream … from teenaged years I imagined I would do some
writing, be a writer … though it’s only in the past few years that I’ve been at
the right place in my life and career to find the time to write my first novel
(and now my second) ….
- What do you like to do when not writing?
Think
about writing … and yell at my kids …
And Finally
Moto/wisdom in life you live by.
What if
the hokey-pokey IS what it’s all about?
Contact details and buy links of the newest books you would
like the readers to know.
Best
thing to do is go to the website: www.theseconddaughter.com
Thanks once again for your willingness to share with me and
the readers.
Next week I have
Carlyle Labuschagne
June 16, 2013
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