Roxanne’s Realm Interview Questions

www.roxannesrealm.blogspot.com

1. What inspired you to become an author?

          My father was a great orator. He loved books and loved words – how they can be put together to inspire, to persuade, or even used as weapons. After I had exhausted the Bobbsey Twins series and Child Craft, he bought me the set of Scribner classics which was a library of the best literature for young readers. These included Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Fenimore Cooper and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

          Out of all those stories, I was captivated by the two that featured a young female protagonist who was physically capable and intellectually superior. One of these was a fairy tale called “The Last Dragon”. The other was one of the Arabian Nights.

          I wrote a lot of Bobbsey Twins novels as a preteen and wrote several pages of a paranormal romance in my mid-twenties, but put it down when it failed to impress my spouse. Now it’s excruciatingly obvious that he is not the reader I’m trying to please. Duh.

          Anyway, all this is to say the answer to the question is two words: Kresley Cole. I discovered her books two years ago and remembered how I loved those proactive young women and their adventures. I then set a goal to try and carve out time for writing. Kresley – thank you. You’re the best. 

2. Do you have a specific writing style?

I’ve never had a class on writing so I don’t know how to answer this question. I have picked up some of the inner circle writer’s lingo from reviews because I had to look up what POV means. I can tell you that, three months after initial publication, my target audience are right brained, meaning women who want to become emotionally engaged by a story, leave reality behind for a few hours, and come to the end of the book wishing they could experience it all over again. If you nodded and laughed when, in the movie “Dead Poets’ Society”, the Robin Williams character told the class to tear out the page that attempted to graph poetry, high fives all around. In my opinion, if you’re not a rebel, you’re probably not a writer.

3. How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

          Right up until release, the working title was Familiar Stranger  taken from the song, “Stranger” by Jefferson Starship. At the last minute I searched Amazon and discovered that there were several other books by that name. So I added the “My” to get a unique title.

4. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Yes and I use it in promotional material all the time. The message is that true love can find you when you least expect it, in the strangest places, even when you’re far, far from home.

5. Is the book, characters, or any scenes based on a true life experience, someone you know, or events in your own life?

We are all defined by our experiences. Certainly that includes writers. Characters and events in my books are a little like a house of mirrors. They may be based on something real, but expanded, elongated, distorted, or otherwise manipulated into what serves the story best. They may just as easily be based on an idea gleaned from another book or a movie. Once I digest media through my own filter, it’s also a true life experience.  

6. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

          Kresley Cole. I have never interacted with her by any means. If I were she, I would think it strange to be considered a mentor by someone I didn’t know existed. But there it is. As I say in my books – often – life is strange.

7. What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?

          The third book in The Order of the Black Swan series entitled “The Summoner’s Tale” expected to release February 14, 2013.

8. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I am locked in a life/death battle with time and, although I fight the good fight, I suspect I’m predestined to lose. If I had four clones, I would still not have enough time to pursue every interest or project I’d like.

          I still publish Seasons of the Witch  every year and oversee the operations at 7th House. The only way I could find time for writing was to back off music. My Classic Rock band broke up a few months ago. I can say I had the full rock and roll experience. I got to play Warrior Dash to 35,000 people and I got to play late night biker bars to fifteen people. It ended with slamming doors, lots of f u’s, and “I wouldn’t play with you again if you were the last bass player on earth!” type proclamations. Sigh.   

          So, rather than get with another band, I took that time and applied it to improving my guitar (my first instrument is keys). And started writing.

10. Who designed the cover of your latest book?

          I do the covers and the book trailers personally. It’s not that I’m controlling. Okay. Well. Maybe it is.

11. Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this book?

The song that backs the book trailer for My Familiar Stranger is “At Last”, the classic love song originally recorded by Etta James. The version on the book trailer is done by Alicia Brass who is lead singer for a popular Houston variety band that I manage and, I might add, she is better than the late, great Etta James.

          The song that backs the book trailer for The Witch’s Dream is actually an integral part of the story. I found a real life (or close enough) Rammel Hawking who backs the book trailer with an acoustic version of the mystery song – used with his permission, of course. I plan to release the book trailer on October 1st, two weeks before the book in available for download.

http://gravetells.com/2012/08/09/book-tour-what-do-women-really-want-romance-or-action/

MY GUEST BLOG FOR GRAVE TELLS:

For me, there are two basic categories of fiction. Is it fiction set in reality as we experience it or is it fiction that takes place in a world that exists only in someone’s imagination?

I’ve never understood why someone would opt for the first if they could have the second. I mean, have you been here? To contemporary life on Earth? Why would you want to spend your precious leisure hours reading about that when you could be transported to a world that has been tweaked and debugged?

Taking that a step further, I write paranormal ROMANCE, heavy on the romance, because I think it holds the key to the answer to the giveaway question I love to ask which is: what do women really want? I love men, but I write for women. We want different things. Again, what’s in my imagination is better than what’s actually outside the door.

I mention that my books are heavy on romance because there is a lot of confusion between paranormal romance and paranormal suspense. A book can be classified as a romance when unless the love interest is the main plot and not the subplot. An action/thriller with paranormal elements and romantic elements is paranormal suspense.

One of the most satisfying things about reactions to the first book of the PNR series The Order of the Black Swan, entitled My Familiar Stranger, is that different readers fall in love with each of her three suitors and then write to tell me they wanted her to end up with this one or that. Someday I’m going to take a poll: Were you rooting for bachelor #1, 2, or 3?

Don’t worry. Each of them gets a story. In fact the next book, The Witch’s Dream, to be released in electronic format on October 14th, is one of those. Whereas My Familiar Stranger could be read and enjoyed as a stand alone novel, the second book picks up where the first ends which means readers will benefit greatly by reading the first book first. That’s why I have insisted the cost of My Familiar Stranger be kept to $.99 so that everyone who is so inclined has a chance to get in on the beginning of the series.