A Q&A with Mommy Booknerd Reviews
Q. What inspires your writing?
Without being cliché, life inspires my writing. I write in the first person. While it is a rare approach, the feedback from readers has been positive. It was a risky decision, but it is how I write best. So when I say life inspires my writing it is truly because I am writing as though I am speaking to the reader. My daily life, experiences, thoughts, emotions and realities all affect the conversational approach of my writing.
Q. What is your favorite thing about being an author?
Being able to say I started something and finished it. I consider myself a serial entrepreneur and that means I start a lot of things and end up pursuing only a few. With writing you have to force yourself to finish. Many people say they are an author, but there are authors, and there are authors. Jane Austin or Ernest Hemmingway. Now those are authors. I don’t even put myself in the same category. But I can at least say I finished a book and people I don’t know can read and enjoy it.
Q. What is the toughest part of being an author?
Writing the next book. I’m laughing as I write that, but really, along with taking the time to write it, which for me is tough enough with working and being a wife and mother, but then with all the marketing and social media and worrying about living up to the first one…writing really is the toughest part.
Q. If you could not be author, what would you do/be?
Well, I am already not just an author. As I said above, I am a wife, a mother, a daughter and I am a business owner. Being an author in my opinion is owning and operating a marketing company. You cannot just be a writer today. You have to be more.
I continue to look to the future – maybe film making, maybe a travel documentary, maybe starting a grassroots political campaign. Who knows? I am not one to operate by conventional standards.
Q. What would the story of your life be entitled?
Always one step away from the edge… of the fridge.
Q. What is your favorite book of all time?
Of all time! I love that in these posts we always act surprised when asked this question.
I don’t have an answer to that. I like series and so that makes it incredibly tough. Every five years the answer changes based on where I am in my life. When I was 14 it was Forever by Judy Bloom. When I was 25 it was the first Janet Evanovich book and the Daniel Silva Series. Recently it was Stieg Larsson Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series and at 30 it was, wait, I haven’t turned 30 yet so again I cannot answer.
Please don’t ask to see my driver’s license.
Q. Which part of your book(s) was the easiest to write?
The action. I dream in action sequences.
Q. Which part of your book(s) was the hardest to write?
There was a lot of research involved in terms of the layout of the Island the book takes place on. I had to visualize the scenes in a real life environment and try to stay somewhat true to the location.
Q. Which character from any book are you most like?
I think my love, (and inspiration for this series) is from the Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum series. I feel like Stephanie Plum and I would make a great team.
Q. What is your favorite season?
Fall. I enjoy seeing the changing of the trees and the chance to start wearing comfort clothing. You know, the kind that covers up the ice cream and M&M’s rather than shorts and tank tops, which are dead giveaways for my latest splurge.
Q. Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book(s).
Well, this isn’t funny as much as embarrassing. Since I am learning a lot in the self-publishing arena I did a last round of spell check on a version before uploading it online. My spell check replaced all the words ‘chick’ to chic like a baby chicken. My first round of books went out with a slew of baby chics as the main characters. It was humbling to say the least. Now I can laugh about it. At the time I cried.
Q. Are you working on something new?
I am! My goal is to have the next in the Suburban Task Force series out by the end of the year. I also have another book called ‘The Beginning of Why.’ I hope that going public with my goal will help push me to meet the deadline.
Q. Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?
A huge Thank You for taking the time to read this Q&A. I really enjoy feedback and use it to help push forward in the series. I am honored to be a part of this blog and of course, I hope you will take the time to read Suburban Task Force and follow along for the fun in the series.
Q. Can you tell me a little about the inspiration behind your book cover(s)?
I consider Suburban Task Force to be a fun book, and I wanted that conveyed on the book cover. The characters are indeed ‘stereotypes’ that we can all relate to, or at the very least laugh with. So I went with animated characters, threw in the lipstick gun and glass houses. Every reader can get an idea of the ride they are in for. The cover makes it clear that there is action, adventure and comedy coming their way.
