Did you choose
your genre or did it choose you? I’d have to say that my genre chose me. I
never know what I’ll be writing next until the images start floating around in
my mind.
Did you enjoy
language arts in school? Did you have a teacher that particularly encouraged
you to write? I went to high school in the 70’s. Where I’m from, college was
never pushed. I was told by my teachers that I had a habit of gazing away or
tuning out. Being the 70’s they probably thought I was high, but I wasn’t. (At
least not all the time.) Lol. It was my imagination, but no one ever told me I
could take those thoughts and make a book out of them. I was taught how to type
and pushed out the door with a pat on the back and a number to call Kelly
Girls. (A place that found you work.)
It’s five
o’clock somewhere…Let’s have a drink! What cocktail best describes you and why?
Like I said, I came of age in the 70’s. I may have been a daydreamer, but I did
other recreations that were popular back then. I drank my quota already, along
with other self-medicating means and have cashed in my fun tickets, as they
say. I’ll take a Shirley Temple, please. And, since I’m feeling mighty frisky
this evening, make that with extra cherries, barkeep. lol
On my desk I
have a rhino that my husband gave me to remind me I’m rhino-tough, as you have
to be in the business. Is there anything you have that you use to remind you of
that? Nothing tangible, but the rhino’s a great idea. No, I’ve just learned,
with age I guess, that it’s best to let yourself get down and feel like a failure
for a day or two if you’re really hurt by someone or something. Cry, lament,
moan…then…always get back up, lick your wounds and jump back on the horse and
try again. I mean, why not, what have you to lose? We all end up in the same
place in the end anyway.
It seems we
all endured English and/or World literature coming up in high school…What was
the worst book you were ever forced to read and what about it turned you off?
Wow. I can’t think of one that I hated to read. I really enjoyed them all.
Wait…you know what? I didn’t like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I really didn’t
get it.
You have a
million dollars that you must donate to one charitable organization. Which one
would you choose and why? Anything to do with abused children and animals. I
don’t get it. It hurts my heart to even think of abusing the innocent of our
world.
Do you have
one of those pesky day jobs, or are you a full-time writer? If you do have
another career what do you do and do you enjoy it? I worked as a secretary for
years. I also worked at a bank. I’m not exaggerating when I say this…I hated
it. I couldn’t stand my job/jobs. I wasn’t meant to be a secretary. I don’t
have it in me to be that organized or analytical. If only I had learned that
years ago.
Romance has
come a long, long way since Fabio graced the covers regularly…it seems the
hinges are off the proverbial door. How far is too far in your mind? Are there
things you simply won’t write? I’m a good ‘ol catholic girl and those nuns put
the real fear of God into us. I can write somewhat naughty stuff, but I can’t
go too far. My inner nun won’t let me. lol
I’ve been
asked, as has my husband, if we do “all that stuff in my stories.” Do you get
asked this and if so how do you handle it? Yeah. Sometimes I don’t want to
write something because I’m afraid people will think I did it or something. I
just figure if they want to think I did, oh, well, let ‘em. I’m not that
interesting and if my characters are and they want to think that character is
based on me, wow…compliment!
I had an editor
early on that showed me the way…have you had anyone in particular that gave you
a gentle **ahem** nudge in the right direction? How did they do that and how
did you react? I absolutely love my editor in chief, Jay Austin, at Devine
Destinies. She is the absolute bomb. She tells it like it is, but with such
grace and kindness, you don’t even know she’s gently guided you into the right
direction. I prayed for someone like her, and there she was.
Wine or beer?
Years ago I would have said, “Bring ‘em both on board, Captain.” lol
Satin or
cotton? Cotton all the way. Shabby, torn cotton.
Fries or tots?
Fries.
Cake or pie?
Cake, lots of it.
Steak or
burgers? Burgers.
Candle light
or pitch dark? Candle light.
Beautiful Cornelia Bainesworth cared only about herself and
her own life the night the Titanic went down. A curse brought on by a woman who
witnessed her selfish behavior that evening destroys her, but it doesn’t stop
there.
One hundred years later, the curse rears its ugly head in
the life of small-town teenager Callie. As if the tragedy of her boyfriend’s
death wasn’t enough, strange occurrences bring her to the brink of insanity.
Callie’s search for answers is unsuccessful until a nerdy schoolmate takes up
her cause and together they experience frightening apparitions, unexplained
phenomena and chilling truths. These truths turn Callie’s life upside down and
reveal a shocking ending to a story that began on the deck of a ship doomed the
moment it saw light.
Young, rambunctious Rose lives with her father and two
sisters in a world of magnificence and splendor, maids and servants at their
beck and call. On the dawn of the Great War, when the world is still innocent
and clean, Rose is taught to inhibit her natural instincts of curiosity and
inquisitiveness. She is trained to be quiet and lady-like by a governess who
expects nothing less than perfection and a father whose love reminds her daily
that she can have anything her heart desires. Only one thing is forbidden. The
Door. The secrets that lay beyond it, she is told, are so unfathomable that to
gaze upon them will cause only death. Unfortunately, Rose must know. She must
find out what those secrets are and whether The Door is an exit to the freedom
she craves or an entrance to a hell from which she’d never find escape.
Alexis Duncan and her family move into a home once owned by
an evil tyrant, and are blissfully unaware of the horrors that await them.
Strange apparitions, orbs floating in the woods outside their windows, and
frightening specters in their bedrooms are only the beginning. Alexis alienates
her hardcore boyfriend, Joe, and his cronies, after meeting a young man named
Reed who understands the manifestation of ghostly occurrences. He sets out to
save her from them and also from an insanely jealous Joe. He'll kill to save
her, even if it means losing Alexis in process.
Jaylyn reluctantly relocates with her fiancé to a falling
down antebellum mansion on the outskirts of a small Virginia town.
Unfortunately he leaves her for his new boss’s daughter and informs her to do
whatever she wants with the house and land. She meets Eli Jacobs, a down on his
luck farmer, who grew up in the area and loves the old home and surrounding
farm. Instead of selling the property, she agrees to hire Eli and together they
work to get the place back to its former glory. When Hubert finds out a
corporation is willing to pay whatever it takes to secure the land the house is
on, he reneges and does everything in his power to thwart their efforts and
make their lives miserable. Unfortunately, the house has other inhabitants who
at first seem to dislike Jaylyn and Eli, but in the end, prove to be the answer
to all their prayers.
How many times have the carts run through the funhouse at
Conniesyaught Park? After one hundred years, Nick and May Connors and their
four children figure plenty. It's what's inside the funhouse, however, that
won't let them rest at night and keeps them looking over their shoulders during
the day. After sitting abandoned and forlorn for over thirty years, they bought
the old park and hotel on the lake with the good intentions of refurbishing it.
Unfortunately, not everything or everyone in life wants to be restored and the
family finds out the hard way when ghosts of the past make their presence known
to the future, in an ominous and uninviting manner.
One night and one stupid mistake turned the life of suburban
housewife and mother Tilley Jenkins into a prison of paranoia and fear. Dancing
and drinking on a rare girl’s night out, feeling young and sexy, she flirts
with a man she met briefly. Before she knows it she’s had too much to drink and
no way home. She wakes in the morning and finds herself in bed with him, the
first man she’s slept with, besides her husband, in twenty-five years. Her
guilt spirals her down the pathway of depression and alcoholism while her
spirited and popular daughter rebels and falls into the hands of neighbors
involved in a powerful and outlandish cult. Tilley gets the shock of her life
when she encounters the cult members and their strange beliefs as she fights to
regain the trust and love of her daughter and regain her own self-esteem in the
process.
Simone O’Henley, recuperating at a remote lakefront cottage
from a devastating broken heart, finds anything but rest. The noises and moans
she hears coming out of a nearby grove of trees terrify her, but are soon
tempered by the company of handsome Jackson Taylor. The locals have never heard
of him and are convinced he’s a land developer ready to snatch up their land at
the first opportunity. He convinces Simone he is a simple caretaker looking
over land for a friend, but her heart speaks the loudest. After he disappears,
she travels far and wide to find him and the truth. A truth that turns her
entire world upside down and throws everything she has ever believed into the
winds of common sense and reason.
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about your background since you have a book named about a scary place from my own childhood that was based on a haunted old piece of property.