Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone. Today we welcome Tinisha Johnson to the site. She is the author of the mystery Searchable Whereabouts. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Johnson. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Thank you, I’m glad to have the opportunity to be present on FictionScribe.com.

I reside in Denver, Colorado. I’ve now been living there several years. And I’m married with two children. I knew I wanted to be a writer at the age of eleven. My first passion was poetry, and then short stories which later turned into finishing my first novel at the age of 23.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

Well, like I said, eleven is about the age I knew I was passionate about writing. English and creative writing were my favorite subjects in school.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your mystery novel Searchable Whereabouts. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Yes, Searchable Whereabouts is the story of Rahkel Williams who’s trying to unravel the mysterious death of her beloved uncle. After his death, Rahkel begins finding clues into his life that has her wondering who was this man, she thought she knew so well.

Rahkel then hires a private investigator, Darrin Miller, which soon turns into a love interest. And after awhile strange things begin to happen, like people of interest in the case who turn up dead and Rahkel soon fears for her life and knows she can’t trust anyone. But she sets out to find the answer at all costs.

What inspired you to write Searchable Whereabouts? Where did the idea begin?

Well, I’ve always been a huge fan of mystery shows and movies. And I wanted to take on the challenge of writing a mystery novel. As far as where the idea to write Searchable Whereabouts came about– the idea really just evolved while writing it.

I didn’t have an outline before I started the book. Believe it or not, I just started writing with an idea of a mystery in mind. So I wrote and wrote and wrote, and eventually Searchable Whereabouts was born. I don’t suggest that though. I’d wish I started out with an outline first.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

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Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Silva. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

You mean, aside from being a bit off-center? Eccentric? Your typical too-much-going-in-my-pea-brain writer? Hmm…okay.

Well, for a living, I teach at several online universities and love it. I teach at three community colleges (Oregon, Wisconsin and Georgia) and two technical colleges. I love it, but that pretty much means I am on the computer all the time. I think that’s just made me love writing more because I write my first draft in long hand with a fountain pen.

Didn’t I mention eccentric?

What brought you into the world of writing?

My imagination, I suppose. I figured if I didn’t get these characters out of my head and onto paper, they would drive me insane. The truth is, the greatest disappointment of my childhood was the moment I realized I had to stop pretending. I think I was 15…lol…okay, maybe 13, but still, that’s OLD to be figuring out that you HAVE to leave your old pretend friends behind.

When I realized that I could actually bring them with me into the adult world through writing, my disappointment lifted and here I am! When did you start? I started a couple of years after I was a cop. A friend said, why don’t you write cop stories? I didn’t want to because I wasn’t a good one and preferred to leave that chapter behind me. (At that time, in the state of California, it took 9 months to become a licensed hair dresser, and 3.5 months to become a cop. What?)

However, the character of Delta Stevens refused to shush, so I had to write a book about her…and then 5 more.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your book Across Time. Could you tell us a bit about the book and what inspired you to write Across Time?

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Fiction Scribe readers, it is my pleasure to introduce you to this week’s interviewee, Chris Hoare. Chris is currently on virtual tour for his book and has honored me with some of this time.

Without further ado…

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Mr. Hoare. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Hey – call me Chris.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

When I was young I couldn’t help but notice my mother was a voracious reader, and as I grew older I became a paperboy for the newsagents where she borrowed most of her books. I found novels there of adventure and excitement and formed a desire to emulate the authors who could captivate readers with their stories.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your book The Wildcat’s Victory. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

The second novel published in the Iskander series, it’s actually fifth in the scenario chronology, although two of the early novels were scrapped and will one day be rewritten. The stories follow the strong female protagonist, Gisel Matah, who becomes a security officer for a small group of modern people stranded in a 17th century world.

What inspired you to write The Wildcat’s Victory? Where did the idea begin?

The whole series started as some historical ‘what-if’ speculation. In the series I explore the effect of having an anachronistic technological revolution in a world of sailing ships, periwigged gentlemen, minuets, and ladies in crinolines (although Gisel rarely wears such encumberances). After Gisel makes a dangerous journey to escort young Yohan to an enemy city in “Deadly Enterprise�, I thought it time to portray her in a situation where she is more of a controlling player – until the odds mount against her.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

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Hello and welcome back to Fiction Scribe everyone. Today I have a special bonus Monday interview for you.

Please join me in welcoming author April Star to the site. She is the author of Tropical Warnings and is here to talk about her book as well as her life as an author.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Star. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

It’s always great to stop by here at Fiction Scribe and thank you for taking the time to interview me. At the risk of boring readers I will keep my introduction brief, which is difficult for a novelist! I live in Central Florida with my husband of 38 years and our three Maltese fur babies. I work at an RV resort which gives me a constant flow of inspiration.

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved to South Florida when I was three-years-old. Shortly after my marriage, I quit my job as a teacher of emotionally disturbed children to travel with my husband, Jerry, whose work in the construction trade took us across America’s highways and as far North as Alaska and Canada. Our wandering’s continued for sixteen years until we finally settled down to mange an RV resort near the Florida Keys. You can take the girl out of the RV but you can’t take her out of the lifestyle!

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I started writing before I could talk or walk. Really! My parents believe it had something to do with me falling on top of a metal toy typewriter when I was nine months old. With the carriage embedded in my forehead, my dad swooped me and my typewriter up and rushed me to the doctor. I was stitched up and the only long term affect was that of a writing addiction.

You’ve written the book Tropical Warnings. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Tropical Warnings is the first title in my Wanderlust Mystery series. It’s about a south Florida campground manager who is being stalked by a psychotic and potentially deadly stalker. Laura Madison, my heroine hires a PI to help her in her quest to find out who the demented stalker is.

What inspired you to write Tropical Warnings? Where did the idea begin?

Primarily I was inspired by all the crazy happening’s that occur within an RV resort! Especially in the off season months. That’s when you get the campers who tell you they were on Jerry Springer because they are half human and half alien and so and so forth. Jerry and I had one such crazy that worked for us and had been caught stealing.

He was terminated and the cleaning crew was cleaning out the trailer the campground provided for him and discovered a picture of me under his pillow. How creepy is that? That’s when the story idea began to take root. I started to think about other experiences on the road and in campgrounds and before I knew it character’s, plots, scenes, and incidents were coming full speed ahead. That’s when I realized that a series (not a book) was being born.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

Laura Madison because I see myself as a strong woman who can be taken seriously both in business and in a relationship.

What is your favourite part of the book?

I was happiest with the element of suspense I created with the stalker. Many readers have told me that they could always figure out the whodunit in a mystery until they read Tropical Warnings.

What draws you about writing mysteries?

I think its always been the essence of the mystery of life itself. I’ve always been one who tries to figure out the “whys� and “what if’s� with life happenings, world events, as well as crime, wars, and fighting. I’m always truing to solve one problem or another and since this is often times an impossibility in real life, I get it out of my system in fiction.

According to your website, you have travelled a lot. How much does your travel and experiences come into your writing?

They come into play quite a bit, along with a very active imagination and a muse that is always asking, “What if…?�

Are there any authors who have inspired you in your writing?

Stephen King, Sue Grafton, Nora Roberts, to name a few. Any writer who has gone through the agony of defeat in the sense of rejection and came out knowing what the true thrill of victory is all about is always a deep inspiration to me.

What are you working on now?

Book three in my series, It’s Check Out Time. I recently got “the call� on book two, The Last Resort, which will be released in June of 2009.

What are your dreams for your writing?

To see Tropical Warnings and all remaining titles hit the Big Screen!

When you’re not writing novels, what do you do? How do you find time to write?

I like to read (of course) and work in my yard. I also love to take long walks along the beach for this is where I recharge my soul. I never “find� the time I need to write – I make the time. Writing is something I MUST do to survive, like breathing it is a necessity for my personal survival.

Do you have any advice for writers?

Write from your heart and open a vein. Write about that which fuels an excitement and passion within you. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t. You CAN! Like anything in life, first you have to want it, and then believe you can have it, and then go for it. All the rest will follow.

Thank you very much for your time.

You’re welcome. I enjoyed talking with you and meeting everyone here at Fiction Scribe.

Today we welcome Catherine Delors to the site to talk about her book Mistress of the Revolution as well as about what inspires her.

I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Delors. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Well, I was born, raised and educated in France. I came to America as an adult and became an attorney in California. I have been practicing law for over ten years. Now I split my time between Paris and Los Angeles. It’s a fairly complicated life, but I like it this way.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

Mistress of the Revolution is my first book. I began thinking of it in late 2004. I wrote a few chapters at random and, before I knew it, I was hooked.

You are currently on virtual tour for your novel Mistress of the Revolution. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Mistress of the Revolution is a fictional memoir by a French noblewoman exiled in England. It is supposed to have been written in 1815, at the time of the collapse of Napoleon’s regime. My heroine, Gabrielle, now middle-aged, reflects on her past. And political events once again overtake her personal life. It is the story of a woman who tries to keep her humanity through adversity.

What inspired you to write Mistress of the Revolution? Where did the idea begin?

The idea came from a conversation I had with my late father. We were talking about the name of a street in the little mountain town where I had spent all of my summers as a child. It was named, my father told me, after Pierre-André Coffinhal, Vice President of the Revolutionary Tribunal. I knew nothing of that character, though the street itself had always been familiar to me.

So I began to look into Coffinhal’s life. I found a perfect novel character, in fact. That immediately piqued my curiosity, about him, and about the whole French Revolution.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

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Today I have a bonus interview with the very interesting Nan Hawthorne.

I got the chance to ask her a little bit about everything from her novel to what her feelings are about self-publishing. Please take a moment to welcome her to Fiction Scribe, and enjoy the wonderful interview I had with her.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Hawthorne. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Oh dear, where do I start? How about with the “vital statistics”? I live in the greater Seattle area with my husband and our beloved cats. I am 56 now. I grew up in Southern California and Southeast Alaska, and I have lived in other parts of the US.

I graduated from Northern Michigan University — see what I mean? English major, of course. I’ve had at least two careers besides the typical office drudge jobs. I was a big fish for a while in the little pond of non-profit management before I became a professional writer. Oh, and I am legally blind. No central vision at all.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I was reading early, and at seven I announced to the world that when I grew up I was going to be “an authoress”! I wrote my first story about then, then in my teens I met my writing partner for “The Story” which my first novel is based on. I mostly let the writing go for years and years. I started writing for a “living” only about ten years ago. The web was the impetus.

You’ve mentioned your first published book, Loving the Goddess Within: Sex Magick for Women. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

I believe that what are often called patriarchal religions have had a vested interest in controlling what women do with and feel about their bodies. The only way to control how we did was by restricting us, and when that did not keep working, making us feel bad about our bodies and sexuality. I see the “matriarchal” religions like neo-paganism or just the mythology from matriarchal societies to be a source of healing.

That’s what my book is all about. Ideas for women to heal their sense of themselves specifically their bodies and sexuality.

Right now you’re working on a novel with the word ‘novel’ purposely in quotes. Can you tell us why that is and what the book is about?

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Hello everyone and happy Friday!

Today I have a wonderful interview to share with you. Author Deborah Woehr is here to talk about her paranormal novel Prosperity and about her writing. Please join me in welcoming her to Fiction Scribe.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Woehr. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I started keeping a diary when I was 11 years old, but didn’t start writing novels after I turned 30.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your paranormal novel Prosperity. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Prosperity is about an embattled psychic who is forced to solve a 79 year-old murder before she becomes the next victim.

What inspired you to write Prosperity? Where did the idea begin?

There were three things that inspired me to write Prosperity: the story of a lynching that occurred in my hometown of San Jose in the 1930s, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, and the fate of people when they die.

The idea began with Amanda, who began sleepwalking to her husband’s grave shortly after he was murdered. Is she suffering from a nervous breakdown, or is she actually meeting up with her husband’s ghost?

What character do you relate to the most and why?

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Hello everyone! Today I have a very fun interview to share with you. Author LaConnie Taylor-Jones has joined us to talk about her book When I’m With You. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her to the site.

If you’re interested in a chance at winning a $100 amazon.com gift card, check out the end of this interview!

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Taylor-Jones. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Hello everyone!! I’m a native Memphian currently living in Northern California with my husband and four kids. By trade, I’m a health educator consultant and an active volunteer with several social and community organizations. I started writing in the summer of ’03 and my debut novel, When I’m With You released in November ’07.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

The one thing that catapulted me into the writing world was my husband. In the spring of ’03, I was in bed reading a novel that was horrible. It was pass midnight and I think my husband was tired of hearing me whine about the book because he said, “Honey, if you can write a better book, do it, but baby, turn out the lights.� I took him up on the challenged and I’ve never looked back.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your contemporary romance novel When I’m With You. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

When I’m With You is a story that shows the damage caused by an abusive relationship, how the person who’s abused suffers, how to trust again, and why one has to FFF: forgive, forget, and move forward.

What inspired you to write When I’m With You? Where did the idea begin?

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Hello everyone!

Today I have a real treat of an interview for you. The lovely authors who wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire are here today answering questions about the book. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming them to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Rachel and Judy. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Rachel: I have worked as a social worker/therapist in the past, and right now I am a stay-at-home mother of two small children (ages 5 and 2) and a freelance writer.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

Rachel: I have been writing since the age of seven. I had an amazing second grade teacher who encouraged all of us to write poetry, and that’s when the love of writing all started for me. After that, I had lots of encouraging teachers, and I was an English Major and Sociology minor in college.

When I got married in 1990 and moved from New York to Massachusetts, I took an adult ed. creative writing course with the amazing short story writer and novelist Melanie Rae Thon. Melanie in turn introduced me to the late and much missed short story writer Andre Dubus, and I had the great good fortune of taking part in a Thursday night writing workshop that he ran out of his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts up until his untimely death. I tried to write fiction, especially during the time I was in Andre’s group, but I feel much more comfortable writing nonfiction, especially self-help books, so that is what I focus on now.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Rachel: We are so excited about this book. Our approach is very positive, very joyful and playful. People get very busy and very stressed out, and sometimes, as a result of fatigue and stress and a general feeling of being sort of over-scheduled and overwhelmed by life, they may neglect their relationship with their partners, or allow it to drop to the bottom of their “priority list� (well below children, careers, community involvement, hobbies, social obligations, etc.). Our book offers readers a powerful reminder to make time and save energy for each other, both in the bedroom and outside of it.

What inspired you to write this book? Where did the idea begin?

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Hello and happy Friday, everyone.

Today I have an excellent interview by a woman whose name truly die hard Dallas fans will recognize, Camille Marchetta. She is here today to talk about her novel The River, By Moonlight. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Marchetta. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Hello. Please call me Camille. And thank you for your invitation, Jaime. Tell a bit about myself? Yes. Well . . . I was born in Brooklyn, one of New York City’s five boroughs. I went to elementary and high school there and to college just about thirty minutes farther north. A very romantic adolescent, I dreamed of being an ex-patriot, and though I made it almost to the Canadian border when I was about twelve (car trouble ended that holiday), I never actually left the country until after I got my degree. My first trip abroad was to the Grenadines, on vacation.

A few months later, I went to London, fell in love with it, decided to stay, and worked there as a literary agent for several years. (One of the many perks of my life at the time was that I got to travel in England, as well as on the continent, for business and for fun.)

When I decided I was ready to start writing, I went on to Los Angeles, where I had friends working in television. It took a while, but I did finally get a job, first as a scriptwriter, then as a story editor on Dallas (at the very beginning, as it happened), and after that my career was off and running. I wrote pilots for new series, a TV movie, worked as a writer/producer on other series, including Dynasty, and took time off in between to write novels. I co-authored two with Ivana Trump and, so far, have three of my own

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

Writing was something I always wanted to do. My mother claimed that, long before I could read, I used to bang away at my father’s old Underwood typewriter, pretending I was writing a story. And I remember beginning my first novel when I was eight.

I never finished it, which – unfortunately – was the tale of my writing life for many years after. It was a matter of self-confidence, I think, of being too timid to try to elbow my way into a “club” that included Tolstoy, Wharton, Fitzgerald, so many writers I admired. But getting that job at the literary agency in London really was a stroke of good fortune. Working with my clients, I learned that all writers, at least from time to time, lose their confidence; and that it’s necessary to push past that, focus on the work, keep writing, and hope for the best. Now, that’s what I try to do.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your novel The River, By Moonlight. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

The novel is set in New York City and the Hudson River Valley, in 1917, just as the United States is about to enter the First World War. It deals with the death of Lily Canning, a talented young artist, and the effect of her loss on her family and friends. They are devastated by grief, tormented by questions of how and why, and if that isn’t enough, they’re all terrified that the coming war will cost them more lives, more loved ones.

How do we get beyond our pain and fear, how do we move on? These are among the questions raised in the novel. Each of the main characters has a different answer. Some of those answers are satisfying. Some are not. But I believe they’re honest answers and that, in the end, a case is made for the resiliency of the human spirit and the power of hope.

What inspired you to write The River, By Moonlight? Where did the idea begin?

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Dear readers, this week we have the author of a very powerful book joining us. Judy Gregerson’s Bad Girls Club is a story of strength and secrets, trials and family loyalty.

Please join me in welcoming Judy to Fiction Scribe.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Gregerson. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Well, I’m the mother of two college-age daughter. I have a great husband who’s very supportive of everything I do. My background is in advertising and publishing and I’ve worked for a couple of big daily newspapers. I live in the Pacific Northwest but grew up on the eastern end of Long Island which is very much like Cape Cod. I’m a hermit who loves people, so I can be happy if I’m out with people or if I’m home alone.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I was always interested in writing. But in my twenties I started working on my first book, Save Me! A Young Woman’s Journey Through Schizophrenia to Health. I had a writer friend who encouraged me and I was very, very fortunate in that the first editor I sent my book to bought it. After that book, I took a long break, left NYC, moved to Seattle, started a family and then came back to writing.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your novel Bad Girls Club. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Bad Girls Club is a story told by Destiny, a seventeen-year-old who desperately wants to save her mentally ill mother and make her well and also rescue her little sister from her mom’s outbursts. Her dad is clueless about how bad things are. He just won’t face it. And one summer, the whole family spirals out of control and Destiny has to make life and death decisions for herself and her sister.

What inspired you to write Bad Girls Club? Where did the idea begin?

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Hello everyone!

This week I have a bonus interview to put up. I’ve talked to novelist Mary Simonsen who wrote the novel Pemberley Remembered. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her here to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Simonsen. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Northern New Jersey very near to New York City. It was a great place to live as we were close to Broadway, the concert venues and the museums. While working in an engineering office, I met my husband, Paul. We’ve been married for 31 years and have two grown daughters and a granddaughter.

Before having children, most of my career was as a legal secretary, but after my girls were old enough to go to school, I reinvented myself and became a special education assistant. I retired two years ago to pursue my own interests which are travel and writing a novel.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I always enjoyed writing, but it wasn’t until I had to write papers for college that I realized that I had some talent in that area. I have written for neighbourhood newsletters and a genealogical society, and I always got positive feedback. Like Jane Austen, much of my writing was for the “amusement of my family� and for the joy of writing.

You’ve recently published your novel Pemberley Remembered. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

The story’s setting is postwar England. Maggie Joyce, a young American, is working in London when she learns that a country house in Derbyshire might possibly be the real home of the characters who inspired Jane Austen’s Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.

Maggie, a fan of the novel, goes to Derbyshire and meets Jack and Beth Crowell who have ties to the estate and who share stories with her of the family who occupied Montclair, the novel’s Pemberley. She is befriended by the Crowells and learns about the effects that the First World War had on them and their families. She also meets Rob McAllister, a man who served as a navigator on a B-17 bomber during the Second World War. They fall in love, but there are difficulties because of his wartime experiences.

What inspired you to write Pemberley Remembered? Where did the idea begin?

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Hello everyone!

Today I have talked to the lovely Ms. Judi Moreo who is talking about her achievement journal (pictured on the right). If the name Judi Moreo sounds familiar to you, I interviewed her previously. You can read the interview here.

Hello and welcome back to Fiction Scribe, Ms. Moreo.

It’s nice to be back. Thank you for interviewing me again.

In August of 2007, I interviewed you about your book You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion, and Power. You are currently on tour once more for your Achievement Journal. Could you tell us a bit about that and how it relates to your book?

Yes. The Achievement Journal is the companion to my book, You Are More Than Enough. It was designed to assist anyone who is wanting to find out more about themselves or anyone who wants to achieve their dreams and goals. Or both. It is a fast, easy, convenient way to record your wants, hopes, and desires, to write down your ideas, and to create the life that you’ve dreamed of.

What exactly is an achievement journal? What can people expect to do and accomplish with this journal?

When you write in this journal on a regular basis, it keeps you future focused toward the achievement of your goals and dreams. It will provide you with a record of your strengths and successes as well as an acknowledgment of the characteristics, values, talents, people, and things for which you are grateful.

What inspired you to create an achievement journal?

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Hello and welcome everyone.

Today we have a special interview and a first for Fiction Scribe. Today we are talking to Carole Schutter, the woman who wrote the book September Dawn which is based off the movie September Dawn.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Schutter. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

I’m a romantic who has had the good fortune to live in romantic places. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii with its enormous diversity of culture filled me with stories from around the world and nurtured my love of history and the people who came before us. From there, I moved to Aspen, Colorado which is completely unique and different from almost any place on earth. Again, I experienced a world of glamour, excitement, and tragedy.

Now, at a time when most people are heading for retirement, I have finally jump-started the writing career I always dreamed of. Thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, I became part of the 1.1% of all screenwriters that ever get a movie made. The book, by the same name, was based on the movie, “September Dawn.�

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I “wrote� my first story at five years old. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. But life got in the way.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your novel September Dawn. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Based on an act Look Magazine calls one of the greatest crimes in America, “September Dawn� is the story of the daughter of a Christian pastor and the son of a Mormon Bishop who fall in love in an atmosphere of fear and hatred. The Mountain Meadow Massacre oddly enough occurred on September 11, 1857.

September Dawn started out at a movie. Could you tell us a bit about how you go about writing the novel version of a movie?

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Hello everyone! Today I bring you a special bonus interview for this week.

Joining us today is Cheryl Snell, the author of the novel Shiva’s Arms. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Snell. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Thanks for having me, Jaime. I was trained as a classical pianist, and performed and taught music for many years. When I married into a Hindu Brahmin family, I began to write seriously to make sense of my new situation. Over the past six years, I have published three poetry collections, and earned several Pushcart Prize nominations. I am on staff at Alsop Review as book reviews editor.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I can’t remember a time when I did not scribble. I’d write poems for family birthdays and little pieces to amuse my father. My love of words can be traced to him, I think. At the table, he would recite Chaucer, Coleridge and Robert Burns, complete with brogue. He had a great library, and I had the full run of it.

You’ve recently published your novel Shiva’s Arms. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

It’s a literary novel that crosses cultures and genres. It has religious and political elements, and some readers have called it a love story. Here’s a brief synopsis—

When Alice marries Ramesh, she is plunged into a battle of wills with her mother-in-law, named Shiva for the Hindu god of Creation and Destruction. The older woman usurps Alice’s authority in her own home, and never lets her forget her lowly place in the Indian joint-family. On one annual visit, the power struggle between the women is interrupted when a family secret is revealed that costs Shiva both her health and her reputation. It is up to Alice to heal the rift between them, as the story evolves into an exploration of freedom and duty, rootlessness and belonging, cultural identity and the meaning of home.

What inspired you to write Shiva’s Arms? Where did the idea begin?

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