Kindle Nook Books: Author Interview

Do you intend to make writing a career? I do. There are ten books in the Valentina Secrets Series and I’m considering breaking away from this series a little later in the year depending on the demands of my university course. The great thing about e-books is when your team have all given the go ahead and you’ve agreed the book is ready, you just put it up online and it stays there.

Have you developed a specific writing style? http://www.jojomoyes.com/

Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it? Not for a while. This is going to sound a little odd but I generally get writers block when I’ve taken a wrong turn. It’s like my character has done a diva-ish three finger snap, said ‘Oh no you didn’t!’ and marched off in a huff.

I can usually pick out the problem fairly quickly these days, but I’m always aware of the fact I was brought to the original outcome in the first instance. Why? I never leave anything on the cutting room floor.

If it’s its the kind of writer’s block us writers have nightmares about and wake up in cold sweats. You know, where the mind draws a blank, all creativity has been abandoned by the muse, and the pages may stay empty for years and may never be able to write another word ever again kind of writers block. Then I take a pen and a notepad and I go find a quiet little corner and I ask my characters who wants to come out and play? Tell me what you want to do today. No plans… no rules… no technical requirements… just me, a pen, and paper. I free write.

Can you share a little of your current work with us? “Are you kidding?” Ashleigh gives my brother’s shoulder a gentle shove. “I love Luca. She’s an awesome present Sean. Best one I ever had.”

Jeez, they might as well be making out in front of us. This is where life seems unfair to me. Ashleigh and Sean have the gall to carry out their affair right in front of their better halves. Yet I feel guilty whenever an uninvited finger traverse the inside of my bare thigh, but is there any wonder Ashleigh’s boyfriend has made a move on three separate occasions tonight?

I can’t even fantasize about him without feeling the need to berate myself but surely what’s good enough for them is good enough for us? And I know he’s good. No… actually he’s out of this world and his touch set my stomach on fire.

To be honest Mr. Wayne Wandering-Hands Swift is the perfect specimen of the male human race and we’ve already done our fair share of things we shouldn’t have a couple of weekends back … yes I know … but I suck at being a decent human being… My only crowning glory, I’ve won the title of world’s worst friend. Would it help if I told you I’ve never ever done anything like this before? Ever!

And I guess I wouldn’t have done this if he wasn’t so… so… charming, yes that’s the word. Wayne Swift could tame rabid lion and get it to purr like a kitten.

I so badly want to tell Ashleigh. The guilt is eating me up inside. But Wayne was supposed to be at work when it happened. So I can’t tell her that the reason her boyfriend was AWOL when her stepdad died in a car accident was because he was in bed with me. Do you see what I mean about sucking as a decent human being?

It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever given into a temptation like this. I’ve never taken what I wanted and not thought about the consequences or anyone else and look what happened? I know the cosmos didn’t kill her stepfather because I slept with her boyfriend those things had already happened in Los Angeles and we were in New York but she needed him to get on the next flight and to be by her side and he didn’t and he wasn’t why? Because he was with me.

Like I said I’m the worst friend in the world. And what makes me even worse is now… I can’t stop thinking about how much I’d like to have more drunken meaningless sex with my friend’s guy. I mean it’s not like Ashleigh wants Wayne anyway. She has my brother!

Bad Girl, Julia! You cannot have Wayne Swift. He’s Ashleigh’s. So just settle a few inches further away from your flat mate’s man’s wondering hands and put your purse between you like a barrier.

How did you come up with the title? It was original going to be a series of novella; Keeping Faith, Seeking Faith, Saving Faith. I didn’t intentionally chose the name Faith for my female lead character but the name seemed to fit with the characteristics of who the female lead was all the way back in the early days when Faith’s story was just a back story. When it became a whole novel, these parts are the now the three separate stages in Faith’s life; denying, accepting, healing. It was always going to be called the Faith McKenzie Story but Tainted Love seemed to fit Calvin and Faith’s love story.

Can you tell us about your main character? Faith story begins in the late 70’s with a budding romance between Faith and Calvin, who’s a doctor at the hospital where she’s training to be a nurse and ten years her senior. She’s smart, she’s occasionally witty, and she has this enormous heart and desire to protect her family. She has no idea of her own strength or capabilities because Calvin exploits her one weakness; her naiveté. By the time the abuse reaches its pivotal moment Faith and Calvin have been married for twenty plus years. They’ve raised Faith’s younger brother, they have two children in college and two more in preschool, and they have a state wide psychiatry empire. They have a lavish lifestyle, respected pillars in the community, and they’re least likely people you’d expect to be in an abusive relationship. Faith tells her story through letters and emails she sends to her brother. It’s the first time she’s spoken out about what actually happens when Calvin is angry.

How did you develop your plot and characters? It’s really difficult to answer this one because there was no systematic approach to Tainted Love’s plot or its characters and I guess that’s because Faith’s story started formulating some nine months before I wrote it. The characters in the other Valentina Secrets books developed Faith’s story as they developed their own. Going in I knew Faith had two children, that she was married to Calvin for twenty years and a few other details. Everything else developed over the two weeks it took to write it. I’m very much a character driven writer. I love drama and there’s certainly plenty of that but with Tainted Love I let Faith tell her story her way.