Todays Interview is with Elysa Hendricks author of MUST LOVE CATS – The Nine Lives of Thomas Cash Riley. Let’s start the interview with a very personal question
What book do you consider your guilty pleasure read?
I NEVER feel guilty about anything I read. Since my personal motto is: Boring is good. Excitement is vastly overrated, reading is the way I can experience stuff I’m too chicken, too old, and too uncoordinated to do for real. Reading a book I can sky dive, mountain climb, race horses, cars or motorcycles. I can hunt down terrorists. Save the world or the universe. Solve murders. Commit murder. Do magic. Hunt zombies, vampires and werewolves. Have guilt-free , safe sex with a bad boy or two. I can do anything, be anyone I can imagine all without leaving the comfort of my home. What’s there to feel guilty about?
What book was most influential in your decision to become a writer yourself?
I’ve been writing for so long (over 20 years) I can’t really name any one book that made me decide to be a writer. I’ve been a writer since I picked up my first crayon and figured out that those funny squiggles on the page made words that told stories. So I guess I’d have to say that Fun With Dick and Jane is the first book that inspired me to write. Since then there have been so many great authors that have motivated me, but I think it was the poorly written books that gave me the courage to attempt to write my first book. I figured I could do better.
If you could only read one sub-genre for the rest of your life, which genre would you choose and why?
That’s a really hard question. Sort of like asking which food I choose to exist on (probably dark chocolate) or which child I’d save from a burning house. I love all the sub-genres of romance. But if forced to pick just one, I’d have to go with futuristic/sci-fi romance, because in a futuristic romance anything can happen, even if it’s already happened before.
Let us turn the focus back to your writing- what is your favorite part of writing?
Writing THE END. I really don’t enjoy writing. It’s hard work, but it’s something I have to do to remain sane. The characters who live in my head demand that I tell their stories. If I don’t write them down, they drive me crazy. They keep me up nights figuring out how to get them out of the trouble they get themselves into. They have conversations that I have to record. I have to spend hours and hours with them to learn their backgrounds. Plus, I have to research their environments and careers, so I can tell their stories accurately. Being a writer is a 24/7 job. If I’m not actually writing, I’m thinking about writing.
Like someone once said, “I hate writing, but I love having written.”
Has writing affected the way you read or the types of books you read?
Definitely! I used to devour books without a critical thought. But once I started writing with an eye toward becoming a published author, and I started to learn the art and craft of writing I developed a critical eye. Now I spend more time analyzing why a story works or doesn’t work. I spot jarring point of view shifts. Passive voice and info dumps drive me bonkers. When I do find an author, and thankfully there are many of them, who let me forget I’m a writer, I want to kiss their feet and beg them to write more books.
-Since we just had April fools day, What is the funniest thing that has ever happened (either to you or to one of your characters) on a date?
I don’t how funny my character Brandon Davis in THE SWORD AND THE PEN found it, but it certainly gave him a start and turned his life upside down when his fictional creation, Serilda, from his Warrior Woman books appears in his home complete with a mile-long sword and a badass attitude.
Finally tell me about your latest/upcoming book.
MUST LOVE CATS – Book 1 of The Nine Lives of Thomas Cash Riley series is a contemporary fantasy.
Thomas Cash (TC) Riley is mad, bad and –dead. Killed in a one car wreck the twenty-nine-year old playboy is given one last chance to redeem himself for living a selfish, unfulfilled life and to determine his soul’s final destination.
To help his young daughter recover from the loss of her mother, Daniel Bishop, a widower who dislikes the country and is allergic to anything with fur, has moved back to his wife’s rural hometown to be close to her large family.
Katherine Sinclair, the local veterinarian and the single mother of an adventurous ten-year old son, is wary of the handsome newcomer. Once before she’d given her heart to a wealthy, charming man and she’d ended up pregnant and alone.
With the help of a lonely little girl and a brash young boy, can TC find a way to bring together two damaged people? Can he remember his past and save his soul in the allotted time?
And can he do it all as a cat?
Thanks for joining us here today, if you would like to get in touch with Elysa you can do so in the comments below or via her blog or facebook.