Tell us a little about your book. The Angry Woman Suite, a Kirkus Critics’ Pick, is modern historical suspense (most of the action takes place in the 1930s and 1950s) with elements of coming-of-age, and of course a love story at its core, about a celebrity double murder at the turn of the 20th century, in Pennsylvania, and the attendant fallout on three generations of two families. The title refers to a suite of ten portraits that figure predominantly in the plot. Declared “labyrinthine” by a Montreal Books Examiner reviewer, The Angry Woman Suite is full of twists and turns you don’t see coming until you’re well out of one and already into the next. What inspired you to write this book? Two things: I was writing character sketches for a class—in this particular instance, what I call the “crazy shooter” character who goes bonkers and shoots up a grocery store, yet everyone who’s ever known him swears he was the salt of the earth. Now, there’s no crazy shooter in The Angry Woman Suite, but the first character I created—Francis—was good and bad, sweet and mean, and so on. In short, a paradox like the crazy shooter character, and I wanted to explore that. Everything followed paradox, including going to Chadds Ford for a wedding and visiting the Brandywine Battle museum (the battle serves as metaphor for one of The Angry Woman Suite’s themes of independence). While at that battlefield, I imagined a woman looking back at her life, at her fight for autonomy—and that, between paradox and autonomy, is when I knew I had my book. What are you doing to market your book? I’d had an agent, but she quit the book business. So I told myself I’d get a review from some site, and if it was halfway decent, I’d consider it a “sign” to go indie (either way, trad or indie, you have to do your own book promoting). Well, their review of The Angry Woman Suite was wonderful and amazing and every other superlative you can think of—and here we are. I’m also doing lots of guest blogging ; giveaways, and interviews at review sites. I’m entered in competitions, and heavy into what I call “review.begging,” which sounds rather pathetic, but is paying off. In addition, Reviews site recently ran an ad in their newsletter (good).
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How have sales been? Where have you had the most success?
The Angry Woman Suite is just out , so considering we’re in an introductory phase, I’d say sales are fine for where we are right now. How are readers/reviewers reacting to your book? This is the best part! Readers and bloggers tell me they’re loving The Angry Woman Suite! So I’ll hopefully be having more fun in another month or so when they hit. Right now, though, there’s a common thread to the reviews that are in: the words engrossing, superb, and fantastic. What was the biggest challenge you faced writing this book and how did you overcome it? Two of the three narrators who propel The Angry Woman Suite forward are male (and I’m not), so my biggest challenge was writing from the points of view of men! I ran almost every line of male dialogue past the men in my life. Two minutes into the first read, they all nailed me on the word fabulous. What are the future plans for you and this book? To keep introducing The Angry Woman Suite around, until September or so. What is your next project? I’m a third of the way into a first (untitled and on-hiatus) draft of a whodunit-and-why novel about a violence and murder on the banks of the San Diego River, loosely based on the San Diego Chelsea King case a few years back—only my story will be set mid-century. I plan on picking this project back up in September. Have you published anything else? I have one completely unpublishable novel in a drawer, but The Angry Woman Suite is my first published novel. Any advice for other writers/indie authors out there? Write the story you love, even if it’s painful. The love will show. So will the pain. An epic story has both. Work on your story everyday, but always wrap a writing session at the top of your game—you’ll start the next day’s session rested and healthy and still at the top of your game. Neurotic artists are so yesterday. Many authors write essays about my book and promoting our own work sounds about as appealing an idea as snow-shoeing without, well, snowshoes. BUT I’m here to tell you: it’s not that bad (I thought it would be, too). It’s a keyboard mostly, not a face-time Broadway audition. Keep stuff in perspective and keep moving forward. Have some fun. I liked the book and enjoyed reading it. Many of the people were familiar and I had even met a few. I stood on the roof of the building where I worked and watched the two Concorde aircraft land together at McCoy Airport (now Orlando International Airport). It was a magnificent site. No other company in the world could have pulled that off. The building where I worked hosted several off-site events for the Disney organization and I knew many people who worked at Disney. Later I worked there as a contractor in convention support for two years while the cruise ships were being built.
All of which brings me to my concern for what is left out. The story of Walt Disney World is incomplete without reference to the convoluted and often contentious relationships with the neighboring governments of Orange, Osceola, Lake and Polk Counties and the cities of Kissimmee and Orlando. The relationship between Disneyland and Anaheim is explored in detail as it should be. The relationships in Central Florida should have been explored in similar detail. There are stories about the handshake land deal between Jennings Overstreet and Walt Disney that are as much a part of Disney culture as the Mighty Ducks. There are anecdotes about the construction of the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT that should have been included. It would have been refreshing to hear Jack’s side of these stories. Jack has the opportunity to put to rest many of the urban legends about the design of the Magic Kingdom, and I hope he takes the time in another volume to address these legends. How many times did they repaint the bottom of the channel around Tom Sawyer’s island before they got the right color blue? People who have not been inside the Disney organization may not understand the attitude that we did wonderful and amazing things merely because we could. And we could. The resources I had at my fingertips amazed me then and amaze me now. We could fill a convention ballroom with plants in a few hours. We could get hundreds of balloons on short notice. We had pyro-technicians on call. We could do evening special boat tours on the Seven Seas Lagoon with choirs and entertainment along the way. These were grand and wondrous projects and we did them because we could. It is this sense of awe that I feel is most missing from the book. In many ways, Jack was a great enabler who provided the resources we needed and yet, he does not seem to be awed by it all. He should be. This was a grand adventure. While Jack gives us the names and places we need to understand what went right and what went wrong, he understates his own importance in these events and does not leave us awed. At Disney Event Productions where I worked we had an expression. “Never underestimate the power of Pixie Dust.” This is a good book. It is a fascinating look inside a visionary organization. You should read it, but I look forward to the next one which I hope will be sprinkled with Pixie Dust. |
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