Interview with contemporary fiction novelist M. Garzon

M. Garzon is stopping here today as she tours her contemporary novel, Blaze of Glory with Goddess Fish Promotions.

As part of the tour, M. is going to be awarding the entire trilogy on Kindle or Kobo (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and leave comments there, too! 

Bio:

M. Garzon rode horses professionally for ten years, until an injury prompted a career change. She returned to school and completed a BSc; then for good measure, an MBA. After several years of toiling as a business consultant, she turned to writing in a desperate bid to regain her sanity. A mom of two fabulous children, she lives in St‑Lazare, QC and considers herself extremely lucky to be a writer.

Welcome M. Please tell us about your current release.

Blaze of Glory is the first book of a trilogy set in the horse world, more specifically the world of showjumpers. The main character, Tea (pronounced Tay-a) starts the family drama rolling by falling in love with the exact wrong person. She then proceeds to dig herself into a deeper mess by making rash, impetuous decisions (thus angering her step-father), ignoring sound, loving advice (thus frustrating her twin brother), and being stubborn and clueless about her love interest (thus… no wait, I don’t want to spoil it for you). Still, she’s only seventeen so we have to cut her some slack. And she does redeem herself somewhat in the second and third books, which are already out.

What inspired you to write this book?

I wasn’t inspired so much as held captive and forced. My muse has a mean streak.

Excerpt:

“What do you need, Tea?” he asked quietly.

The question caught me by surprise. I needed a lot of things, but what sprang to mind first was Jaden. The one thing I definitely could never have.

I gulped. “Just be my friend.”

“I will always be that.” He pulled into the lot where my car was parked. Julia and Teri were following behind us.

He turned to me. “Will you think about what I said? About telling Dec?”

Truthfully, I had filed away his request as soon as he’d made it, under the heading of ‘not in this lifetime’.

“Why is it so important to you?” I asked a question rather than lie to him.

“Because I think it will help to extirpate your feelings of guilt,” he said.

Only Jaden could use a word like ‘extirpate’ and not sound like a total geek, I thought with a smile. I turned toward him, still smiling, and found myself being pulled into a hug. I hugged him back fiercely, my heart breaking into a mad dash. His body was hard, but very warm. I pulled away first—I liked being in his arms far, far too much to stay there. This was something I’d have to get under control, and quickly.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m writing a kids’ book with my children. It’s called Panther and it’s been exciting for me because I’m learning a lot about Canadian horses, our national breed. I also found an awesome illustrator for it, which I think adds a lot to the story. I never thought I’d write for children, but that’s what happens when you have kids – you find yourself doing a lot of things you never suspected you would.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Sometime between my 2nd and 3rd books it just hit me one day that this is what I am now. How lucky am I?

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I’ve been writing “full-time” for about a year now, but I’m also a single parent and my kids live with me 100% of the time. I write when they’re in school, but between PED days (teacher days), holidays, and illness, it seems there are never enough hours. I’ve tried to write at night after they’re asleep but what I produce is mostly gibberish. This past January the kids had chicken pox one after another, so I lost a whole month of writing, although I did gain some nice bonding time with my kids.

School days start with craziness – my kids are seven and nine but in the morning they somehow revert to being preschoolers. Once they’re safely off, the dog’s been walked, and the demanding bunny attended to, then I sit down and spend six hours living in my imaginary world.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I wrote my first book all out of sequence, and put it together like a puzzle at the end.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A horse trainer – and I was, for a while. I also, like many animal-loving children, thought about being a veterinarian, but when I got older and spent some time volunteering at vet clinics I realized it’s a very difficult profession for those with soft hearts.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

If you read the books now, you can be cool and say you liked them before they became a TV series ;)

Website | Facebook | Amazon  (also available on Kobo, NOOK, and iBooks)

Thanks for being today’s guest, M!