Interview with contemporary fiction writer Meredith Egan

Novelist Meredith Egan is here today kicking off a new week. We’re chatting about Tide’s End: a just living novel, which is a mashup of contemporary fiction and hopepunk!

That’s right, hopepunk.

During her virtual book tour, Meredith will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Meredith Egan is an author of critically acclaimed novels, Just Living: a novel and Tide’s End: A Just Living novel. The stories are shaped from her work with crime victims and violent prisoners over more than thirty years. Meredith is trained in mediation and peacemaking circles., and has been honoured to learn from many First Nations peoples. Meredith coaches writers and other creative folks and offers workshops and training through her Daring Imagination work.

Meredith is the principal at Wild Goat Executive Coaching where her clients include leaders in the automotive, technology, government and small business fields. She lives at the Groundswell Ecovillage in beautiful Yarrow, BC. with her dog Mollie, and rambunctious feline sisters Firefly and Filigree. For fun she dabbles in cooking soup for her neighbours, and soaking in her hot tub with her four adult children when they visit.

You can find Meredith through her website, and on Facebook and Twitter for information about her novels, and her coaching work. Meredith welcomes opportunities to speak with groups about justice, and writing. Her books are available through Amazon and local bookstores.

Welcome, Meredith. Please share a little bit about your current release.

Taylor Smythe dreams of having a loving family. But first, he has to rescue his little sister Jenny from the gritty underbelly of the child cyberporn industry. Taylor journeys from homelessness in the inner city to a community in the dripping forests of the Pacific Northwest to confront the relentless pounding of his fiercest pain.

Can he become the big brother Jenny needs right now, and for the rest of their lives?

Tide’s End: A Just Living Novel explores the many faces of sexual assault and human trafficking, and how life can shatter for those most affected – the victims.

Because #MeToo is more common than we can imagine.

As is #ChildrenToo

And even #BoysToo

It tears apart our families and neighbourhoods.

And wherever there is suffering, there are guardians and helpers who still the relentless pounding to encourage Tide’s End.

What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve been privileged to work with people who are profoundly affected by crime for decades, and to hear their stories of pain, and their struggles to be resilient, to make meaning out of what happened to them. I collected those stories in my heart for years, but they aren’t my stories.

An Elder I worked with encouraged me to think about how I could share what I’ve experienced with the broader community I live in. That inspired me to take some of the fiction I’d been writing and really lean into finishing a novel. And a second.

As a community, we have to get better at helping our neighbours who have experienced trauma, because unhealed trauma affects everyone. And it’s far easier to learn about oppression, and inequality, and addictions – all the difficult parts of life – through fiction, through story, and through experience.

I’m most happy when I encounter a reader who says, “I never thought about that!”

Excerpt from the beginning of the Tide’s End: a just living novel:
Chapter 1
Warming Up

If this is what I have to do to rescue Jenny, I’ll figure it out, I thought as I drove along the dark, narrow roadway. My little sister is worth it, even if I feel like throwing up. Occasionally the overhanging trees dropped massive dumps of water onto my car. Or rather, into my car through rust holes and windows that didn’t seal. Every time there was the thunder of falling water, I ducked.

What the hell have you gotten me into, Marta? I thought, wishing daggers at the social worker who’d sent me here. Crawling further up the driveway, I turned a corner and gasped.

Holy crap, I thought, staring at the building in front of me. I’d stayed in dodgy motels. Run down apartments. But I’d never been in a place like this before.  Ever. In my life. This place was huge, and gorgeous, and knew I wouldn’t fit in. I’d registered for the Survivors of Sexual Assault Retreat, but would it be okay? What would it take to blend?

The money I’d need to pay for the rest of the damned retreat was in my torn duffle. But this looked decidedly upper class, and, well…here I was hoping my junker would make it up the driveway. It’d been my home for the last three months…so not upper class.

Is this really what I need to do to get Jenny back? I’d just turned 19, and getting custody of Jenny Benny, being an epically amazing big brother for a change…that was the most important thing to me. Marta thought I’d better deal with my sexual…history first.

My mind bounced all over. Then it landed on maybe tonight I’ll get warm. Like, to my bones, warm. I smiled.

What exciting story are you working on next?
Currently I’m working on the third book in this series, Ricky’s Place. It’s about a family struggling with disconnection and the pain that comes from growing up in a dysfunctional home.

The children -  two brothers – Preston, a successful business owner and Butch, his incarcerated brother, along with their younger sister Becky, reunite after 20 years in part because Butch is dying in prison.

Together, they have to figure out how to get along with each other, deal with their mortality, and what it means to be an unlikely hero.

You know, sex, death, and money.

All the important bits of life.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I started writing stories as a strategy to deal with all the pain and hurt I learned about through my work. It was exciting to be building a world that I could control! I didn’t think of myself as a writer, however.

I think the first time I shared a story with someone in a writers’ group and they were touched by my writing I started to wonder if I could be a writer.

When I started to receive invitations to speak with other writers, coach writers, and share about my books with book clubs and in libraries I started to really think of myself as a writer. It took years!

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 don’t write full time, and I’m not sure that would ‘work’ for me. I’m definitely an introvert, and if the pandemic has taught me anything it’s that too much alone isn’t good for me…so my work demands that I work with others! I’m a Professional Certified Coach, working with businesses and teams to help them grow, and find “success”, however they define it. Luckily, I have successful clients!

This allows me to balance work and writing, along with spending time in my community (I live in the Yarrow EcoVillage, a co-housing community in British Columbia). It also helps that my four children are all grown and self-reliant!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I think of writing as a mutual act of creation – me with my characters. So, often I spend time talking to them, asking what they think about things, and what they’ll do next.

They regularly surprise me when they answer back on the page!

Also, I often listen to podcasts before I write to inspire me. The tone and compassion on My Favorite Murder lifts me.

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

I knew I wanted to help people. And that I didn’t want to be a nurse (because in the 70s they were terribly treated by the healthcare system), so I decided to be a pharmacist.

It didn’t go so well…after 2 degrees, and about 12 years of work, I changed careers to work in the justice system.

And I learned what I really wanted to do! Help people who’ve been hurt by others…!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I love to connect with readers, answer their questions, and find out what they think about the stories I tell. Please reach out to me!

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

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New interview with author Douglas Wells

Writer Douglas Wells has come back for a visit and today we’re chatting about his new contemporary literary fiction, How We End Up.

Bio:

Douglas Wells is an award-winning author who was born in Seattle, Washington. His father was an officer in the U.S. Army, and by the time Douglas finished high school he had lived in Hawaii, North Carolina, Texas, Okinawa, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of South Florida and has taught English and Literature at several colleges.

Douglas has a unique interest in and perspective on the tragic, comical, and the redemptive in his characters. TouchPoint Press released his novel, The Secrets of All Secrets, on May 12, 2017.

The Secrets of All Secrets received the Literary Titan Silver Award on August 4, 2017, was a Finalist in the 2017 Independent Author Network’s Book of the Year Awards, and was a Finalist in the 2018 Amelia Island Book Fest and Expo Book Island Literary Award.

His new novel, How We End Up, released by TouchPoint Press on March 20, 2018, received the March Literary Titan Silver Award, and the following are comments from reviewers:

“Suspenseful…Nothing can prepare you for this tale as you find out how these characters ‘end up.’ Thought-provoking and intelligent.”

“If you only take one suggestion this year on what to read.  Read this!”

“This story forces us to transcend the pages of the book. A true masterpiece.”

“This book has it all.”

Douglas is a Professor of English at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida. He is the father of two grown sons, and he lives with his wife and two cats in Panama City Beach.

Douglas, welcome back to Reviews and Interviews. Please tell us about your newest release.

Jackson Levee, a professor, saves young twin girls, Hadley and Haley, from drowning. He soars to literary fame by writing about the incident and from media attention. The twins mature into troubled young women. Jackson’s success leads him to a job at an esteemed university where he meets and marries LaVeda, with whom he has a happy marriage, but his ascendant star falls soon thereafter. Hadley marries a womanizer then realizes she is gay. She sinks into alcohol and drug abuse. Haley suffers from depression then begins an ill-fated affair with her supervisor. She later marries an army reservist who is horribly wounded in the Iraqi War and whose PTSD threatens everything. Through twenty-five years, Jackson’s, Hadley’s, and Haley’s recklessness in sex, love, marriage, and life produce wild and horrific results. Through it all, they struggle to realize their destinies and find balance.

What inspired you to write this book?

I used to walk the beach in a park near my house. The park gets numerous visitors, mostly families, and I would frequently walk by young children playing in the surf. This area is known for its rip currents, and there are always news stories about people being caught in one and having to be rescued. It occurred to me that one day I might have to jump in after someone, particularly a child. Fortunately, I never had to. It got me thinking, though, about how these rescues are often called “miracles,” but the story stops there. It did not, of course, tell us the aftermath, so I began formulating a story that shows us how the characters were brought together by the rescue then what happens to them over a long span of time. People marvel that the girls’ lives were saved and at Jackson’s heroism, but it’s only for a brief moment. We live with them as their ensuing lives ironically often spin out of control, and we stay with them until they “end up.”

What’s the next writing project?

I’m working on a novel in which the central character leads five different lives, all separated from the others.

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

In reference to the novel I’m working on, I have to keep the character’s lives separate but somehow work in an oblique reference to the others. I think I’ve found a way to do that, but I’ll have to judge how it works out.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

I usually know where in the novel I will have to do some research, but I wait until I reach that particular place in the story then I pause to investigate. A good example from How We End Up is the part when Haley’s husband is sent to Iraq. I researched the environment he would be in, what his duties would be, and similar details. I’m pretty sure I got it right. At least some readers have told me so.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

I work at a small desk where I have a view of my backyard and the canal beyond it in which boats pass by. I insist on working where I can see out a window. Better to stare at trees, birds, squirrels, and boats than at a wall.

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

For fiction, I’m reading a literary novel by Taylor Larsen called Stranger, Father, Beloved. I alternate that with a biography of John Cheever. I went through a phase of reading all of Stephen Hawking’s books, two books on the Civil war, and my next book to read is John Le Carre’s Legacy of Spies. My reading choices are eclectic.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

Just that I hope they will read How We End Up. I think it speaks to the experiences many of us have as we ramble through life.

Links:
Facebook | Twitter | Website

Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!

Thank you for the opportunity.

Interview with contemporary fiction writer Hend Hegazi

Contemporary fiction writer Hend Hegazi is first up on Reviews and Interviews for this new year. We’re talking about her new novel, Behind Picket Fences.

During her virtual book tour, Hend will be awarding one copy of Normal Calm and a copy of Behind Picket Fences (U.S. and International) to lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Hend Hegazi was born and raised in Southeastern Massachusetts. Despite her desire to pursue writing as a profession, she graduated from Smith College with a degree in biology and a minor in religion. Shortly thereafter, the winds of life and love blew her to Egypt where she has been living for the past 14 years. She is a full-time mother of four as well as a freelance writer and editor. Some of her work has been featured in SISTERS Magazine. Her fiction and poetry focus on the human condition, often shedding light on the Muslim American experience. Hend strives to be God-conscious and aims to raise that awareness in her readers. As a common theme in her pieces, the intimate relationship between God-consciousness and love is often explored. Hend’s debut novel, Normal Calm, was published in January 2014.

Welcome, Hend. Please share a little bit about your current release.

Behind Picket Fences is a story which looks beyond the fronts of happiness and security that so many families put up to hide the truth of their struggles. It exposes the hardships in four neighboring families, revealing infertility, infidelity, and mental illness as just a few of the issues the characters face.

What inspired you to write this book?

Often times in our lives, we look to our colleagues or neighbors and feel jealous at their situation. We may look at a colleague who recently received a promotion—with a substantial salary increase—and find ourselves wishing we had her life. Or we may look at a couple who is happily chasing their children around a park, and wish that we, too, had that kind of familial contentment. But the truth of life is that no one has it perfectly; that colleague with the promotion may be battling a fatal disease, that happy family may be drowning in bills. We all struggle with something, no matter how well hidden that struggle may be. With Behind Picket Fences, my goal was to raise awareness not of the struggles we face, but of the blessings we may take for granted. The invisible blessings which surround us are what inspired me to write this book.


Excerpt from Behind Picket Fences:
“Actually,” Farris interrupted, “I’m just going to call it a night.” Farris began to walk away without saying goodbye or even recognizing the women. Faruq stood there for a second, jaw open, utterly embarrassed by his brother’s anti-social behavior. “I’ll be right back, ladies. Don’t go anywhere.”

He ran after his brother and quickly caught up with him. “Man, what are you doing?! This is the best thing for you right now.”

“I don’t want this. This has never been my scene, Faruq, and you know that. I’m just going to…”

But the sight of something beyond Farris made his brother interrupt, grabbing him by the shoulder. “That’s him! Farris, man, that’s him!” Faruq shouted, pointing in the direction he was looking.

Turning around so he could see what Faruq was pointing to, Farris narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about, Faruq? That’s who?”

“That’s him!” Faruq repeated, excitedly grabbing Farris’ shirt at the shoulder. “That’s the man I saw with Sidra!”

The words forced Farris’ eyes into focus. He saw the tall, brown haired white man so vividly, as if he were the only one in the parking lot. He didn’t hesitate for even a split second; Faruq barely blinked, and suddenly Farris was sprinting toward James. He lunged at him, punching him square in the face. The man fell to the ground as the woman who was with him let out a gasp and crouched to the floor beside him.

Looking up at the attacker she screamed, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you punch my husband?!”

Farris hovered over the couple, breathing heavily, rubbing his throbbing knuckles. Faruq, now standing beside his brother, held Farris’ arm back and spoke out, “Your husband is having an affair with his wife. Isn’t that right, James?”

“James?!” the woman yelled. “He’s not James!”

What exciting story are you working on next?
Currently I’m writing a novel about a woman with undiagnosed high functioning autism who is facing divorce and the struggle to retain custody of her two children. She happens to be a convert to Islam, and with the rise in Islamophobia all around the US, this complicates her life even more. Although I am somewhat close to finishing the first draft, the story is still developing, and I feel that my main character probably has some secrets she has yet to share with me.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I have loved to write ever since I was in third grade, and although writing has been a part of me ever since then, that does not mean that I have been writing consistently all my life. About five years ago I decided that I had wasted enough time, and I began to take my writing seriously. With my first novel, Normal Calm, I had proven to myself that I could be an author. But that only led me to ask myself, “Are you truly an author, or just someone who wrote a book once?” And that self dare propelled me to finish Behind Picket Fences.

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 am a full-time mother of four, which means my kids make sure I don’t write full-time. I manage a two-hour writing session while they are at school, and although I would love another writing session in the evening…well…my kids always see to it that that doesn’t happen!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Although it takes me more time to produce a draft, I prefer to write by hand, using pen and paper. Usually I write 10 or 20 pages, then transcribe them to the computer. I have sticky notes all over my notebook, which get transferred as comments on my digital document. It’s more time consuming, but I enjoy not having to be stuck in front of a screen while I’m writing.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A brain surgeon! Can you believe that?!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
You can read my poetry and blog posts on my website and follow me on Facebook. For updates on giveaways and special offers, kindly opt-in to my free newsletter.

Both of my novels are available through most major book distributors, or click here to purchase through Amazon: Normal Calm, Behind Picket Fences.

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure!

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Interview with contemporary fiction author Maggie Bolitho

Today I’m chatting with author Maggie Bolitho about her contemporary novel, Outback Promise.

During her virtual book tour, Maggie will be awarding an e-copy of Outback Promise to 3 randomly drawn winners. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visits her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Maggie Bolitho grew up in Victoria BC Canada, where she spent her childhood flying under the radar, constructing alternate universes, and wishing to be somewhere over the rainbow. Shortly after her 17th birthday she set out to see the world. Eventually, she moved on to Australia.

While living Down Under and exploring the outback, Maggie started writing fiction. Her adult short stories have been published in various anthologies in Australia, the US, and Canada. She has written for Quills Canadian Poetry magazine, her YA novel Lockdown was published in 2014, and in 2015 she published Outback Promise.

Welcome, Maggie. Please tell us about your current release.

Outback Promise is the story of Ros and Grady Balfour whose comfortable, happy lives were shattered by the death of their only child, Cadel. Over six years a wall of hurt and bitterness has grown up between them. In this arid and emotionally impoverished state, Grady has an affair. When the story opens, Grady invites Ros to go for a hike. He has something important to discuss. Ros expects the worst but what Grady wants from her is one last chance to renew their love and reconcile their years of aloofness and distance. He wants the chance to rebuild trust in themselves individually and as a couple.

What inspired you to write this book?

Outback Promise started as a tiny grain of sand, carried back to my Sydney home after three months in the outback in 2005. During that trip I wrote daily journals, over 100,000 words in total, about the places I saw and the people I met. The outback made me feel as insignificant as dust. At the same time I felt connected to that ancient land in a deep, primal way.

Visiting the Devil’s Marbles (the area known to the traditional owners as Karlu Karlu) I encountered notes about the Aboriginal dreamings. They told of the Kwerreympe spirits that live in the caves under the rocks and lure children away from their families. The thought of a lost child was planted and years later I found Ros, Grady, and their beloved son, Cadel.

It seemed to take forever for the story to come into focus. At first, the characters were a faraway mirage on a desert highway. For eight years I worked on the book and shelved it, over and over again, before it was ready for submission.

The vastness of the outback was a compelling inspiration – how it heals and tears asunder, all at the same time. It’s a perfect place to bare one’s soul, to shed pain and grudges.

At one point in their desert trek, Ros and Grady are completely alone in a way it’s so hard to find these days. The moment is pure outback magic.

Excerpt from Outback Promise:

After dinner we sat under the stars and revelled in the luxury of being completely on our own. The heat of the day abated, but unlike the freezing nights in the red centre, in the tropics the nights stayed warm. We heard scratching as nocturnal animals foraged for food around us. Above us a full moon lit the sky, so bright we could almost read by it. The emu stood in the middle of the Milky Way, strong and black.

In that secluded togetherness, my love for Grady flared. With a comfortable bed under a canvas roof, a meal cooked over a campfire and a cold bottle of wine, we had everything we needed. There was no past, no future, only that single evening suspended in time. Beneath the vast diamond-studded blanket of the outback sky, Grady lifted my wrist to his lips and kissed the palm of my hand.

‘You couldn’t buy a night like this,’ he said.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m superstitious and find incubation is an intensely private process. I’m not being precious. The ideas simply aren’t well formed enough to set free. I’ll say this much: it’s YA, set in Australia.

JK Rowling said it best, “I find that discussing an idea out loud is often the way to kill it stone dead.”

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

During my 2005 outback adventure, I used to do 1,000-2,000 word weekly broadcast emails to friends and family. They got such a positive response, from people I didn’t even know well, I thought I’d give writing a go.

Do you write full-time?

I’m retired now so I could, but I have a husband I adore and like to spend time with. It would be more accurate to say I’m a part time writer. I work about 4-5 hours a day. Sometimes that stretches to 8-10 hours, like now when I’m on a blog tour and trying to keep up with my critique groups and advance my work in progress.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My writing improves with chocolate.

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

For years I wanted to be a Mountie because I loved with their red serge jackets and handsome dark horses.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I met my husband scuba diving one warm spring day in 1982. Five weeks later he went back to Australia. We kept in touch for six months or so and then I didn’t see him for another four years. We married in 1987 and, so far, have lived happily ever after.

The point being, good things are worth waiting for and may take much longer than you anticipate.

If you’re an emerging writer, be prepared for a long apprenticeship. Why not? A musician doesn’t get to be first violinist the year after they pick up their instrument.

Thank you for joining me for this interview. Lisa, thanks for hosting me.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter  

Buy links:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

You’re quite welcome, Maggie! Thanks for being here today.

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