TUESDAY TALKS with MAUREEN MULLIS

TUESDAY TALKS

S P O T L I G H T    A U T H O R:     MAUREEN MULLIS

This interview was originally posted on 11/6/10 but was lost in cyberspace due to a technical error.  Thus, it is being re-posted today.

Susan:  Welcome Maureen, and thank you for being our Spotlight Author on TUESDAY TALKS at Feeling The Fiction.

Maureen:  Thanks for inviting me Susan. What a wonderful, and fun, opportunity.

Susan:  Let's get right to it.  I read your latest release, WHAT WOULD NANCY DO, and thoroughly enjoyed the story, which centers around the friendship of two women, who met as young girls and are now in their fifties. Are these characters representative of a real friendship in your life?

Maureen:  Very much so. My best friend and I have known each other over 40 years, and she is, like the character of Kate, a therapist who works with court appointed clients. We have the same bantering relationship as the characters in the book.

Susan:  Do you share any similarities with either of the main characters in your book?

Maureen:  The characters of Maeve and Kate are based on my best friend and myself. I am much more like Maeve. But although I used my relationship with my friend as a jumping off point, neither of us is the character in the book. Maeve does things I would never do.

Susan:  Which character, Maeve Haile or Kate Hanson, is your favorite and why?

Maureen:  I think Kate is. She smart, and accomplished and seems fearless to me. But I would say my favorite character in the book is Ethel Houle, who was the women’s high school English teacher. In her 80s and sort of a “side-kick” to Maeve and Kate, I found her to be a fun character to create and get to know.

Susan:  Basing a story off of the old Nancy Drew Mysteries is such a unique idea… How did you come up with the idea for WHAT WOULD NANCY DO?

Maureen:  Well, when my friend and I were in college I got started writing these mini-stories about Nancy Drew which included the two of us in the adventures. I sort of took it to another level in this book.

Susan:  When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Maureen:  I always wanted to be a writer. I studied journalism in high school and college, worked on small local papers after school, and picked up any opportunity to write on any level.

Susan:  What are your favorite books to read?

Maureen:  I love mysteries because I love to challenge myself to see if I can solve them.

Susan:  Where is the most unique place you have traveled?

Maureen:  Amish country in Pennsylvania. Again, this dates back to my girlhood and Nancy Drew. I’d read “The Witch Tree Symbol” when I was about 9 and always wanted to visit there. I still have some of those symbols in my home from that visit 30 years ago!

Susan:  Aside from your successes in the writing industry, what in your life has given you the greatest sense of accomplishment?

Maureen:  My family. Being a mother means the world to me, and my husband and children are my greatest joys.

Susan:  How many books have you written and how many of those are published?

Maureen:  I have written three books. WHAT WOULD NANCY DO? is the second one I’ve written and the first published.

Susan:  How much character and plot detailing do you plan out before you begin writing a novel, or are you a “pantser”?

Maureen:  Here’s where you and I share a similarity...I’m a pantser too! But I do spend a lot of time thinking about the characters and the story so that by the time I actually sit down to start writing I know pretty much the direction the story is going to go. But of course characters tell you differently as you write!

Susan:  What was your most embarrassing moment?

Maureen:  My best friend entered me in a radio contest and I won. I never listened to the station, and the prize was a ride to work in a Rolls Royce. I was interviewed in the car on the way, live, and called the DJ the wrong name on the air. I still get teased about that.

Susan:  What is your greatest regret in your life?

Maureen:  That I stopped writing when my children were small.

Susan:  Prior to becoming a published author, how many rejections did you receive?

Maureen:  Oh my goodness! Probably close to a hundred.

Susan:  How often and when do you write? Are you more creative during certain times of the day? (i.e. morning or night)

Maureen:  I’m better focused in the morning, but when everything is really going I write all day and into the night.

Susan:  If you have a new release coming out, tell us about it.

Maureen:  My next book will be coming out in January. It’s women’s fiction, also set in Colorado, and deals with women and their relationships with each other, and specifically the concept of gratitude and forgiveness.

Susan:  Give us a short synopsis of WHAT WOULD NANCY DO.

Maureen:  It is the story of childhood friends Maeve Haile and Kate Hanson, who are now in their fifties. As young girls they shared a love for the Nancy Drew mystery books often looking for mysteries of their own to solve.When a woman in their small town is killed they take on the case asking "what would Nancy do?" Kate as a therapist and Maeve a stay-at-home mother and volunteer at the library, they pull in all their resources and friends to help them solve the case. They learn they can rely on each other in ways their friendship has never been tested before as they race to find the killer before he strikes again. It is a novel filled with intrigue, humor, love and an interesting set of characters that tell how life can lead you down interesting paths and sometimes starts at fifty.

Susan:  Are you planning on writing a sequel to this novel, i.e. another WHAT WOULD NANCY DO mystery with the same main characters?

Maureen:  Yes, I’m in the middle of writing another Maeve and Kate book. I also have a short story based on the characters available on Smashwords.com, free of charge, to get an idea of what these two are like. It’s called EMAILS if you’d like to read it.

Susan:  If you could give one piece of advice to writers trying to get published, what would that advice be?

Maureen:  Don’t stop believing in yourself. You’ll hear a lot of both good and negative about your work. Use what you can and discard the rest. The only thing that really matters is how you feel about what you’re doing.

Susan:  Anything else you'd like to share with my blog readers?

Maureen:  I’d like to thank you for this opportunity to talk about my books and my writing with you Susan. It’s been great fun to meet a fellow mystery writer and a fellow Coloradan! I love to hear feedback and can be reached at maureenmullis@hotmail.com.

Susan:  Where can we read more about you and your work?

Maureen:  I have a blog at www.maureenmullis.blogspot.com, and I can be found on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Thank you for reading TUESDAY TALKS at FeelingTheFiction.blogspot.com.

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