TUESDAY TALKS with CHARMAINE GORDON

TUESDAY TALKS

S P O T L I G H T   A U T H O R :     CHARMAINE GORDON

Before we get started talking about your books, tell us a little about yourself.  Where are you from?  What is your occupation outside of writing? 

I tap danced out of Mom in Chicago in the bad old days. The first girl born into a rowdy gang of male cousins and brothers. Raised to be a homemaker like Mom despite pleas to sing, dance, act for minions. Nay, cried Father. All this had to wait.

Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

EXTROVERT! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?

Do you have any pets?

Pets are all hand-me-ups from my daughter, Amy. Dogs are gone but not forgotten and now I have 3 cats. Jack ,9 years old, found on a highway in NC rescued by Amy; Tony-4, an orange tabby rascal; and Blue-5,who thinks he’s my boyfriend.

What are your favorite books to read?

My kids always made fun of my reading selections when they lived at home. Mercifully, they flew the coop and left me alone with murder, mayhem and the like. I listen to books on tape as I do stuff around the house before sitting down to write.   Some of my favorites: John Sandford, Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard, Susan Isaacs, Dennis Lehane, Jeff Lindsay, Julia Spencer Fleming.

Where is the most unique place you have traveled?

East Berlin. At the time, my youngest son, Paul, was part of a dance troupe and he always invited us on tours. We were in Berlin when a friend of his, living in the east, asked me if I’d like to join her for the day. It was an education-unique, strange and sad. I left stones at a monument.

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

I think watching me grow up has achieved a sense of accomplishment. I was a homemaker, doting on home, family, all the womanly chores back then and ever so slowly, I emerged from that shelter into the cold world and found a niche far from my original comfort zone. Performing on stage in a wonderful play off Broadway to laughter and applause, moving people. Amazing to have strangers stop me in the street to say how much they enjoyed my performance. What a joy.

Okay, now that we have some history on you, let’s turn our attention to your books.  How many books have you written and how many of those are published?

Four published books, one published short story: “ONCE AGAIN, NOW”-first book published by Keene Publishing, no longer in business. “TO BE CONTINUED” followed by “STARTING OVER” and “NOW WHAT?” and short story, “Take Me As I Am,” Passionate Hearts Anthology all published by Vanilla Heart Publishing.

Do you have one particular genre that all your books fall under (i.e. suspense, romance, etc.)  or do you write in many different genres?

I think contemporary. Tried to vision fantasy, time travel and can’t. Romance, Romance w/suspense, and “NOW WHAT?” a paranormal contemporary romance. An ordinary woman who believes loved ones always return. . .plus a psychic baby granddaughter.

How much character and plot detailing do you plan out before you begin writing a novel, or are you a “pantser” (fly by the seat of your pants) ?

An idea comes in the night. In the morning, I mull it over and begin. I like to see the beginning, middle and end in my head and let the characters do the rest. 

How and when do you write? Do you keep yourself on a schedule or do you work while the muse is with you?

No schedule. I just do it; morning, noon, nighttime, something gets written and then another scene shows up in my sleep and I ‘paint the scenery’ the next day.

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

I’m writing a story titled “RECONSTRUCTING CHARLIE.”   The idea showed up one night and I began to write.

Charlie Costigan has a secret. Home life gone from bad to the worst when she protects her mother from another vicious attack by her drunken father.  Midnight. Clothes thrown into an old suitcase, she races for a bus with a letter to an unknown aunt and uncle. “This is my daughter. Embrace her as if she were your own.”

Determined, Charlie begins again. Alone with her secret.

Out of all the books you’ve written and the characters you’ve created, which is your favorite character and why?

Carly Evans in “NOW WHAT?”- a story close to my heart, mostly fiction but pieces of my life are written in the pages.

Excerpt:

 It was 2:30 a.m. when the phone rang. I fumbled for it, my heart starting a race toward bad news. Our doctor’s voice urged me to hurry. I crammed into clothes as if I expected this call. Actually I thought all would be well, or did I? It was only a fever that wouldn’t go down.

Only a fever yet the dogs had curled up next to him on his favorite couch and never left his side all week.  His ruddy complexion drained to gray.  Only a fever.

I cried all the way driving too fast on Eden’s Expressway. Then the slow elevator ride to the  Fourth floor, a sprint down the dim corridor to his room.  He lay on the hospital bed where I’d kissed him not so many hours before. I’d said, “See you tomorrow.” My husband of thirty years replied with words I hadn’t heard in a long time. “I love you.” Not since the heart attack two years before when he began listening to his heart beat and forgot about me. When he said them, other words flashed across my mind, like writing on a sign: Too late, Bobby. Maybe we both sensed the crossroads ahead, the impending doom.

             Settling in beside my Bob, I held his cooling hand and asked the two words spoken many times during our years together.

            “Now what?” This time there was no response. I was on my own for the first time. When my fingers touched his wedding ring, I slipped it off and held it in my fist. The gold band was warm. I clung to him. “Come back to me, dearest.”

           I knew from past experience, loved ones always return.

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

Write the best you can, edit and revise until it’s tight. Then write a dynamite query and do the research for the agent or publisher interested in your genre. Above all, keep writing and don’t despair over rejections.

Where can we read more about you and your work?

http://authorcharmainegordon.com

http://authorcharmainegordon.xanga.com

Signed copies of my books are available at Amazon.com.

They can also be purchased at Barnes&Noble.

Thank you Charmaine Gordon for visiting with me today.  It has been a privilage to get to know you and your work better.