Can you give us a brief overview of
your latest book? Is it part of a series?
I started
writing the Sister Christian Series a few years after I made contact with my
birth family and discovered I had three brothers. I was raised an only child so
the idea that I had siblings was rather new to me, growing up I often wished I
had a sibling but then I'd go to my friend's houses and see how they interacted
with their siblings and went home happy I was an only child. The idea of the
brother/sister dynamic always interested me even when my friends were shouting
at each other over nothing. This series and a lot of its contents, planted
deeply in the fertile ground of a writer's imagination, grew out of those two
situations.
Genesis, the first book in the Sister
Christian Series opens with Doctor Richard Mason reading a letter informing him
his father, James Rice, has died and Mason has been put in charge of his
sister, Hannah Rice. Problem is, Mason is in his early 50s and had no clue he
was adopted until that very moment.
Hannah has
known for decades that Rick is her brother, her mother told her just before she
committed suicide leaving Hannah in the care of her father, James Rice. Hannah
had a very unpleasant childhood. When we meet her, she is a troubled woman both
physically and mentally who has spent 30 years of her life in one group home or
another.
Sins of the Father is the second installment in the series
and in it Doctor Richard Mason and his newly discovered sister, Hannah Rice are
still getting to know each other. Except now, as we open, Hannah is debilitated
having suffered a massive stroke at the end of Genesis, the first book in the
series. She's on her way to recovery but the process is slow and as her body
heals her mind begins to remember the details of her horrific car accident
thirty years before. Dark family secrets are uncovered and in Mason's own
reckless way he forces Hannah to face them.
Do you have a favorite character?
I adore
Mason and Hannah equally but, in the end, Hannah would be my favorite. For all
she's been through, everything she's suffered, and all that's been taken away
from her, she's still smiling and looking forward to a future that gets a bit
better for her with each passing day. She brings a lot of light to Mason's
lonely world.
Have you ever had a minor character evolve into a major one? Did that change the direction of the novel at all?
Not in this
series but in the OF WAR Series there was a minor character, Onya, who stuck
around a lot longer than I intended. She never became a major character but she
did a beloved one. She didn't change the course of the novel but she helped
expand and to some degree Ares' personality. So it kind of stunk when I ended
up killing her off in the last novel, Kingdoms
of War, but it furthered the story so that was good.
Did you try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?
Did you try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?
Sure, for
years…well on and off. I think everyone should try it just to see what it's
really like
What factors influenced your decision to self-publish your book(s)? Can you tell us what, if anything, you've learned on your self-publishing journey?
What factors influenced your decision to self-publish your book(s)? Can you tell us what, if anything, you've learned on your self-publishing journey?
I struggled
for decades to have one of my books published in the traditional manner and
found it to be a loathsome process that was both disheartening and humiliating.
Then again, keep in mind the fact that I've been fired from every retail job I
ever had because I just can't sell anything. It makes me feel ookie. No offense
to you nice salespeople out there, all I'm saying is that it wasn't for me. I
can't even begin to tell you how many copies of "Writer's Market" I
went through or how many years I subscribed to "Writer's Digest"
hoping to find that one place that would give me just a tiny break. I never got
past the standard Rejection Letter. In fact, I still have that stack, whenever
I get really down and feel I can't do something, I pull it out, look at it,
remember how mad those people made me, and push onward. So to every publisher
and agent out there whoever rejected me; Thank You, to this day you serve as a
great inspiration. To those with small magazines and local newspapers who did
publish my articles, prose, poetry all those years; Thank You! You made me feel
that going onward was worth the effort.
I almost
gave up on writing even though I know in my soul it is my calling in this life
but luckily for me I'm a very strong-willed (bullheaded, stubborn) woman. I
quit submitting, but I never stopped writing
One day, I got this newfangled thing called a computer and it led me to this really weird thing called the internet. Keep in mind, AOL was the biggest service provider during this time that should tell you how new all of this really was. Wait, let me help; there were NO Kindles! No one ever heard of an e-reader or an e-book. Anyway, on what was known as the Information Super Highway, I came across other writers who were like me. They were totally sickened by the entire submissions process and had given up on submitting their works to publishing houses but they still wrote and they still wanted their works to find their audience.
I did too.
I learned
AOL Press. I made a website. I put my stories on it. I received the feedback I
craved but was withheld from me for so long. I moved my website to GeoCities
(go ahead laugh), I learned HTML…all on my own, no one, not one single person
helped me decipher that foreign language. Eventually, I moved to my very own
URL. I kept putting my stories up for free. I learned PhotoShop the same
way I learned HTML. I made banners and eventually learned how to make book
covers, t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads…all that happy stuff.
Then this
thing called 'self-publishing' came along. At first, it was poo-pooed just like
'vanity publishing', in fact, that's what people called it. The major
difference was the author didn't have to put forth a great big wad of cash nor
get stuck with a bunch of books as print books could be ordered on demand or in
small batches.
Even though
e-books were still a year or two off from becoming an actual thing I jumped on
this bandwagon. Through the entire process, I learned more things than I ever
thought possible especially not without shelling out a great deal of money and
sitting in class. Those skills turned out to be rather valuable in the
employment marketplace. More than that, I reached and grew an audience
and that allowed me to become content.
I no longer
seek out that big publishing contract (don't get me wrong, if it miraculously
appeared in front of me I'd take it, but it isn't a goal anymore) and I don't
feel as though I've been cheated or taken a less respectable route with my
books. In fact, small as I still am, I feel quite accomplished, which is far
better than feeling humiliated any day.
I look back
on it all now and realize that I'm a Trailer Blazer.
I was
Indie when Indie wasn't cool.
What is your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?
Like most
writers I have my rituals, my desk is covered with items of inspiration from
scented candles to incense to a crystal ball, stones, and dancing Baby Groot.
There's generally a glass of my favorite potent drink and a cup of coffee next
to me you'll probably also find a lovely piece of hand blown glass nearby. I
light my candles and my incense, open my file and try to get to business. I
play a lot of games in between, I find that these 'Saga' games aren't a mere
distraction but they actually help my mind get around things in the story by
figuring out the puzzle on the screen I can also figure out the one in my
head. For decades I wrote to music,
anything you can consider Classic Rock; Boston, Bad Company, The Who, The
Stones, Van Morrison, The Doors and so on. My fingers would be flying across the
keyboard as I'm singing away. Recently I had a hard drive crash and it took all
my music away. From my hubby's music files I downloaded something titled
'karaoke' thinking all of the songs within were by the listed artists but
they're not. It's just the music. No words. It's actually working out rather
well and no one is more surprised by that than I am.
Do you outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?
I think on
them a while and then, when I'm ready to give myself over to the Muse, I do so
and follow wherever he leads. I always have an idea of where we're going but
not necessarily of how we're getting there.
Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?
I refuse to
be exclusive to Amazon, you can find my books in print on Amazon—you can get
them signed from my website. For ebooks, you can find me on Kindle, Nook, Kobo,
iBooks, and Smashwords among others.
Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?
Yes, it's always a hassle. Always. I try to do promo only when I plan on not being in writing mode but it doesn't seem to work out that way.
Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?
Yes, it's always a hassle. Always. I try to do promo only when I plan on not being in writing mode but it doesn't seem to work out that way.
BLURB:
As Hannah
recovers from emergency brain and heart surgery, memories of the past overtake
her dreams with such clarity they cannot be denied. As the last of the painful
family secrets come to light it's up to her brother, Doctor Richard Mason, and
his unconventional methods to help her confront the ugliness.
Buy
Links:
Kindle/Amazon
(paperbacks available on Amazon)
Nook
iBooks
Smashwords
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
It was in
the 4th grade when Lisa Beth Darling discovered she was a naturally gifted
writer. For her very first creative writing assignment, the teacher asked the
class to pen a story about a baby bird's first flight and read them to the
class. Putting pencil to paper, Lisa was instantly whisked away by a force she
couldn't explain. When they were finished, all of the children read their happy
stories to the class. Not Lisa. She got up and told of how the baby bird flew
too high, hit a plane, crashed to the ground and died. She told of how the mama
bird and daddy bird cried of how even God was upset sending the rains pouring
from the sky. The class was speechless when she finished all they could do was
stare at her. The teacher kept her after class told her the story was very good
but it was different from the others. She asked Lisa if she'd ever heard of
Icarus and had she based her story on him. Lisa had yet to encounter Greek
Mythology or hear a whisper of Icarus. As Lisa left the classroom the teacher
again told her how good the story was but suggested she might want to write
something happier next time. Perplexed,
Lisa turned and asked her teacher: "Why?" The teacher had no
answer. Luckily for us, Lisa never took that teacher's advice.
Today she
brings us complex multi-layered stories rich with the trials and tribulations
that make up the world in which we live. Not one to be pigeonholed into any
single genre, Lisa's stories revolve around the intricacies of couples from
range the intimacy of lovers, to mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters.
Lisa Beth
Darling is 49 years-old, lives in her hometown of New London, CT with her
husband of nearly 30 years, Roy. She is
the author of more than fifteen novels along with several short stories and
non-fiction books.
Author
web links: (web, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads, etc)
Website:
http://www.lisabethdarling.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/lb_darling
Facebook:
http://facebook.com/lbdarling
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