My character, Jaden Bruxelle….

I love herbs, spices, and flowers. Herbs and spices are in my blood; they are imbedded in my DNA.

As a tribute to our family line, going back to England, we all grow, including Caden: thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, oregano, lavender, Canterbury bells, hollyhocks, lilies, irises, sweet peas, cosmos, red poppies, peonies, and rows and rows of roses.

My mother and Grandma Violet both taught me that herbs have been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Some worked, some didn’t. Some healed, some killed. Some were neutral, there was no effect.

Hyssop was inhaled if one had a sore or scratchy throat. Large doses were terminally bad for one’s health, so one had to watch it. Horehound could soothe and calm a bite from a nasty serpent or kill worms wiggling away inside you.

Mistletoe has been used in the past to help with heart disease and with “falling sickness,” gout, and a variety of nervous disorders. It is also, unfortunately, poisonous.

Monk’s hood, quite poisonous, was used to kill.

         The witches in my family line have always grown herbs and used them in food, for healing sicknesses and giving someone a sickness, for love, revenge, protection, and to make people die they thought should go.  They’ve also been used for spells and chants.

It was those spells and chants that got two of my ancestors, born Iris and Rosemary, into trouble.

Iris and Rosemary, the rebellious daughters of Henrietta and Elizabeth, who started The Curse in our family, were literally chased from their estates outside London by a torch-wielding mob that wanted to flog them after they cast a few drunken spells in a bar.

“As they thundered away on horses,” Grandma Violet told me, peering through her glasses, blue eyes serious, “one of the witch’s petticoats caught on fire. You’ve heard your mother and I use the term a “petticoats on fire” problem? There’s where it came from.”

I remember gasping. “She was on fire?”

“A spark from a torch hit her. Her brother and her cousin’s brother ripped the petticoat off and they all hopped back on those horses and galloped down the road through the night to the port. The brothers told them to change their names from Iris Platts and Rosemary Compton, to Faith and Grace Stephenson, before they scrambled onto the ship to America.”

  My grandma reached up to a shelf to reorganize her endless, clear bottles of herbs and spices. “They figured that if they were named Faith and Grace, not only could they hide their identities as reputed witches, they would appear more holy, more Christian, and less likely to be accused of being witches again. Faith and Grace never forgot who they were, despite the torch wielders, and they taught their daughters everything they knew about herbs and spices, spells and chants, like I teach you, Jaden.”

I do not grow herbs for spells and chants, because that is ridiculous, though my otherwise sane and deeply intellectual mother and Grandma Violet taught me a multitude of them as a child and both said often, “Once a witch, always a witch.”

I grow herbs in my greenhouse to make my meals yummy. I grow herbs and flowers because then I feel connected to my mother, Grandma Violet, and all our women ancestors who grew the same herbs and flowers that I do.  I grow them because I love to nurture living things…

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I Want to Be a Fiction Writer

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 How I Write Full Time And Run A House

I have three teenagers, a husband, and an odd cat who is in love with my husband and lays on his chest every night. I’m also a women’s fiction writer.  Here’s a little cheat sheet on how I run my house while working full time.

I do not fold this stuff...life is too short and sweet.

1)      I do not fold my family’s laundry.  I remember listening to a mother many years ago, when my daughter was a baby, complaining that she had spent two hours folding laundry the day before. I looked at her and thought, “She is absolutely insane. I will never, ever be like that woman.”

I wash laundry, I put it in the dryer, and I plop it on the floor. My kids come and get their laundry – this started when they were two – and put it in their drawers/closets themselves. Life is precious. Do not waste time folding clothes.

2)      I rarely dust. I cannot possibly picture drumming up enough energy to make sure every speck is off my surfaces.  How dreary. It takes time away from my imagination. Another time saver? I don’t even sort my silverware, I just toss it altogether into a drawer after it’s cleaned.

I just toss the silverware in and go on my la dee da way.

3)      I have streamlined my home.  I am a huge thrower. The best way to a clean house is to throw unnecessary items out on a regular basis like a Tazmanian She – Devil. Do not hesitate here, an organized home is essential to sanity. Get bags and start hauling it out. (This does not apply to my garage. Clearly, a cyclone has hit in there)

4)      I buy a lot of prepared meals to make my life easier. My kids say I don’t cook,  I “heat up.” It makes me laugh. When I sit down at the dinner table, I’m not stressed out so we have a good ole’ time. A home baked meal is worthless if an exhausted mom is crying into the sauce.

A busy child is a better child. Teach them how to clean.

5)      I make my kids help. My son and daughters scrub toilets, vacuum, do dishes, clean bathrooms, help with meals, and wash floors. They always have. I will not do this housework alone. I. Will. Not. Spoiled children grow up to be spoiled adults. Make your children work.

6)      When I have a deadline, everyone helps more. I insist. They don’t help, they incur my wrath. It’s not pretty.

7)      I take time away from my characters, plotlines and household stress to rest.  I have heard so many times, “Take ten minutes out of each day for yourself.” What a crock. Ten minutes is barely enough time to hide in the bathroom or dig into a pint of ice cream. Insist on more time for yourself. Plan time on the weekends. Put the kids to bed earlier and have them read a book.  Take a bath in the dark and if any kid interrupts you and they’re

Reeellax...

not bleeding through their ears, take their favorite show away from them for a week. They’ll change immediately.  You are a better woman if you’re not living like your hair’s on fire all day.

Nothing wrong with Poker Night with the family

8)      We have family dinners, even when I know I’ll be up until three in the morning writing. I see articles saying, “Have Family Dinner Once a Week,” and I just want to cry. That is not enough. If your kids are all in sports late, then have a Family Dessert Time afterwards. Family movie night with brownies. Pizza Night on Sunday. Poker night. You MUST get your family together more than once a week. Your kids must internalize that family is the most important thing in their lives.

9)      One more thing…I compete with no one.  Do not compete with other women for the perfect house, clothes, family.  Do not compete with your neighbors or family members. If people are competing with you, drop them, irritating people must hit the highway.

Never strive for household perfection. It’s a pointless exercise, and it’s shallow and boring. Invite honest, fun, interesting people to your home for fettuccine alfredo and chocolate pie. Be happy about the little things in life, be grateful that you are still here and, most of all, enjoy your family and friends, every day.

Gotta go. Must write.

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I thought you all might like to see a Facebook conversation I had with people about whether or not I should attend a sex toys party I was invited to….

Cathy Lamb

Well, I woke up this morning and what did I see? I’ve been invited to a sex toy party.In my mother’s day, they went to tupperware parties.

Now I’ve been sleepin’ with the same man for 22 years so I can’t decide if I’d rather go to a sex toy party or a Tupperware party, but new Tupperware sounds really nice. Am I that old and boring?

Sex toys or new Tupperware people? Be honest!!

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Today I am interviewing my friend and fellow writer, Marie Bostwick…

The first two people who comment below, unless you have already been a lucky devil and won a book from me, will receive a signed book from Marie.

Cathy: Tell us about yourself. Start when you were a one year old and move up from there but don’t talk on and on forever, if you know what I mean. Not like when you and I talk on the phone, where our conversations go on endlessly and the CIA is probably listening in.  

My pal, Marie. You rock, Marie!

Marie: Hmmm…Interesting question. Nobody has ever asked me about being one before. And it gives me the chance to tell you something about myself that nobody, outside my family, knows.

When my mother got pregnant with me, my parents already had three daughters. My dad was hoping for a son and so, possibly in the mistaken belief that if you just say something often enough you can make it happen, he used to pat my mother’s pregnant belly and tell my sisters, “This is your baby brother.” That is why, from the day of my birth until I was about six and told everybody to knock it off, my nickname was Baby Brother.

Being the fourth in a long line of girls, nobody paid a whole lot of attention to me when I was little – not that I was neglected or anything, just that my folks had been through this a bunch of times already so there was nothing about raising a fourth daughter that they found particularly fascinating. Too, with all those kids to raise, which she did on her own after my parent’s divorced when I was about four, my mom was pretty busy. Also, it was the sixties. There were no seat belts in cars or plastic covers on electrical outlets then. Kids were pretty much allowed to juggle knives if they felt like it. A couple of my sisters actually did, no kidding, which precipitated a trip to the emergency room – one of many. My poor mother. Whoever said that little girls are “sugar and spice and everything nice” never raised four of them at once. Or met my sisters. But I digress…

As it turned out, being the fourth girl in a family headed by a single mom was the ideal atmosphere for raising a writer. For one thing, I was pretty much left to my own devices, allowed to read as much as I wanted, invent an entire crop of imaginary friends (many of whom are still with me. Unlike other people, I never fired mine when I got big), and spend a lot of time scribbling stories and sad self-absorbed teenage poetry. And well…I just never stopped.

 Cathy: So that’s why you had to become a writer? A slight obsession with daydreaming? A desire to live in another reality? Not good at math?

Between Heaven and Texas comes out April 30, 2013

Marie: Well, some of the stuff above certainly plays into it. But I also think that it was just a compulsion, something I was born with. The first thing I remember writing, and believe it or not I was no more than five years old at the time, was a “screenplay” to go with my grandmother’s movie soundtrack of the musical Camelot. My grandmother loved music and musicals (so do I) and she let me listen to her records whenever I wanted. Camelot was one of my favorites. I probably listened to it a hundred times but I hadn’t seen the movie so one day, I got out some paper and a pencil and started to write a little screenplay to go with the music. Why? Because I needed a story that would make all those songs hang together in a way that made sense to me, something with a beginning, middle and ending. I had bring order to all that chaos.

I suppose there’s an issue of control to all of this. When I’m writing, I get to organize the world in my own way, I get tie up the loose ends and answer the unanswered questions in a way that make sense in my mind. It’s very comforting. And usually much more interesting than real life. And, of course, I can always conjure up a happy ending if I want one. (By the way, I pretty much always want one.)

Cathy: If you were not a writer, what would you be? A ballerina? A unicorn? A welder?

 Marie: Well, I’ve always thought it would be interesting to be a stand-up comedian. I think I’m pretty funny, though my children have assured me, over and over again, that I am not.

Cathy:  Let the rest of us step into your wild and wacky mind for a second and dance and skip about. Tell us all about your writing process…how you get those fantastic ideas…build characters, etc.

Marie: Truthfully, I have no clue where the ideas and characters come from but I’m incredibly grateful that, even after all this time, they still do. More often than not, a character just shows up in my head and starts talking. For most people, hearing voices is a cause for concern but for a writer this is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged.

Cathy:  Good to know that you hear voices, too. I like my voices. Most of the time. Sometimes they argue with me too much.  How would you describe your books, darlin’?

Marie: Well, some people call them women’s fiction and I guess I’d be fine with that since I am a woman and I do write fiction. But there’s no such thing as men’s fiction so it all feels a little “pink-collar ghetto” to me. Too, I think that label discourages men from picking up my books, which is such a shame. While most of my characters are women, I’ve got some outstanding male characters too. (I think I’m getting better at writing about men as I get older.) So there is a lot in my books that men could relate to, if they’d give them a chance.

All that being said, I write books that primarily deal with issues that I think real women are dealing with in their real lives: marriage, singleness, the need for friendship, how to give to others without losing yourself, issues that come with finacial pressures, or financial plenty, questions about faith, mortality, and loss. As you can see, my characters go through some real struggles but, as I said before, there’s almost always a happy ending. Life is hard but fiction doesn’t have to be. That’s my motto and I’m sticking to it.

Cathy: Huh! I’m diggin’ your motto.  But I will add this: Writing fiction can make you want to pull your hair out, strand by strand. So, if your books were made into movies, which actresses would play which characters?

Marie: Well, aside from some of my Christmas novellas, which I think would make fabulous films, I’m pretty confident that none of my books will ever be made into movies – not enough explosions or sex – so I’ve spent very little time thinking about this. However, I do think Meryl Streep would make an absolutey perfect Abigail Burgess-Wynne. But I suspect that Meryl Streep would do a fabulous job playing just about any character on earth.

Cathy: What are you working on now? Come on, Marie. Give us the scoop.

Marie: My next Cobbled Court book, number 6 in the series. This one is about a couple who is trying to resurrect their relationship and marriage after infidelity. It’s been very slow going – this is a subject where you really need to dig deep into the thoughts, emotions, and motivations of the characters – but I think it’s a book that will be of value to anyone who has ever been married or in a serious relationship.

Cathy: I’m married. Twenty years. Some years longer than others. Not as long as you, though. What’s your day like? Be honest. 

 Marie: My days are long and either incredibly productive or incredbily not. Either way, I work all the time, just like you, Cathy. And when the deadline is looming, I work even more. But, no matter how close the deadline, I never, ever don’t wash my hair. Some things are sacrosanct.

Cathy: Hey! Why the jab about my hair!  I get busy on deadline!!  Sheesh. So, What are your favorite hobbies and activities? What do you think of Keanu Reeves?

Marie: I like to read, and quilt and buy fabric. And shoes. I love shoes. I play the piano – anything you want in the key of C – and I am learning to play guitar but, so far, I really suck at it. Actually, I don’t think about Keanu Reeves. I used to but then I realized he only has eyes for you so, why torture myself?

Cathy:  So you’re a shoe addict? There must be help for that. Too bad for you on the Keanu part. Glad your torture is over and you have admitted the obvious about Keanu’s feelings towards me. Are you ever – so – slightly crazy? I think you are.

 Marie: Yes. I’ll tell you what my agent said about that, not long after I signed with her.

I was having a little crisis and she asked me what was wrong and I said I didn’t want to tell her because we were still getting to know each other and I didn’t want to her to think I was that crazy writer. And she said, “Don’t worry about that. You’re all crazy, you know. But you seem very high-functioning.”

I took this as a compliment.

 Cathy: High functioning crazy is awesome. What’s your advice for people who want to become crazy, high functioning, published writers?

Marie: Read a lot. And read books written by writers who are better than you. Be prepared to work very hard. Learn to handle criticism and rejection. Better yet, learn how to learn from criticism and rejection. Don’t fire your imaginary friends – give yourself permission, time, and space to live and think creatively. Write the stories you like, not the stories you think will sell. And speaking of selling, if you’re doing it for the money, don’t. There probably isn’t as much of it as you think there is. Write because you can’t help yourself. Write because you love it. If you’re called to it, there is no more satisfying life than that of a writer.

Cathy: I am totally undomesticated and could burn water if given a chance.  But you sew beautiful quilts. Can we see some of them?

 Marie: Why, yes! I thought you’d never ask!

Blessings,
Marie Bostwick
www.mariebostwick.com

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Sheila Hagar

Cathy Lamb:  You and I met when we were both freelance writers for The Oregonian and we’ve been girlfriends ever since. How many years ago was that?

Sheila Hagar: Oh my gosh. I remember reading your piece about your vodka-drinking, tomato-growing neighbor Bonnie, and immediately emailing the Sunday Forum editor, Pat Harrison, to express my admiration for your work. I am guessing that was in 2001. I think we had both been getting published by Pat and others at The Oregonian pretty regularly by then. You told me you also loved my pieces and had been planning to write me. This was before the paper published email addresses of commentary writers, so we had to ask the headmistress permission for everything.

2.  What led you to writing?

I believe it was the same thing that led me to breathing.

3.      Tell us about your current job.
OK! I have one of the best jobs one could ask for in current journalism markets. I write for a small daily newspaper as a health and social services reporter. I also do a bi-monthy lifestyles column and a blog, which I post there during what I call my smoke breaks. Blog writing is such a stress reliever that it is literally like walking away from my regular duties and indulging myself.

Because the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin is small, I also get to veer off my beat ALL THE TIME to do some of the really fun stuff, like make videos, do podcasts and write some reality experiental columns. I’m trying to talk my editor into letting me do a cosmetic surgery piece next.

 4.      Sheila, you daredevil woman, your columns are often very personal. Is it scary to open yourself up to that many people?

In the beginning, no. I put up the baby gates to block off my living room while my toddler twins ran around like hooligans and just wrote, wrote, wrote. It was very self-absorbed and cathartic.

In a few months, however, people starting recognizing me and discussing their favorite columns while I was grabbing gallons of milk. I remember one awakening moment when I was shopping in a Washington store. As an Oregon resident, I signed a tax exempt form at the check out counter. I was not having a good day with my children and I was using the “Mommy is damn grumpy” voice, by the way. The woman behind me obviously looked at my signature and rushed over to tell me that my piece about my mother’s death had changed the way she felt about her relationship with her own mother. She thanked me.

That was the day I told my husband we needed to not be yelling at the kids in public, no matter how many times they had asked for candy. After that, it became a lot harder to imagine no one was actually reading my stuff.

5.      What do you like about writing a column and being a reporter?

Where to even start? First of all, I get an open door into the lives of the most amazing people. I get to tell our readers about the most compassionate, horrific, joyful and devastating things happening in their community. Sometimes, as my husband is quite fond of saying (and for which he gets a good swat), I get to change lives.
Also, let’s not kid ourselves — my job lets me ask very nosy questions that people fail to realize they don’t have to answer. Not to mention, I have gotten to interview people I would never normally encounter, in worlds that are closed to the common folk, for the most part.

6.      Who are your three favorite newspaper columnists?

Ellen Goodman, may she retire in peace; Anna Quindlen and … well, of course, I cut my reading teeth on Art Buchwald. And Mike Royco, who gave me courage, and John Kass who followed in his Chicago Trib footsteps! Can I have more than three?

7.      Nope. You can’t. I’m limiting you, Hagar. Another questions: If you could bring three dead writers back to life and have lunch with them, who would you choose?

Erma Bombeck, to ask her if she ever had to manually dial up “funny,” Mike Royco to just bask in his sharp wit, and Beverly Cleary, to thank her for making me feel normal. Wait…she’s still here, right? Ms. Cleary, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Can we have wine together?

8.      And three living writers? Why?

Cathy, you’re making my head hurt. There are way too many writers I adore. Love. Drool over. I do have to say I am currently in love with Kent Haruf’s writing. And I would invite Anne Tyler over any time. And you, my middle-of-the-night sister.

9.      Share with us, Sheila. What does your day usually look like as you manage both a career and a family?

Camo Man and I get up at 4:30 and head straight for the coffee pot and the dog crates. I make breakfast while he showers, we unload the dishwasher and drink our first cup of coffee together. He leaves and I head for the shower and after that, everything is a blur until we reconvene in the late afternoon. We have his-and-hers teens at home, although that is getting close to “ours” every day. We do a lot of that intense teen parenting, we attend community functions, we chase each other around the house while the kids roll their eyes. We clean too much, as I still struggle with that little OCD issue, as you recall. But geez Louise, why can’t people put their dishes in the dishwasher?

I am trying to leave work at work, but I can’t help but be a reporter. Technology only serves to make that problem worse.

At the end of the day, we fall into bed and we have… hang on, what audience is this going out to?

10.  With three grown children and three younger, what advice do you have for working mothers?

Keep red wine in your bedroom closet. A wine glass is not necessary. Send Amazon gift cards on a random basis to the people who might be called on to provide emergency child care. Find a natural hair style you can live with to cut down morning routine time, buy two of everything that fits and flatters. Find and purchase really good makeup. Tell your children if they text you one more time during school, you will have to deactivate their Facebook accounts — to hell with matching the consequences to the crime.

11.  What are your future goals for your career?

In newspapers, our only real goal is to KEEP OUR JOBS. I want to serve my readers to the best of my ability, always. I used to think I wanted to write a book, and now I know I don’t, but figure I’ll have to someday write about raising kids with mental illness. Because my head will not shut up until I do.

12.  What are you reading right now? (You don’t have to say you’re reading one of my books, I won’t throw anything at you if you’re not.)

Seriously? I am trying to mow through a million page New York Times piece about the science of making junk food additive, I just finished “Room,” Haruf’s newest book arrived from Amazon a couple of days ago and I just finished “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout. “Henry’s Sisters” is on my nightstand, moving up toward the top.

13.  In your spare time you like to….

…snuggle with Camo Man! Oh, Heaven, I love that man! Plus, of course, there is the home remodeling addiction I fight without much success. Now he’s hooked on the DIY and HGTV shows, too, and we watch house porn in bed.

Thank you, Sheila! 

Blog: http://blogs.ublabs.org/fromthestorageroom/

Newspaper: http://union-bulletin.com/

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Every time I start a new novel I buy a new journal, or several journals. I fill it with thoughts and pictures. I write and scribble, cut and paste, ponder and sketch.

I’m starting a novel this week, diving head first into my zany imagination. I’m letting my mind travel around and about, hoping to find creativity in the clouds, crocuses, and Haagen Dazs.

Here are photos of pictures I’ve glued into my  journal and a few photos I’ve taken that are making me ask questions about my character and the plot…

Mosaics. Broken pieces turned into something lovely An artist? Tortured soul? Happy creator? Why does she like to create? Is her art dark and depressing? Joyful? What is her spirit like? What is she made of when she's all put together?

I'm thinking about flowers. I do love flowers...has anyone ever given her flowers? Does a particular type of flower give her nightmares? Does the scent of honeysuckle make her sick? Does a pink rose bring her back to a cruel time? Do daffodils bring a smile or a laugh? Has she ever smashed flowers with her feet while crying? Why?

Mosaic Man. What can you do with old things to make them pretty? Does my character feel pretty? Is she pretty? Is she tired and frumpy? Why? Does she feel ugly inside, and therefore her actions are not always appropriate? Has anyone ever told her she's pretty? Is being pretty important to her? Is character more important?

Garden Art? Have I done that already? I think Stevie in SUCH A PRETTY FACE had a cool garden, better not repeat it. Must be careful of that...

Nature? Does she love it, fear it, always in it, never in it? Does nature make her think too hard? Does the quiet unnerve her? Does she feel small in the face of a mountain? Or in awe? Does nature make her feel fulfilled or lost?

Where will she live? City or small town? Will she hide in either place? If so, why is she hiding? What will she do when she gets there? How will she fit in? Is fitting in important to her? Has she ever felt like she fit in? Is she broke?

Birds. I like birds. Will they be in the book? Types? Migratory patterns? Wings? How is my character like a bird, or not? Will she spread her wings? Are her wings broken and how? If she could choose her own wings, what would they look like? Rainbow colored? Glittering? Black and broken?

Fishing. Drift Boats. Dinner...how do I work that in? Is fishing a part of her life? Why? Who taught her? Is that person still alive? What was that relationship like?

What are my character's challenges and future roadblocks? What has ripped her apart? What did she do that she regrets? What does she look forward to? Is there anything for her to look forward to? Is she grateful? Ambitious? Focused? Crazy?

Love the image here. Why do I love it? Don't know...I do like shutters, though. How will shutters figure into the book? Are there shutters in her home? Shutters on her heart? Was she hit with a broken piece of shutter when she was a kid? Did she, as an adult, whack someone with a broken shutter? Why?

I love watching leaves change. But I've used leaves and the seasons before as symbols...I need a new symbol.

Escaping down a new road? Why does she need to escape? Is escaping possible?

Will she make a new friend? Will the friend be true, or will she betray her? What does friendship look like to her? Does she have friends? IS SHE LONELY? Is she alone? Is she a loner or does she need people?

How will she find peace? Does she find peace? Is it possible for her to find peace? Should she settle for peace and a little mental chaos now and then? Should we all settle for that?

Flowers. Magic. Premonitions. Picnics. Stargazing. Death. Blood. (I told you my mind travels in strange ways!)

What is she afraid of? Does fear guide her decisions? Does she dare? Does rushing water scare her? Does she want to climb to the top of a mountain? Does she prefer being inside, in front of a fire?

What are the themes for the book? What am I really trying to say underneath it all? What does my character need to say?

Love the image here. Why do I love it? Maybe it's home. Imaginary homes for birds who talk. Bird families. Families. Broken families, loving families. What will she have? Will she have a family at all?

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An excerpt from my story, The Apple Orchard, in the anthology, You’re Still The One.

For most of my childhood I was poor.

I spent years living in a dismal trailer next to an apple orchard. I have spent years trying to forget those years.

My mother died the day after we made an apple pie.

I left home at sixteen.

I fell in love with a man I met at a waterfall. Something very sad happened.

We broke up. I have never stopped missing him.

I wore used clothing until I was twenty-two.

After college I worked for a high-end retail corporation. My fancy outfits helped me to hide my past from myself. I ended up vice president.

I saved money. When you grow up poor, you fight hard to leave poverty far behind.

I was fired when I told my boss off. She threw her Manolo Blahniks at me.

My dad died an hour after I was fired. We hadn’t spoken in years because he was both scary and abusive. He left me an apple orchard.

It’s hurtful that he chose to leave me apples.

I am using an urn, filled with his ashes, as a doorstop.

My name is Allie Pelletier and that’s the summation of my life.

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I plot big chunks—road signs and what I believe will be the key turning points—and then write, but I definitely end up detouring and rethinking those scenes that I think will be the big scenes.

2. Do you have a favorite place to write or “must haves” while writing?

I need to be able to control my environment as much as possible—space, lighting, noise, amount of time I have to write.  I don’t do well trying to write in bits and pieces, or with lots of activity going on around me.  I can and do write in coffee houses when in a pinch, but then I try to find the quietest place possible, with a corner or wall table with lots of natural lighting and I add my Bose headphones to block out sound.  But honestly, my home office—clean and clear and free of clutter—is best.  I think I’m getting old.

3. Is there anything that has surprised you about writing, publishing or touring with your books?

Just how hard it all is!  People assume (and I used to be one of these people, too!) that all you have to do is get published, and you’ve pretty much got it mad because you’re on the ‘inside’ now, but that’s just the start of endless, uphill battles.  And it’s all a battle—the writing, the promoting, the marketing and touring and writing while promoting/touring.   It’s not a fluffy, relaxing career.  J

4.   Was there anything (or anyone) while growing up which helped you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Louisa May Alcott.  I loved that Jo, from Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, etc, was a writer.  I also loved inspired by the author of my other favorite series of books, Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls.  Being a writer definitely seemed to be the way to go.  And I tried to get published early….I wrote my first picture book in 2^nd grade and my first novel in 4^th grade.  I was pretty serious about becoming a novelist!

5. Do you have a job outside of being an author? 

Nope.  I write.  A lot.  And then I try to be a good mom on occasion, too.

6.  If you could meet one person who has died, who would that be?

I’d love to meet the James family…Henry James, and his sister Alice who had an amazing mind, and their brother William who was also brilliant.  And if they weren’t interested in meeting me, I’d try to get Virginia Wolfe and her sister, the artist Vanessa Bell, to spend an afternoon with me.  I love interesting families, and so I’m not surprised I wrote a series like the Brennans because I do think sisters and brothers have tremendous influence on each other, and help shape each other.

7. If you could co-author a book with anyone, who would it be?

I don’t think I would.  I’d find it too much a power struggle!

8. In one sentence, why should we read your book?

Because I’m a storyteller and want nothing more than to grab you and sweep you away for a day—and make you feel.  And hopefully, feel good.

9. What do you do in your spare time?

Hang out with my kids, annoy them by making them talk to me (and listen to me), read, and I love to travel.  I live to travel.  Travel is my poison.

10. How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do they read your books?

I’m a mom of 3 sons—17, 13, and 3—and no they don’t read my books.  And the two older ones are pretty proud of me.  They know I work hard, and they like that I’m a ‘different mom’.  The 13 year old worries about my career, though, and has been giving me career advice on becoming bigger (stop writing women’s stories that have no plots and write apocalyptic Young Adult stories like The Hunger Games.)  The 3 year old started a new preschool recently and announced that there his friends were Jack and Jane, but little Jane doesn’t write novels.  He knows because he asked her.

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Q. Intentional or not, your trademark is poignant tales laced with humor that melds perfectly into the story. How do you manage to keep the proper balance between humor and tragedy without it appearing contrived?

Cathy: Ah, that’s a hard one. I bang my head against the keyboard many times as I write each book to make sure that I hit that sweet spot. I try to mirror life: Sometimes life is devastating. It’s hard, it’s trying, it’s exhausting, it’s so very painful. And, sometimes life is a glowing rainbow. It’s laughter, contentment, gratefulness, excitement, peace and joy, all wrapped up together. I blend the two for my books, so it’s realistic.

My books always end on hope, though. That I will guarantee for every book I write: hope.

Q. In “The Last Time I was Me,” you introduce a bevy of women at a B&B and anger management classes who interact with the main character Jeanne, searching for her perfect version of life. These secondary characters are memorable. Will we see them again?

Cathy: No. Once I finish a book, despite my readers begging, I don’t plan on writing the second chapter, so to speak, of my characters’ lives. Sometimes readers will write to me and ask what happened to my characters, and I’ll tell ‘em so they can sleep at night, but I won’t be writing stories featuring the same groups again. I feel like I’ve told their stories, the characters are living their own lives, they’re off and running, and I’m moving on to a new family that’s already frolicking around in my head.

There is only one exception, a minor character, Cherie Poitras, a kick – butt divorce attorney who wears leopard prints and bang up high heels, has shown up in a couple of my stories.

Q. Any parting thoughts for your readers and those not familiar with your stories yet?

Cathy: Please read them! And to my readers, thank you for reading them. I mean that: Thank you.

I have many letters from readers telling me that my books make them laugh and cry. Sometimes they laugh and chortle and cry and sob on subways and airplanes and people stare at them strangely. Basically, I love to write and tell stories. I always have, even when I was a kid. I listen to my characters talk and sometimes I talk back. I live in my imagination a lot. It’s an odd place to live. I blog and I Skype with book clubs all the time, so if you would like me to visit your book club, I’m happy to.

DA Kentner is an author and journalist. www.kevad.net

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