I’d like the welcome the fabulous Kerry Peresta to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
A few of your favorite things: Like my character, Olivia, I love cats. I’ve had the as long as I can remember. My parents hated cats, but they suffered through all my kitties as I grew up, and now in adulthood I would love to have three (I have two) but I tried it, and it was absolute chaos. I settle for two, but I get ‘kitten fever’ every spring. Also Starbucks House coffee, good red wine, great perfume (I love Jo Malone’s scents) and Bath and Bodyworks body spray. My newest one is Champagne Toast. Fabulous!
Things you need to throw out: A zillion T-shirts. I even have some from thirty-five years ago. It’s hard for me to let go of the memories associated with them.
Things you need for your writing sessions: A great pen (I use a Zebra fine point, ballpoint), sugarless gum (I think better when my oral fixation is satisfied), and my huge, vertical, monster monitor that sits beside my laptop. And a bonus—since my desk sits facing a nice view of a low country marsh and palm trees—would be a cloudy, rainy, day. Perfect writing weather!
Things that hamper your writing: My husband stalking through the house in search of snacks, or his glasses, or his everything. He works at home, and my office doesn’t have a door, so I write in earbuds a lot. Also, I have four grown kids, and if they have an issue, of course I drop everything to connect with them. A distraction, sure…but a necessary one. Olivia Callahan has two daughters, Lilly and Serena, both teenagers. Her devotion to her kids is mirrored by my own.
Things you love about writing: The end product. When I began writing, I wrote from start to finish, pretty much shooting right through the story in a straight line to the end. Boom. It felt great to imagine something and transfer it to a published work. Olivia Callahan experiences the same spurt of the miraculous as she arises from a coma a different person…and begins a journey of re-invention. She has a hard time believing she has not only survived an assault that resulted in a coma…but is actually thriving because of it.
Things you hate about writing: Structure. Outlining. I’ve found it necessary to track a plotline, have an ending in mind, concoct a roadmap at the beginning so I’m not staring at a blank page and pulling something out of the air. Even with an outline (of sorts) I depart, but at least I have an idea of where I need to end up. So I don’t actually HATE structure…I just hold it at arms’ length.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Marketing. Hands down. I love everything else. Half of an author’s job is marketing, and it is difficult to carve out the time to do it well, especially if I have another deadline on the horizon. I’m learning to manage my time better and let go of projects that are unnecessary in order to focus on my books.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Editing. I love getting feedback and send each manuscript out to several beta readers before sending to my publishing editor. My favorite part is cutting out the ‘fat’ in the book, and chiseling and honing the story to a razor point. I haven’t accomplished what I consider a ‘razor point’ yet, but I’m on my way.
Favorite smell: Light, clean scents like Glade’s ‘Fresh Linen’, or Dolce & Gabbana’s ‘Light Blue’.
Something that makes you hold your nose: Onions. Fish. Garlic. Yuk. I have a sensitive nose, and unfortunately, my husband can barely smell anything. This makes for interesting marital discord…I mean discussion.
The last thing you ordered online: A hummingbird feeder that was guaranteed not to drip that sticky, red hummingbird mixture all over my deck. Like my character, Olivia, I adore birds! I have seven feeders in my back yard.
The last thing you regret buying: Oh gosh, where to begin? Anything from China, probably. I now try to see where the item originates. I once had the bright idea to buy a leaf-covered, collapsible screen to put on one side of my deck as a leafy ‘wall’ of sorts. The marketing made it look huge. When I got it, it was an eighteen-inch square. Those things aren’t cheap! I’m thinking…who buys this stuff? On the heels of that, I thought, well…I did. Sigh.
Things you always put in your books: Pets. Olivia has a wonderful, huge, ginger, tomcat named Riot. He is modeled after my cat, Felix. In Book Three, since she has undergone such tumultuous and unforeseen obstacles, she acquires a mature dog from a shelter who turns out to be the best decision ever. Riot is still unsure about this decision.
Things you never put in your books: Sex scenes. The ‘F’ word. My books are about characters that, for various reasons, stumble into tragic consequences and must figure out how to rise above them and prevent these situations from happening again. It’s one step forward, two steps back. The two steps back usually take a nasty, dangerous turn. There is no need in my stories for explicit sexual intimacy or the F-bomb.
Things to say to an author: “Ohmigosh I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait for the next one! That Monty was a scumbag, wasn’t he! And I’m so proud of Olivia!” I love it when my readers connect with my characters in a way that they must comment about them. And the overuse of exclamation marks is just icing on the cake. Oh, please! Get emotional about my characters! Olivia Callahan’s journey is both heartbreaking and heroic, and I have prolonged experience with dirtbags, so I can write a gritty, realistic bad guy. (Smile)
“It had a slow start, but it picked up.” Or: “My ‘pet peeve’ is blah blah blah and I had a tough time with this book because of it.” As an author, I am not trying to accommodate everyone’s ‘pet peeves’, I am attempting to write an entertaining, realistic, and inspiring story. I do think about these comments (briefly) and consider whether I need to adjust something, but every reader brings a different expectation to a story. I’ve had one person tell me they didn’t connect to Olivia because she felt too passive. Olivia Callahan starts out as a victimized, passive woman who is blindsided by divorce and a vicious assault, but she evolves into a stick of dynamite. The reader obviously had different expectations of a character’s evolution. One comment took me off guard…she told me she had a hard time because two characters’ (major and minor) names started with the same letter. So, now, yes, I try to do better with my choice of first letters for names, but…really? I found the noting of that pesky, small irritant worthy of a strangling attempt in my next book, at least.
Favorite books (or genre): Suspense/Traditional Mystery or Legal and Medical Thrillers. Some of my favorite authors are Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Tracy Clark, Rachel Caine.
Books you wouldn’t buy: Cozy mystery, RomCom, Soaring sagas, Historical.
Favorite things to do: Walk through an art gallery, work out in a cardio or strength training class, listen to a symphony or a good jazz trio, enjoy a great glass of wine and appetizers with friends and my spouse at an atmospheric bar.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Go to a football game. Crowds and persistent screaming, chewing, spitting, yelling, cursing, are NOT my thing, LOL!
Things that make you happy: My cats, good wine, robust coffee, a good conversation with a friend, my time with God in the mornings. A conversation with my grown kids, my grandchildren laughing or showing me their treasures, a flock of ibis lifting off the marsh. Life is a gift and there are many things that bring joy!
Things that drive you crazy: Slow, ancient, drivers; little kids going wild in the store and their parents ignoring them (is teaching civility a lost art?), people that insist on talking on their cell phones in line, in a restaurant, in whatever public place. It’s just rude.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Giving birth. Two girls, two boys. All unique miracles. I am proud of them.
Biggest mistake: Not majoring in creative writing or journalism in college. I majored in commercial art and didn’t get serious about writing until I was in my fifties.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Flying out to West Palm Beach from my home a thousand miles away to meet a man I met online. In retrospect, I’d call it more foolish than daring, but still. It took a lot of moxie. Olivia experiences the same exhilaration when she dares to embrace a new career. In spite of friends’ and family’s disapproval and protests, she forges her own path not knowing how it will turn out. Risk is exhilarating!
Something you chickened out from doing: Not pursuing a career in real estate when I had the chance. It was such a great opportunity! An uberly-succesful agent was retiring, and I was primed to inherit an incredible list of clients. But I had four kids to raise, and starting real estate was going to pay very little until I worked into being an agent. I wish I’d had more guts! But the path I chose provided a regular paycheck and insurance. I still think about being a realtor, though…to the extent that I might just sneak one in as my main character!
