Hey Friends! Today I got to sit down with author Michelle Pace, she co-authored of one of my very favorite books, "The Perpetual Quest for the Perfect Life" (I have a signed copy on my keeper shelf!!!) annnnd it is on SALE for just $1.99 !!! Now through Sept 1st. Go get your copy and see what I'm talking about!
 |
| Author Michelle Pace @ The Denton Author Event Photo by Heather Halloran of Word Blog |
What inspired you to write “The Perpetual Quest for
the Perfect Life”?
I
woke up one morning and my son (who was only 2 at the time) was sleeping next
to me, sucking his thumb. The characters Nicole and Ike popped into my
head. A very good friend of mine was killed violently a few years ago,
and I wanted to explore that subject of how that type of loss leaves long
lasting ripples. So I decided to blend the two ideas into one story.
Can you tell us a little bit about your main
characters?
Nicole
is a shell of her former self for various reasons. She was the wife of a
Emergency Medicine resident, and a talented interior designer in Chicago.
They’d just had a newborn son when her husband is killed. Now she’s
a widow, a single mom, and she’s in survival mode. We all get to take the
journey home with her.
Avery
is Nicole’s sister-in-law and high school best friend. In her work life,
she’s a bit of a shark, but her private life is a lonely fiasco. Nicole’s
homecoming is the beginning of the erosion of Avery’s “type A” style of coping.
Did you find any characters more difficult to write
about than others? Do you have any favorites?
Aaron Foster is my favorite
character. He was the best man at Nicole’s wedding and her dead husband’s
best friend. He loves to torture himself, but his self depreciating ways
have such a sense of humor about them. Channeling his inner monologue
amuses me.
Writing about Ryan (Nicole’s
dead husband) was tough. I wanted him to be a full blown character, even
though he’s already dead when our story begins. Through flashbacks and
memories, I think I accomplished my mission. He was a complicated guy ,
and I felt very protective of him. It caused some fights at times.
Did you have a particular audience in mind when you
started writing?
Not
at all. I wanted to write a book that readers want to discuss. One
that asks tough questions, makes you laugh and makes you cry. This is the
type of book I want to read, so it’s what I wanted to write.
Period..paragraph.
When writing, are you more character driven or plot
driven?
Character driven. If
you create living and breathing people, the story will tell itself.
Do you write the story in from beginning to end or
out of order?
Chronologically. We did
rearrange chapters one and two and I did go back and add a chapter, but for the
most part, I start at the beginning. That being said, having a lot of
backstory and flashbacks, we learn about the characters backwards. After
Ryan’s death, we were facing the reality of starting with broken characters and
the chore of patching them back together again.
What was your favorite part of the process? What was
your least favorite part?
My favorite part was sharing
it with the betas. They were a crazy bunch and there were some lively
debates amongst them.
My
least favorite part was editing, closely followed by collaborative
disagreements. Co-authoring is a lot like parenting...it can be rewarding, but
also thankless.
Are there any books or authors that have influenced
you in your writing?
I like Amy Tan and Rebecca
Wells for character studies and development. John Irving and Stephen King
are my absolute favorites for the way they say things. Sometimes it isn’t
what an author says that snags you and moves a story along-it’s what they don’t
say.
What are you reading right now?
Do you have any “must haves” when writing?
Coffee with Italian Sweet
Cream in the morning and beer with pickle salt in the evening
(or at 12:01).
How long is your TBR list? Is it hard to make time
to fit in a personal read?
Hard is the understatement of
the century. I don’t even know how long it is anymore. Long! The
only reading I really get to do is listening to audiobooks. More indies
need to make audio books simply for my listening pleasure.
Can you tell us a little bit about “Fury”?
Fury is the story of two
friends who get the job of following a hot british band on tour. It’s an
absolute guilty pleasure chick-lit/romance. Fury has quite a few fans
clamoring for a sequel. And the sequel is in the works. It’s called
“Rage”.
I know you are currently writing a contemporary
romance, “Crazy Love”, can you tell us a little about that?
It’s my first solo project
and two of the characters are inspired by real life friends of mine. I am
blending several complicated and dysfunctional people into one story, and have
questioned my own sanity several times during the process. Crazy Love is
set in Savannah, Georgia and it’s a contemporary romance.
Do you have new projects in mind for the future?
I’m writing a crossover with
Andrea Randall that merges her November Blue series with our (Tammy Coons and
my) Fury books. It may end up being erotica, but it will have some pretty
savvy dialogue. Picture “My Dinner With Andre” meets “9 ½ weeks”.
FAST FUN FACTS
1 – Favorite TV Show & Movie……….Lost, The Color Purple
2 – Coffee, Tea or Soda……….Dunkin Donuts, Earl Grey, Diet Pepsi
3 – eBook or Paperback……….Three way tie: The World According to
Garp, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and The Drawing of the Three
4 – Favorite Reading Spot……….In bed
5 – Most Loved Genres……….Contemporary Fiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy,
Horror, Romance (preferably between actual grown ups)
6 – Sing along or listen quietly……….Sing. I was a musical
theater major once
7 – Pool or Beach……….beach
8 – Movie Theatre or Rent at Home……….home. I roll my eyes
way too much for public places
9 – Dog or Cat……….dog
10 – Sweet or Salty……….SALT!!!
11 – Camping or Hotel……….hotel. I like to look at nature in
air conditioning, through a window
12 – BBFs, Flawed or Perfect……….FLAWED. I like realistic
characters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with Michelle on Facebook at:
and
Links for: "Fury"
Mark "Crazy Love" as to-read on your Goodreads profile:
No comments:
Post a Comment