Q&A with Shalini Dua, The Secret Lives of Royals

What was your biggest inspiration while writing your book?

All of my travels, early history lessons from schooling in London and pop culture.

Which character in your book was most challenging to write about?

Alex and Connor. I was as torn between them as Olivia is.

Which authors have most influenced your writing?

Sophie Kinsella, Lewis Carrol, Emily Brontë, R. M. Drake, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath

What is your favorite scene in your book?

When Alex and Olivia discover the castle together. I love that they recapture the love they had when they were younger and pick up where they left off.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Always a writer. And someone who got to travel for work.

What is your favorite book of all time?

It’s a toss up between Alice in Wonderland and Wuthering Heights

Describe your writing style in three words.

Haphazard, coffee-fueled, madness

Any recent works that you admire?

Anything by R.M. Drake, Nikita Gill and Atticus
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

What is your writing process? 

I drink lots of coffee. Assemble my snacks. Make a playlist. Surf the internet. Wander around the house. Plan a vacation. Think of several errands that just can’t wait. Eventually sit down to write just as I’m supposed to be going to bed. 

Guest Post by Maddie Dawson, Matchmaking for Beginners

I come from a family of outrageous storytellers. If everything I was told as a child was true, it’s a wonder that there isn’t an entire wing of a penitentiary somewhere dedicated to just my family members. We’d have had to hold our family reunions there.

Some examples: My newly married grandmother shot her young husband with a pistol when he scared her by coming home unexpectedly from a business trip in the middle of the night, and—BAM! Missed him by this much. He lived, but they got a divorce anyway, and two marriages later, she ended up with a man who had stolen somebody else’s identity and lived his life impersonating a wealthy businessman while he bilked thousands of people out of their life savings. Nice.

That’s just for starters. There’s also the story of Aunt Murtis who put a pillow over her husband’s face when he was dying of something or other. My aunt who, as a toddler, squatted down in the street as a big Mack truck came barreling toward her—but, haha, she was fine. She just squatted down and the truck tires missed her. And then there was the Air Force pilot who fell in love with my mother while she was married to my father, if you please, and stole a jet to fly over our house at a very low altitude. And, blah blah blah, the great-great grandfather who was said to have owned Cape Canaveral, but lost it in gambling debts.

True? One never knows, not with my family. I don’t think they even know.

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It’s perhaps no wonder I grew up to be a fiction writer, aka someone who tells lies for a living. I was the quiet one, you see, listening and watching, taking it all in. It wasn’t until I grew up and moved away that characters started showing up in my head that were like the people I’d grown up listening to: people who were maybe a little bit crazy, a little bit brave, and who inhabited a world they were the champions of. They have much more daring than I have, these characters (and my relatives)—and yet at their center, as they are breaking hearts or having their own hearts broken, they are like me, yearning to make a connection, to be heard and loved for who they are, and to pass along their passion for life.

I run into traces of them whenever I write. A whiff of my grandmother (the one with the shotgun) showed up for my newest novel, Matchmaking for Beginners, becoming 85-year old Blix: a hellraiser who discovered her own, unrewarded talent for matchmaking and magic, and who wasn’t a bit scared of dying or worried about stirring up some love and trouble wherever she went.

“Hi, Grandmom,” I said. And she said, “Please. You know I hate that name. Call me G.G. for Glamorous Grandmother.”

Q&A with CJ Golden, One Petals at a Time

Parts of your book are a series of emails that you sent to friends and family during the time of Joe’s hospitalization and recovery. What made you realize that you needed to share it with the world in a book?

Oh, my, that sounds a tad frightening, doesn’t it – sharing it with the world?  But all that I had learned and shared through my writing was being read and embraced by my readers.  They were with Joe and me every step of the way and, knowing they were there and caring kept me going.  It felt so good to have them all in my world as I went through this very personal tumultuous time. One Pedal at a Time grew out of their comments and, quite honestly, requests that I put my writings in a book for others to benefit from. My journey was similar to so many others’ and, therefore, the lessons  I had brought to light were helpful to them. We need to know we are not alone in our circumstances; especially times of duress.

You have studied and practiced Taoist principles, how were you able to use these as you became an unexpected caregiver for your husband?

Quite honestly, I did not recognize those principles specifically as they carried me through my caregiver journey.  It was only when Joe was stronger and life as it had been was peeking through the clouds, that I sat and thought about the Tao.  The principles that I had followed – and do throughout my life – are Tzu-jan, which means that “stuff happens”. Life takes the twists and turns it is supposed to take and we cannot undo that.  

Then Wu Wei comes in and we are taught we must acknowledge that which has happened for, without doing so, we cannot work our way through to the other side. Basically, in today’s terminology, I suspect that all would be explained as “You can’t change or ignore what has happened - so deal with it!”

Tao also teaches us Te, that reminds us we are each unique with our own set of skills.  Those skills are what we put in to play when we need to, well, “deal with stuff.” Along with our skillsets, we also have weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and dealt with.  Either we can try to strengthen those weaknesses or, if that cannot be, we must never put ourselves down for them. In my case, my strengths took over while those skills I did not have, I recognized had to be delegated to someone else.  In this manner I continued to learn and do the best I could possibly do for Joe.

Your book is not only a book about caregiving, but a true love story. Please explain the importance of sharing that aspect of your book as part of Joe’s (and your) recovery.

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I do believe most everyone enjoys a good love story, but I did not set out to write that as the mainstay of the book.  It evolved, much as our journey evolved. To not share that part of our relationship with others would have been to leave out, I believe, the most uplifting part of our story.  

There are so many out there caring for loved ones; spouses, parents, children, friends.  The job is difficult, painful and can cause rifts in relationships. I think it is important to show them that, with the right attitude (I’m sorry if that sounds pedantic, and Pollyannaish) feelings of remorse can be turned into a stronger love as, together, caregiver and patient work through their trials - with an attitude of understand and caring.

The quote that stays with us comes from a plaque that hangs on the wall at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston:  

“You get bitter or you get better.  It’s that simple. Take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a stronger person, or allow it to tear you down.  The choice is yours.  Choose wisely.”

Joe and I chose to become stronger people – individually and as a couple and a “team.”  I’ve since had many people share with me that their caregiver journey has created a stronger loving bond between them and their patient.  

Our love story is real – there was no way I could not share it.

In your email section of the book, your tone is very positive, was there a point where you felt hopeless or angry? How do you handle those kinds of feelings when your closest friend and confidante can’t help you with them?

I made a point of adding something positive to each email I had sent out.  I think, retrospectively, I needed to do that to bolster my own torn soul. Of course, I wanted those who cared to find something upbeat in my words.   I knew they were with Joe and me in spirit and it needed to share it all – the pain and the positive.

As for me feeling hopeless and angry; of course I did.  There were days when I had to leave Joe’s side so I could sit in the caregiver lounge and cry.  Or call a friend and rant. Or – forgive me for this admission – take a handful of Ativan in order to continue on. (On those days I had someone driving me home, or I was staying in Joe’s room overnight).

My closest friends and confidantes were able to help me – I remember sitting in my living room one morning, absolutely shattered and, after texting two extremely close friends, finding them coming to my home to allow me to babble and blubber on; to cry and scream; and they listened and they held me and I was able to pull myself together and get to the hospital.  

But I could not live in the negative and somehow found a way to continue on with hope and optimism.  It wasn’t easy. But it was necessary to do so, or I would have not been able to continue caring for Joe.  Or myself.

What are 3 pieces of advice you could give to someone who has just been thrown into the caregiver role?

1. Educate yourself about your role: learn about the illness which has struck your loved one; learn about the “cures” and side effects; learn to talk with the medical staff and become a part of their team.  Take what I call, a course in Hospital 101. You cannot be a bystander and wear blinders. You’re learning much under fire, but it will help you help your loved one immeasurably.
2. Recognize that you must MUST care for yourself.  I did not and the result was a woman (me) who was emotionally and physically exhausted, and on the brink of not being capable of caring for Joe in any capacity.  Seek counseling and guidance. Listen to people who tell you to take care of YOU. They are right!
3. I love Joseph Campbell’s quote:

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”

The life Joe and I had planned was wonderful for as long as it lasted.   Now we live another life – but still with each other – and we are thankful for what we once had, and grateful for the life we now have together.

I hear so many caregivers bemoaning the new life that has been handed to them; they want their old life back.  But, this, now, is their life. And, as Campbell says, it must be accepted.  That is also the Tao – here you are, your path has been altered, find your unique strengths and create a new life.

Musings on The Moment Before by Jason Makansi

It’s a debut novel. 
It’s easy for me to forget that, since it was ten years in the making. But I hope readers don’t forget that. I’ve been writing and publishing short stories for almost twenty years and technical, professional articles and books for forty. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life reading debut novels, especially from women authors. They are far from perfect. I’ve come to appreciate them as much for suggesting where the author is heading or how the author arrived at later works.

It had an auspicious start.
On my first date with the woman I proposed to six months later, I proclaimed “I’m never getting married!” In 2009, while attending The Sewanee Writers Conference, I had told anyone who would listen that I was a short story writer, and not interested in writing a novel. Six months later, I started The Moment Before. So there you go.

I like to think of The Moment Before as a string quartet.
Chamber music isn’t as familiar as orchestral, even to those who appreciate classical music.The Moment Before has four main characters, and I think they interact similarly to musicians playing chamber music (similar to small jazz ensembles too). The quartet analogy is consistent with one of my favorite review quotes on the novel: “The beauty of [The Moment Before] is in its intricate depiction of the coming together of three people to save a fourth.” I’m an amateur musician. I play viola, among other instruments. I can see the two violins and cello coming to rescue me.

It fills a gap in contemporary political-cultural dialogue
The political experience of Americans born here but of Middle Eastern heritage, and all its geopolitical implications, is rarely a theme in American novels. The Moment Before tackles this head on.

It’s a love story!
In the end, The Moment Before is bounded by love, the enduring love between a father and a daughter, the complicated love that emerges between the protagonist Cheryl Halia Haddad (aka Holly Chicago) and the small-town lawyer John Veranda, as well as John’s deep affection for his Illinois hometown, Saluki.

It has a dimension as dark as a black hole.
I didn’t realize this until the very last read through. The one character who emerges NOT betrayed or disillusioned by the institutions/organizations they serve in is Father Moody. Is he “pure evil” as some readers have pointed out, or is he more complicated than that?  I’ll leave that judgment up to you.

On Writing What You Don’t Know by Rebecca Burrell

Somewhere back in caveman times, I envision a young, creative soul with a fistful of ochre and torch soot. As she ponders the limestone, instead of bison or aurochs or deer, her head fills with great creatures who live under the sea and though she’s never seen them, she knows exactly what they look like. How they move. The way they shimmer when sunlight hits their skin. And then, an elder comes up behind, and after a dismissive grunt, tells her ‘stick to what you know’. 

It’s maybe the oldest pieces of writing advice out there. And it has its merits. If our aspiring cave artist can only manage a soggy-looking bison, she’s added very little to the world. Or maybe she paints a respectable dolphin, except it’s blood crimson with snaggly tusks, and no one is the wiser until some seafaring stranger happens by and says it’s all wrong. Still, our intrepid artist hasn’t committed any harm. But is that always the case?

In the real world, when we tackle a topic outside our experience, we own the force of our words. For a reader in a marginalized group, a depiction which rests on unwanted stereotypes can feel more painful than the lack of representation itself. The main protagonist of At Shutter Speed identifies herself as biracial, which I do not. However, I am an adoptive mother who’d been watching her non-white, immigrant child struggle with the changes that have occurred in America over the past few years. (Although that’s his tale to tell someday if he chooses, not mine.) Writing this story became my window into how scary and uncertain all this feels to him. The challenge was how to avoid the trap of falling into my own biases and perceptions, but I found that so long as I maintained an awareness of this, I could approach it much the same as I do any time I write a new character or setting. I’ve never been a war photographer either, but I immersed myself in memoirs and geeked out with photos and cameras until I was confident I could inhabit the character’s headspace in a believable way.

“What you don’t know” is only true for a fixed point in time. Perhaps it’s a piece of historical fiction set in an unfamiliar time or place, or a voice you want to explore, but aren’t sure you can do it justice. A magical thing about writing: you can always turn back. Don’t be afraid to venture out of your cave and take your first steps towards the sea.

Q&A with Happy LaShelle, According to Audrey

This is your debut novel. How does it feel?

Pretty thrilling, honestly. It’s been several long years of writing, learning craft, rewriting, learning more craft, revising some more – not to mention coming to understand the ins and outs of the writing world and the publishing business. This novel is my first book baby, and in the end, I’m glad it took me so long because all of that investment of time and process has given me a book that I’m sincerely proud to share with the world.

Tell us about Newport Beach, California as the setting for your book. Why did you choose it?

It was important to me that the setting of the story would jump off the page and come alive as though it were its own character in the book. Newport Beach was my childhood hometown, so I know it well, and I’m partial to its allure and charm! I was excited to bring to life on the page all the places that are so rich with Newport’s storied culture and history – Balboa Island, Newport Bay, Lido Island, the Peninsula, to name just a few. I also gave myself artistic license here and there for the sake of storytelling purposes – the fictional Bayport High for example, as well as its baseball field, which I imagined near the present-day Castaways Park, on the Back Bay cliffs. I also introduced fire pits at Pirate’s Cove in Corona Del Mar – a few small things to that effect. What was paramount for me was to portray the essence of the town in a way that captured for the reader the true spirit and character of Newport Beach.

What were the books/authors that influenced you as a child?

The first novel I remember reading was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and I just loved the heart of that book. It’s set in Victorian London, and despite the simplistic title, Sara is a complex little character with a strong sense of herself and a wise compassion for others. When all goes pear-shaped, the dire circumstances really test her mettle, and I love the strength she shows through it all. I also loved The Boxcar Children books, Misty of Chincoteague, The Swiss Family Robinson, and we had this colorful, thick version of The Arabian Nights that I would flip through for hours. It was the quintessential, perfect storybook with all of those magic-filled short stories from faraway lands. As a young adult, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, and Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One really made an impression on me… and honestly, I was obsessed with V.C. Andrews as a teenager. The Flowers in the Attic books and the Heaven series were hard to put down. I loved her style.

Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?

Not really. My name is a bit unusual, so I tried to tone it down by using my initials, H.M., during the query process to agents and editors. I didn’t want the name Happy to be a distraction from my work, and I wanted to be taken seriously. After my book sold, my publisher really encouraged me to use Happy – they loved it. I’ve always liked my name, so I was excited to embrace it as my official author name. Actually, when I was deciding between H.M. and Happy, I asked my son’s opinion, and he thought I should definitely use Happy LaShelle… he said, “That literally sounds like a made-up writer name, Mom.” Ha! So in the end, Happy it is.

What’s your coffee house drink of choice?

I’m into tea lattes lately. At a local haunt here in Santa Barbara there’s one called a Magic Bowl - chamomile mixed with honey and steamed milk – oh my, it’s like comfort in a cup! I also love the London Fog made with earl grey - so perfectly British tasting. Then there’s my stand-by iced mocha, and the go-to hot chocolate on a rainy day.

Any advice for a writer just starting out?

Keep going. The process can take a long time, but let your passion propel you forward. Let the rejections make your work better, and don’t take no for an answer. Do something for your writing every day – for me, reading about writing and the writing life is hugely inspiring. One of my favorite writing mentor books is Page after Page by Heather Sellers. Her funny, straightforward style is charming, and her wisdom is so encouraging to everyone on the author path. Don’t forget - you are not an aspiring writer – you are a writer!