IAN. Please
tell us about Where Life Takes You
C.B. Becca Trent lived her childhood next to a cruel
woman—her mom—who lived to torment and neglect her. During her high school
years, her mother married; bringing home not only a new husband, but a step
sister her same age.
The latter took over her Mom’s role—making Becca’s life
miserable. Including stealing Ian—Becca’s best friend and boyfriend—Lisa
treated her worse than her mother had for the previous fifteen years. A couple
of years later, things ended up in tragedy.
Becca buried that part of her life in the deep corners of her
psyche, but that only work during the days when the nightmares didn’t come back
to haunt her. Her best friend, Dan gives her that family love she always lacked.
Everything was close to perfect, until everything and everyone from her past
came back. Now, she’s trying to figure out how to survive and keep that bond
which seems now to be held together by a thread.
IAN. Did you
use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?
C.B. I just
wing for the first draft. My stories start with an idea and the first words are
a scene… any scene. From there I start sculpting it.
IAN. How long
did it take to write the Where Life Takes You?
C.B. Between
three and four months.
IAN. How much
of the book is realistic?
C.B. A big
part, after all, it is contemporary. The struggle Becca goes through, trying to
overcome everything she buried from her teen-years is something that
unfortunately, a lot of women go through.
IAN. Are
experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
C.B. Yes, some
of them, rather not specify which. But a few are mine and some friends who
sadly no longer live among us.
IAN. If you
had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
C.B. Modern,
I’d say it’s a tie between Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot and Nora Roberts.
Classic… I’d
like to think that throughout the years I have learned from Fitzgerald,
Hemingway, Cervantes, Wilde, Asimov, Dickens and Austin. Let’s not forget
Shakespeare, who wrote about Italy without ever visiting the country.
IAN. What book
are you reading now?
C.B. I just
finished: The book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
IAN. Name one
entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.
C.B. My
friends, and also my social media friends. Members of Facebook I met five years
ago and now from twitter, the community of indie authors is amazingly
supportive. Not only with my writing, but on a personal level too.
IAN. Do you
recall how your interest in writing originated?
C.B. Young
age, like Becca, my life wasn’t pleasant and I learned to survive and drift
away by reading stories. Not too long after, I began to create my own reality.
A happier one.
IAN. Who
designed the cover for Where Life Takes You?
C.B. Danielle
Fine did the cover of my eBook, and based on it Steve Caresser designed the print
version.
IAN. What was
the hardest part of writing Where Life Takes You?
C.B. Editing,
my first experience doing so wasn’t gentle. But I think my first editor taught
me a few valuable lessons and brought out more from me to the book that I was
willing to share or deliver.
IAN. Did you
learn anything from writing Where Life Takes You and what was it?
C.B. Yes, the
biggest one was not to shy away and bring your best game to the keyboard… also
proof it before publishing!
IAN. Tell
us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?
C.B. Currently I’m working on the sequel of Where Life Takes You and finished
writing Getting by, the first book of
the Knight Brother’s series.
IAN. Do you
have any advice for other writers?
C.B. Write,
write, write and keep writing, don’t give up. Also read, read and why not, read
after you finished writing. Don’t give up. Have I mentioned you should proof it
before publishing the book?
Where
Life Takes You is available in trade paperback and Kindle eBook
at
No comments:
Post a Comment