A: Forever Blue is based on true events from my own life. Back when I was eleven years-old, around the time I was in fifth grade, there was a boy who registered at my school during the middle of the school year. He just happened to be assigned to my classroom. We became friends almost instantly. Soon enough, we developed a bond that I had never experienced with the opposite sex.
Out of the blue, he asked me one day if I wanted to go on a date with him. Okay yes, you might be thinking, What? A date at eleven-years-old? Yeah right. Well, this boy was way beyond his years. He washed cars, and mowed lawns that whole Saturday to make enough money to take me to the movies and a nice steak house. It was a night in my young life that I truly never forgot. For the rest of that school year, we were inseparable.
Sadly, the last day of fifth grade was the last time I ever saw this boy. His family decided to move to Florida and we somehow lost touch. For the next fifteen years, I searched high and low for his whereabouts, but I could never locate him. Never a day went by that I didn't think about him. A piece of me was missing and I was going to do everything in my power to find it.
Then on December 17th 2008, by some bizarre twist of fate, I found one of his relatives on Facebook and she gave me his email address. I was leery at first. All my attempts failed me in the past, so why would this attempt be any different? Well come to find out, my fifteen years of searching finally came to an end. This boy, now a man, was the one I'd been searching for since I was a child. The moment we reunited was like we had never been apart.
Of course, I fictionalized this entire experience.
A: I'm a very devoted Chris Isaak fan. I think his songs are eloquent and ingenious. When I listened to his song, Forever Blue, I thought the lyrics were truly fitting as to how the main character, Alexa, feels for the rest of her life after Carter disappears. Within the last several years, my novel has taken on numerous other titles. When I heard this song, I knew I had to name my novel Forever Blue.
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A: It all depends. When I wrote my first two novels I was working at an office so the only time I had to write was on my own time at home. This cut my writing time in half. My first novel took two years to write and I startedForever Blue in 2007 and finally finished in 2010. If I did not have a nine to five job, I would say that writing a complete novel would take me about six months to a year.
A: I shopped my novel around to literary agents for three years and got the same result as I did with my first novel. These days, landing a literary agent is like winning the lottery. Or maybe you'll be lucky enough to sign with one if your novel revolves around vampires. There is just point where you have to say enough is enough. I went directly to publishers that would look at my novel without literary agent representation. Finally, someone from the amazon publishing side read it and was willing to pay the upfront cost of getting it published. I guess you could say Forever Blue is a cross between self-published and traditional publishing.
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A: In the case of Alexa's career choice, I read a variety of make-up artistry books and consulted with many beauticians and makeup artists. For Carter's profession, I went back to my late teens-to the boy band era. Most of my research involving Carter Storm resulted from my memories. The late 90's early 2000's was a significant time in my life. TRL (Total Request Live) was something many teens anticipated watching every day after school. My research consisted of flashing back to that time period and remembering all the hysteria that was stirred up by boy and girl pop bands. Under normal circumstances, I do most of my research by observing and taking notes. For my third novel, I actually went undercover and stepped into my characters shoes so I could make the writing as real as possible.
A: I never have an outline when I start writing a book. Usually I will get a pad of paper and start brainstorming characters, scenes, and storylines until I come up with something palpable. All I really know is the beginning of the story and how it's going to end. It's the middle part that takes work. It's hard to explain, but when I write, usually storylines and scenes come to me out of the blue. I can be sitting in my car and a scene comes to me for no apparent reason. I usually keep a notebook on hand and write the good old-fashioned way--freehand. I take the notebook with me everywhere and write any chance I get. I start by writing the chapter on paper and then type it on my computer. For some reason doing it this way allows more creative juices to flow and I come up with more ideas while I'm editing.
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A: Yes. When you think back to the days of early pop music, it wasn't hard to produce.
A: Yes, the sequel to Forever Blue, which will be called, Forever Blue: Old Songs to Sing, New Tears to Cry, will first be released as an eBook in February 2012. Expect a lot of twists and surprises.
A: With the sequel for Forever Blue completed, I have started on my third untitled novel. It will be completely different from Forever Blue.
COMING MARCH 2012
Forever Blue: New Tears to Cry, Old Songs to Sing will be available as an e-book March 2012!
ON SALE NOW!
The paperback version of Forever Blue can now be ordered at the following websites:
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ON SALE NOW!
The e-book version of Forever Blueis now available for download at the following websites:
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