Discovering the Gift

Len and I are both in From Stage Door Shadows!  We thought it would be fun to do a blog swap. 

 I'm on her BLOG 

guest posting about speculative fiction, while she’s interviewed her on my blog. 

What’s the name of your story?

Discovering the Gift

What is your short story about?

It’s about a boy with cerebral palsy with a gift of teleportation, telekinesis and mind-reading.

Where did the idea of your story come from?

There aren’t many books available that have characters with a physical or learning disability. I have a son who has Lennox Gastaut syndrome and cerebral palsy and I’ve been looking for books to read to him, something that he can relate to. So I thought perhaps if there’s very limited books out there, I’d like to write one. My son was the inspiration of that story which really is a complete manuscript but there’s a lot of plot holes so I thought I’d turn it into a short story.

What did you learn from going through the editing experience?

It was a learning experience for me. It was fun and also scary. I didn’t want to make a mistake or to lose the opportunity by not being able to meet the standards of the publisher. But I’m lucky because Jodi Cleghorn, the founding partner and editor of eMergent Publishing, is very supportive and helpful. I’m very grateful to her and eMergent. It’s been a very good experience.

Do you have a specific genre you write or do you write in a variety of genres?

I write middle grade and women’s fiction.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on two manuscripts at the moment. I’m in the middle of writing a story about a mother who died in her sleep and found herself still in her house even though she’s passed on. I’ve got a temporary title, “When I close my Eyes”. I’m hoping this will see the light of day (cringe). Another story I’m working on is about a boy who has epilepsy. His condition is similar to “Jarryd”, my character in “Discovering the Gift” but this is more realistic, a family story. I’m not very sure yet if this will be a middle grade novel. I’ve written the manuscript more than five times and each began differently. So I have a set of five different 3 to 10 chapters of the same idea but different story structures!

Quick Writing Questions:

Plotter or panster? A mixture of both.

Quiet or music? Quiet. I can’t concentrate with any music on. I’ve tried many times but really can’t.

Laptop or desktop? Desktop

Coffee or tea? Tea. White tea.

Wine or other?  No wine for me. I love coconut water and freshly extracted fruit juice. If I’m out, I’m pretty boring because I don’t drink. I can drink half a glass of red wine, nothing more than that or my knees start to wobble.

Day or night? Night. And sometimes, very early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. when I can’t or haven’t had any sleep at all – that’s when I write.

From Stage Door Shadows can be found at:

Goodreads 

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

The Book Depository 

eMergent Publishing