Adelaide Literary Magazine No. 38, July 2020

TOM YARBOROUGH

Author of
THE MANY LIES OF ZOEY

1. T ell us a bit about yourself—something that
we will not find in the official author’s bio.

I was born in Louisiana and spent the first eight years of my life in New Orleans. As an “Army
Brat,” I l then lived on military posts all over the US and Germany, from Ft Meade, MD to Ft
Bliss, TX, from Ft Benning, GA to Ft Lawton, WA—with stops at Ft Sill, OK, Ft Leavenworth, KS
and Ft Baker, CA. In all I attended 9 different elementary schools, 2 junior high schools, and
4 different high schools, eventually graduating from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, CA,
just 5 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Needless to say, I was always the new kid on
the block. The military was a part of my life from the very first day and remains so now. That
probably explains why I became an Air Force pilot. Guess it’s in my DNA!

2. D o you remember what was your first story
(article, essay, or poem) about and when did you write it?

In my junior year of high school I wrote a short story for my English teacher, Mrs. Arkills.
It was a fictionalized account about two young Army soldiers who during the invasion of
Southern France in 1944 accidentally travel to a French village still occupied by the Germans.
Their adventures dodging Nazis with the help of the townspeople so impressed Mrs. Arkills
that she had the story published in the local newspaper. My reaction to being a published
author at age 16 was mostly one of indifference. The real boost to my ego came from receiv-
ing an A on the project!

3. What is the title of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Many Lies of Zoey. Inspiration for the story first manifested itself as
a Valentine to my hometown. New Orleans is not just a setting—it’s a supporting character,
with the city’s high-profile traditions, glamorous past, and complicated present helping to
shape sibling bonds in a New Orleans family. How do you tell someone about the Big Easy?
It has survived fires, floods, hurricanes, plagues, and flourished just one foot above sea level.
For me, this living, breathing wonder encompassing both the past and present has always

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represented a lot more than just Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, Mardi Gras parades,
or Dixieland jazz. It has spawned its own mythology, its own soul, and has touched genera-
tions of people around the world. For those fortunate enough to call it home, New Orleans is
not just a geographic place, it’s an epic poem, a euphoric state of mind, a prism of luminous
light, a dulcet harmonic tone, a pleasing bundle of nostalgia. Unfortunately, New Orleans
also has its share of sons of bitches, winos, bag ladies, and dysfunctional families.

Besides New Orleans, the idea of taking a no-holds-barred look at sibling relationships
inspired my novel. In The Many Lies of Zoey, the brother-sister relationship between Sam
and Zoey is—like New Orleans—decidedly peculiar, one that combines various degrees of
obsession and disdain, trust and betrayal, greed and charitability, dominance and submis-
sion, using and being used. In each of their international adventures, the siblings shed light
on the price of unbridled ambition and unchecked obsession in human relationships. Sam
and Zoey may also form a literary paradigm for co-dependency, with nearly all the positive
and negative consequences such relationships entail. My hope is that readers will readily
identify with the themes of racism, dysfunctional families, obsession, promiscuity, the drug
culture—all current topics in the headlines.

4.  How long did it take you to write your latest work and how
fast do you write (how many words daily)?

This project probably took the better part of three years to write. The initial effort actually
proceeded quite rapidly—about a chapter a day (I never held myself to a daily word quo-
ta). The real time-consuming effort involved multiple revisions and edits. In some cases I
tweaked particular segments half a dozen times before they passed muster.

5. Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I have an office in my house—a “man cave.” I do virtually all my writing there, usually be-
tween 6 am to 11am. When I’m writing, I draw a complete blank unless I have classical music
playing softly in the background.

6.  Is writing the only form of artistic expression that you utilize, or
is there more to your creativity than just writing?

I’m not sure if it qualifies as a form of artistic expression, but I’m an avid bluegrass banjo
player. I got hooked in college listening to recordings by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.
I was especially impressed by banjo player Earl Scruggs. He was noted for popularizing a
three-finger banjo-picking style now called “Scruggs Style” that has become a defining char-
acteristic of bluegrass music. I bought a second-hand banjo and have been picking away ever
since.

7. Authors and books that have influenced your writings?

The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Meriwether Lewis). The ultimate adventure story and the
most underrated heroes in American history. My dad gave me this book for my 12th birth-

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day—I wanted a new bike. He asked me to read it, and if I still wanted a bike instead, he’d get
it for me. To this day, Journals is one of my most prized possessions.

Next I got hooked on Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener. My favorite collection
of loosely linked short stories. The focus is on characters: young naïve, idealistic Americans
caught up in the epic WWII struggles in the South Pacific. Michener digs deep into the char-
acter and behavior of men at war and makes many a pointed observation on courage, bore-
dom, discipline, love, and sex. Read this book and “Bali Hai” does indeed call.

My favorite (and most influential) novelist is the renowned Nobel Laureate, Mario Vargas
Llosa. Three of my favorites are The Time of the Hero, Conversation in the Cathedral, and
The Bad Girl. For me, Vargas Llosa’s style encompasses historical material as well as his own
personal experiences, a style I’ve humbly copied. He frequently uses his writing to challenge
the hypocritical vagaries of society, and one of the main themes he has explored in his writ-
ing is the individual’s struggle against irrational human behavior, a theme I’ve explored in
my novel, The Many Lies of Zoey. He helped me find my voice and has given me a deeper
appreciation of how to string together nuanced settings, personalities, and life events in a
way that enriches characters and deepens plots and subplots. Writing quality fiction is im-
possible without mentors and masters you admire. Vargas Llosa’s writing for me has been
nothing less than a veritable blueprint. 

8.  What are you working on right now?
Anything cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

Currently I’m researching a World War II historical novel set in the Ukraine at the site of a
notorious massacre of over 33,000 Jews by German forces in 1941.

9.  Did you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think—who reads and who should read your books?

I think my novel, The Many Lies of Zoey, has the commercial potential to attract a wide adult
audience—male and female. I submit that as a historical novel and as upmarket fiction, it
has the ability to infiltrate lots of book clubs, writers groups, and take off as a stand-alone
product. In researching the genre of historical novels, I discovered a number of recent ex-
amples—all on the New York Times best sellers’ list: All the Light We Cannot See; The Light
Between Oceans; War Brides; The Japanese Lover; and The Nightingale. A simple Google
search turned up hundreds of others. It would seem there’s a huge market for historical
novels with millions of readers. I have no expertise at judging numbers, but based on ex-
perience from the sales of my other books, I’d project well into the thousands—hopefully
more.

Why read the book? Because the compelling story of flawed brother and sister protag-
onists has now seen the light of day—perhaps for the first time. For the general reader, my
book examines both the extreme and the very personal experience of sibling relationships. I
think there’s a powerful immediacy that draws the reader into the story.

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10. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?

I strongly suggest that a new author take his/her own literary temperature. If you’re not re-
ally passionate about the subject, your work will come across as lackluster to publishers and
readers. Also, get a top-notch literary agent!

11. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?

“Your destiny is in your ow hands. If you write a story people want to read—a story that grips,
characters that people care about, your book will sell.” Anne Perry

12.  How many books you read annually and what are you
reading now? What is your favorite literary genre?

Generally I read 12-15 books a year, usually a mix of historical fiction and military history.
However, during the COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve taken to reading about a book a week. Right
now I’m exploring two books. In the nonfiction department I’m reading Sonia Purnell’s best
seller, A Woman of No Importance. I’m also reading (actually re-reading) South of Broad by
iconic novelist Pat Conroy.

13.  What do you deem the most relevant about your writing?
What is the most important to be remembered by readers?

Tough question and somewhat presumptuous of me to answer. Ultimately, the reading public
will decide what’s relevant about my writing—if anything. Hopefully the take away for those
readers will be that my novel, The Many Lies of Zoey, is a skillful blend of inspired premise,
larger-than-life characters, high-stakes conflict, and deeply felt themes, all played out against
well-researched international settings. That research stems from the fact that my novel is
based loosely on my insider experiences as an Air Force pilot, as the air attaché at the Amer-
ican Embassy in Bangkok, and as a liaison officer to the State Department in Washington, DC.
Additionally, I hope readers will take into account that my story also looks back to the strug-
gles of a previous era and reflects on how time recalibrates mores: routine lives periodically
interrupted by emergencies, laced with unresolved issues, dragged along from the past.

14.  What is your opinion about the publishing industry today and
about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?

Without question the publishing industry is a business in a state of flux. A few big houses
control the industry, and literary agents have become the gate keepers (road blocks?), decid-
ing what authors’ works get considered. It’s been that way for years. But with the advent of
e-books and self-publishing, technology has provided budding authors with viable alternatives.
For example, marketing has almost always been the purview of the publisher, but now inde-
pendent authors can use tools like Amazon Marketing Service to advertise their books. Also,
indie authors are finding success with audiobooks. And editorial services are now out there for
the independent author. Low book quality (a prevalence of typos and grammatical errors) can
lead to poor reviews or readers giving up on a book or an author altogether. I’m convinced that
new technology and services in the publishing industry will only continue to grow and expand.

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153

TOM GLENN

Author of
COMING TO TERMS and

SECRETOCRACY

1. T ell us a bit about yourself – something that
we will not find in the official author’s bio?

I have had—and still do have—an unusually rich existence. For much of my life, I ran daily
and worked out regularly. That ended when I came down with lung cancer in 2015 followed
by chemotherapy, radiation, and removal of the upper lobe of my right lung. For several
years, as I recovered, I wasn’t able to exercise. Then, last February, I tried again and succeed-
ed. Now I am able to lift weights for two hours every other day.

I knew at age six that I was a writer, but I tried to escape that fate. I trained as a composer,
even took a BA in music, and wrote reams of scores. Then I tried acting and dancing. I was
always drawn back to writing. Meanwhile, to earn a living and support my family, I became
a spy. I stayed in the intelligence business until I retired as early as I could in 1991 so that I
could write full time. I now have five books (novels and short stories) and seventeen individ-
ual short stories in print with another book due out in July.

My training as an actor led to one of my major occupations these days, public speaking.
I do frequent readings from my books, a class on fiction craftsmanship, and three different
presentations drawn from my thirteen years on and off in Vietnam. The most popular of
those describes the fall of Saigon which I survived, escaping under fire after the North Viet-
namese were already in the streets of the city.

I am a loner and live alone, but I had a partner for over twenty years. She died on March
31. I will be grieving for the foreseeable future.

2. D o you remember what was your first story
(article, essay, or poem) about and when did you write it?

I started writing when I was six years old, but I don’t remember the first thing I wrote.

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3. What is the title of your latest book and what inspired it?

My latest is Secretocracy, published by Adelaide Books on 30 March 2020. What inspired it
was the event at the center of the story, the harassment of a federal bureaucrat because of
his refusal to fund an illegal operation. That actually happened to me. I was on assignment
at the intelligence staff under the Director of CIA. That was the group that finalized the intel-
ligence budget before it was sent to Congress. I rejected funding for a highly classified pro-
gram being promoted by the president on the grounds that it was illegal and violated treaties
with other nations. I was banished to a warehouse with no work to do in hopes that I would
resign—if the government fired me, I could sue and bring the whole story out in the open. I
outlasted the president then in office. When a new president was voted in, I was exonerated.

Because the program in question was highly classified and because I don’t know if it was
ever executed—when I returned to my parent agency, the National Security Agency (NSA), I
lost the special clearances I’d had for that project—I’m reluctant to say which administration
was behind it.

Secretocracy was written before the Trump administration came into power, but when
I saw how Trump was operating, I realized that the story had to be set in the Trump era.
Trump did precisely what is described in the novel, stripping clearances from and/or firing
intelligence officers who reported facts that the president did not like.

4. How long did it take you to write your latest work and
how fast do you write (how many words daily)?

On average, my books take me fourteen years each to write. That’s partly because I am al-
ways working on several books at the same time. But Secretocracy took fewer years. I had
largely finished my other projects, especially Last of the Annamese, and I had more time to
devote to Secretocracy. Besides, the book took me captive. I was so intrigued with the pro-
tagonist’s work and private life and how they came together at the end that I couldn’t stop
working on the story. Frankly, I wanted to know how it would end. So Secretocracy took me
less than ten years to write.

5. Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I have no idea whether my way of writing is different from other novelists. And my writing
routine changes from day to day. When I am deeply engrossed and anxious to know the
outcome, I sometimes write for fourteen hours straight. Days when I’m otherwise occupied,
I might not write at all.

I don’t follow the prescription I have read from many writers, that is, to do a detailed out-
line then fill it in with writing. Instead, I write as the story reveals itself to me. I know that it
is my unconscious that is leading me, but it feels as though it is a voice from outside myself.

To wit: I experience writing as if I am nothing but the transcriber and another being, may-
be a muse, is dictating the story to me. I put myself into a meditative state and let the story
take me. First comes the moment, usually something from my own memory, that captivates

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me. It is the crisis, the crux of the story. Then I let my imagination wander though what must
have happened to bring that moment to be. Then I ponder what must have happened after-
wards. I write it all down.

Once I have a draft, I stay in the meditative—or right brain—state for one or two more
drafts. Then I put the text away to cool so that I can return to it fresh. That cooling period
could be as long as a year. When I return to the text, I deliberately stress the rational—left
brain—approach, trying to read the text as a disinterested party would. I check sentence,
paragraph and chapter lengths and unity. I study word choices, variability in sentence struc-
ture, balance between chapters, overall design. Does the climax come at the right time? Are
the resolution and aftermath in the right place?

For the next draft, I return to the meditative-right brain posture and read for emotional
and aesthetic effectiveness. I continue shifting from right to left brain, meditative to rational,
as I revise more drafts. When I am finally persuaded that the work is as perfect as I can make
it, I farm I t out to my writing partners—other published authors whose judgment I trust—
for feedback. The entire process can take as many as ten drafts.

When the story is coming to me, I don’t know how it will end. I only learn the culmination
when I write it. But it’s also true that my stories are fiction in name only, as critics have noted.
The main events I write about really did happen. I change the circumstances and personali-
ties involved, but the truth remains.

6. I s writing the only form of artistic expression that you utilize,
or is there more to your creativity than just writing?

As a young man, I dabbled in acting, dancing, and music as possible professions. As a spy, I
became proficient in seven foreign languages. One result was a sensitivity to subtleties of
meaning in words, phrases, intonation, and syntax. Over time, other vocations fell away as
writing became the dominant force in my life. But two interests other than writing remain .

I take great pleasure in public speaking, an outgrowth of my training as an actor. In ordi-
nary times, when no pandemic is restricting public life, I do presentations or readings four
to eight times a month.

The other abiding interest is music. As a child, I became entranced with what we now call
classical music. I wore out 78-rpm records and taught myself to play the piano. In college,
after a year of studying acting, I switched my major and took a BA in music. Now, many years
later, I am the proud owner of a Steinway grand piano, a gift from my oldest daughter and
the most beautiful instrument I have ever played. I try to play the piano every day. My fa-
vorite composers are Bach and Mozart, but most of their music is too difficult for me to play.

Meanwhile, as a government employee, I saw that I needed advanced degrees to further
my career. So I went back to school part time and earned a master’s in government and a
doctorate in public administration at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
In the process, I learned, through the writing of master’s and doctoral theses, to shape text
in the academic style. Before I retired, I had been promoted to the upper executive ranks of
the U.S. government.

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7. Authors and books that have influenced your writings?
I have learned in depth from two books: John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction (Alfred A. Knopf,
1984) and The Elements Of Style by William Strunk, Jr., as revised by E. B. White (Macmillan,
1959). Both are short books; both are filled with wisdom.

8. W hat are you working on right now?
Anything new cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

I’m currently working on two novels. One is set during the 1967 battle of Dak To in Vietnam,
a battle I was intimately involved in. The other is about a passionate affair between a man
and woman in their eighties.

The latter novel has just undergone a major change in outlook. It is drawn largely from a
relationship I had with a woman who died last month. It is now becoming a story of grieving
during a pandemic.

9. D id you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think – who reads and who should read your books?

Occasionally my readers track me down and send me an email responding to my books. I
know nothing about these folks, but their emails suggest that they are educated people.

Because so much of my writing is about Vietnam, many of my readers are people with
connections to Vietnam. Men who served there in the military can connect with the events
and locations I write about. Some of my readers are Vietnamese. One is a woman who es-
caped Vietnam after the end of the war and always writes to me in Vietnamese.

And more men than women read my books. I write men’s fiction. That said, I am proud
that I have been able to write successfully from a woman’s point of view. Women who have
read my The Trion Syndrome tell me that I got the outlook of a woman right.

10. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?
Only write if you have to. Too often I run into people who tell me that they will write or have
written a book. They don’t understand that writing is a lifelong vocation. I’m still learning the
art and craft of writing and will go on learning as long as I live.

To learn to write, read. Never stop reading. Read the best writers and learn from them.

11. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?
Writing is not a casual pursuit. Don’t write unless you have to. Then be prepared to spend
your life at it.

12. H ow many books you read annually and what are you reading now?
What is your favorite literary genre?

I probably read twenty or thirty books a year. That’s because I’m a slow reader. I take the
time to luxuriate in beautiful writing. And because I am a reviewer for two different orga-

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nizations, I often read works that I would have otherwise missed. One example is A Quiet
Cadence by Mark Treanor (Naval Institute Press, 2020), a novel about Marines in combat in
Vietnam, due for publication in June 2020. The book accurately and meticulously portrays
the grisliness of combat. It reawakened my Port-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) from my years
on the battlefield in Vietnam. If that book hadn’t been assigned to me for review, I would
probably have never known of its existence.

My favorite genre is men’s fiction, although I revel in any good writing, especially literary
fiction which is my calling.

At the moment I am reading for review a novel called Don’t Shed Your Tears for Anyone
Who Lives on These Streets by Patricio Pron, a translation from the Spanish.

13.  What do you deem the most relevant about your writing?
What is the most important to be remembered by readers?

Two aspects of my writing feel most important to me.

The first is realistic and faithful portrayal of the gruesome character of war. No living Amer-
ican has lived through war on our own land, and a tiny fraction of one percent of us have seen
combat. As a result, we Americans fail to comprehend how hideous war is. That makes us more
willing to commit our military to combat. I want people to know the ghastliness of war is so that
they will consider carefully before dispatching our young men and women to the battlefield.

The other important aspect is the moral lesson that my writing tries to teach: helping
others should be the top priority for all of us. Nothing is so rewarding as offering a helping
hand. Nothing is more urgent than the needs of others.

I take comfort in the belief that my calling, writing, can help others. The stories I tell and
the lessons inherent in them can offer readers a path to a better life.

14.  What is your opinion about the publishing industry today and
about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?

This is a subject about which I know nothing. I’ve been fortunate enough to find publishers
for my books. That is enough for me.

15.  Writing is a solitary occupation. Are you comfortable
having to spend so much time alone?

As a child, with an alcoholic mother and a father in prison, I learned that if I was going to sur-
vive, I had to depend on myself. I worked part time with a paper route, delivering packages
from a drug store, as a clerk in a department store, to earn money to eat and clothe myself.
I put myself through college working twenty hours a week at a great variety of jobs. When I
graduated, to avoid the draft, I volunteered for the army. When my enlistment ended, NSA
hired me and immediately sent me to Vietnam to provide signals intelligence support to
army and Marine units in combat. I was there on and off for the next thirteen years. Self-re-
liance became the key to survival. Then, during the 1980s, I spent five years working with
AIDS patients. Later, I helped the homeless and for seven years volunteered in a hospice.

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Through it all, I knew that I was on my own. No one was going to help me. Those I worked
with needed me but were in no position to do anything for me. It was up to me.
Through it all, I was writing. That was work I had to do alone. I found that being a loner
was for once a real advantage. I was born to write. I was born to work alone.

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TARA LYNN MARTA

Author of
LOOK BACK TO YESTERDAY

1.  Tell us a bit about yourself – something that we will not find in the official author’s bio?
Writing has been a part of my life since childhood. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t
engaged in some form of storytelling. My greatest comfort was found inside the pages of
books, where I could delight in fantastical worlds. My first dream, however, was to be a sing-
er/actress. But it did not seem to be my true calling since I could not sing and was too shy
to act. It was my Great-Aunt Anna who suggested that I take writing into consideration. She
knew that I loved expressing myself with words and insisted that I had a future as a writer
and that it was my given path.

2.  Do you remember what your first story
(article, essay, or poem) was about, and when did you write it?

I don’t recall the first story I ever wrote, but I do know the first story that was published. It
was called “A Writer’s Life,” and it was about the ups and downs of being a writer, along with
the inexplicable need to participate in a career that offers no promises. After I graduated
from college in 2016, I spent much of my time at a local café, penning the story that would
become my first published piece.

3. What is the title of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled Look Back To Yesterday, and it delves into the subject of loss. My in-
spiration for the book came shortly after the death of my father. I was feeling incredibly vul-
nerable having lost not only my dad but my mother when I was twelve. Like so many others
dealing with loss, my mind tends to wander into the past. I thought it would be cathartic to
write a book about a woman unable to cope with the loss of her parents and the repercus-
sions of the inability to move on.

4. H ow long did it take you to write your latest work and how
fast do you write (how many words daily)?

It initially took me ten years to write Look Back To Yesterday. The first draft was started in
2009 and completed in 2012. I then put it on the shelf while I finished college. In 2016, I

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enrolled in a creative writing program in graduate school, and the book I had begun so
many years before became my thesis. The new draft of my novel took another three years
to complete. I am not sure how many words I write daily, but I try to write at least three or
four days per week.

5. Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I don’t know if it’s considered unusual, but I like to be surrounded by photos of famous au-
thors like Mark Twain and Willa Cather when I write. I have a St. Francis charm on the desk
in my study, because he is the Patron Saint of writers. I also have a writer’s baseball cap that
I wear. Whether or not it gives me ideas, I can’t be sure. But it’s one of my idiosyncrasies.
Many times, however, I will flee to a local café. I seem to write better over endless cups of
tea. Ambiance is vital to my writing mood, especially since I am easily distracted. I need to
be enveloped in a creative atmosphere to be able to think creatively.

6. I s writing the only form of artistic expression that you utilize,
or is there more to your creativity than just writing?

I have such an appreciation for the canvas. Vincent van Gogh is one of my favorite painters. I
have completed several paintings of my own, but I do not consider myself talented in that area.
It is simply a hobby that I wish I could perfect. One of my favorite places is the MET in NYC. I am
fascinated by the ways in which an artist can capture expression with the stroke of a paintbrush.

7. Authors and books that have influenced your writings?

When it comes to the classics, I enjoy authors like Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa
Cather, and Charles Dickens. It we’re talking contemporary, give me anything by Margaret
Atwood, Elizabeth Berg, or Harper Lee (though she only wrote two novels). I am drawn to
female authors who broke barriers in a male-dominated society so that writers like me could
have a voice. Women like Alcott and Cather proved creative genius was not only reserved for
our male counterparts.

8.  What are you working on right now?
Anything new cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

I am working on my first nonfiction book. It is a “faith-based” motivational book. My life as
a writer has been an extraordinary journey, and without the help of my faith, I don’t know
that I would have been able to realize my dreams. I endured so much negativity as someone
who wanted to make a life out of the written word. My hope is that with the next book, I
will inspire those who have big dreams, but lack the fortitude, to see those dreams through.

9.  Did you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think – who reads and who should read your books?

Anyone who has dealt with the death of a loved one should read my book. Loss is such a uni-
versal topic, something that unites us all. At some point we have all pondered the possibility

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of time travel, and readers might be curious to see how the protagonist in my novel deals
with her loss when she is sent back in time. Also, if readers are familiar with Brooklyn in the
eighties, I think they will enjoy a bit of nostalgia.

10. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?
My advice to new writers is to keep at it. Along the way, you will encounter naysayers who
will tell you that writing is not a secure road in which to travel. Ignore the negative com-
ments and be persistent. The goal is not to become rich and famous, it is to write.

11. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?
The best advice about writing was something I read from Willa Cather. It was one of her
philosophies on utilizing an idea. In essence she said that when a writer has a new idea,
“they need to use it or lose it.” I carry a pen and paper with me at all times, along with a
voice recorder. Since I never know when inspiration will hit, I want to make sure I capture
the concept of my next story.

12.  How many books do you read annually and what are you reading now?
What is your favorite literary genre?

I average anywhere from 20-30 books per year. At present, I am reading a biography on
Louisa May Alcott and her mother. My favorite literary genre is literary fiction. I also enjoy
mysteries.

13.  What do you deem most relevant about your writing?
What is most important to be remembered by readers?

The most relevant aspect of my writing is that I tackle subjects that are timely and relatable,
be they about loss, pain, womanhood, realizing a dream, etc. I hope that readers will re-
member my work as inspiring. I would like to think that I am giving readers pause to consider
life from another lens, which is ultimately what all writers wish to do with their work. Writ-
ing is not simply a form of entertainment, it is a way to get people to think and to analyze.

14. W hat is your opinion about the publishing industry today and
about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?

I think the publishing industry and also getting an agent is much more difficult in today’s
world. As for trends, I think the use of social media has been quite beneficial. I have found
it difficult drawing a crowd for in person readings (with the exception of family and friends).
More people have access to the Internet nowadays, so it is helpful to have media sites like
Twitter/Instagram/Facebook, where writers can do readings and interviews.

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