In the Author's Seat: Carol Kilgore

Happy Monday!

In case you were wondering where I was all spring break, I was in the lovely Bahamas.
I feel quite refreshed (and tan) now, thank you very much. :)

But in more important news, I am so fortunate to have my good bloggy buddy here today!

Carol Kilgore is an award-winning author of several published short stories and many essays and articles.

You can find Carol here:

website . blog . facebook . twitter . goodreads . amazon

Hi, Jennifer!

I’m so happy I got to visit your blog on my tour for Solomon’s Compass, and I’m looking forward to chatting with everyone.

 

Great! Tell us about your book, Carol.
 

SOLOMON’S COMPASS

A missing belt—her uncle’s prized possession. The lure of buried treasure. And a sexy former SEAL who makes U.S. Coast Guard Commander Taylor Campbell crazy. What more could any woman want. Right?

Taylor is in Rock Harbor, Texas, on a quest to unearth her uncle’s treasure—a journey far outside the realm of her real life. There’s one glitch. Taylor's certain the buried treasure was all in Uncle Randy's dementia-riddled mind. Now he’s dead.

Former SEAL Jake Solomon is in Rock Harbor under false pretenses to protect Taylor from the fate that befell her uncle and the other members of a tight circle of Coast Guardsmen called the Compass Points who served together on Point boats in Vietnam.

Jake is definitely not supposed to become involved with Taylor. That was his first mistake. Taylor is attracted to Jake as well, but she refuses to wait for him to locate the killer when she knows her plan will force her uncle’s murderer into action.

But the killer's actions are just what Jake is afraid of.

Oooh, love it!

What do you enjoy most about writing? What part do you loathe?

I love the moment when the new idea comes, before I’ve really thought about it and it’s still full of so much promise. And I like thinking through the overall picture of the story to see how it could play out with an appropriate structure. I love writing the first draft and learning more about my characters and their stories, even though drafting the story is so hard and there are times during the process I want to tear out my hair. I also like the first round or two of revisions when I’m putting my ideas from the first draft in place, maybe moving things around, and adding in suggestions from my critique partners.

The first part of the editing process is OK, but I loathe the fine editing. I’m talking about when it’s time to search for weak words, the words I overuse, redundancies, etc., and fix the remaining frail and wobbly passages. This is when I really do pull on my hair!

From where do you get inspiration and what inspired you to write SOLOMON’S COMPASS?

My muse likes to work as if she’s fighting for her life and then go on vacation. I get inspiration from everywhere, and I never know when it’s going to strike. Sometimes things come so fast I can’t process them all, much less write them down. Then I may go several days without a single spark of anything.

SOLOMON’S COMPASS came from several different inspirations. I wanted to write a book about the Coast Guard, but I didn’t want it to be a procedural type of book for a few different reasons – I’m not a fan of reading those kinds of books, they require a lot of research, and most of all, the Coast Guard performs so many different kinds of jobs it would take a long series of novels to cover them all.

I also wanted to write a book about a female boat chandler, but when I started looking into that possibility, I met some roadblocks and put that idea back in the drawer. A while later, I thought “what if I write about a recently retired Coastie starting life over as a civilian.” I played with that possibility for a while and about the time I was ready to get serious, it seemed all the books I saw were starting-over stories.

Then one night I had a dream that had nothing to do with the Coast Guard but I thought it would make a good novel. The idea needed a lot of tweaking J When I started thinking about characters, I pulled out two from the starting-over story, and SOLOMON’S COMPASS took its first breath.

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s (or heroine’s) character.  What do you like best/least about him/her?

Taylor Campbell is a confident and dedicated Coast Guard officer who places duty and loyalty above all else. As secure as Taylor is in her professional life, her personal life is in shambles. What I like best is because she’s so confident in her abilities, she believes she can tackle any task, and that can sometimes lead her down an unexpected path.

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?

I’m currently working on a third book set along the South Texas Coast called Secrets of Honor. Like IN NAME ONLY and SOLOMON’S COMPASS, it’s a standalone book with a completely different cast of characters led by a strong female protagonist. Once again, the story is Crime Fiction with a Kiss. I plan to release this book sometime next year, hopefully in the spring.

Great!!

 

Now for some fun! Your five favorites – author, actor, movie, song, quote.

Favorite Author: Lisa Scottoline

Favorite Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

Favorite Movie: Here things get dicey. I’ve seen a lot of movies, but for the last year or two I haven’t had the chance to watch as many as I would like. There are some on my list to see that I think would fit here, too – It’s Complicated is one of them. Here are a few of my older favorites:

Frequency

Men in Black

The Adjustment Bureau

The Departed

While You Were Sleeping

Favorite Song: Impossible to choose. I have several channels on Pandora with all kinds of music. I choose five or six channels, put it on shuffle, and I’m a happy woman!

Favorite Quote: Whichever one hits me right at the time. I especially like ones that say to work hard, accept responsibility, and be yourself. And ones about love.

Are you seeing that I’m a bit eclectic? I did really good to choose one favorite author and actor. Is it any surprise I blend genres in my books? I didn’t think so :)

 

Ha! That's okay. I'm eclectic in my tastes too! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Many happy sales!!!


How about you?
If you're a writer, what's your favorite part of writing?
If you're a reader, have you read any of Carol's books yet?