Great! Tell us about your book, Carol.
SOLOMON’S COMPASS
.jpg)
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 :)
.jpg)
