Official Review
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1. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
I have always enjoyed spinning a tall tale.
2. How do you come up with your story ideas?
So many quirky things have occurred in my life…I try to write books on topics that I would enjoy reading.
3. Describe a typical writing day.
I work full-time as a physician. When I am lying in bed at 3 a.m., unable to sleep, I get up and begin to type. I listen to conversations in my head and just type them.
4. Let's discuss your book The Curious Spell of Madam Genova. The book centers around a clairvoyant and a fortune teller. Do you have experience with the supernatural?
As a teenager of about 13 or 14, I paid 25 cents to see a fortune teller at a local carnival. She predicted I would travel to foreign places, marry a tall, handsome man, and live to a ripe old age. Also, she said I had a one-dollar bill in my purse and asked to examine it. I took the wrinkled bill out for her.
She placed it near her lips and whispered a chant over it, then slowly folded it in a strange, methodical way. As she returned it to me, she looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Keep this dollar I have blessed, and you will always have money.”
I then placed it in a secret compartment of my wallet.
I was impressionable…and impressed.
Sixty years later, I still have the folded dollar bill in my wallet.
5. The book is actually historical fiction. What time period is it set during? How did you decide on that particular point in history?
My novel begins in the 1920s when attempting to communicate with spirits was common practice. Individuals would gather to receive messages from ghosts or listen to a spirit medium that would relay messages from spirits.
6. What were the key challenges you faced in writing the book?
Making certain that objects I described in the novel were actually around in the 1920s. For example, initially, I had Madam Genova serving chocolate chip cookies to her guests. Well, I found that chocolate chip cookies were not invented until the 1930s, so I changed my cookie type to molasses. What were the highlights? The fun of getting to know my characters. My book has such a feel-good story, I am proud to introduce it to others.
7. The reviewer mentions that there are many important topics addressed. What's the key message you want readers to learn?
Unfortunately, I believe there will always be racial discrimination and physical and mental abuse towards women and children. Although I only touch briefly on these topics in my novel, I hope I will bring awareness to others regarding these important issues.
8. What are you working on now?
Marketing, marketing, marketing.
I like to end with fun questions.
9. Who is your hero?
My mother. Diagnosed with diabetes as a teenager, widowed at a young age, and tasked with raising two small children on a meager secretary’s salary. She died when I was 21, but she loved me like a rock.
My mama loves me, she loves me
She get down on her knees and hug me
Like she loves me like a rock
She rock me like the rock of ages and loves me
She love me, love me, love me, love me (Loves me like a rock)
--- As Paul Simon would sing so beautifully… Nothing like a mother’s great love and encouragement to set one on the right path in life.
10. What's for dinner?
Cheese enchiladas with rice and beans (as any good Texan would know).
11. What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Incredibly, unbelievably, lucky
12. What do you do when you aren't writing?
Watch movies and binge TV series with my amazing husband.
