Emma: Today, I am featuring an interview with Clare Austin, author of Angel’s Share, the second novel in The Fadό Trilogy, release for March 2010, available from The Wild Rose Press.
Blurb:
Aidan Kennedy travelled half way around the world to forget the beautiful Galway woman who stole his heart one night in a Dublin pub.
Vengeance had torn them apart. Will it be the catalyst to spark the flames of love again?
Welcome, Clare.
Quick questions for you as a reader:
1) Where do you like to settle in for a good read?
I can read anywhere, but it is nice when I have time to sit in a comfortable chair and let a story transport me. I listen to audio books while traveling so I don’t have to carry the extra weight of a book around with me.
(I keep meaning to try audio books.)
2) What is your favorite genre?
I read many genres. People are surprised to know that I rarely read romance. It has to be exceptional to keep my attention because my reading time is limited. I like narrative non-fiction and historical fiction that isn’t necessarily romance. Right now the romances I am reading are Born in Ice by Nora Roberts and An Echo in the Bone by Gabaldon.
(I know what you mean, but I've found some great romance since I've started reading eBooks.)
3) What length do you favor…shorts/novellas/novels?
Full length novels, the more complex and in depth the better.
4) Whose POV do you prefer…hero/heroine/villain?
I like to get a view of the inner workings of all the main characters. I visualize written stories like they are on a movie screen or a stage. Honestly, I never thought much about POV until I started writing. I didn’t know what “head hopping” was and I didn’t care.
5) Do you like first/second/third person?
For a long time I just hated first person stories. They seemed too limited and often had a self analysis bent that bored me. But now I find myself reading a more varied POV. I think Diana Gabaldon writes a very compelling first person. Also, little fun books like the Stephanie Plum series, first person works well. Maeve Binchy writes well in all P’s OV. Her books are some that I read over again and again.
Emma: What has been your greatest fear you’ve had to overcome as a writer?
Clare: My greatest fear is promoting my books and myself. I’m a neurotically private person. So, doing book signings, having a website, looking on Google and seeing my name out there…its affirming in the sense that people will learn about my stories, but intimidating at the same time.
Emma: What/who has been your greatest inspiration?
Clare: I’ve been telling myself stories, acting them out, talking to myself as various characters since before I can remember. I think I was born with a story telling imagination. Perhaps I have my Irish heritage to thank for that.
As far as a person or people who inspired me, I would have to say my husband and our sons. Not only do they inspire story ideas, but are supportive and encouraging.
Emma: What do you hope to accomplish with your writing? Do you have a goal?
Clare: Most writers start out writing for themselves…I know I did. It was a goal to prove to myself I could write one of my stories down from beginning to end. Initially, I had no sense that I would be published or that strangers would read anything I had written.
When I sold my first manuscript, Butterfly, and started getting very good feedback on my writing, it made me want very much to please those readers. I have this sense that if I can give a reader a “feel good” moment, if she can close my book and something in her life is enriched, then I have done something very special.
Emma: What makes your writing unique?
Clare: I have been told my writing style is lyrical. I like that description. As a musician, I understand rhythm, pace and timing. I also like to “color outside the lines” when it comes to plot and characterization.
One of the things that surprised me about Butterfly was the number of men who read it and enjoyed it. I always saw it as a “girl” story, although it has some very strong male characters. I’ve also been told by a number of my readers that they don’t read “romance” but they loved Butterfly.
Emma: What appeals to you about your genre?
Clare: So far the books I have sold are all contemporary. Butterfly I think of as romantic comedy, Angel’s Share is romantic suspense/mystery and Hot Flash, women’s fiction with very strong romantic elements.
Contemporary is easiest for me to write. I do extensive research for all my books. I like to get details correct, even when no one else will particularly care. I have a Red Sox game in Butterfly. When you read it, unless you are a fan, you won’t realize or even care that the game in the scene is a real one and that it is accurate down to who was up to bat when and where the ball went. But, it is important to me.
When I read a historical and run across an anachronism, it is very difficult to take the rest of the book seriously.
I have a number of historical ideas waiting for my attention, but I won’t write them until I have all my research done.
Emma: How do you deal with criticism?
Clare: So far I’ve been lucky to only have positive reviews. The worst criticism came from rejections I received when submitting my manuscripts. It didn’t really bother me too much but some of the editors and agents were less than tactful. One editor at a conference was downright mean. It hurt and confused me and I wondered what she thought she was accomplishing. I remember thinking what a sour person she was and I forced myself not to take her criticism to heart.
Perhaps when I was younger, before I had raised sons to adulthood, trained and shown my horses, worked in a career where I got little positive feedback, criticism would have hurt much more. Life has taught me many things. Getting a book rejection is not the worst thing that can happen…even to a writer.
Emma: What do you do when you hit a wall? (Can’t figure out a character’s emotions, where the plot should go next, etc.)
Clare: When I am stuck there are a few things I do. I go get on a horse and get my mind off my book, I practice my fiddle, I take the problem to my critique partners, or I just keep writing.
Of all these solutions, often just hitting the keys of my laptop is the quickest way to get past a pothole. Nothing I write down is in stone. I can change it, tweak it, work it out later with other writers or with my editor. But, if I never write it, I can’t fix it.
Emma: What other works have you published?
Clare: Angel’s Share is the second book in the Fadό Trilogy and will be available March 2010. I am excited about it for many reasons, but mostly because it is a suspense and was really a challenge for me after writing Butterfly.
Hot Flash will be released in July 2010. It is a story I wrote a few years back during a time when I was working out at an all women’s gym. I looked around and decided we needed a romance for “us”, all the baby boomer women who are older, wiser, and sexier than ever. I submitted it to a few agents/editors and got little response. When The Wild Rose Press bought my other books, they asked what else I had. I sent Hot Flash and they bought that as well. I love what author Deb Stover wrote about it…"Sexy but sensitive, powerful but poignant--HOT FLASH is not your daughter's romance! This is a story for real women. Savor every word!"
Emma: What are you working on now?
Clare: I am currently working on the last book in my Fadό Trilogy…I call it Selkie’s Song. It features Tynan Sloane, Flannery’s (Butterfly) big brother, and Murran Murphy, a political activist so busy saving Ireland from the Celtic Tiger she has no time for love. It takes the trilogy back to the west coast of Ireland, encompassing the mystery, lore, and romance of one of my favorite places on earth.
Emma: Thank you for your time, Clare, and good luck with your future books!
Clare: Thank you Emma. It’s always a pleasure to share my books and ideas. Please go to my website
www.clareaustin.com to read more about my books and to see the video book trailers for Butterfly and Angel’s Share. You will also find me on Facebook and Myspace.
Excerpt from Angel’s Share
Kerry stepped into the dining room and stopped. A cold hand gripped her belly and her breath quickened. Was it the way he sat, his back to her, elbows on the bar? Was it how his coat hung from broad shoulders or how his dark hair needed a trim? It chilled her to her marrow.
“Excuse me,” she started to step forward as he swiveled around on the stool. “Nunzio said…”
Golden eyes swept over her with enough heat to melt her bones. She was in a nightmare with a lion snapping at her heels. She needed to run, but her legs were leaden. The room whirled and closed in, black waves of fear threatened to overtake her and pull her into oblivion.
“Aren’t you going to say ‘hello’?” he asked.
“I…what…why are you here?” The question seemed inane. Her mind disconnected from her vocal chords.
“You don’t sound happy to see me.”
His voice hadn’t changed. Nor had the distinctive Belfast accent mellowed. It could still stop her pulse and then send it into double time.
“Aidan…” The name came with a rush of breath. Seeing him here, so close she could feel the power emanating from him, took her ability to think.
The corner of his mouth lifted into a half smile. “You look beautiful, Kerry. The dress suits you.”
Kerry’s rapid pulse was making her dizzy. “My sister…she got married today.”
Aidan laughed. “Flannery—that pint sized, punked out fiddle player? Married?”
“Well, she grew up.” Kerry wanted to walk away, but Aidan was a magnet that held her. She’d never been able to resist his compelling gaze, the roughly hewn turn of his jaw, the sensuous line of his lips. His tall, lean body was like a spring wound tight—ready.
Aidan had changed, but the changes were subtle. His face and body had matured, as though he had been thrown into the forge of life and come out tempered, hard but more resilient. The one aspect of him she hadn’t expected was the way he could, with a word and a look, threaten to dissolve every promise she had made to protect herself from him.
“Aidan, you shouldn’t have come here.” It was a statement and a plea. His proximity shook her. The scent of him filled her with hot-sweet memories and made her want to touch him.
“Did you think you could hide from me forever?” He took a step toward her. She instinctively stepped back. “Fame makes for a small world, Kerry.”
“You made your choice four years ago, Aidan. There’s nothing here for you.” Kerry was surprised at how thin her voice sounded—how unsure.
“My choice? If memory serves, you left me.” He reached out and touched her cheek.
“Don’t!” She flinched. “Aidan, you should leave.”
Nunzio approached. “Step away from the lady, Mister.”
Kerry shook her head at Di Silva and he backed off.
Aidan straightened. He ignored the bouncer, his hint of a smile faded, and a muscle tightened in his jaw.
“Kerry,” he said, his voice a cold echo devoid of emotion. “You took somethin’ that belongs to me. I think it’s time we agreed to share what we made together.”
A searing bolt so real Kerry was sure it had pierced her heart sent her stumbling backward until she bumped into a chair. Anger, loss, and bone deep regret coalesced in a cataclysmic assault on her spirit. She grasped the cold oak of the chair back and let the hardness of it dig into her palms.
When she found words, they came in a gasp. “I have nothing. We have nothing.” She was only able to meet his eyes long enough to make him real to her. “Whatever you thought we had together was as fragile as dandelion seeds blown on the wind and gone.”
Kerry turned and walked up the back stairs and away from the man to whom she had once pledged her love.
From Angel's Share
Second book in the Fadó Trilogy
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