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An Interview
With ER!-Ah, yes...another eBooks Rock! author to interrogate...I mean INTERVIEW! Geez, if I keep slipping up like that people are bound to stop trusting me. This week I have the pleasure of interviewing Jackie Kramer, author of Coming To Terms, Broken Pledge, and one of the authors in Millennium Magic. Hi, Jackie! The Bride's-Seeker in Millennium Magic is a finalist in the Sapphire 2000 awards. How did you come up with Sydney and Drake's story? What was the inspiration? JK- After agreeing to submit a story to MILLENNIUM MAGIC, my editor, Chris Gee, knowing my long time history as a Star Trek fan author, asked if I would do a time travel. I kicked around a few ideas before I read a newspaper article about how many more female Baby Boomers there were than male. Like any other author, I asked myself "What if..." What if men outnumbered women, how would they handle it? What would they do? If they went looking for mates, would they be more interested in sex or would they look for intimacy, closeness, what we call love? Would they even know what love is? From there, Drake stood up and gave me my answers and behold! THE BRIDE-SEEKER was born. ER!-Broken Pledge, a finalist in the 1999 Booksellers' Best Award, is also from Hard Shell Word Factory. Tell us a little about this story and do you have a favorite scene? JK- BROKEN PLEDGE is about a love gone wrong. Carin and Seth both had an image of what the other should be, but neither bothered listening to the other. And this tore them apart. Four years later, they are given a chance to try again, but have they learned to listen? And more important, have they learned to trust their hearts? My favorite scene in this book? There are so many scenes in this book I love, I could never pick out one...unless it's the scene where Seth walks in on Carin in her black silk teddy. Yeah, I love it when a hero trips over his own tongue. ER!-Your blurb alone in Coming To Terms is extremely compelling. For anyone who hasn't checked out your page, can you fill us in on what this book is about? JK- Kate and Jared basically fall in love at first sight, but neither is willing to admit it. They enter a marriage of convenience, and it takes awhile for their hearts to admit what their bodies keep telling them each night. ER!-Which of your works would you say was hardest to write? And why? JK- BROKEN PLEDGE was the hardest to write because it was my first book. I'd written short stories for 20 years, usually by sitting at my typewriter until it was finished. Sometimes that meant as many as 72 hours without sleep! Obviously, I couldn't do that with a novel, so I wasn't sure I could write something as big as a novel. Then there was the dreaded synopsis. I'd never used one, and I wrote BP without one. Do I have to tell you how much harder it was to keep track of the story without some kind of a guide? Especially since it took me 18 MONTHS, not hours, to write it?? ER!-Is there a book out there
that you're just dying to write but JK-Yes! It's a Time-Travel romance, titled TEARS OF THE SUN. I've started it, but once I sold my first book, BABY BONUS, to Silhouette Desire, I felt I had to stay with contemporaries. However, what I do now is when I finish my "quota", so to speak, on my MIP, then I reward myself by working on TEARS. ER!-What would you say has been your biggest writing challenge? JK- Believing in my writing when I couldn't sell a book for four years after the release of my first book. It's called Second Book Syndrome, and it took me a long time to get over it. ER!-Is there anything out there that you'd like to do, but haven't yet been given the opportunity? JK- Not really. I usually don't wait to given opportunities. What I want to do, I do. That doesn't mean I will necessarily sell it or that anyone will want to read it, but I made a life decision that I will write what I want, simply because I love the story. ER!-Is there a book that you've written, but we'll never see? Why? JK- No, there isn't because up to now, I've sold everything I've written. ER!-Why did you decide to write in the electronic industry? JK- I'm a long time SF fan, and I knew about eBooks way back in 1957. Robert Heinlein had a character who was waiting for his spaceship to load, and while waiting, he loaded a quarter-sized disk into his hand-held computer and read a book while waiting. I thought the idea was cool then...to carry a complete library in a machine the size of a paperback and I still do! ER!-If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing? JK- I'd be dead. To me, writing is a part of me just like breathing. So if I weren't writing, it would be like I wasn't breathing, and I'd be in grave. However, I would like to say I have a second profession I love almost as much as writing. I've been a pediatric nurse for over 20 years, and I still love it as much as I did the first day I started. ER!-Of all the character's you've written about, who would you say is most like you? And why? JK- I'd like to think I'm a lot like Kate Lawson, my heroine in COMING TO TERMS. She is a concerned nurse who loves her son above all things. Despite betrayal by her husband, she's still willing to belive in and want love. I would just hope that if a second love came my way, I wouldn't take so long to recognize it as Kate did. ER!-What's the non-writing world like for you? Is there a husband, a boyfriend, slaves hidden in the basement? Children? JK- I'm divorced with a consistent fantasy about Harrison Ford, but I do like the idea of a love slave in the basement. Hmmm, I'll have to consider that. I have two grown sons, Frank and David, who are the real heros in my life. ER!-Many readers wonder what's going on in an author's head, and here's the part where we find out<g>. Describe yourself in one line: JK- I'm an actress, living many roles in real life. ER!-(Finish this sentence) On a Saturday night you'll find me... JK- ...sitting feet up, sipping on a Irish Coffee, while reading a good book and listening to Celtic music. Nearby is my table fountain bubbling with a scented candle burning next to it, and if I'm lucky, there is rain falling outside. ER!-If I were a cartoon character I'd be... JK- Cathy ER!-If I could have one wish, I would wish... JK- I could write faster. ER!-What kind of car do you drive? JK- 1995 Ford Escort. ER!-What kind of car do you *want* to drive? JK- A Saturn. ER!-Answer the following
questions as quickly as possible, but feel free to >
expand on any of your answers (Hey, it's not a test).: JK- It's a toss-up between BECKET and LION IN WINTER. I love period movies! ER!-Favorite song? JK- Diamonds and Rust, by Joan Baez ER!-Favorite snack? JK- Guacamole dip and chips--but homemade only. None of that store bought junk! ER!-Favorite book? JK-
Oh, Lord. Only one? How about by genre? ER!-Typewriter or computer? JK- Over my 30 years of writing, I've gone from pencil/paper to manual typewriter to electric typewriter to word processor to computer. And I've got a Word Recognition program that I'm trying to learn for the day my arthritis is too bad for me to use a keyboard. ER!-Soup or salad? JK- Salad, and the more ingredients the better. I've even been known to chose a salad over *gasp* chocolate! ER!-Pre-planner or blind leap? JK- Definitely pre-planner, though sometimes my characters or story lead me off on tangents. ER!-Turkey burger or steak? JK- Steak...and I have the cholesterol to prove it! ER!-Slacks or jeans? JK- Slacks for me, but I like jeans on my men. ER!-Boxers or briefs? JK- Briefs, briefs, briefs!! I think boxers look ridiculous. Of course, naked's best. ER!-Are blondes really more fun? JK- I married one. Need I say anymore?? ER!-Have you ever held anyone hostage? JK- No. ER!-If no, would you? JK- I refuse to answer this in case it might give warning to Harrison Ford. (Have I mentioned my fantasy about him?) ER!-Do you believe in love at first sight? JK- Yes, but I think commitment takes time to build. ER!-Are aliens real? JK- Yes; this universe is too big for us to be alone. Have they visited us? Doubtful--why would anyone smart enough to travel that far risk visiting a planet where the people fight each other so much? ER!-If you could vote members off of Gilligan's Island, who would get the boot first? JK- Ginger. Those high heels of hers must be hell in all that sand. ER!-If Godzilla and Superman got into a street fight (no weapons allowed), who would win? JK- Neither--they would join to fight the Forces of Evil. (I always rooted for Godzilla.) ER!-What is one thing about you that very few know? JK- I'm really very lazy. I have to make lists, set goals, make myself do things, or I wouldn't get anything accomplished. ER!-What is your greatest fear? JK- Dying alone. I don't fear death, but I want someone I love holding my hand when I go. ER!-If you could be anyone (dead or alive) who would you be? And why? JK- One of my step-great-grandsons. I want to see what's going to happen in the next 100 years. I'm very curious to see what happens next. ER!-And finally (and you can take your time on this one:-)), what's next for you? Your next book? Writing venture? Goal? JK- Right now, I'm working on a longer contemporary, HEART ON THE RUN, a real book of my heart about a man falsely convicted of his wife's murder who gives up his daughter for adoption. When he is temporarily released for prison for a re-trial, he decides to check-up on his child's welfare because he knows she was adopted by his worst enemy, but falls in love with his enemy's widow who has his child and his land. I'll also be working on TEARS OF THE SUN, a time travel where my heroine comes from 1999, my hero comes from 1790, and they meet in 1843. My goal is build my readership until that wonderful day when I only have to work part-time (I don't want to ever give up peds nursing), and can write the rest of the time. |
