This week, Terri DuLong a fellow member in the Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA has a new book coming out; Spinning Forward.
Terri stopped by to tell me about her book as well as her writing process.
Tell me about your book.
A New Englander born and bred, the last place Sydney Webster expects to find herself starting over is on an island off the west coast of Florida. Yet here she is in Cedar Key, trying to pull herself together after her husband’s untimely death—and the even more untimely revelation of his gambling addiction. Syd takes shelter at a college pal’s bed and breakfast, leading her to discover her true identity and feminine soul. Her passion for spinning and knitting draws attention due to the unique composition of her wool and a door is opened. She finds herself in the embrace of a community rich with love, laughter, friendship . . . and secrets. A tale of new beginnings, old friends and lives forever bound.
What pulled you into the story and made you think ‘I have to write this’?
The actual people of Cedar Key, the small town where I now reside, made me feel I wanted to write about the closeness and caring of a small community. As far as my main character, not all women have the final say-so when it comes to decisions or financial matters in their marriage and although it may seem fine and easy at the time, my story deals with the fact that women owe it to themselves to be aware of these issues. For Sydney, her uninvolved attitude came back to bite her.
When did you first begin writing?
I’ve been writing all my life. As an only child, I had an imaginary playmate and looking back now, I feel that’s when my creative process began. I’ve kept diaries and journals and I began writing professionally for Bonjour Paris about eleven years ago. I did over forty travel articles based on my travel to France through the eyes of a fictional canine character.
What is your writing process and where do you write?
When I’m on deadline, I begin around ten in the morning and generally work six to eight hours a day. When we moved to Cedar Key, we had a writer’s studio built for me, detached from our house but connected by a screened lanai. So this is where I work.
What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?
I’d have to say my favorite thing about writing is all the feedback I get from my readers. Their comments on my characters, plot, how my story affected them, etc. Least favorite? Call me Pollyanna, but I really don’t have one. I love writing and the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a story.
Please name the five movies and the five books you want with you if stranded on a desert island.
5 books would be: A Woman of Substance, To Kill a Mockingbird, The House at Riverton, The Shellseekers and The Thornbirds
5 movies would be: Casablanca, Pretty Woman, Saving Private Ryan, Ghost and Steel Magnolias
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Don’t ever give up. If writing is your passion, then keep writing. Believe in yourself and make great things happen.
What is next for you?
My Christmas novella that I’m doing in the anthology with Fern Michaels headlining will be released November 2010—the same time that my second book in the Cedar Key series will be out.
Sounds like a great read! You can get Spinning Forward at any local bookstore or here and here.
xoMaggie