Interview and Excerpt: Lost in the Light by Mary Castillo
Thanks to Mary Castillo for stopping by with a Q&A and excerpt from Lost in the Light. Please visit her tour page on CLP Blog Tours for information and a giveaway!
**Interview**
When did you know writing was for you? I've always been a writer. I just didn't realize it until I was a sophomore at USC that I could make a living at it! My first goal was to write screenplays but it was never quite satisfying enough because the form is very lean. There's no room for descriptions of anyone's intense eyes, or the feel of the sea on their faces because that is the actor's job! Finally in 1996, I decided to heck with this, I'm just going to "try" a novel about a recovering alcoholic who can see ghosts. I kind of finished it … okay, I didn't! But once I started, I couldn't stop.
How would you describe your books?My earlier novels, Hot Tamara, In Between Men and Switchcraft are romantic comedies with graduating degrees of the paranormal in each book. With Lost in the LightI went all the way!
Lost in the Light spins off of a 2007 novella published in the anthology, Names I Call My Sister. Detective Dori Orihuela is a white lamb in a family of black sheep. She's a tough nut to crack and boy, was I intrigued by her from the moment she popped into my head. When Names I Call My Sister was published, I had a feeling we'd meet again.
Why was Lost in the Light a book you wanted to write?I love the movie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and I wanted to go back to Dori Orihuela and her family. During the three years it took to write Lost in the Light, the story evolved from a romantic comedy to a more emotionally complex and darker book. In other words, it evolved into the book I've always wanted to write but was too afraid to try!
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?Writing the first draft is the hardest part of any book. When I'm at this stage, I can't be on a computer with email and Internet access. So every night when I shut down my office, I remove my keyboard and place my AlphaSmart on the pull-out tray. In the morning, it is right there and I can just jump in right where I left off.
New material is like walking through a dark house: you either get scared stiff, or you're bumping into things while looking for the light switches. I've learned to make life easier on myself and accept that the AlphaSmart is the best way to get into new material. The screen is tiny so I can't see all the typos and mistakes and just plain terrible prose that I've written. It keeps me in the moment with those characters. Like Nora Roberts has said, you can't fix a blank page!
What are your favorite genres to read?I love historical romances and women's fiction. If there is a woman in a beautiful period dress on the cover, or the word "mistress" in the title, I'm all over it! Right now I'm addicted to novels by Susanna Kearsley, the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd and the Lady Julia Grey novels by Deanna Raybourn.
What do you want readers to take away from your story?First, I hope they're entertained. I hope when they start page one they can't put it down till the end.
Dori’s isolation and her sense of failure are based on my own experiences with failure. My personal journey since 2007, when I last published a novel, has been looking at my dark side, understanding it and accepting it. I've been able to use my fears to create dark and troubled characters like Dori and Vicente. I hope readers of her book will find compassion for Dori and cheer her on. For those like Dori, who are in a dark phase of their life, I hope they will no longer feel alone and that there is great strength in finding compassion and forgiveness for oneself.
How important do you think social media is for authors these days?I love social media because I've met some pretty cool people through Twitter and Facebook. We may not have met face to face, but we've connected through the love of a certain author or a favorite TV show. However, it can be a time suck! I recommend HootSuite and GoogleReader to manage all of the stuff out there. HootSuite allows me to post across platforms in one fell swoop, and through GoodleReader I can follow my favorite blogs and news sources. They cut down on the possibility that I'll fall into the rabbit hole and never come out.
What would be your advice to aspiring writers?The same advice I was given by my writing teacher, Ben Masselink, which is that discipline protects the talent. Writers write. They write in spite of the fear that the words on paper will stink. They write in spite of rejections, the state of the industry or lack of book sales. They write because they have to and they love going into their imaginary worlds to see what those characters will do next.
**Excerpt**
Idly wondering what to pick from the meals Grammy had prepared for her, Dori plugged her key into the lock. Her heart gave a painful jolt when she looked up into the face of a man. He stared at her from the other side of the wavy glass window of the Dutch door.
His dark eyes narrowed. In one motion, Dori dropped her bag, stepped back and reached for her weapon. But she only felt the bandage under her shirt where her Smith and Wesson should've been. She swayed in momentary confusion and then remembered she'd locked it away. When she looked back up into the window, he was gone.Dori stood there with her pulse kicking against her neck. He couldn't duck faster than the blink of an eye, nor was the window shade moving in the wake of a sudden movement. It hadn't been that long since she'd been with a man that she'd start making one up as Grammy had repeatedly warned. Warning pricked at her nerves. She pulled up alongside the edge of the door and peeked into her dark kitchen. She strained her ears, listening for movement in the house. Against her better judgment, she reached over and turned the key.She pushed the door open and the smell of cologne stopped her short of walking inside. Dori instinctively rocked her weight onto the balls of her feet, her muscles tensing for a fight. Night crept across the yard behind her.As a cop, she'd been in much scarier situations than this. But back then, Dori had a gun at her hip and a radio for back-up. Unlike real bad guys, figments of her imagination couldn’t send her to the hospital. Dori told herself to go out to her car and call the cavalry.Instead, Dori propped the door open with an old brick. This was her house damn it and it might feel good to kick some ass.Dori made her way through the gloomy kitchen and flipped on the light switch. The fluorescents flickered to life and their hum filled the silence. She crossed the kitchen and then poked her head through the door leading into the butler's pantry. The air held still, as if the house held its breath.She crept across the floor, scanned the dining room and then reached in to turn on the dining room chandelier, which thankfully had survived the architectural rape and pillage of the 1970s. His shadow moved across the wall in the hallway. Fear shot up her spine."I'm armed," she called out, backing into the kitchen for a knife. Her Mossberg was upstairs in the safe. Then she remembered the knives were still packed in a box. She had a spork from her and Grammy's KFC lunch earlier today."Walk out the front door and you won't get hurt," she ordered, clutching the spork in her hand as she tiptoed back to the dining room. Her voice echoed.She pressed the light button and the hall lights switched on. "Go out the front door."The hall was clear. With her back pressed to the wall, Dori held her breath as she waited for an answer or a creak of a floorboard that would give away his position. She should go for the Mossberg. But she peeked into the front parlor, the room that had suffered the most damage in the house. Something slammed against the front door and the lights snapped off.
**Everyone who leaves a comment on Mary's tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Lost in the Light before October 22 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**
**********************************************************************************
Author Bio:
Mary Castillo can remember the exact moment when her destiny to write smart, sexy stories for women began. (And no, it was not the day this photo was taken!) Her Grandma Margie gave her a copy of Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (banned in 14 states and then when it was made into a movie starring Linda Darnell, condemned by the Hays Office, which controlled decency in movies) and said, "If you have any questions about what they're doing in that book, just ask me!"
While Forever Amber is hardly a book for a high school freshman (frankly the heroine makes Scarlett a model of propriety and modesty in comparison), Mary was fascinated by a character that seized life with no apologies ... and looked doing it.
After a few minor distractions (poor dating choices and pre-med studies), Mary committed herself to writing on February 10, 1994 and then sold her debut to Harper Collins Avon A in 2004. Hot Tamara was selected by Cosmopolitan magazine as the Red Hot Read of April 2005. The book wasn't banned but Grandma was proud!
A lifelong professional writer, including a stint as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times Community News (second best job in the world), Mary is the proud author of three novels ( Switchcraft , In Between Men and Hot Tamara ) and three novellas featured in the anthologies, Orange County Noir ,
Latina magazine called Mary "an author to look out for" and selected In Between Men and Names I Call My Sister for the Top 10 Summers Reads in July 2009. OC Metro magazine named Mary one of the hottest 25 people in the O.C. (the first but certainly not the last time her hotness has been publicly confirmed). She has also been profiled in Orange County Register, Coast, The Arizona Republic and San Diego Union Tribune.
Mary grew up in a haunted house in National City, CA. She cries every time she sees the movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Casablanca, and feels that Joan Collins is by far the preeminent TV villain (which is why Joan plays such an pivotal role in the novel, In Between Men).
A graduate of USC, Mary lives in The O.C. with her family.
Also, she may have a mild addiction to Pinterest.
Connect with Mary!
Website: http://www.marycastillo.com/index.html Twitter : https://twitter.com/MCastilloWrites
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marycastilloGoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47331.Mary_Castillo
Buy the Book!
Barnes & Noble Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lost-in-the-light-mary-castillo/1113021119?ean=2940015633863
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Light-Orihuela-Series-ebook/dp/B009HD1K9Q/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1
Print: https://www.createspace.com/3986680
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/237860Apple iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/lost-in-the-light/id564402532?mt=11
**Interview**
When did you know writing was for you? I've always been a writer. I just didn't realize it until I was a sophomore at USC that I could make a living at it! My first goal was to write screenplays but it was never quite satisfying enough because the form is very lean. There's no room for descriptions of anyone's intense eyes, or the feel of the sea on their faces because that is the actor's job! Finally in 1996, I decided to heck with this, I'm just going to "try" a novel about a recovering alcoholic who can see ghosts. I kind of finished it … okay, I didn't! But once I started, I couldn't stop.
How would you describe your books?My earlier novels, Hot Tamara, In Between Men and Switchcraft are romantic comedies with graduating degrees of the paranormal in each book. With Lost in the LightI went all the way!
Lost in the Light spins off of a 2007 novella published in the anthology, Names I Call My Sister. Detective Dori Orihuela is a white lamb in a family of black sheep. She's a tough nut to crack and boy, was I intrigued by her from the moment she popped into my head. When Names I Call My Sister was published, I had a feeling we'd meet again.Why was Lost in the Light a book you wanted to write?I love the movie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and I wanted to go back to Dori Orihuela and her family. During the three years it took to write Lost in the Light, the story evolved from a romantic comedy to a more emotionally complex and darker book. In other words, it evolved into the book I've always wanted to write but was too afraid to try!
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?Writing the first draft is the hardest part of any book. When I'm at this stage, I can't be on a computer with email and Internet access. So every night when I shut down my office, I remove my keyboard and place my AlphaSmart on the pull-out tray. In the morning, it is right there and I can just jump in right where I left off.
New material is like walking through a dark house: you either get scared stiff, or you're bumping into things while looking for the light switches. I've learned to make life easier on myself and accept that the AlphaSmart is the best way to get into new material. The screen is tiny so I can't see all the typos and mistakes and just plain terrible prose that I've written. It keeps me in the moment with those characters. Like Nora Roberts has said, you can't fix a blank page!
What are your favorite genres to read?I love historical romances and women's fiction. If there is a woman in a beautiful period dress on the cover, or the word "mistress" in the title, I'm all over it! Right now I'm addicted to novels by Susanna Kearsley, the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd and the Lady Julia Grey novels by Deanna Raybourn.
What do you want readers to take away from your story?First, I hope they're entertained. I hope when they start page one they can't put it down till the end.
Dori’s isolation and her sense of failure are based on my own experiences with failure. My personal journey since 2007, when I last published a novel, has been looking at my dark side, understanding it and accepting it. I've been able to use my fears to create dark and troubled characters like Dori and Vicente. I hope readers of her book will find compassion for Dori and cheer her on. For those like Dori, who are in a dark phase of their life, I hope they will no longer feel alone and that there is great strength in finding compassion and forgiveness for oneself.
How important do you think social media is for authors these days?I love social media because I've met some pretty cool people through Twitter and Facebook. We may not have met face to face, but we've connected through the love of a certain author or a favorite TV show. However, it can be a time suck! I recommend HootSuite and GoogleReader to manage all of the stuff out there. HootSuite allows me to post across platforms in one fell swoop, and through GoodleReader I can follow my favorite blogs and news sources. They cut down on the possibility that I'll fall into the rabbit hole and never come out.
What would be your advice to aspiring writers?The same advice I was given by my writing teacher, Ben Masselink, which is that discipline protects the talent. Writers write. They write in spite of the fear that the words on paper will stink. They write in spite of rejections, the state of the industry or lack of book sales. They write because they have to and they love going into their imaginary worlds to see what those characters will do next.
**Excerpt**
Idly wondering what to pick from the meals Grammy had prepared for her, Dori plugged her key into the lock. Her heart gave a painful jolt when she looked up into the face of a man. He stared at her from the other side of the wavy glass window of the Dutch door.
His dark eyes narrowed. In one motion, Dori dropped her bag, stepped back and reached for her weapon. But she only felt the bandage under her shirt where her Smith and Wesson should've been. She swayed in momentary confusion and then remembered she'd locked it away. When she looked back up into the window, he was gone.Dori stood there with her pulse kicking against her neck. He couldn't duck faster than the blink of an eye, nor was the window shade moving in the wake of a sudden movement. It hadn't been that long since she'd been with a man that she'd start making one up as Grammy had repeatedly warned. Warning pricked at her nerves. She pulled up alongside the edge of the door and peeked into her dark kitchen. She strained her ears, listening for movement in the house. Against her better judgment, she reached over and turned the key.She pushed the door open and the smell of cologne stopped her short of walking inside. Dori instinctively rocked her weight onto the balls of her feet, her muscles tensing for a fight. Night crept across the yard behind her.As a cop, she'd been in much scarier situations than this. But back then, Dori had a gun at her hip and a radio for back-up. Unlike real bad guys, figments of her imagination couldn’t send her to the hospital. Dori told herself to go out to her car and call the cavalry.Instead, Dori propped the door open with an old brick. This was her house damn it and it might feel good to kick some ass.Dori made her way through the gloomy kitchen and flipped on the light switch. The fluorescents flickered to life and their hum filled the silence. She crossed the kitchen and then poked her head through the door leading into the butler's pantry. The air held still, as if the house held its breath.She crept across the floor, scanned the dining room and then reached in to turn on the dining room chandelier, which thankfully had survived the architectural rape and pillage of the 1970s. His shadow moved across the wall in the hallway. Fear shot up her spine."I'm armed," she called out, backing into the kitchen for a knife. Her Mossberg was upstairs in the safe. Then she remembered the knives were still packed in a box. She had a spork from her and Grammy's KFC lunch earlier today."Walk out the front door and you won't get hurt," she ordered, clutching the spork in her hand as she tiptoed back to the dining room. Her voice echoed.She pressed the light button and the hall lights switched on. "Go out the front door."The hall was clear. With her back pressed to the wall, Dori held her breath as she waited for an answer or a creak of a floorboard that would give away his position. She should go for the Mossberg. But she peeked into the front parlor, the room that had suffered the most damage in the house. Something slammed against the front door and the lights snapped off. **Everyone who leaves a comment on Mary's tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Lost in the Light before October 22 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**
**********************************************************************************
Author Bio:
Mary Castillo can remember the exact moment when her destiny to write smart, sexy stories for women began. (And no, it was not the day this photo was taken!) Her Grandma Margie gave her a copy of Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (banned in 14 states and then when it was made into a movie starring Linda Darnell, condemned by the Hays Office, which controlled decency in movies) and said, "If you have any questions about what they're doing in that book, just ask me!"
While Forever Amber is hardly a book for a high school freshman (frankly the heroine makes Scarlett a model of propriety and modesty in comparison), Mary was fascinated by a character that seized life with no apologies ... and looked doing it.
After a few minor distractions (poor dating choices and pre-med studies), Mary committed herself to writing on February 10, 1994 and then sold her debut to Harper Collins Avon A in 2004. Hot Tamara was selected by Cosmopolitan magazine as the Red Hot Read of April 2005. The book wasn't banned but Grandma was proud!
A lifelong professional writer, including a stint as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times Community News (second best job in the world), Mary is the proud author of three novels ( Switchcraft , In Between Men and Hot Tamara ) and three novellas featured in the anthologies, Orange County Noir ,
Latina magazine called Mary "an author to look out for" and selected In Between Men and Names I Call My Sister for the Top 10 Summers Reads in July 2009. OC Metro magazine named Mary one of the hottest 25 people in the O.C. (the first but certainly not the last time her hotness has been publicly confirmed). She has also been profiled in Orange County Register, Coast, The Arizona Republic and San Diego Union Tribune.
Mary grew up in a haunted house in National City, CA. She cries every time she sees the movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Casablanca, and feels that Joan Collins is by far the preeminent TV villain (which is why Joan plays such an pivotal role in the novel, In Between Men).
A graduate of USC, Mary lives in The O.C. with her family.
Also, she may have a mild addiction to Pinterest.
Connect with Mary!
Website: http://www.marycastillo.com/index.html Twitter : https://twitter.com/MCastilloWrites
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marycastilloGoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47331.Mary_Castillo
Buy the Book!
Barnes & Noble Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lost-in-the-light-mary-castillo/1113021119?ean=2940015633863
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Light-Orihuela-Series-ebook/dp/B009HD1K9Q/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1
Print: https://www.createspace.com/3986680
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/237860Apple iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/lost-in-the-light/id564402532?mt=11
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