**Author Peek** Interview with Paula Martin
IRISH INHERITANCE by PAULA MARTIN
**AUTHOR PEEK** Interview
INTRODUCING…PAULA MARTIN!
1. How did you get started writing?
I’ve written stories for as long as I can remember, starting with school stories and graduating to (very cheesy!) romances when I was in my teens. When I was in my twenties, I adapted and expanded one of those teenage stories and submitted it to a publisher. They accepted it and gave me a contract for two more, which I produced during the next two years. After that, family and career got in the way, and it was another 7 or 8 years before I had another novel published. I also wrote short stories and articles for magazines from time to time. Once I took early retirement from teaching, I came back to writing novels again, and have had six published since 2011.
2. What genre(s) do you write in and why?
My novels have all been contemporary romances. They’ve been classed as ‘sweet’ although I do have some bedroom scenes, although I concentrate on the emotional side of the relationship rather than any graphic descriptions. It is the genre that comes naturally to me, but all my books have more than just romance. Secondary characters provide support or opposition or some element of intrigue, and my two main characters have to work hard to reach their happy ending!
3. What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
Quite often, I’m going through the next conversation between my characters – or else trying to work out how they’re going to resolve all the problems I’ve thrown at them.
4. What is your favorite part of writing?
I enjoy the editing and polishing stage. This is when I tidy up any loose ends, and concentrate on the actual writing – finding the right words or improving the style and phrasing.
5. What is your least favorite part of writing?
Not exactly my least favourite, but I find the first draft the hardest. ‘Carving granite with a teaspoon’ is a phrase that describes that first draft. All the time I want the story to be finished so that I can get on to the next stage of tidying it up and (as above) polishing it. I try to turn off my internal editor while I’m writing the first draft – but can’t always do that, so it can take me a long time to write.
6. Pick two celebrities to be your parents. Who would they be and why?
That’s a difficult one, because (a) I don’t think I would like to have celebrity parents, (b) I’m not wildly interested in celebrity anyway, and (c) most celebrities I might choose are young enough to be my own children, not my parents! After a lot of thought about this question, I might choose Julie Walters as a mother, not because she is a brilliant actress, but because she is so down-to-earth in real life, and has a great sense of humour. As for a father, well, you can’t get much better than Hugh Jackman, can you?
7. Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
The seed of a story can be sown by something that may seem very trivial at the time, but once it’s planted, it starts to grow. One idea came to me while I was relaxing on the sundeck of a Nile cruise ship; another from an online article I read about an apartment in Paris that had been abandoned for over 70 years; and another from seeing a film star’s signature in a visitors’ book in a small museum in Ireland. The original seed may form only a small part of the story that eventually evolves; the rest is a result of a tangle of twigs and branches that grow from that seed, which I try to untangle as I write the story.
8. Tell me about your ideal reader.
Someone who, like me, enjoys a story about ‘real’ (and often very ordinary) people they can relate to, which is why I don’t write about billionaires or playboys or Arab sheiks etc. I want my readers to empathise with my heroine, and fall in love with the hero – and it doesn’t matter how young or old they are. My stories can be enjoyed by every age range – one of my youngest readers is 18 and one of my oldest is in her 80s.
9. What is your “go to” routine that helps you get in the mood to write? Special beverage? Music? Etc.
There’s nothing special – except, maybe, for ‘habit’. I do all my writing in the evenings, so when it gets to a certain time, I switch off all other distractions, and open my latest chapter. The only thing I do to get into the mood is to read through the early part of the chapter, or maybe the one before.
10. Tell us about your latest book.
My most recent release was ‘Irish Inheritance’.
Editor’s Note: For the book blurb, be sure to come back on Wednesday when Paula will not only share the basic story with us but an excerpt!
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Links to Paula’s website, blog, books, etc.
Website: http://paulamartinromances.webs.com
Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/KtlU6Y
Blog: http://paulamartinpotpourri.blogspot.com
Buy links for ‘Irish Inheritance’
USA Amazon http://amzn.to/1fZlqr4
UK Amazon http://amzn.to/1fKiyxq
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/405113
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BE SURE TO COME BACK to read more about Paula and her book, IRISH INHERITANCE, on Wednesday’s Karen’s Killer Book Bench. Happy Reading!
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**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Paula is giving away a digital copy of IRISH INHERITANCE (PDF or Smashwords Voucher) to one lucky reader who comments on her Monday Interview or Wednesday Book Bench blog. Don’t miss this chance to read these great stories! Thanks, Paula, for sharing your series with us!
