Interview & #Giveaway with @DorothyAdamek
Super excited to again, feature a new-to-me author! YAY! Isn't it fun meeting all these super talented people? So join me as we get to know Dorothy Adamek today :)
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How did you begin writing?
I began writing when my grade four teacher invited us to enter a story competition to mark the
occasion of his baby’s first birthday. I wrote a story in the POV of the birthday cake. I don’t remember much about the story itself, but I won and my prize was a piece of the birthday cake itself. I thought that was pretty cool, and from that day on, I’ve considered myself a writer. Pay me in cake and I’m happy.
Take us through a day in the life of you, the author (because some us picture you rise from bed, calmly pour your coffee, sit in a sunny little alcove, and write for eight hours before getting ready for a luxurious dinner out with your special someone) ;)
There’s a lot of coffee. You’ve got that part right. Then there’s what we call the ‘school run’ in Australia - the back and forth school routine known around the world to many mums. It’s during school hours I don my writing shawl and get to work. Whilst I don’t have an alcove, I do have a newly situated library in our house, converted from what should have been a dining room and ended up serving as a junk room for years. No more. It’s now my workspace and I try to crank out the word count there each day with Gilbert the Library Cat somewhere nearby.
Tell us where you got the idea for your latest book and why you developed a passion to write it?
Carry Me Home is set on Australia’s majestic Phillip Island. It’s where my family have holidayed for more than 40 years, so I have a personal love for the location. Some years ago, local historians published a newspaper tribute edition to honor the early settlers and pioneers. Thus began my fascination with life on the island in the mid 1870s and from there the story of Shadrach and Finella took shape.
Who is your favorite character in this book and why?
Shadrach Jones, the romantic hero, would have to be my favorite. Hands down. Anyone who gives out of his own poverty captures my attention and this guy knows how to sacrifice.
What is the most important takeaway from your book that you hope your readers see?
I hope readers will be reminded that displacement occurs in all our lives. Some of us are physically upended and need to put down new roots, and others have their lives knocked upside down right where they’re living. The struggle to find where we belong often requires life-changing sacrifices and many times, forgiveness is at the heart of new beginnings.
If you were to be offered the opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or to back pack deep into the heart of the Swiss Alps, which would you do and why?
Take me to the Swiss Alps and take me right now! This Aussie has never seen a snowflake fall and with each passing year I’m becoming more and more keen for the experience. I realize there’s snow on Kilimanjaro, too, but I really love cheese, so… Switzerland it is.
And while you’re on this grand adventure, would it be necessary for you to have coffee or tea? (‘cause we’re split evenly in preference here at the CCC blog)
Coffee. Big, bottomless pots.
If you had to write your novel long-hand, would you use a fine point Sharpie, a roller ball pen, a fountain pen, or a pencil?
My favorite pen is a purple ink fountain pen. That’s the one for me.
Your favorite flavor of pie … because we’re heading into pie season!
Your pie season is of endless fascination to me. We’re not as much into our pies in Australia, although I’d gladly take a plate of what I’ve learned you call Razzleberry Pie! For a long time I thought that was one berry. Silly Aussie. Now I know better. Give me a piece of that.
What are you currently working on in the book world?
I’m currently working on Carry Me Away the second book in the Blue Wren Shallows series.
Lastly, will you leave us with a snippet from your book that is one of your favorites and gives us a glimpse into its pages?
Here’s the opening to Carry Me Home. Finella Mayfield’s first journal entry of which there are many more in the book.
July 10, 1875
Aboard the Aurora
Departing Liverpool for Australia
Aunt Sarah says I must mark the days.
She says they are, each one, touched by God and I must look for His fingerprint at day’s end.
Each afternoon while Father naps in his adjoining cabin, Aunt Sarah says I am to listen for coughing and attend to him, as always. And in the stillness of our ocean crossing, I must write in this journal Aunt Sarah calls my Everlasting.
Wrapped in organza remnants from my wedding ribbons, this journal is nothing of my mother’s by which to remember her. Bound with a leather spine, it’s a clean book of alternate parchment and tissue sheets. Each turn of the page brings the whispered lift of a translucent veil, the crackle of stiff paper. And perhaps, even permission to confide more than I care to speak aloud.
Charged to fill it with the evidence of God’s goodness, Aunt Sarah insists I add pressed petals from my new homeland. Something beautiful. Worthy. At least in her eyes.
Already I dare to disobey.
With England disappearing through my porthole in sea mists of grey and blue, I fear I may never again see God against the backdrop of my birthplace. So I entrust this parting thought to my Everlasting.
I, Finella Mayfield, promise to look for and collect God’s fingerprint in a strange land chosen for me by my father. I promise to become wife to a man I’ve never met, and live the life designed for me since my girlhood. My motherless girlhood, which already stretches six long years since my fourteenth winter.
And I promise to never forget the days I leave behind and the mother stolen from me by a wretched thief.
May God have mercy on the sinner. For I have none.
Contact me at!
Website: www.dorothyadamek.com
Email: Dorothy@dorothyadmek.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dorothyadamekauthor/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DorothyAdamek
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/DorothyAdamek/carry-me-home
_____________________________________
Enter to win a copy of Dorothy's book sent to you all the way from Down Under!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
________________________________________________
How did you begin writing?
I began writing when my grade four teacher invited us to enter a story competition to mark the
occasion of his baby’s first birthday. I wrote a story in the POV of the birthday cake. I don’t remember much about the story itself, but I won and my prize was a piece of the birthday cake itself. I thought that was pretty cool, and from that day on, I’ve considered myself a writer. Pay me in cake and I’m happy. Take us through a day in the life of you, the author (because some us picture you rise from bed, calmly pour your coffee, sit in a sunny little alcove, and write for eight hours before getting ready for a luxurious dinner out with your special someone) ;)
There’s a lot of coffee. You’ve got that part right. Then there’s what we call the ‘school run’ in Australia - the back and forth school routine known around the world to many mums. It’s during school hours I don my writing shawl and get to work. Whilst I don’t have an alcove, I do have a newly situated library in our house, converted from what should have been a dining room and ended up serving as a junk room for years. No more. It’s now my workspace and I try to crank out the word count there each day with Gilbert the Library Cat somewhere nearby.
Tell us where you got the idea for your latest book and why you developed a passion to write it?
Carry Me Home is set on Australia’s majestic Phillip Island. It’s where my family have holidayed for more than 40 years, so I have a personal love for the location. Some years ago, local historians published a newspaper tribute edition to honor the early settlers and pioneers. Thus began my fascination with life on the island in the mid 1870s and from there the story of Shadrach and Finella took shape.
Who is your favorite character in this book and why?
Shadrach Jones, the romantic hero, would have to be my favorite. Hands down. Anyone who gives out of his own poverty captures my attention and this guy knows how to sacrifice.
What is the most important takeaway from your book that you hope your readers see?
I hope readers will be reminded that displacement occurs in all our lives. Some of us are physically upended and need to put down new roots, and others have their lives knocked upside down right where they’re living. The struggle to find where we belong often requires life-changing sacrifices and many times, forgiveness is at the heart of new beginnings.
If you were to be offered the opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or to back pack deep into the heart of the Swiss Alps, which would you do and why?
Take me to the Swiss Alps and take me right now! This Aussie has never seen a snowflake fall and with each passing year I’m becoming more and more keen for the experience. I realize there’s snow on Kilimanjaro, too, but I really love cheese, so… Switzerland it is.
And while you’re on this grand adventure, would it be necessary for you to have coffee or tea? (‘cause we’re split evenly in preference here at the CCC blog)
Coffee. Big, bottomless pots.
If you had to write your novel long-hand, would you use a fine point Sharpie, a roller ball pen, a fountain pen, or a pencil?
My favorite pen is a purple ink fountain pen. That’s the one for me.
Your favorite flavor of pie … because we’re heading into pie season!
Your pie season is of endless fascination to me. We’re not as much into our pies in Australia, although I’d gladly take a plate of what I’ve learned you call Razzleberry Pie! For a long time I thought that was one berry. Silly Aussie. Now I know better. Give me a piece of that.
What are you currently working on in the book world?
I’m currently working on Carry Me Away the second book in the Blue Wren Shallows series.
Lastly, will you leave us with a snippet from your book that is one of your favorites and gives us a glimpse into its pages?
Here’s the opening to Carry Me Home. Finella Mayfield’s first journal entry of which there are many more in the book.
July 10, 1875
Aboard the Aurora
Departing Liverpool for Australia
Aunt Sarah says I must mark the days.
She says they are, each one, touched by God and I must look for His fingerprint at day’s end.
Each afternoon while Father naps in his adjoining cabin, Aunt Sarah says I am to listen for coughing and attend to him, as always. And in the stillness of our ocean crossing, I must write in this journal Aunt Sarah calls my Everlasting.
Wrapped in organza remnants from my wedding ribbons, this journal is nothing of my mother’s by which to remember her. Bound with a leather spine, it’s a clean book of alternate parchment and tissue sheets. Each turn of the page brings the whispered lift of a translucent veil, the crackle of stiff paper. And perhaps, even permission to confide more than I care to speak aloud.
Charged to fill it with the evidence of God’s goodness, Aunt Sarah insists I add pressed petals from my new homeland. Something beautiful. Worthy. At least in her eyes.
Already I dare to disobey.
With England disappearing through my porthole in sea mists of grey and blue, I fear I may never again see God against the backdrop of my birthplace. So I entrust this parting thought to my Everlasting.
I, Finella Mayfield, promise to look for and collect God’s fingerprint in a strange land chosen for me by my father. I promise to become wife to a man I’ve never met, and live the life designed for me since my girlhood. My motherless girlhood, which already stretches six long years since my fourteenth winter.
And I promise to never forget the days I leave behind and the mother stolen from me by a wretched thief.
May God have mercy on the sinner. For I have none.
Contact me at!
Website: www.dorothyadamek.com
Email: Dorothy@dorothyadmek.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dorothyadamekauthor/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DorothyAdamek
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/DorothyAdamek/carry-me-home
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Enter to win a copy of Dorothy's book sent to you all the way from Down Under!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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