One Deadly Sin: Author Interview

MY INTERVIEW WITH
ANNIE SOLOMON

Thank you, to Annie Solomon, author of ONE DEADLY SIN,
for giving BOOKIN' WITH BINGO an individual, personal interview.

Here are the questions I wanted to personally ask Annie.

Hello, Annie, and welcome to BOOKIN’ WITH BINGO. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview for me. Is there any personal information, biographical facts, photos, or websites you would like to start with?

First, off, thank you, Karen, for inviting me into your online home. I enjoyed looking around.

As for myself, I’m a northern transplant living in Nashville. I’ve been writing since I was a wee sprite, but only began to have the confidence that I could actually finish and publish something about ten or so years ago. I hold RWA and my local chapter, Music City Romance Writers, responsible for that. Their guidance gave me the courage and the resources to seriously pursue my dream of publication.

You and your readers can find out more about me and my books on my online home, anniesolomon.com.

Can you tell us anything about the next or current book you are working on?

I’m currently working on another suspense. This one is about a man on the run whose real identity is so lethal exposing it could jeopardize his life and everyone he loves. It’s set for a 2010 release.

What have you just finished reading?

Sad to say, I don’t read much anymore. I’m of an age when the chemicals play havoc with the body, so whether it’s that or it’s the writing that sucks the pleasure out of reading, I can’t say. I did read a little of Twilight, just to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe I’m too old for it, but it didn’t capture me. I do like JR Ward’s books (who doesn’t?).

What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out?

When I think about the books that stay with me over the years I have to go back to Anya Seton and Mary Stewart. The former’s Green Darkness and the latter’s My Brother Michael are two that stand out. But all their stories swept me away. If I didn’t hate research so much, I’d write historical fiction, because that’s what I liked to read. Later, I enjoyed Katherine Sutcliffe and Laura Kinsale. And, of course, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. But truly, what pushed me over the edge to start my first book, Like a Knife, wasn’t a book at all. It was the Patch and Kayla story on Days of Your Lives! Those two characters mesmerized me. My husband had endless fun teasing me about it. But Patch’s wounded hero shaped my first hero, Nick.

What gets you started on a new book? A character or story idea or….?

Both. Some books one, some the other. As I said, Nick in Like a Knife was inspired by a character. So was Margo, the heroine in my RITA-winning book, Blackout. I had this vision of a woman who lived “underground” as black ops operative. When the publisher accepted the concept I was terrified because that’s all I knew about the book! My current book, One Deadly Sin, was inspired by the legend of the black angel from an Iowa cemetery. My last book, Dead Shot, began as a plot idea: what if you were an artist and a deranged murderer posed his victims to mimic your art? My artist, Gillian Gray, turned into an art photographer who, as a child, found her mother’s murdered body. Now she’s obsessed with finding the killer—even if it meant using herself and her art as bait.

What is something about you that you would want people to know about you that we probably don’t know?

I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…

Oh, Okay, here’s one: I love to dress up. Not costumes, mind you, real clothes. Heels, jewelry, makeup. All that girly stuff. It’s a dirty shame we don’t dress for much anymore!

What is your best advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers? (I teach middle school Reading to gifted students)

I read some of the advice other authors gave here and there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said before. But here goes anyway: keep writing. Writing is a muscle that needs constant exercising to keep in shape. Think of it like basketball. You need pickup games and shooting drills, and that’s what poems and stories are to the writer. If you want to make a career of it, prepare for rejection. You have to want it really badly, because it’s not easy. You’ll know you want it if you keep going no matter how many people tell you you’ll never make it. And remember, like much in life, making it to publication takes a lot of luck. Which isn’t something you can control. The only thing you can control is the writing itself. So keep at it and make it as good as you can.

Whew! For someone who wasn’t going to say anything, I sure got chatty.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Just another thanks for the opportunity to meet your friends. And another plug for my website, anniesolomon.com. I've got excerpt from all my books there, plus my blog, Annie's World Drop by and Join the Conversation

Thank you to all my loyal followers.

Those of you who read this review and comment below about it specifically will receive an extra entry into the ONE DEADLY SIN Blog Tour Giveaway. If you haven't commented to enter originally, you need to go here and comment and enter there in order for me to add this extra entry for you. :D