THE HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS: INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
THE HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS
 BY BETTY AUCHARD 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The eldest of three in an unconventional family making their way through The Great Depression, Betty narrates this humorous and poignant recollection. Although poor in possessions, Betty’s family leads a life so rich in turmoil that it rivals today’s sitcoms.

Betty’s young parents tie and untie the marital knot three times amidst a string of separations. When relatives become too weary to keep the children, Betty and her siblings are dropped off at The Home for the Friendless where they enjoy three meals a day, indoor plumbing, a grassy playground, and plenty of holiday parties.

The family reunites two years later and the roller coaster resumes. The Peals move multiple times across two states, proving that love overcomes all and that normal isn’t always better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Betty Auchard is the author of the IPPY Award winning Dancing in my Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood, endorsed by celebrity widows Jayne Meadows and Rosemarie Stack. In addition to writing, she enjoys presenting to audiences and narrating her own audio books. Her stories and essays have been published in the San Jose Mercury News, Today's Senior, and Chocolate for a Woman's Soul series. Betty lives and writes in Los Gatos, California.

Visit the author at www.bettyauchard.com and join her fans on Facebook.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

1. Welcome, Betty, and thank you for agreeing to visit BOOKIN' WITH BINGO. Before we go on, can you tell us a little about yourself and also where my readers can find more information about you if that is possible?

Yes, indeed. My two websites were created for two different books:

www.bettyauchard.com is for my new book, The Home for the Friendless.

www.dancinginmynightgown.com is my publisher’s site for Dancing in My Nightgown.

I’m a retired art teacher who became a writer after my husband of 49 years died of cancer over 12 years ago. I was 68 when I started writing about my adventures and misadventures while learning how to be single. Stories just floated out of me with no effort, while I was unaware that preserving my sad/funny experiences had become my tool for healing. It turned me into a writer. Six years of stories became an IPPY Award-winning memoir in 2005. So after years of teaching art, I became a published author at 75.

During those first six years of reinventing myself, I signed up for every writing class I could squeeze into my life. During those classes, I became motivated to write about my childhood. I had no idea that both subjects, widowhood and childhood, would turn into books. All I knew was that I couldn’t stop writing. I was obsessed.

The Home for the Friendless, my current book, took about 10 years to pull together. I just turned 80, and the book will be released November 1. It was much harder to write because that part of my life happened so long ago that my two siblings had to help me resurrect our family memories. Without my brother and sister, this book might never have happened. I also had more to learn about writing this time around and finally hired a tutor. It took me a year to revise my original manuscript for “Friendless.” It was a frustrating, yet exciting, journey…kind of like getting all your teeth pulled at once and replacing them slowly with implants.

About my life now: I have four grown children, eight grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. I see most of them often. I like to dance, swim, and garden when I can fit them in, but most of the time I’m either writing new stories or working on my speaking schedule. I love a live audience almost more than I love writing. The personal rewards for writing and speaking are far greater than the rewards in revenue.

2. Where did you get the inspiration or idea for this book?

The idea came to me eleven years ago in an online memoir class called LifeLore that provided prompts for writing about our growing-up years and young adulthood.

3. How did the title of your book come about?

There was never a doubt about the title of this book; it was pre-ordained. The Home for the Friendless is directly connected to only part two of eight parts, but the homeless theme is woven through all the stories.

4. Do you see yourself in your characters?

As the narrator, I had to find out how to become the main character. It sounded easy, but it wasn’t at all. I hired a writing coach, Bruce McAllister (www.mcallistercoaching.com), who helped me immensely. When the revision was ready to go, my own editor, Sandi-Corbitt-Sears (sandi@threeviewdesign.com), helped me polish the stories. Hiring a professional editor is the final, critical part of presenting a manuscript for publication.

5. Which characters are easiest or more difficult to write?

Developing myself as a character was the most difficult thing in the world. But once I got the hang of it, I just let myself go and became a part of the story. All of the other “cast members” in my family developed pretty easily.

6. What books would have made the biggest impression on you?

This is hard to pinpoint because every book I read is my favorite at the time. The ones that stick in my mind longer probably have left the biggest impression. I felt moved by The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I just finished reading the charming, poignant, happy, funny Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows. I still smile about it.

7. What are you currently reading?

Right now, I’m reading The Hunger Games, the first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

8. What is the next or current book/project you are working on?

I’m having fun writing a memoir story called “Living with Twelve Men.” It’s about my life as a new bride while living in a boys’ dorm for two years. My husband was their supervisor. I don’t plan for it to become a book, but I’m enjoying writing the story. After that’s finished, I want to write another one called “My Gin and Tonic Period” about my two years as a junior high school art teacher while I was in menopause. The combination of kids in puberty and a woman in menopause is not a good mix. It’s a miracle I wasn’t fired.

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

I was a wedding singer in my “other” life, and sang in a trio every week for the campus radio show during my freshman year in college. Also, after I retired from teaching art, I was a practicing artist for five years, selling my work with articles about my leaf-printing to several major magazines. I was also the illustrator for stories submitted to our California South Bay Writers Club monthly newsletter. I have since traded a drawing pen and paper for a keyboard and screen.

10. What is your best advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers?

If you have an itch to write, just do it. If you can talk, you can write. Do not edit as you go, just GET IT DOWN and concern yourself with editing later. Read like mad. Never give up reading because it inspires your own stories. I especially urge seniors and grandparents to write about when they were kids. There’s no better gift they can leave for their families. When we all die, our stories go with us. If we’re still here, we’re living history.

MY REVIEW: Watch for my Review of THE HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS coming soon and for a chance then for Bonus Entries!

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO BETTY AND 
HER PUBLICIST, STEPHANIE BARKO,
I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS WONDERFUL
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE WINNER

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS OR AUTHOR BETTY AUCHARD BY VISITING HER WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK THAT I CAN FOLLOW

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING IN THE AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH BETTY AUCHARD FROM ABOVE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ANOTHER CURRENT ENTRY OF MINE YOU HAVE ENTERED. YOU MAY COMMENT ON EACH ENTRY SEPARATELY AND THEY WILL EACH COUNT AS ANOTHER ENTRY.

ARE YOU ONE OF MY TOP MEMBERS WHO VISIT MY BLOG? ON JANUARY 9, 2011, BOOKIN' WITH BINGO WILL CELEBRATE MY 2ND BLOGOVERSARY WITH A LOT OF FUN THINGS GOING ON! ONE IS TO LOOK FOR THE TOP TEN VISITORS ON THAT LIST TO GIVE THEM A SPECIAL SURPRISE PRIZE! CAN YOU CATCH UP AND BE IN THE TOP 10?

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, NOVEMBER 1!

GOOD LUCK!