posted on the first Friday of the month
#IndieBragNovConv
To be a little different from the usual 'meet the author'
let's meet a character
Rita
from
Rita
from
Q: Hello, I’m Helen the host of Novel Conversations, please do make yourself comfortable. Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee, wine – something stronger? You’ll find a box of chocolates and a bowl of fruit on the table next to you, please do help yourself... Oh but perhaps chocolates are not a good idea!
A: Hi, Helen. I am delighted to be here today. I would love a coffee black, please – but yes, if you could move that box of chocolates out of my reach, I would be grateful. As the novel I am here to talk about points out in painful detail, I used to be capable of consuming half a serving plate of Nanaimo bars without even knowing I was doing it. I still need to avoid temptation when I can.
Q: So you are a character in Mary W. Walters’s novel, Rita Just Wants to Be Thin. Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you a lead character or a supporting role?
A: Thanks so much for being interested in my story. My name is Rita Turner and Mary’s novel is about me, so I guess that makes me the “lead character.” First time I’ve ever starred in anything.
Q: What genre is the novel and what is it about?
A: I would describe the novel as “women’s literature,” because it’s about an issue that a lot of women think about a lot of the time: body image. In my case, it was a weight problem that started soon after I got married. When Graham proposed, I was full of optimism for the future, but things went downhill fairly rapidly (for me, I mean; Graham always seemed quite happy). I knew next to nothing about kids, but there I was, trying to “parent” his two kids – who hated me – without much help from him. To top it all off, he wanted me to have a baby, too. I knew I wasn’t ready for that! Then his father had a heart attack, and his mother came to stay with us, and she wasn’t too crazy about me either. So to punish them (but really to punish myself, I now realize), I ate. A lot. And gained a lot of weight as a result. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew it wasn’t what I was doing. I felt really trapped.
Q: No spoilers, but are you a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’? (Or maybe you are both!)
A: That’s a very good question, Helen. If you’d asked me this question when Mary started writing about me, I’d have said I was a “baddie.” Definitely. A horrible, no-good person with no self-control, no willpower, no positive qualities, and nothing to offer the world. A slob. But now that the book is written, I feel differently about it all. I like myself much better. I think I might actually be a good person, or at least no worse than anyone else I know. Things are much, much better than they were.
Helen: Well I think you are a lovely person - you have gorgeous eyes and a wonderful smile!
(Rita blushes, murmurs 'Thank you')
Q: Tell me about another character in the novel – maybe your best friend, lover or partner … or maybe your arch enemy!
A: Maybe they weren’t exactly “arch enemies” – that’s a strong term! – but I definitely saw quite a few people in my life as adversaries. Take my mother, a career woman who still looked great even in her mid-fifties. She’d always been very disappointed in the choices I made, and to her, Graham was the last straw. She’d wanted me to go to university, not marry some widower who worked at a newspaper and needed someone to raise his kids. Then there was Graham himself. He was so focused on himself that if a fire had started in the house he’d have saved the manuscript of the book he was working on instead of his family – not because he didn’t “love” his family, but because in a crisis like that he wouldn’t have remembered that he had a family. And have I mentioned the lovely Rosa, Graham’s first wife, mother of his children? She died of meningitis at the age of thirty. She was intelligent and beautiful and perfect, and everyone loved her. Dead former spouses never do anything wrong, damn them. Then there was Dr. Graves, a stand-in for my regular doctor, who told me I was fat and doomed. But, of course, my biggest enemy was me. And food.
Q: Is this the only novel you have appeared in, or are there others in a series?
A: This is the only one. People who’ve read the book have wondered if there will be a sequel but there won’t. I’m too busy doing my own thing at this point to start creating enough drama for another book.
Q: What is one of your least favourite scenes you appear in?
A: Well, at the beginning of the story, all I ever did was resolve to go on one diet after another, but I could never stick to diets. I would go off them almost immediately after I went on them, and when I did, there was never anything decent in the house to eat because I’d cleaned everything out in preparation for the diet. One afternoon I started eating all the Hallowe’en candies the kids had thrown in the garbage. That was kind of humiliating. There were a lot of food-related humiliations…
Q: And your favourite scene?
A: That’s closer to the end of the book, when I start doing stuff I liked and wanted to do, instead of stuff I thought I ought to (or ought not) do.
Q: Tell me a little about your author. Has she written any other books?
A: This is Mary’s fourth novel and she’s also published a collection of short stories. Four of her books were traditionally published, and she self-published two. For most of her life, she has earned her living as an editor – primarily for academics – but “finally!! At long last!!” (as she says) she is now working almost exclusively on fiction.
Q: Is your author working on anything else at the moment?
A: Her new novel is called Ageless and it’s about a scientist named Nola who has figured out how to make herself get younger and then stay that way. It’s also about a woman Nola hires to ghost-write her life story. Helen (the writer) gradually decides that she wants to steal Nola’s secret to staying young. The novel’s also about a very cute dog, a Lhasa apso who also looks about twenty years younger than he should.
Q: How do you think indie authors, such as your author, can be helped or supported by readers or groups? What does your author think is the most useful for her personally?
A: The writing life can be difficult. The promotion part of the brain and the writing part of the brain are different. When a writer is writing, she is besieged by doubt about her ability to do anything, which makes it very, very difficult to have the confidence to promote her other writing. Most self-published authors find it hard to promote themselves. They know that everyone is tired of hearing writers tell them “Read my book!” and often, they aren’t sure what else to say.
Readers who leave comments or write reviews about authors’ book are very much appreciated. And other writers (like you, Helen! Thank you!) who encourage writers to keep moving on the promotion part, even when they don’t feel like doing it, are also tremendously helpful. It’s not just indie authors who have to deal with promotion. Publishers used to do this kind of work for authors, but even traditionally published authors have to promote their own books now.
Q: Finally, before we must bid adieu, the novel you appear in has been awarded a prestigious IndieBRAG Medallion. Does your author find this helpful, and is there anything else she would like IndieBRAG to do to help indie authors receive the recognition they deserve?
A: Mary is absolutely honoured to have been the subject of a novel that was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion. In fact, she has received two, and she is proud of both of them! After self-publishing became a viable option for thousands of writers, IndieBrag was one of the first initiatives anywhere that began to help readers to sort out the good self-published books from the many, many not-so-good ones. IndieBrag let readers know that their time would not be wasted if they checked out one of the books with a medallion on it. It’s a great program.
Helen: Thank you, Rita! It was a pleasure talking to you. Would your author like to add a short excerpt? And while she's doing that, would you like more coffee?
Rita : I’m sure she would like to add an excerpt. Probably that embarrassing scene about the Hallowe’en candy, damn it. I won’t have another coffee, but I will have one of those chocolates now. Just one! If you have one too, we can raise them in a toast!
(Helen hands Rita ONE chocolate, then takes one herself. ) Salute! Here’s to being a successful Brag Medallion Honouree!
EXCERPT
Rita stands before the tumble of toys and chocolate-bar wrappers and half-full pop cans on Simon’s desk, still astonished at the feel and taste of the orange caramel candy inside her mouth, its sudden sweetness and the bits of hard edges that soften in the heat of her mouth then begin to dissolve and trickle down her throat. The sensation – soothing, smoothing – provides her such relief that she feels momentarily joyous, free of all of her burdens and responsibilities. Momentarily at peace.
She also feels mildly surprised to be standing where she is. Until the instant that her willpower had vanished, her faith in it had remained unshaken – she’d known it could fail her, but she thought that she’d get some warning. But her race down the hall in search of processed sugar had come as a complete surprise.
It had been a phone call from Graham to say that he was delayed, and he wondered if she should just quickly shovel the front walk before the guests arrived: it was that phone call that had caused her to fill herself with the licorice toffees and marshmallow strawberries and various other cellophane-wrapped bits of sweetness and cream that she found in Simon and Ida’s bedroom waste-baskets and on the floors around their beds. Treats rejected by the children, sucked up now by her.
There is no such thing as smooth sailing in this house. Something always happens. Something even more tedious than what she had originally anticipated. She just can’t stand the tedium.
She puts another candy in her mouth, enjoying the shape and texture of it as much as the taste, the sensual way it fills her mouth. She is feeling better by the moment – that is the problem with deprivation; you actually do feel better when you are no longer involved in it.
A: Hi, Helen. I am delighted to be here today. I would love a coffee black, please – but yes, if you could move that box of chocolates out of my reach, I would be grateful. As the novel I am here to talk about points out in painful detail, I used to be capable of consuming half a serving plate of Nanaimo bars without even knowing I was doing it. I still need to avoid temptation when I can.
Q: So you are a character in Mary W. Walters’s novel, Rita Just Wants to Be Thin. Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you a lead character or a supporting role?
A: Thanks so much for being interested in my story. My name is Rita Turner and Mary’s novel is about me, so I guess that makes me the “lead character.” First time I’ve ever starred in anything.
Q: What genre is the novel and what is it about?
A: I would describe the novel as “women’s literature,” because it’s about an issue that a lot of women think about a lot of the time: body image. In my case, it was a weight problem that started soon after I got married. When Graham proposed, I was full of optimism for the future, but things went downhill fairly rapidly (for me, I mean; Graham always seemed quite happy). I knew next to nothing about kids, but there I was, trying to “parent” his two kids – who hated me – without much help from him. To top it all off, he wanted me to have a baby, too. I knew I wasn’t ready for that! Then his father had a heart attack, and his mother came to stay with us, and she wasn’t too crazy about me either. So to punish them (but really to punish myself, I now realize), I ate. A lot. And gained a lot of weight as a result. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew it wasn’t what I was doing. I felt really trapped.
Q: No spoilers, but are you a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’? (Or maybe you are both!)
A: That’s a very good question, Helen. If you’d asked me this question when Mary started writing about me, I’d have said I was a “baddie.” Definitely. A horrible, no-good person with no self-control, no willpower, no positive qualities, and nothing to offer the world. A slob. But now that the book is written, I feel differently about it all. I like myself much better. I think I might actually be a good person, or at least no worse than anyone else I know. Things are much, much better than they were.
Helen: Well I think you are a lovely person - you have gorgeous eyes and a wonderful smile!
(Rita blushes, murmurs 'Thank you')
Q: Tell me about another character in the novel – maybe your best friend, lover or partner … or maybe your arch enemy!
A: Maybe they weren’t exactly “arch enemies” – that’s a strong term! – but I definitely saw quite a few people in my life as adversaries. Take my mother, a career woman who still looked great even in her mid-fifties. She’d always been very disappointed in the choices I made, and to her, Graham was the last straw. She’d wanted me to go to university, not marry some widower who worked at a newspaper and needed someone to raise his kids. Then there was Graham himself. He was so focused on himself that if a fire had started in the house he’d have saved the manuscript of the book he was working on instead of his family – not because he didn’t “love” his family, but because in a crisis like that he wouldn’t have remembered that he had a family. And have I mentioned the lovely Rosa, Graham’s first wife, mother of his children? She died of meningitis at the age of thirty. She was intelligent and beautiful and perfect, and everyone loved her. Dead former spouses never do anything wrong, damn them. Then there was Dr. Graves, a stand-in for my regular doctor, who told me I was fat and doomed. But, of course, my biggest enemy was me. And food.
Q: Is this the only novel you have appeared in, or are there others in a series?
A: This is the only one. People who’ve read the book have wondered if there will be a sequel but there won’t. I’m too busy doing my own thing at this point to start creating enough drama for another book.
Q: What is one of your least favourite scenes you appear in?
A: Well, at the beginning of the story, all I ever did was resolve to go on one diet after another, but I could never stick to diets. I would go off them almost immediately after I went on them, and when I did, there was never anything decent in the house to eat because I’d cleaned everything out in preparation for the diet. One afternoon I started eating all the Hallowe’en candies the kids had thrown in the garbage. That was kind of humiliating. There were a lot of food-related humiliations…
Q: And your favourite scene?
A: That’s closer to the end of the book, when I start doing stuff I liked and wanted to do, instead of stuff I thought I ought to (or ought not) do.
Q: Tell me a little about your author. Has she written any other books?
A: This is Mary’s fourth novel and she’s also published a collection of short stories. Four of her books were traditionally published, and she self-published two. For most of her life, she has earned her living as an editor – primarily for academics – but “finally!! At long last!!” (as she says) she is now working almost exclusively on fiction.
Q: Is your author working on anything else at the moment?
A: Her new novel is called Ageless and it’s about a scientist named Nola who has figured out how to make herself get younger and then stay that way. It’s also about a woman Nola hires to ghost-write her life story. Helen (the writer) gradually decides that she wants to steal Nola’s secret to staying young. The novel’s also about a very cute dog, a Lhasa apso who also looks about twenty years younger than he should.
 |
| Mary |
A: The writing life can be difficult. The promotion part of the brain and the writing part of the brain are different. When a writer is writing, she is besieged by doubt about her ability to do anything, which makes it very, very difficult to have the confidence to promote her other writing. Most self-published authors find it hard to promote themselves. They know that everyone is tired of hearing writers tell them “Read my book!” and often, they aren’t sure what else to say.
Readers who leave comments or write reviews about authors’ book are very much appreciated. And other writers (like you, Helen! Thank you!) who encourage writers to keep moving on the promotion part, even when they don’t feel like doing it, are also tremendously helpful. It’s not just indie authors who have to deal with promotion. Publishers used to do this kind of work for authors, but even traditionally published authors have to promote their own books now.
Q: Finally, before we must bid adieu, the novel you appear in has been awarded a prestigious IndieBRAG Medallion. Does your author find this helpful, and is there anything else she would like IndieBRAG to do to help indie authors receive the recognition they deserve?
A: Mary is absolutely honoured to have been the subject of a novel that was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion. In fact, she has received two, and she is proud of both of them! After self-publishing became a viable option for thousands of writers, IndieBrag was one of the first initiatives anywhere that began to help readers to sort out the good self-published books from the many, many not-so-good ones. IndieBrag let readers know that their time would not be wasted if they checked out one of the books with a medallion on it. It’s a great program.
Helen: Thank you, Rita! It was a pleasure talking to you. Would your author like to add a short excerpt? And while she's doing that, would you like more coffee?
Rita : I’m sure she would like to add an excerpt. Probably that embarrassing scene about the Hallowe’en candy, damn it. I won’t have another coffee, but I will have one of those chocolates now. Just one! If you have one too, we can raise them in a toast!
(Helen hands Rita ONE chocolate, then takes one herself. ) Salute! Here’s to being a successful Brag Medallion Honouree!
EXCERPT
Rita stands before the tumble of toys and chocolate-bar wrappers and half-full pop cans on Simon’s desk, still astonished at the feel and taste of the orange caramel candy inside her mouth, its sudden sweetness and the bits of hard edges that soften in the heat of her mouth then begin to dissolve and trickle down her throat. The sensation – soothing, smoothing – provides her such relief that she feels momentarily joyous, free of all of her burdens and responsibilities. Momentarily at peace.
She also feels mildly surprised to be standing where she is. Until the instant that her willpower had vanished, her faith in it had remained unshaken – she’d known it could fail her, but she thought that she’d get some warning. But her race down the hall in search of processed sugar had come as a complete surprise.
It had been a phone call from Graham to say that he was delayed, and he wondered if she should just quickly shovel the front walk before the guests arrived: it was that phone call that had caused her to fill herself with the licorice toffees and marshmallow strawberries and various other cellophane-wrapped bits of sweetness and cream that she found in Simon and Ida’s bedroom waste-baskets and on the floors around their beds. Treats rejected by the children, sucked up now by her.
There is no such thing as smooth sailing in this house. Something always happens. Something even more tedious than what she had originally anticipated. She just can’t stand the tedium.
She puts another candy in her mouth, enjoying the shape and texture of it as much as the taste, the sensual way it fills her mouth. She is feeling better by the moment – that is the problem with deprivation; you actually do feel better when you are no longer involved in it.
CONNECT WITH Mary W. Walters
INDIE BRAG LINKS:
Website: https://www.bragmedallion.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Indiebrag/
Twitter: @IndieBrag
HELEN HOLLICK:
Website: www.helenhollick.net
On Amazon: http://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Subscribe to newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick
Twitter: @HelenHollick
Very interesting interview with Rita, who talks about a subject near and dear to many of us.
ReplyDeleteMary, your Rita's struggles will resonate with many women; and by the sound of the interview, also provide hope to them in the end. Another great interview, Helen, with a B.R.A.G. medallion honoree.
ReplyDelete