Please welcome Miriam Newman author of Rescued
Miriam Newman will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Rescued
byMiriam Newman
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GENRE: Non-Fiction
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INTERVIEW:
1. What or Who inspired you to start writing: It’s absolutely certain that my mother inspired my writing, as she did my love of animals that led to the creation of this current book, Rescued. Mom treasured the written word only slightly less than she did the numerous puppies and kittens invariably waddling or climbing around our house. When I didn’t have my nose stuck in a book, I was attempting to write one. From the time I could print, it was obvious what was going to happen. I was going to write a book. And they are like potato chips—you can’t write just one.
2. How did you come up with the idea for your novel? This book was drawn directly from life experience. As well as writing various subgenres of romance, I am very active in animal rescue. This is primarily for dogs, although there have been cats, chickens, goats, horses and one memorable morning when I found a pig on my porch, eating the cat food. But my dog Dancer was the one who started it all. Rescued is the absolutely true-to-the-bone tale of what happens when a crazy lady adopts a crazy dog.
3. What expertise did you bring to your writing? To my writing in general, I brought a lifelong love of history, poetry and fantasy as well as twenty years in psychiatric social work. That was an absolute gift in writing some of my characters, especially those teetering on the edge of what anyone would consider sanity. Anyone tempted to explore my sanity can get a birds’-eye view of same in Rescued. No one in their right mind would have adopted that dog.
4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio? I have a country soul. I do allude to it in my bio, but a sentence or two doesn’t do it justice. What I absolutely need for my writing is the solitude found only close to the earth and that is how I live, in an old country cottage where it isn’t uncommon to find a mouse in the kitchen closely followed by a snake hunting the mouse. We get weather here—real weather, tough and challenging. I sometimes think my electricity is a joke, just a teaser to suggest how other people live. You have to be completely self sufficient and I am, from a hand pump in the back kitchen to a woodstove to heat the house. The skills I have learned to live that way frequently find their way into my books and I am always ready to learn more.
5. What are my future plans? This book is my one and probably only venture into non-fiction. Although I dearly loved writing it as a tribute to animal rescue work, my heart is in romance and that is where I plan to return. Whether it will be historical or fantasy is always an open question, since I am deeply drawn to both. Time will tell. But readers who also like those may want to check out my other books, especially my trilogy, “The Chronicles of Alcinia.”
6. When did you first decide to submit your work? My work came strictly out of trauma. As I’ve mentioned, it was always apparent that I was going to write one, but for years I published poetry instead because I was too busy with a career and five children to contemplate writing something that required 100,000 words. That all changed after my husband died. Rather than return to work, which I had left for nearly five years while I cared for him, instead I got on a plane and went to Ireland, where I didn’t know a soul. And while I was there I wrote my first book, “The King’s Daughter.” I returned to the U.S. to find a publisher, which happened fairly quickly. And now I am up to 18 books, some of them still in print and some not.
7. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? It was simultaneously the best and the worst. My heart was set on first publishing the dramatic novel, “The King’s Daughter,” but more experienced writer friends cautioned me it might be too intense for a “first.” They suggested I write something more light-hearted and push that one before loosing my demons on the world. I had a tremendously fun time writing “Confessions of the Cleaning Lady” and that actually was published very shortly before “The King’s Daughter.” One of my reviewers said she found it hard to believe both books were written by the same person, but there ya go!
8. Do you outline your books or just start writing? Outline? What’s an outline? My books write themselves in my head and make me sit down at the computer and write them out. I am not consulted until they are ready. If you think they’re giving me a clue, you’re wrong.
9. How do you maintain your creativity? To be blunt, I don’t. Since there’s an evil genius in my head writing those books, it would be pointless. If it wants to write, it writes. If it wants to sulk, it can do that very well, too.
10. Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons? My Muse is named Persephone, after the Queen of Hades. She is quite definitely a demon. I picture her as a sort of evil Snow White—you know, skin white as snow, black hair, red lips—with a smoking hot red dress suitable for a demonic creature. She can make my life—ah, shall we say?—entertaining.
BLURB:
What do you do when you are alone in the world? If you're a nice middle-aged lady with a social conscience, you go to your local shelter and adopt a rescue dog. Of course, sometimes it isn't only the dog who needs to be rescued. That's when life might send you a Dancer-Dog.
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EXCERPT:
“We’re home,” I said in that tone you use when you give a dog the good news, and her soft ears pricked. She sat up, looking eagerly out the window. She hadn’t come to any palace, just a hundred-year-old Victorian cottage swamped with evergreens, bamboo and a lot of weeds I never found time to whack. But it boasted a fascinating yard I had already decided to have fenced in despite the cost. Sam and I walked the perimeter of the proposed yard so the dog could pee copiously once more, and then my friend had to take her leave of us. She had been walking Dancer and the dog seemed a trifle confused when I took the leash, as though she had considered Sam her new owner, but when I led her into a warm place that smelled like food, she went right in.
Kitty, accustomed to dogs, actually deigned to thump down from the rocking chair to greet us. The next thing I knew, I was flattened against the solid oak door as a rampaging whirlwind ripped out of my unprepared grasp. The cat had MOVED--God save the mark!—and Dancer responded instantly. Poor Kitty, who hadn’t run that fast since her youth, whipped up the slippery wooden steps. She was able to make good her getaway because Dancer had never before encountered steps. The dog thrashed at the bottom, lunging in impotent fury, unable to deduce how to get upstairs.
“No!” I admonished when I could catch my breath. “Bad dog! No chase!”
She looked at me as if I was crazy.
“Oh, come on,” I said, relenting. “Let’s eat.”
“I was just about to,” her expression said. “Where did that cat go, anyway?”
Kitty had gone to the attic. She stayed there for a long time and she must have had telepathy with Smudgie, the barn cat, because I didn’t see old Smudge for days.
Her food disappeared and so did she.
There followed a delightful afternoon and evening of snoozing on the couch with the dog tucked in the same position she had assumed with Sam, in this case flat on top of me with her nose between my neck and shoulder. As long as her eyes were hidden, that tuck seemed to say, she couldn’t spot anyone coming to take her away from heaven. A wave of protective warmth suffused my heart. This dog must have been through hell. Who knew what awful things had happened to her? Well, her troubles were over. I would see to that.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Fantasy poetry driven by myths and legends has been my passion for as long as I can remember. I was published in poetry before catching the romance writing bug. I bring that background to my writing along with a lifelong addiction to horses, an 18 year career in various areas of psychiatric social services and many trips to Ireland, where I nurture my muse. My published works range from contemporary fantasy romance to fantasy historical, futuristic, science fiction and historical romance. Currently I live in rural Pennsylvania with a “motley crew” of rescue animals. You can see my books at www.miriamnewman.com.
Facebook: Miriam Newman Author
Twitter: twitter.com/miriamnewman
All proceeds to be donated to Home Free Animal Rescue, Red Bank, NJ.
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Miriam Newman will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGood morning and thank you for hosting this book of my heart.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Angel's blog. I hope you have a great tour. Allana Angel
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the excerpt & interview!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting!
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