Lisa Beth Darling will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.
Sins of the Father
by Lisa Beth Darling
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GENRE: Family centered drama
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INTERVIEW:
1. What elements
are necessary components for this genre?
The Sister
Christian Series and more pointedly this novel, Sins of the Father, is a contemporary family drama. As with all
genres, every story needs strong characters facing conflict either from within
or without to build tension and make it interesting.
2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?
I started
writing this series a few years after I made contact with my birth family and
discovered I had three brothers. I was raised an only child so the idea that I
had siblings was rather new to me, growing up I often wished I had a sibling
but then I'd go to my friend's houses and see how they interacted with their
siblings and went home happy I was an only child. The idea of the
brother/sister dynamic always interested me even when my friends were shouting
at each other over nothing. This series and a lot of its contents, planted
deeply in the fertile ground of a writer's imagination, grew out of those two
situations.
3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?
Genesis, the first book in the Sister Christian Series opens with Doctor Richard Mason reading a letter informing him his father, James Rice, has died and Mason has been put in charge of his sister, Hannah Rice. Problem is, Mason is in his early 50s and had no clue he was adopted until that very moment. Luckily for me, I've always known I'm adopted but once when I was little a friend took it upon herself to tell me that because she'd found out from someone and was completely upset that this fact was being hidden from me. I still remember the worried look on her face as she took my hand told me the 'news'. I can still her astonishment when I replied: "Is that it?"
I really
liked the idea of opening the whole series that way with one great big secret
revealed on the very first page.
Hannah has
known for decades that Rick is her brother, her mother told her just before she
committed suicide leaving Hannah in the care of her father, James Rice. Hannah
had a very unpleasant childhood. When we meet her, she is a troubled woman both
physically and mentally who has spent 30 years of her life in one group home or
another.
I suppose,
in a lot of ways, that's exactly how I felt at that point in my life dealing
with shuffling through all of the adoption and birth family stuff. I felt as
though I'd been shuttered away somewhere for 30 years and was finally coming into
the light. Although it wasn't in the ways I would have expected and that we all
hear about on TV Talk Shows and on the Huffington Post. I grew stronger from
the experience and, over the course of the series, so do Mason and Hannah as
they deal with dark family secrets and their own failings.
4. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
4. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I'm
currently working on finishing up the Sister Christian Series with the last
book, Prodigal Son. I hope it will be available in the summer. It should tie
everything up nicely and give my readers the one thing they always crave from
me and I hardly ever give them; a happy ending.
5. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
Nick
Jackson. He's tall, broad, dark, handsome, very intelligent, loving, caring and
is not afraid to stand up to Mason when it comes to Hannah. Mason is quite the
curmudgeon, he's absolutely brilliant at what he does but totally clueless when
it comes to the Human Condition, most especially his own.
6. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?
"Yes," he said, "that's when and where I
learned there was no God. At St. Mark's."
Hannah didn't know what to do or say all she knew was that
she was damn angry. How dare he stand there and deny the existence of God! Who
the hell did he think he was? World famous doctor or not, who was he was to say
that God didn't exist? There was a word
for that. A big one. "Ba-bab-ba-ba-bbb-b—"
"Bbbbb…what?"
Hannah stared up at him from her wheel chair with smoking
eyes as she gripped the armrests until her fingers turned white. Feeling as
though she might bust a blood vessel or something as she sat there straining to
control her anger as she fought to find the word. The big word. "Ba-lasss-fffaa-me!" Hannah pushed
the word through slotted lips.
"Blasphemy."
Mason repeated and began to put forth his argument but then pulled back
the rancid comment rising on his tongue as a different thought took over.
"Blasphemy? Damn…good one." He complimented, yes, that had to be a
very hard one to get out, but that didn't stop him from continuing. "It's
not blasphemy if God really doesn't exist. And He doesn't."
"You take that back!" Hannah shouted. "Now!
Rright now!"
"No," he said in a snarl, "I won't."
Hannah put her hands on the wheels of the chair and backed
away from him.
"Where are you going?"
"Ah-way from the light-n-ing bolt."
"God's not gonna strike me dead. He can't. He doesn't
exist."
That was it for her, Hannah rudely pointed toward the
bedroom. It was one thing not to believe
in the same God that she did, Hannah understood that some people believed
different things but to deny His existence altogether had to be the most
self-centered arrogant thing she'd ever heard.
"Go."
"I'm not gonna go to my room. You're not my
mother." He sniped.
"This is…my room now…you go."
Mason looked around the living room, Hannah was still
sleeping out here, and since she wanted to be alone and not have this
conversation with her egotistical big brother, he was being banished to his
room for the rest of the night. "Are you kidding? You can't order me
around. This is my house!"
7. Do you outline your books or just start writing?
7. Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I think on
them a while and then, when I'm ready to give myself over to the Muse, I do so
and follow wherever he leads. I always have an idea of where we're going but
not necessarily of how we're getting there.
8. How do you maintain your creativity?
I try not
to lose faith. It's when I lose faith in myself and my ability to pen a good
story for nothing more than my own amusement that the dreaded Writer's Block
hits. I won't lie it can last a very long time but it's mostly nothing more
than a lack of confidence.
9. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?
I adore
Mason and Hannah equally but, in the end, Hannah would be my favorite. For all
she's been through, everything she's suffered, and all that's been taken away
from her, she's still smiling and looking forward to a future that gets a bit
better for her with each passing day. She brings a lot of light to Mason's
lonely world.
10. Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons?
My
Muse is about 40% nice-guy and 60% warrior so he always leans toward the darker
harder hitting things we can do but every now and then he surprises me and
turns into a ball of mush.
BLURB:
As Hannah
recovers from emergency brain and heart surgery, memories of the past overtake
her dreams with such clarity they cannot be denied. As the last of the painful
family secrets come to light it's up to her brother, Doctor Richard Mason, and
his unconventional methods to help her confront the ugliness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Running
a hand over the side of his close-cropped gray head Frank tried to keep his
cool as he pled his case, "Look, I just want to see Hannah, are you going
to let me in there or not?"
Mason
seemed to think about it for a second even though he really wasn't.
"Ummm…not." He said finally. "She doesn't want to see you."
"She
told you that? I don't believe it."
"Well,
you could go and ask herself…oh, wait, that's right…you can't go in there.
Guess you'll just have to take my word for it."
"Yeah,
like that's worth anything."
"Some
people think it is." Mason retorted as he held out his cupped hands,
"Some people put their lives right here.
Crazy, right?" From the look
on the man's face Mason thought he'd stand there and bitch all day long.
"While you're waiting for noon to come around, why don't you do Hannah a
favor?"
"What's
that?"
"Tell
me about the two years between her accident and the birth of my pre-maturely
deceased nephew." He watched
Frank's mouth drop open. "Take a load off." Mason said and gestured
toward the chair opposite his desk. "In fact, why don't you just tell me
everything you know?"
"She
told you about Little Ricky?" Frank asked as he leaned forward but the
question was more directed to the air than anyone in the room. "She's
never spoken about him…ever."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
It was in the 4th grade when
Lisa Beth Darling discovered she was a naturally gifted writer. For her very
first creative writing assignment, the teacher asked the class to pen a story
about a baby bird's first flight and read them to the class. Putting pencil to
paper, Lisa was instantly whisked away by a force she couldn't explain. When
they were finished, all of the children read their happy stories to the class.
Not Lisa. She got up and told of how the baby bird flew too high, hit a plane,
crashed to the ground and died. She told of how the mama bird and daddy bird
cried of how even God was upset sending the rains pouring from the sky. The
class was speechless when she finished all they could do was stare at her. The
teacher kept her after class told her the story was very good but it was different
from the others. She asked Lisa if she'd ever heard of Icarus and had she based
her story on him. Lisa had yet to encounter Greek Mythology or hear a whisper
of Icarus. As Lisa left the classroom the teacher again told her how good the
story was but suggested she might want to write something happier next time.
Perplexed, Lisa turned and asked her
teacher: "Why?" The teacher had no answer. Luckily for us, Lisa never
took that teacher's advice.
Today she brings us complex
multi-layered stories rich with the trials and tribulations that make up the
world in which we live. Not one to be pigeonholed into any single genre, Lisa's
stories revolve around the intricacies of couples from range the intimacy of
lovers, to mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters.
Lisa Beth Darling is 49
years-old, lives in her hometown of New London, CT with her husband of nearly
30 years, Roy. She is the author of more
than fifteen novels along with several short stories and non-fiction books.
Author web
links: (web, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads, etc)
Website: http://www.lisabethdarling.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lb_darling
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lbdarling
Purchase Links:
Kindle/Amazon
(paperbacks available on Amazon)
Nook
iBooks
Smashwords
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Lisa Beth
Darling will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via
rafflecopter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.
