Oregon Authors Interview about the three e books, "From the Waters of Coyote Springs", "Felix and Eve" and "The Arrangement"

Want to read an interview about the books? 

What's the story behind your latest book?

"From the Waters of Coyote Springs" is a fictionalized memoir that I wrote about the days I lived in the forest near Joseph Oregon where I worked as a forester doing timber inventories. Eve a self reliant woman of the 80's striking out on her own from a failed marriage in Wisconsin. She lives in a camp with five other mismatched vagabonds who move from forest to forest as they survey the forests for the forest service. Eve earns her nickname "Queen of the comeback" from the way she holds her own in a predominately male profession. She spends the winter in the temperate rain forest near Alsea near the Oregon coast. And learns to open herself to love again. "Felix and Eve" is about an elderly man in Gold Beach Oregon hires Eve as his live in caregiver. Felix is recovering from open heart surgery and Eve is between jobs and traveling up the Oregon Coast. What becomes a strange and wonderful relationship starts off rocky to say the least. Felix is at first not very trusting of this young, carefree woman who seems to grate against his cantankerous spirit. The summer is spent just trying to adjust to having someone else around the home where Felix and his now deceased wife lived for fifty years. During the evening they play cards on the screened in porch and he starts to open up about his past when he worked for the notorious Al Capone during "the day" when Chicago was going through probation. "The Arrangement" is from Eugene Oregon where the now retired Eve, the baby boomer who receives a letter each year with a skeleton key which opens a door on Catalina Island where she goes each summer. She leaves her property with a trusted friend Vinnie who lives in her back yard in a yurt. Vinnie is in love with her but remains silent. He's a Vietnam vet who experiences flashbacks and who tries to cope with a past that has its own ghosts.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I grew up in the tiny town of Fredonia north of Milwaukee Wisconsin.

When did you first start writing?

As a little girl I was always making up stories in my head. I was entranced by the book "Little Lulu" which I memorized, and to this day i remember the first part of it, "This is a house with nobody in it, no one at all, oh wait a minute. There in the chair scrunched down sits Little Lulu wearing a frown. Little Lulu's family has gone on a trip, sailed away on big big ship. And little Lulu's at home by herself, and Little Lulu's cup's alone on the shelf" Wow I have a hard time remembering my social security number and yet i remember that. Well the story goes on that Lulu rent's out rooms in her house to people from a traveling circus, its quite a tale. In fact if i ever come across that book I'll buy it just for the heck of it.

What are you working on next?

I am half way done with "The Garden Gate Stands Ajar" which tells the story before Eve moved to Oregon, what got her there and the journey down south when she worked as a tree camp cook for a rangy group of hard working tree planters. Eve is the town runner which is the person that goes to town to pick up food, water and other camp needs and to do loads of laundry for a price. She gets an offer to work in Oregon and her world is changed forever. Remember Frost's "the path not taken"? Well this is about that path. A younger Eve follows her heart and listens to her own drum as she finds out what its like to run free and clear of anything planned or expected.

What motivated you to become an indie author?

The sheer determination to share my story with other people and to do something with a box full of journals.

How has Smashwords contributed to your success?

Smashwords gave me the voice to my writing and the encouragement to keep writing. After the learning curve on how to download the books, I moved on to publishing a paperback which contains all three of my e books, under the title of "The Eve Chronicles" that has 'From the Waters of Coyote Springs", "Felix and Eve" and "The Arrangement"

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

When I got to download my 80 year old fathers book along with my three. His book "The Stone Horse & Droshki" is a saga about the Korean War a bout a man who is part Sioux Indian, part Russian who eventually defects the American Air force and becomes a Russian spy in their air force. I formatted it for him from an old Time Works program created on a floppy disk, and after a year of editing we downloaded his book and my three. I hadn't known my dad had even written a book for all the years I was a writer, and all he needed was a push to get him to birth his masterpiece. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I would say.

What do your fans mean to you?

Well right now my biggest fans are my relatives who bought my books and they are swell.

Who are your favorite authors?

Colette, Katherine Mansfield, D.H. Lawrence, Herman Hesse, Doris Lessing, Thomas Wolfe, and more recent authors: Ursula Le Quin, Margaret Atwood, Laurie Colwin, My favorite magazine is "The Sun" a monthly short fiction, poetry and interview magazine.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

Finding my way to the computer to write more on the book I am writing. And to see my beloved face.

When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?

Gardening, reading, talking on the phone, sleeping late, watching the news and volunteering for a group home for disabled women.

How do you discover the e books you read?

That's not hard by looking through the thousands of books on Smashwords and Amazon and Barnes and nobles book sites.

How did you find the time to write your books

Well after working 35 years in service to people with disabilities I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and was forced to retire. I opened the box that contained all my journals since the seventies and started writing using them as back drop to the stories in my head.

How do you approach cover design?

I use my own pictures and sent them to my format person Marty who turned them into the form they needed to be in the smashwords format they needed to be.