I’m pleased to have author, Barbara Forte Abate, as the guest on my blog today. After graduating from high school, she married young and promptly launched into the joys of family life. While home and kids kept her busy, Barbara never considered abandoning her dreams of writing. Stealing moments throughout the days, she composed her stories on yellow legal pads while babies napped and supper simmered. Her debut novel, "The Secret of Lies," was released on June 30, 2010.
Katie: Can you please share a brief synopsis of your book?
Barbara: The crux of my story takes place in 1957, the last summer Stevie and her sister Eleanor will spend at their aunt and uncle’s ancient house overlooking the North Atlantic. A season that had unfolded with abundant promise, it spirals horribly out of control--torn apart by a shattering tragedy that remains splintered in fragments upon a family’s soul. It is only now, a decade later, when Stevie at last lifts her eyes to stare deep into the heart of her long sequestered memories, that the long held secrets of past and future are at last unveiled.
Katie: What motivated you to write this book?
Barbara: I started writing this story twenty years ago, but even now, all these years later, I clearly recall how it came about. I was in the midst of finishing up some mundane household task, when the proverbial “lightning bolt” arrived from nowhere to plant the seed of an idea in my mind. It was originally just the idea of someone walking away from everything familiar--the how and why coming later. That’s all I had when I started writing: that single concept of a person so tormented they believed that the only way of surviving the unhappiness of their life was to get up and leave it. I had no plan for where I was going with it and certainly no ending, but even so, the story felt very important and I just jumped into what would become the ride of my life.
Katie: What is your writing day like?
Barbara: I am a woman of self-imposed tight schedules, and am very possessive of my limited writing time. So I try and take care of all my routine drudge stuff in the morning so that I can plant myself at my desk in the afternoons. I find it difficult to sit for long uninterrupted hours of writing and sometimes it’s the brief distractions that clear the smoke of thinking too hard, and allows me to reboot and start the cogs turning once again. I know I’m more or less done for the day when I hear my teenage son come in from school and begin rifling through the kitchen cabinets.
Katie: This is an adult, mainstream literary fiction. Do you plan on writing any more books in this genre?
Barbara: Mainstream fiction truly does feel like my niche. I’ve written four other novels (all currently unpublished), and without consciously aiming, they’ve all landed in this genre. Mainstream literary is also what I generally read, so maybe it has something to do with what I put in my head comes out in my pen! (You know – you are what you eat!)
Katie: Do you belong to a critique group? Why or why not?
Dear Katie,
Thanks for posting such an inspiring interview with Barbara Forte Abate. I enjoyed learning how she never gave up on her writing and the lessons she learned about having another pair of eyes read your work for grammatical errors. Good luck to both you and Barbara in your publishing endeavors.
Joan Y. Edwards
http://www.joanyedwards.com
http://www.joanyedwards.wordpress.com
http://www.joanseldercareguide.weebly.com
Hello Barbara,
It's good to know there are options out there for authors and their novels. With the publishing world going through so much upheavel and radical changes being made, I think you made the right choice.
Good luck with your endeavor.
Katie, thanks for the interview. Barbara, your book sounds great. Good luck to you with your book. Your advice about not skimping on the fine tuning is right on. My personal criterion for exiting fine tuning is that I have to go through the whole thing twice without finding any errors. I find this easiest to do chapter by chapter -- otherwise it's too overwhelming
Many thanks, Katie, for inviting me over to your blog. It was a great visit :-)
And much appreciation to all of you for taking the time and interest to offer your comments. It's fabulous to hear from and connect with others who share this crazy love of words!
Barbara Forte Abate