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Welcome Geraldine Solon, Author of Chocolicious

…[L]ife doesn’t always go according to plans….
~ from Chocolicious

Life is like that. Just when you have it figured out, just when things seem to be moving along swimmingly, there’s a hiccup, a pause, or – as for Blair Nightingale in Geraldine Solon’s newest novel, Chocolicious – everything comes to a sudden halt. After the death of her husband, Blair finds herself stranded: penniless, homeless, and unsure of everything, especially of how she will provide for her newborn baby girl.

Chocolicious is a novel that centers around the loss of family and the rediscovery of self. True to the novel’s title and cover, chocolate plays an important role in Blair’s healing, but in more ways than just physical sustenance (because we all know that chocolate is healthy).  Today, I’m honored to host Geraldine Solon, as she talks about her novel, the role of food in family traditions, and the three P’s of writing.

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CC: I always love reading about an author’s inspiration for a story, be it the sound of a character’s voice, a first line, an image. What sparked the idea for your novel?

Geraldine Solon

GS: You wouldn’t believe how I came up with this novel, but I was craving for a rich-filled, three-layered chocolate cupcake one afternoon when a vision of a miserable woman flashed through my mind. The story began to unfold smoothly, and as I became wrapped up in this woman’s chaotic world, I knew chocolate would play a significant role to my novel. It’s surprising how my chocolate cravings gave birth to a novel.

CC: At the root of CHOCOLICIOUS is a recipe for three-layered chocolate cupcakes, a recipe – handed down from Blair’s grandmother – that calls for more than just a few key ingredients to turn out right. I love this idea: that traditions, whether they are culinary or cultural, encompass a tactile and an emotional experience. Is there a recipe you remember from your upbringing that you enjoyed as more than just a meal (or a dessert)?

GS: I also love traditions and I believe that food brings good company. There’s nothing more memorable then sitting at the dinner table while savoring good food and chatting about what transpired during the day. Sharing a meal together is important in our family—it’s what unites us. When I was growing up, my family had an amazing cook who made us sumptuous meals and sweet desserts from scratch. Most of her delicacies were a fusion of Eastern and Western dishes and they were all delicious. Since chocolate is my weakness, my favorite dessert was the Chocolate Ice Box Cake. The chocolate is so rich that it melts in your mouth. Our cook always knew what our favorite dishes were, and to this day I am grateful for the labor of love she has bestowed upon me and my family.

CC: Speaking of your childhood, your bio on your website states that you grew up in the Philippines. What do you miss most about that time and place?

GS: The Philippines is such a beautiful country with lots of remarkable people. I miss the powder-white beaches, the laid-back lifestyle, the never-ending parties, and most of all my friends and family. People back home are so kind, helpful, thoughtful and generous. You will never die of loneliness in the Philippines because life there is about being together and sharing with one another. For a Filipino, friendship is golden—once a friend, always a friend you can count on.

CC: What are you reading these days?

GS: I just finished reading The Mill River Recluse by best-selling author, Darcie Chan and I was very impressed with her debut novel. She created such quirky, memorable characters that continue to resonate in me. She raised the stakes for her characters and pushed them above their limits to do things they were not capable of doing. I hope to read more from this author.

CC: What advice can you offer writers on the rise?

GS: Don’t try to follow the trend, but write about what you care about. If you believe in yourself and in your story, then put your heart into it. Work hard and have a vision on where you’re going. And it’s more than just writing the book, it’s about reaching out to your readers, capturing your audience and building your brand as an author. I live by the three P’s—Passion, Persistence and Prayer.

Thanks for having me over, Christi. I enjoyed the interview. You can learn more about me and my work at www.geraldinesolon.com or visit my blog at www.geraldinescorner.blogspot.com.

Geraldine Solon is the award winning author of Romance and Women’s fiction novels. Her debut novel, LOVE LETTERS, won the Beach Book Festival for the Romance category, has been nominated for the Gobal eBook Awards, and is currently being adapted into film. Geraldine resides in the Bay area California with her family.

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Welcome Author, Lisa Rivero

[Oscar] motioned for me to sit next to him “This grand prairie”–he swept his hand toward the door– “is like a blank piece of paper. The way I see it, we come here to write our story on the land, acre by acre. Every homesteader’s claim tells a different tale.”
“What is your tale?” I asked.
Oscar grinned. “I’m still writing it,” he said.
~from Oscar’s Gift

The front cover of Lisa Rivero’s debut novel, Oscar’s Gift: Planting Words with Oscar Micheaux, bears four important words: Fiction for Young Historians. Oscar Micheaux, the first African-American filmmaker, bought a claim of land in South Dakota to homestead in the early 1900’s. He was a man of persistence and of wit, educated and creative. In her historical novel, Lisa Rivero shows how a man such as Oscar must have impacted the lives of those around him,  especially a young person like the main character, Tomas.

Lisa Rivero has plenty of publishing credits to her name, but this is her first venture into fiction. I doubt it will be her last. She has a knack for taking details of the past and weaving them into stories that touch today’s readers. Just take a peek at some of her Flash Narratives on her website, stories about her Great Aunt Hattie. You’ll see what I’m talking about, and you’ll likely want to read more.

I’m honored to host Lisa today to talk about her debut novel, Oscar’s Gift. At the end of her interview, leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for a free paperback copy of her book. Random.org will choose the winner on Tuesday, October 18th, at high noon.

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CC: The blurb on the back cover of your book says that you grew up on the same reservation where Oscar Micheaux homesteaded. How did you come to learn about Oscar and his connection to your own history?

Lisa Rivero

LR: I am still amazed that I hadn’t heard of Oscar Micheaux until just a few years ago, since he homesteaded not far from my grandparents’ farm. I first read about him when I was doing some research about my ancestors for a writing project based on some family diaries. Although Micheaux is best known for his film making, I was captivated by his farming and writing. What must have the experience been like for an African American homesteader at the turn of the century on an Indian reservation? Then, when I began to read about his childhood and the intensity he brought to everything he did, I was hooked and knew I had to write about him.

Continue reading “Welcome Author, Lisa Rivero”

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Welcome Jenna Blum, Bestselling Author of The Stormchasers

Go get him, Karena, he said. You’re the only one who can.

And Karena knew this to be true, from the nights she was the only one who could sing Charles to sleep, the only one who could coax him off the roof, keep him from climbing the water tower, make him stop chanting that song, stop bouncing that ball, stop kicking that door. She ran out into the lot, tasting the dirt in the air, positioning herself…where Charles would either have to stop or run her down….
~ from The Stormchasers

More than once, I’ve fallen victim to the belief that I could save someone: a friend in despair, a parent on the brink, a loved one chasing a false god down a dark road. I’ve set my voice on an uncomfortable high note in hopes that enthusiasm was contagious, played counselor during marathon phone calls,  stood in the way of the inevitable and gotten pinched in the middle. Painful lessons are never pretty.

But in Jenna Blum’s amazing novel, The Stormchasers, we find a story that mixes the agony of mental illness with the beauty of landscape, the power of devotion, and the miracle of unexpected healing. A novel as much about mental illness as it is about storms, The Stormchasers gives readers vivid images of how both phenomena mirror each other in the way danger brews and crescendos, then crashes and leaves a path of destruction.

The main character, Karena Jorge, is driven in her work as a journalist and in her search to save her twin brother, Charles, from himself. She sets out on a stormchasing expedition, one that puts her in danger at times and brings her closer to a different discovery: Charles is not the only one who needs saving.

The Stormchasers, touching and poignant, is a story that I will read again. I’m so honored to host Jenna Blum today for an interview about her novel, about writing, and about karma. At the end of the interview, leave a quick comment to be entered into the drawing for a copy of The Stormchasers. Random.org will choose the winner on Tuesday, August 30th, at high noon.

**UPDATE: Because of Irene’s visit to the East Coast, and subsequent power outages over the weekend, I’m going to postpone the drawing for a copy of Jenna Blum’s novel until Thursday, Sept. 1st.**

CC: In a recent and compelling essay on the website, Style Substance Soul, you talk about a childhood fascination with tornadoes and reasons why you chase storms (even after the novel has been published). Did the idea for THE STORMCHASERS stem from your personal experience on the road with Tempest Tours, or was it your research with them that took root and sealed your strong connection with the chasing community?

JB: That’s a great question! I had the idea for THE STORMCHASERS–a novel about a bipolar young man who chases tornadoes when he’s manic and his twin sister, who basically chases him–long before I started chasing storms with Tempest. In fact, I wrote an abbreviated draft of the novel in my graduate MA program at Boston University, back in 1996.  I didn’t have a stormchasing community before I started chasing with Tempest to research subsequent drafts of the novel, and what I didn’t expect were the lifelong friends I would make chasing.  I chase with the same people every year, my esteemed mentors and friends like me who are still learning, and they are my storm family. THE STORMCHASERS continues to introduce me to new folks in the chasing community, for which I’m profoundly grateful.

CC: All of the characters in your novel are written in such a way – authentic and relatable – that readers will think of them long after they close the cover of your book. Do you have a special technique you use, early on in your writing, for developing characters?

JB: Thank you for the generous comment about my characters!  I suppose they come off as real because to me, they are real.  They just happen to exist in a dimension halfway between the ether and the paper, hovering somewhere above my head.  My first job as a writer is to get them out where others can come to know and love them the same way I do.  I’ve been told that my characters are lovable despite their flaws–or sometimes hateful because of them or sometimes just plain flawed–and I take that as proof I’ve succeeded in getting them down as real people.  Because who among us isn’t flawed?

When I’m first getting to know the characters, I start by writing down everything I know about them, which ranges from macro big-picture stuff–basic family history–to the fact that Charles Hallingdahl, for instance, the brother in THE STORMCHASERS, ate only green food as a child. Not all the details make it into the novels.  But because they’re part of the character, I write them down.  More details reveal themselves as I go along, and the biggest struggle is to remain true to the characters’ characters, to not graft behaviors onto them because it suits the plot or it’s something I myself would do.

CC: In your career, you’ve traveled all over and seen a variety of landscape. Do you have a favorite place that you’d love to call home or visit time and again?

JB: Again, a great question, and one that strikes a poignant chord with me these days, because although I’m proud to say I have a home in Boston and a house in rural Minnesota where my mom and grandmother were born, I’ve been on the road at least 300 of 365 days in the past year.  One night, when I was checking into a hotel in Florida, the desk clerk looked at my MA license and said, “Wow, you’re far from home.” I thought: Yes, I sure am, both literally and metaphorically. I’ve traveled and divided my geography so much that I’m not sure where my central home is.  But I love my writing community and friends in Boston.  And geographically, my heart belongs to the heartland.  The landscape of the Midwest and the High Plains makes sense to me and allows me to breathe freely–all that space and big sky.

CC: What are you reading these days?

JB: Galleys!  I have the privilege of reading books before they’re published to supply authors with quotes for their book jackets (you’re like Ah-ha, *that’s* where those come from). It’s a great kind of sneak preview.  I read Rebecca Rasmussen’s incredible debut THE BIRD SISTERS and Kaira Rouda’s inspiring novel HERE, HOME, HOPE.  Three novels I highly, highly recommend for 2012:  Anna Solomon’s THE LITTLE BRIDE, about a Jewish mail-order bride who ends up in the Dakotas.  Nichole Bernier’s THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D., about a woman discovering her best friend’s secret life after that friend’s death.  And Jami Attenberg’s THE MIDDLESTEINS, which is about food, family, love, life, and loss–all the important stuff–and will tell you why it’s vitally important to include cinnamon in pastry.

CC: What advice do you have for writers on the rise?

JB: Usually I would cite Winston Churchill here:  “Never give in, never give in, never give in.” And that’s still true. But in today’s swiftly changing publishing landscape, it’s also important to be open to new ways of doing things. There’s no room for a lazy writer these days (if there ever was!).  Expect to do your own legwork, your own homework, your own promotion.  Use social media. Reach out to and support as many other writers as you can.  It’s good karma, and that must always come back to help you in the end.

Thanks, Jenna. And, for all you readers out there, don’t forget to drop your name in the comment section for a chance to win a copy of The Stormchasers.

JENNA BLUM is the New York Times and # 1 international bestselling author of THOSE WHO SAVE US and THE STORMCHASERS.  She is also one of Oprah’s Top Thirty Women Writers. For more information about Jenna Blum and her bestselling novels, visit her website, follow her on Twitter, or Like her page on Facebook.