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Meet
Simona Taylor - Romance Author
by
Wayne Jordan
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Name:
Birthday:
Occupation:
City of Residence:
Favorite Color:
Favorite Food:
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Real
name, Roslyn Carrington, but I write as Simona
Taylor.
31st
January – do you really need to know the year?
Okay, 1966.
Up to
last year, Public Relations Officer, but since
then I quit to write full time.
Near
Arima, in Trinidad, West Indies.
Yellow
and purple will probably have to duke it out for
that honour.
Anything
Eastern: Indian, Thai, Chinese. |
1. Roslyn, tell us a bit about
MEET ME IN PARIS.
Meet Me in Paris is about Kendra, who grew up grossly
overweight, shy and hating herself. She loses the weight and
starts to indulge in designer wear to boost her damaged ego.
These things cost money, and she winds up in financial
difficulties. To feed her shopping addiction, she “borrows”
money from her company. Her employer, Trey, isn’t happy
about that. He fires her on the spot, but when she begs for
forgiveness, he rehires her as his housekeeper to work off
the money she owes him.
2. When you’re not writing, what
do you like to do in your spare time?
I have an on-again/off-again
affair with my vegetable and herb garden, and I read when I
can. But since I have 2 young children, when I’m not writing
I’m either chasing them around or lying on the floor in an
exhausted heap.
3. What would you consider to be
your greatest accomplishment (as a writer) to date?
Definitely my literary novel, A
Thirst For Rain. I‘m still getting mail about it!
4. If you were introducing a new
reader to your work, which one would you choose and why?
For literary novels, A Thirst
For Rain. For romances, either Meet Me in Paris, because I
decided to let my natural sense of humour come out, or May
Summer Never End, because it’s set in the south of France,
my favourite place. Besides, both the heroes are
smouldering.
5. How has your life changed
since you became a published author?
Every day I am astounded by the
fact that I have achieved my childhood dream. Being a writer
has been my only ambition since I was 9. So essentially, I
have been walking around in a daze the last 10 years.
6. How have you changed as a
writer since that first book?
I’ve learned to try to listen
to the reader, instead of writing what the hell I want. I
write with them in mind, asking myself how they’d react to
such and such an event. I guess that means I’ve gotten over
myself.
7. What do you like most about
being a published author?
The reader mail, notes on my
guestbook, MySpace contacts, etc. It’s great to know I’ve
touched someone enough that they took the time to write.
I’ve made some great friends like that, too. One reader even
sent me a ticket to go visit her in California!
8. Are there any more Roslyn
Carrington books on the way?
Not soon, but I have started
working on one.
9. What has been the most
difficult thing about being a published author who writes
African-American Romance?
I don’t know if it’s any harder than being any other kind of
writer. I guess my biggest mistake is assuming my readers
are all black, (and thus narrowing my vision), but my reader
emails assure me that that’s not so.
10. What advice would you give
an aspiring author?
My main advice is to finish the
novel. You’d be stunned by the number of readers who tell me
they want to be a writer…but have never finished anything.
11. Tell us a bit about the
process you use when you write a novel.
I start with a single concept,
a what-if, as in “what if a good person got caught doing a
bad thing, like stealing from her employer? How would she
redeem herself? How far would she go to make up for it?”
Then I thrash around for the next 6 months or so until I
hammer out a good story.
12. Agent or not?
I’m lucky to have the Knight
Agency on my side. They rock.
13. Tell us a bit about your
next great masterpiece.
My next Kimani is called Show
Me Heaven. It’s about Shani, a young mother who lost
everything, her job, her social standing, when her French
ex-husband sells nude photos of her to a men’s magazine.
When he threatens to sell some more, her new lover, a
wealthy businessman called Elliot, steps in, and whisks her
away to Martinique to help her get the photos back. And you
know how sexy Martinique is!
14. If there was one thing you
could tell your readers what would it be?
Buy my books! Okay, seriously,
I’d tell them thanks for the interest, the support, and all
the positive comments. There’s not much point to writing if
you don’t make some sort of connection with your reader
through your work. When they take the time to rech out to
me, it makes me feel that I’ve achieved something.
15. How can readers contact you?
My website is
www.scribble-scribble.com.
They can visit and drop me a line on my guestbook, or they
can email me at roslyn@scribble-scribble.com
. I’m also on Facebook, MySpace and Shelfari.
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