| Current
Release:
SWEPT AWAY (4+) Other reviews Against the Wind (5) Fools Rush In (4+) |
 |
PREVIOUS AUTHORS Janice Sims (March) Candice Poarch ( February) Donna Hill (January) |
This month, AUTHOR OF THE MONTH is ARABESQUE and Genesis Press Author, Gwynne Forster---ROMANCE IN COLOR Reviewers' AUTHOR OF THE YEAR.
1. What is your current
book and what inspired you to write it?
I am currently writing Scarlet Woman. The idea came when I heard a woman
saying that she had been completely misunderstood and maligned by people who
neither associated with her nor conversed with her and who knew nothing of her
personal affairs. I thought, how intriguing.
2. Do you have a full-time career outside of your writing?
I am a
demographer, which involves original research, analyzing the findings and
writing up the result in a form suitable for publication.
3. When you're not writing, what do you like to do in your spare
time?
I don't have
any spare time. When I'm not doing research, writing or traveling in connection
with it, I cook, go to market, and so on, like most married women. I seldom
watch TV, and when I get a chance to read, I'm doubly happy.
4. What is something about you that your readers would be surprised
you do?
I doubt it.
Apart from gardening (raising vegetables, mostly) in the middle of a big city,
haunting art galleries, singing tenor of the church choir - but all that's
normal, isn't it?
5. What should a reader expect from one of your books?
A deep and
tender love story set in a framework of social problems that require
a rigid examination of relationships between the principals and everyone
touched by their lives. I'm always asking my characters, how do your actions and
decisions impact on your life and the lives of those with whom you are in close
contact.
6. Which character did you have the most fun writing about?
I most enjoyed writing the Meade twins in SEALED WITH A KISS. Mattie, in FOOLS
RUSH IN, is a close second.
7. If you could pick one of your books for a movie, which one would
you
choose, and whom would you cast in it?
SWEPT AWAY.
However, I wouldn't like to see it as a movie unless I had script control. I
would want to see its faithful representation. Any gifted tall, willowy black
woman able to portray great dignity could play Veronica.
8. What do you like about African American Romance novels?
I think they are truer to middle and upper-middle
class African American life than are mainstream novels and impression propagated
by the media.
9. How did you get started writing your novels?
During my long trips overseas for United nations,
I would close my eyes and tell myself stories when my eyes became too tired for
me to read. One such story stuck with me, and I decided to write it down. I
didn't offer it for sale, but the experience taught me that I could write a full
length novel, and I got hooked.
10. What process do you use in writing your novels?
I toss an idea aground in my head until some
characters begin to show up. Then, a premise and a theme form in my mind. With
that much to go on, I'm ready to do an enormous amount of research deciding the
main site for the story, finding out what the town or city is like, looking up
its industries, history, street plans, monuments, etc. Then I develop the major
characters who will bring the story to life. I don't outline; I do enough of
that in my work as a demographer. I sketch scenes in sequence. Then I'm ready to
write.
11. How long does it take you to complete a manuscript?
I'm asked this frequently, but there is no set
answer. Some stories flow out of me with ease, others are like pulling hens'
teeth.
12. What was your becoming a published writer journey like?
After deciding that I wanted to write and publish
fiction, I began SEALED WITH A KISS on January 2,
1994. On October 21, 1994, my agent (whom I met in July 1994) called to say I
had a two-book contract.
13. Is being a published writer what you thought it would be like?
I hadn't given it any thought. Let's say, it
always surprises me that I have 13 published fiction titles, all of which are
romances when, as late as 1993, I didn't read romances.
14. What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment as a
writer and
why?
14. As a writer, my greatest accomplishment are
in my academic field. My work is in the libraries of some of the world's leading
universities and on the syllabuses of graduate students in demography. Insofar
as romance writing is concerned, I value my awards for ECSTASY
and NAKED SOUL (best contemporary ethnic romance
novels of 1997 and 1998, respectively by critics and readers of AFFAIRE
DE COEUR magazine), AGAINST THE
WIND (Award of Excellence) and 1999 AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
award, both conferred upon me by the critics of ROMANCE IN
COLOR. Notice of that honor is inscribed on the cover of SECRET
DESIRE my November 2000 BET/Arabesque release.
15. How do you feel about critique groups?
I have never belonged to a critique group and
doubt that I would consider joining one.
16. Do you think an agent is necessary?
And agent is helpful, since many publishing
houses will not read manuscripts submitted by authors. They are indispensable
for guidance in the business of publishing and for running interference between
author and publisher, something that every author comes to appreciate.
17. If you had known then what you know now, what would you have
done
differently in terms of your romance writing career?
I might have begun with a mainstream, since I've
always felt boxed in by the necessity of ending stories with "they lived
happily ever after." I love happy endings, but sometimes I yearn to
"tell it like it is:" the
guy liked another girl better.
18. Any advice for those aspiring romance writers?
Write the kind of stories you like to read. Write
what you think you know and buttress that with thorough
research. Write everyday, and work on one story at a time.
19. Do you like communicating with your readers? In what forms.
And how
can a reader contact you?
I answer every letter and e-mail that I receive.
It's what I do on Sunday Afternoons. I love mail. Reach me at GwynneF@aol.com or
P.O. Box 45, New York, NY 10044
20. Can you give us a peek at what we can expect from your next
romance?
My next publication is MIDNIGHT
MAGIC, a Genesis Press book. I've got my fingers crossed
with this one, because it's my first attempt to place a romance in a
lower-income setting. And that proved difficult, because of the limits that low
income places on the characters' activities.