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| Bobbye Terry and Daryn Cross |
Caroline: Readers love to get to know authors. Please tell us about growing up. Siblings? Locale? Were you the shy kid or the tomboy? Share anything that lets readers get to know the real you. Pets? Spouse?
Bobbye: My dad was a college professor and we moved a lot so he could keep going back to school for another degree. He had to teach in between to pay for more years of education. I think all the moves taught me how to make friends easily. My sister is fourteen years younger than I am, so I grew up essentially as an only-child. My upbringing wasn’t remarkable, wonderfully normal, and I was a studious kid. In high school, I planned to be a chemist, and won all sorts of science awards. Then I went to college, and decided that was not for me. I double-majored in Religion and Sociology with the equivalent of a minor in Psychology (my college didn’t recognize minors). I had one dog growing up, a collie named Bootsie, and have had three precious Labs during the years of my marriage. Number three is alive and well, three years old and a full-grown puppy. I am married to a cantankerous yet loveable Vietnam Vet with the heart of a hippie. Thus, we live in the country.
Caroline: I’m married to a cantakerous but lovable aerospace electrical engineer with the heart of a hermit and that’s why we live in the country. LOL Who are your favorite authors and favorite genres?
Bobbye: I have very eclectic tastes. I grew up reading a lot of sci-fi. Now I primarily read romance and fantasy but also love nonfiction. Authors: Caroline Clemmons (of course!) Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Lori Wilde, Christie Craig, Nalini Singh, Annette McCleave (a relative newcomer, but, oh so good), Linnea Sinclair. There are so many, how do I name them all?
Caroline: Thank you for including me in your list! How many books do you read a month? What are you reading now?
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| From Crescent Moon Press |
Caroline: Writing does interfere with our reading, doesn't it? When you’re not writing, what’s your favorite way to relax and recharge? Hobbies?
Bobbye: I read or spend time outside with a little meditation. I also like to fish, though I refuse to take my own fish off the hook. That’s what husbands are for.
Caroline: I love riding in the boat, but hate fishing. Would you like to share any guilty pleasures that feed our muse?
Bobbye: Red wine, dark chocolate and old romance movies. And then there are massages…
Caroline: Massages...Sigh...Wait, where was I? Oh, yes, back to our interview. Share some unusual things readers may not know about you.
Bobbye: I used to play competitive amateur tennis and won a few awards, mostly in team tennis. I have a CTM in Toastmasters and love to speak in public (Very unusual, so I’m told). I interned in a state psychiatric hospital which gave me a lot of insight into the human psyche, also often discovering the relatives of the patients were far more unstable.
Caroline: No wonder your characters are so fleshed out. How long have you been writing?
Bobbye: Seriously for fifteen years though I’ve written pieces since I was in high school.
Caroline: Where do you prefer to write? Do you need quiet, music, solitude? PC or laptop?
Bobbye: I always write in my office which is part of a spare bedroom looking outside a window over the open fields of the country. I don’t usually play music, which is odd, because I used to have either a T.V. or stereo on when I was in college. Times change. My writing is done totally on laptop, and I have a mobile modem, so I could move if I wanted to.
Caroline: Your books are very complex. Are you a plotter or a panzer?
Bobbye: I’m a hybrid, but a higher percentage would have to go to panzer. I prefer character profiles and major plot points only. Then I fly and usually put in all my story twists to ramp up the tension as I go.
Caroline: Some people are calling that a plotzer. Do you use real events or persons in your stories?
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| From iUniverse |
Caroline: Do you research before you begin a new project, or as you go along?
Bobbye: Oh, heavens yes. Readers are amazingly perceptive and sometimes a bit OCD. I don’t want my facts to be wrong. Once, a reader wrote Linda Campbell (my co-writer for my current book using the pen name, L.J. DeLeon) and me and told us that one of our scenes was wrong because there wasn’t a full moon on that day in 1864. Won’t do that again. IT’S MAGIC didn’t require a lot of research because it takes place primarily in Richmond, Virginia were I lived for fifteen years. However I did research the make of Tom’s car and also the snake he purchases. Some books/series take a lot longer, such as the series premise I just dreamed up. It’s already taken two full days of research, and I’m not even writing it until two books from now.
Caroline: You are so correct about readers catching the tiniest error. Tell us about your writing schedule. Do you set goals? Do you write daily?
Bobbye: I normally start around eight in the morning and usually write throughout the day until at least six at night, though I have written well into the night hours. Writing anywhere from fifteen hundred to five thousand words in a day, I try to at least average eighteen hundred. I do edit as I go—can’t stop with just getting it on paper. There are some days I just can’t write, but thankfully they’re few and far between. Belonging to one particular group where I report my numbers daily helps keep me honest, and I also participate on regular scrimmages and boot camps on Savvy Authors. Those are not for the weak of heart, but I get a lot done.
Caroline: I know you’re not working outside the home right now. Will you remain a full-time writer?
Bobbye: Right now I’m laid off from my job so I’m writing fulltime; however, I need a job if I want to eat much longer. Now, if three of my books go for big bucks to a major publisher…
Caroline: Fingers crossed for you! I believe you'll make your goal. What do you hope your writing brings to readers?
Bobbye: Pleasure, escapism, a smile. Even my books that have thriller scenes also contain a huge amount of humor, so I hope I make readers laugh.
Caroline: What advice would you give to pre-published authors?
Bobbye: First, I would strongly suggest they not call themselves pre-published unless they have a contract and are awaiting publication of their first fiction title. I know many use it loosely these days, but, in my opinion, our trade is one that is learned through the old journeyman model. That should be honored by the newcomer and the old timer as well. Each needs to share what they have. You apprentice when you first begin to learn your craft and how to construct a rudimentary novel, then actually write it, gaining PRO status (for those who are not familiar with the vernacular, that’s a Romance Writers of America designation for romance writers requiring certain standards, including a finished book). Then once, you are contracted you’re pre-published and have made journeyman. Once published several times, you may gain master craftsman status. Now, I’ll get off my soap-box.
Further, I suggest you take advantage of all opportunities to learn from writers who have been working at their craft for many years. They have knowledge you don’t, and even if you consider their skills to be inferior to yours, realize what you don’t know and be humble. Their history alone can help open doors for you.
Finally, never verbally accept a contract or sign one without seeking assistance. If the publishing house is a large one, for crying out loud, send out that information to a handful of agents and see if one won’t represent you.
Caroline: Very good advice. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself?
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| Texas sunrise photo by Bobbye |
Bobbye: IT’S MAGIC is a romantic fantasy. Santa Claus, operating under his real name, Maxwell Magic, works off-season. Each year, he pairs two lonely people in a love-match that will last forever. Magic has an assistant who intervenes from time-to-time to make sure the two have every opportunity to fall deeply in love.
Blurb:
Can true love exist between a man who believes a woman is capable of sticking a shive in his heart while making love and a woman who is convinced men think with only one head? Maxwell Magic, an eccentric mysterious matchmaker swears it can and he’s the man to provide the stimulus to make it happen. Kasey Bell, feminist writer, and Guy McLane, radio’s famous chauvinistic psychiatrist, are his targets. Even with carefully executed plans, the road to true love is strewn with mishaps, mirth and money-hungry nighttime talk show hosts. Will Kasey and Guy risk their reputations by exposing secrets buried beneath layers of shame and self-doubt for a desperately needed big money pay-off? Or, will they claim what has evaded them their entire lives—a love that lasts forever?
Excerpt, PG Rating:
As Kasey followed the stagehand, Guy grimaced. Damn. Why’d she have to have sea-green eyes and be a natural, sun-streaked blonde? He was a sucker for natural blondes, and she appeared to be one. Unlike his ex, Helen, he suspected Kasey Bell’s blonde hair wasn’t found just on her head.
His gaze took in her tight ass and long legs. God, what legs Some men were turned-on by big breasts. Others by asses. Not him. He was a leg man through and through.
And Kasey had the best set he’d seen in years.
Her dress clung in all the right places and was designed to make a man forget his own name. Not that it had a chance with him.
Guy studied her the way a connoisseur would a fine wine. Vintage seventy-three. He took another long, slow perusal and shook his head. He was wrong. The body on this Cabernet Sauvignon came from a perfect year. More likely a seventy-eight or if he were lucky, a classic seventy-five.
He grinned as she smoothed the sides of her dress while continuing to cross the stage on her perfectly toned legs.
Definitely still corked. She hadn’t had a chance to breathe, yet. He inhaled sharply. There was no mistaking a good mellow grape when he saw one. And when squeezed just right, the grape was memorable. One to be savored, never gulped.
No question about it, Ms. Kasey Bell was premium sipping quality. First, he’d give her time to breathe. Then he’d taste her, a little at a time, a gentle swirl over the tongue, a teasing of the taste buds.
As he continued to examine her, Guy swallowed hard. From the way her dress moved and the lack of lines, she wore a thong and thigh-high hose. Her derriere was the perfect size for his hands to cup each cheek as he pulled her flush against him. He could feel her long legs wrapping around him. And then there were her delicate ankles. They were so slim his fingers could circle them.
The whole package was enough to bring a grown man to his knees. Especially one like him who’d been alone for last three years. God, help him. Because if He didn’t, Guy knew there was no way he’d maintain his cool while seated next to her on stage.
“Dr. McLane?”
Guy snapped to attention. Standing before him were two lanky young men. “Yes.”
“I’m Josh Bell. This is my younger brother Jacob.”
Guy thrust out his hand and greeted each boy. “I understand you want to take some photos.”
“Yes, sir,” Josh answered.
“You’re our hero.”
Jacob frowned at Josh’s sharp jab to his ribs and Guy laughed. “What does your mother think of that?” He grinned as the two boys looked at each other, shrugged, then turned back to him.
“She hates it,” they said together.
“Dr. McLane, you’ve got two minutes.”
“Thanks, Al.” He turned to the boys. “We’d better get those photos taken.”
Guy started to move, then grimaced, again. Damn. He hadn’t reacted to a female this rapidly since adolescence. Back then, much to his embarrassment, all it’d taken was a slight breeze to get a reaction out of him. And at thirty-eight, the last thing he wanted was to look like a coat rack in some kids’ photos. “Both of you stand here,” he said, positioning the boys in front of him.
As Al Mack took more than a dozen photos, Guy wondered what it was about Kasey Bell that rang his chimes. They’d never met, yet he’d swear he’d seen her before.
Ah, well, he’d remember eventually. He never forgot a pair of legs, especially ones as spectacular as Kasey’s.
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| Full Moon by Bobbye Terry |
Bobbye: They can buy them though the usual avenues including Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.
Caroline: How can readers learn more about you?
Bobbye: They can take their pick of locations.
Websites at http://www.daryncross.com/, http://www.crossanddeleon.com/, http://www.terrycampbell.com/
Blogs at http://www.daryncross.blogspot.com/, http://www.bobbyeterry.blogspot.com/ (the last one being my suspense novel blog).
Thanks so much for being with us today, Bobbye. Best of luck in the future.
4 comments:
Thanks for adding my pics and the book cover on Craig Legacy! This intreview was a lot of fun.
Bobbye, w/a Bobbye Terry AND Daryn Cross AND Terry Campbell.
Great interview! I will bait the hook with worm or minnow, cast it, reel it in ... but I will not take it off the hook either. I was finned once by a catfish when I was a child and have refused to take the fish off the hook since then.
Bailey,
One time when we lived on a lake, my hubby's mother was visiting and we were fishing. He had to go back to the house. In the meantime, I caught a fish and both his mother and I stood there looking at it. I said, "Do you take the fish off the hook?" She said, "No, but I watched W.T.(husband at the time, now deceased) take them off and you can do it by putting them on the dock floor, stepping on them and pulling the hook out."
So here I was mashing the poor yellow gill to mush but finally got the hook out and kicked it off the dock. Doubt that fish survived. :)
Bobbye
Beautiful pics, Bobbye. And a great interview, Caroline. I can't believe anyone in the US would not know what Shagging is. Then again, I've lived in NC most of my life and learned to shag in college. I think it's a bit like disco dancing done to beach music. Oh, yea. I disco danced too.
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