BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MARY MARTINEZ

Author Mary Martinez writes romantic suspense, romance, and women’s fiction. She’s recently begun to dabble in young adult mysteries. Today she sits down with us for an interview. Learn more about her at her website and her two blogs, Mary’s Garden and The After Work Cook.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

I’m not really sure when, for as long as I can remember.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

50+ years, but then I took a lot of years out to work and raise a family.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

At one point I was a hybrid author. Now I’m indie published.

Where do you write?

I have an office I write in every morning before the day job. Then once every other month I have an 8 hour writing day with my critique partner at Barnes and Noble. My two friends and I have an annually three day writing retreat. Not to mention any other time I can find a place to sit down with my laptop.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

Oh I have music to write by. And depending what I’m writing depends on what I listen to. When I wrote Watching Jenny (she’s a rock star) I listened to Gwen Stefani and Alanis Morissette. Right now I’m writing a fantasy set in ancient Ireland, I’m listening to Celtic Women. The louder the better.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

Not the plots, but characters have personality traits of friends. Most of my work is fiction.

Describe your process for naming your character?

I use a baby name book. First though, I write the back-story and if the character is Irish or Italian I look for ethnic names. For my fantasy I’ve researched and will be using ancient Celtic names, some named after gods of lore.

Real settings or fictional towns?

Most of my towns are real settings, but I’ve written a couple of books with a fictional town.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

Effie in my latest book is petite and cute and dresses whimsical. Likes to wear bright colors and one sock is striped and the other polka dot, that sort of thing. She’s described as reminding people of a demented elf or Tinkerbell in another life. With a potty mouth of course.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I’m very random. My mind is always working so I’ve been known to just ask a question about the world at a random moment

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Because it was just brilliant.

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I have a lot of those. Let’s see, there are so many. High school I would have studied more and gone onto college instead of listening to my parents to get married and have kids instead. I love my kids; I just would have had them a couple of years later.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

I have to work a day job so I don’t have time to write 20 emails. So my biggest pet peeve is when I put ALL the information in an email about an event of some sort and the people I’m sending it to skim and don’t read. Then send me 20 emails asking questions that would have been answered if they’d read the damn email. Sorry, pet peeve big time.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Since there is no Internet of electricity, my laptop is out. So a LARGE pad of paper, a box of pencils/pens, and water.

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Working as an office manager for an HOA (Home Owners Association) crooked as crooked can be.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

Oh sure, like I can come up with just one. In Cold Blood of course. LOL. But seriously I have so many. So I’ll go with the most recent best book I’ve ever read. And that would be The Rent Collector.

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

City Girl

What’s on the horizon for you?

Hopefully a contract with one of the NY publishers. The fantasy story I’m writing. I’ve been planning this for years.

Abandoned, Book VI of The Becket Series (Release date February 14, 2018)

Glenna Beckett loves her family dearly, but being the youngest of six can be overwhelming. Moving across country helped her learn who she was outside the family. She’s built a successful business in the form of a quaint shop on Main Street of Calistoga, that sells a bit of everything vintage, the new age term for antique. What more does she need?

Then he walked into her shop. International playboy, Lance Gordon. After a whirlwind courtship he asks her to marry him. Burying a niggle of doubt in the pit of her tummy, she says yes. He’s even agreed to have the wedding in Brooklyn so her family can attend. But he never arrives.

Glenna refused to believe she’d been abandoned at the altar and asks her brother, Tyler, to contact an agent friend on the West Coast to search for Lance.

Patrick McGinnis can’t believe he’s walking into a prissy shop in the high end of the Napa Valley searching for a missing groom. The bride, Glenna Beckett, is everything he feared, drop dead gorgeous, and a spoiled brat. Not that he’d ever tell her brother that. He hates wild goose chases, and this mission is exactly that. Patrick’s certain the playboy fiancé is off wooing some other delectable creature.

Unfortunately, once Patrick started to dig, he finds there’s more to the tale and it will take all his skills as an agent to keep Glenna safe. Especially when the case takes a turn and threatens the safety of his son, Finn.

Buy Links (coming soon)  

Meantime, in honor of the new release, read Disappear, Book I The Beckett Series, for free through 3/8/18.)