New Chapter for If I Tie U Down

Hi Ink Drinkers!

I just released chapter nine of 'If I Tie U Down'.  But in the real world, I've been working on releasing my new novel 'If Diamonds Could Talk'.  The cover was made by a really awesome Russian artist called Anna Ismagilova.  Her work is amazing!  

Here's a little something I wrote for my blog about my new book.  

Let's pretend that I am not a frazzled author with hair like a fraggle and instead that I'm sitting with my legs crossed, calm and composed, with smooth hair and a plastic Barbie smile in a TV studio with a posh interviewer in a pink pantsuit asking me questions about this book.  The camera comes on her, the lights are dazzling, and she begins.

Q: Welcome back!  I'm Chevron Phillips and with me is independent novelist Stephanie Van Orman.  She's here today to talk about her new book, the sequel to her novel 'His 16th Face'.  Stephanie, how long did it take you to write 'If Diamonds Could Talk'?

A: Thanks for having me.  It took a little over two years, but that was nothing compared to the eleven years it took me to write 'His 16th Face'.

Q: Wow!  That's a long time to write a book.  Does it usually take that long?

A: Not at all.  The biggest problem in 'His 16th Face' was that I was struggling with a way to end the novel.  I wrote five endings and couldn't decide which one to use.  It was a problem that was churning around in my head for years.  In the end, I discarded 80,000 words of material in a 90,000-word book.  Usually, I'm not paralyzed by the ending of a novel because the ending is known to me all along.  However, that wasn't the case with 'His 16th Face'.  It is one of my dearest novels.

Q: Is 'If Diamonds Could Talk' one of your dearest novels?

A: 'If Diamonds Could Talk' goes to a place I've never read about in another book.  It goes to a place that is hinted at with the endings of other books, but the other authors can't take you there.  They show you a rainbow in the arctic, or the expanse of space ahead of you, the flashing of the northern lights, but they can't take you to the place beyond where there's more information... they give you less.  They end the story and let the reader imagine whatever they will.  That wasn't what I wanted.  I wanted to show where that ending leads beyond a dream or wistful wondering.

Q: What were your influences?

A: I was very inspired by the first Highlander film, however as much as I loved that movie, put under a microscope, it needs a rewrite.  Of course, I can't rewrite that story.  Instead, I decided to begin a similar story in another place.  My wedding.

Q: Your wedding?

A: Yes.  At my wedding, I was aware that my husband's four-year-old niece was in love with him.  She wrapped her arms and her legs around him and wept like the damned for almost an hour.  My new sister-in-law came over and asked me if I wanted her to pry her daughter off him, but I said it was fine.  I stood there in my wedding dress swaying like a bell and watched her.  My husband is a very lovable man and her feelings were spilling all over the place.  She was miserable.  In her mind, he was married now and so he could never marry her.  He patted her back and bounced her back and forth like she was a baby or maybe a little bit like he was dancing with her.  And I wondered how much time and space would have to be rearranged for all her dreams to come true.  In the end, it was a lot as that is what the opening moment in 'His 16th Face' is all about, loving someone you have no right to love in that romantic life or death way. 

Q: Is Beth based on your niece?

A: No.  We didn't live near that family after we got married and we rarely saw them after that.  Beth begins as an unreasonable teenager who wants what she wants.  By the time we've come with her all the way to 'If Diamonds Could Talk', she's still screaming and throwing things, but she calms down and presses hard for what she wants in a way that is not childish. 

Q: Is Christian like your husband?

A: He's not not like my husband.  Christian is based on seven men and my husband is one of them.  He's the most complex and cleverly built man of the heroes in my books.  Christian's character ends up being more contrived than Beth's.  Beth is more natural to me because of her position and what she can see from where she stands is more obvious to me.  Christian is enigmatic, so he has to be built like a puzzle the reader can enjoy pulling apart.  There's still more of him to pull apart in 'If Diamonds Could Talk'.

Q: What's your next project?

A: I'm writing a full-on science fiction trilogy called Octavia Girl.  The first draft of all three books is finished, so the release for them might be sooner than anyone expects.

Chevron thanks me for coming in and turns to the camera to remind the viewers where the book can be purchased and I turn to all of you and thank you for reading!