Today we have the lovely and prolific author, JM Cartwright! A published author with six books under the belt, plus a short story for the ‘It Gets Better’ charity anthology, JM certainly knows what it takes to draw in a reader and have them come back for more.
JM will be guest blogging right here in the near future! Can’t wait!
Buy JM’s books on Amazon.com: (http://www.amazon.com/JMCartwright/e/B005GXVKSC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1)
or at Torquere.com:
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=345
A Change of Tune
The Trouble With Angel
A Change of Pace
A Change of Scenery
A Gentleman and His Jockey
Winning in a Landslide
The Book of Wisdom (It Gets Better Charity Short Story)
And now for the interview!
1. What are your best/worst writing habit(s)?
Guh. It has to be that I obsess about a project. That’s both my best and my worst habit. I’m like a dog with a bone. Hmm, not a pretty picture. I’ll focus on something I’m working on to the exclusion of everything else; then I’ll get distracted by another idea or another time demand, leave that project and go to something else. When I come back to the first, I find myself repeating concepts/words and have to go back and clean up. But the positive is that I have consistency. I console myself with that. 😎
2. Where do you find the most inspiration for life in general and for writing?
People. I look around me and see the beauty, the good things people do. Even in the midst of awful or shocking or stupid things, I know that most folks want to do the right thing. Some of them, admittedly, need guidance. But still, when I see someone go out of his way for the benefit of another, it renews me. So it goes with my writing. I meet someone or see someone on TV/in a movie, and a thought pops into my head. What if I had a character just like this? Who did something like that?
3. Do you like to write with an outline or fly by the seat of your pants?
I tried once to create an outline. I almost started writing a book from just that, I got so involved in it. Doesn’t seem to work for me. I found myself building small worlds for very incidental characters. That book would have been as long as War and Peace.
4. Not to put you on the hotspot, but who’s your favorite character that you created and why?
Hmm. Well, Angel Vargas from The Trouble With Angel is certainly high up on my list. He’s a smart-assed scrapper who’s worked his way into a life he enjoys. Until Brandon comes along, that is. And I have to list a second fav. AC, from my free read/fanfic story Appearing Knightly, just does something for me. That story was my homage to The Dark Knight, and it went in a direction I didn’t plan. He’s different… special.
5. What’s your favorite book ever?
Good grief! I couldn’t begin to tell you that. For each phase of my life, it seems, I’ve had one special that I go back to… then I discover another world, another time, another place, and I fall in love again. I have a number of favorite authors, both current and from previous decades. Plus, I continue to discover new-to-me authors who’ve been around a while. Isn’t reading an amazing, uplifting experience?
6. If you were trapped on a desert island, what three things couldn’t you do without?
1. Sunscreen 2. Satellite TV 3. Sex
7. What’s stranger: truth or fiction?
Most definitely truth. I’m confounded by how strange it can be!
8. Do you have a writer you aspire to be?
One of my favorites is Josh Lanyon, and I admire the way he can weave a story around characters, create snappy dialogue, wrap it in a mystery, and top it off with love. That’s my ideal of a great story. I’m not so much into the mystery side for my own creations – don’t know how good I’d be at that – but I want to create a seamless, intriguing, can’t-put-it-down story, over and over.
9. What’s next on your writing agenda?
Oh. I’m working on a fun story that’s a tad emotional. It’s called Brainy and the Beast, and it’s about Nick Shelton, who owns an auto garage with his father, and has been saddled with his 14yo nephew, whose mother just walked away. Nick meets the cerebral Henry Travis, and the two appear to be completely not right for each other. But that’s what makes life interesting!
10. Who’s your hero and why?
Ahh. Winston Churchill – a man alone. He stood up to Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s when everyone around him wanted to appease. He saw the danger, he knew what was coming, and he didn’t quit. He didn’t stop. He kept fighting. I admire that most of all.
Nancy M. Griffis 