Today, we welcome Carolyn Haley, author of the scifi romance The Mobius Striptease.
To stop invisible forces from harming her sister and lovers—then rippling out to damage the world—Madeline LaRue must use physics and metaphysics to learn the secrets of psychic power and transmute it through body and soul.
Romantic Journey: Thanks for joining us today, Carolyn. You have a history of published nonfiction. What led you to begin working in fiction?
Carolyn Haley: Art. From an early age, I illustrated my romantic and adventure fantasies. And being a literate, introverted child, I gravitated naturally toward augmenting my illustrations with stories.
But I was weak at expanding concept into narrative, so the short-story format defeated me.
Novels came easier, though I have written only two because they take me so long. I thought I had only two books in me, but a nonfiction one squeaked out a few years ago, and now a third novel has started coming alive…
RJ: Is The Mobius Strip Tease your first work of fiction?
CH: No, second. The first one, a YA horsey romance first composed in my teens, lives in a drawer.
RJ: How do you juggle your fiction and nonfiction writing?
CH: Nonfiction writing (and copyediting) is a profession, so it always comes first.
Fiction is an avocation, so I am free to work on it when in the mood and when time permits. This disqualifies me from ever being a professional novelist, but gives me the luxury of really enjoying the process and making the works true to my heart.
RJ: What are your five favorite books? What lessons have you applied from them to your own writing?
CH: Like others, I can’t nail down five favorites. There’s a long list authors I follow and genres I prefer, but I read so heavily that there are too many to itemize.
But I do have a top-of-the-list favorite author: Dick Francis. I adore his books and I admire his style. While I can’t emulate it, I can use it as a model–the way he captures appearance, scene, character, conflict with swift brush strokes and dialogue/action. I’m prone to blah-blah-blah-ing, and telling not showing, so his compact approach is a good beacon for me to follow.
RJ: Are you a chest or buns woman?
CH: Neither. But if I had to pick from these two body parts, it would be chest. For me the whole package has to work, starting with eyes and brain, shoulders and arms . . .
RJ: Who’s your fantasy man?
CH: Dick Francis’s archetype hero! (I ended up marrying the guy who’s closest to him I could find in real life.)
RJ: If your ship were sinking and you could grab one thing on the way to the lifeboat, what would it be? Go on instinct here; don’t let common sense interfere with you as you grab your hairdryer or laptop instead of food to take to the desert island.
CH: I would grab my purse, in response to both instinct and common sense.
Although a wallet won’t do any good in a lifeboat or on a desert isle, my purse still contains simple fire-starting tools, food, painkillers, cigarettes, notebook and pen, and cell phone.
RJ: Thanks again for stopping by, Carolyn. It’ was great to get to know more about you and your work.
Readers, find out more about Carolyn at Author’s Den.
Romantic Journey 