Interview with Nell Castle, author of A LEAP OF FAITH

Welcome Nell. I’m excited you’re here today.

Tell us about your new release.

It’s an old-fashioned story, influenced by the dozens of coverless Harlequin Romances my mother would buy from drugstore bins in the late 70’s. Sophia, my heroine, is a “good girl” who sacrifices her own needs for others. In her late twenties, she’s only just beginning to recognize her right to self-fulfillment, but not before her chronic low self-esteem pushes her straight into the arms of the wrong man. The arrival of Jackson, the man she’s destined to love, sends shock waves through her quiet life. Making the hero a celibate minister with a checkered past was a nod to The Thorn Birds, one of my favorite novels growing up. I love the sexual tension that builds between two people forbidden to be together.

A  Leap of Faith buy links:

Amazon:  https://amzn.com/B01EZM8MD0

The Wild Rose Press: http://goo.gl/7CsDF8

Please tell us where do you story ideas come from.

My heroines are inspired by women I know, who are then buckled and bent by my imagination and the demands of the story. I visualize a man who I think would make her happy, create a world in which they both plausibly exist, throw a lot of obstacles in their way, and eventually launch them into Happily Ever After.

Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

I spend so much time working out the details of the plot that I feel firmly in control of my characters when I begin the story. But the story always twists away from my control when characters need to do or express something I hadn’t allowed for in the pre-writing stage. And that’s okay. In fact, those tend to be my favorite chapters.

How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

There are lots of half-forgotten life experiences I’ve found useful to include in my writing. For example, in my just-completed manuscript, I drew on an experience at a laundromat off a canal in south Florida twenty years ago. Glad I got to reuse that setting—how often can you watch alligators while you fold your towels? As for personality, some of my secondary characters seem to voice the sarcasm of their author. I try to keep cynicism away from my main characters. I know it’s an unlovely trait.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?

Intersecting the twists and turns of the plot with the character arches, so that the story fits together like a puzzle—that is SO much fun. Getting the story down, revising it, and sending it off to the publisher with a little prayer feels great. Knowing you’ve written a book, an actual book! is an indescribable high. However, working on round after round of edits is quite a grind.  Trying to sell your little book in a big world is probably the hardest part of the process, at least for an introvert. And most people who write books seem to be introverted.

Tell us about your new release.

It’s an old-fashioned story, influenced by the dozens of coverless Harlequin Romances my mother would buy from drugstore bins in the late 70’s. Sophia, my heroine, is a “good girl” who sacrifices her own needs for others. In her late twenties, she’s only just beginning to recognize her right to self-fulfillment, but not before her chronic low self-esteem pushes her straight into the arms of the wrong man. The arrival of Jackson, the man she’s destined to love, sends shock waves through her quiet life. Making the hero a celibate minister with a checkered past was a nod to The Thorn Birds, one of my favorite novels growing up. I love the sexual tension that builds between two people forbidden to be together.

Fast Round Questions

Fruit or Chocolate?

How about vegetables? Okay, chocolate.

Coffee or tea?

I would rather die than live without coffee.

Go to the movies or watch TV.

With shows like Game of Thrones, The Americans, Masters of Sex, and everything Netflix has to offer, the TV offers more than enough distraction.

What is your favorite punctuation mark and why?

I overuse the semicolon, in personal writing at least, and I’m not proud of it. It demonstrates how I fail to think through a thought to its completion; there’s always something extra I want to add.

Author Bio:  Nell Castle grew up in western Pennsylvania and graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia. Since then, she’s lived in Key West, Anchorage, Sarasota, and Virginia Beach. She moved back to northeastern Ohio to raise her kids closer to the family homestead but looks forward to moving to a gentler climate after her youngest graduates. Until then, she revisits white powder beaches and craggy mountain tops only in her writing. She’s submitted a new manuscript to her publisher, The Wild Rose Press, and is currently at work on a novella.

Contact  links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nell-Castle-1113668521990989/?fref=ts

WordPress: nellcastle.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/nellcastle

The Wild Rose Press: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/1309_nell-castle