Today I’m sharing an interview I did with Sally Cronin at the Smorgasbord Invitation. Sally has opened a new interview series for authors, and I am thrilled to be kicking off the series with her.

 

 

Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore New Series – Sunday Author Interview – #Non-Fiction #Memoir – D.G. Kaye

 

Welcome to the first in the new Sunday Interview series, exclusive to the authors in the Cafe and Bookstore.. details of how you can participate and join the other authors in the cafe can be found at the end of the interview.

 

Delighted to feature D.G. Kaye (Debby Gies) as the first author and whilst if you are regular visitor, you will have met Debby before as a contributor with her Travel Column, and the Laughter Lines, you will find out a great deal more about her writing and her selected book today.

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Thanks so much for your most generous invitation Sally. I’m delighted as always to be here sharing my thoughts and experiences as a writer, and of course, a bit about my book – Twenty Years: After “I Do”

Always a pleasure to have you as a guest and contributor Debby and time for you to reveal which questions you have selected…

Looking back on your life, what key elements such as childhood, education, inspiration, motivated you to write?

My childhood inspired me to write at a very young age. I was a curious child who loved to learn by whatever means, be it reading, watching TV or just observing people. I had a voice and was quite inquisitive but had no confidence to use my voice. So, at a young age, I’d craft love notes and amateur poems for people I loved to demonstrate my affection because I didn’t feel comfortable saying ‘love words’ to anyone, mostly, because they were unfamiliar words to me.

My voice was through my writing. As I grew up, love notes turned into letters, a frequent method I used to communicate to people what I was feeling in order to avoid one-on-one confrontation and nervous fluster, which would have me forgetting all the points I wanted to cover.

From my teens onward, I began observing my mother closely, and journaled my discoveries. Then after years of being a victim inside my mother’s web, as I neared mid-life I felt compelled to start writing my first book compiled from all my journaling.

 

If you’re a nonfiction writer, please tell us about the inspiration behind your books, and if personal, how you feel it has benefited you to share your life experiences.

All my books are written about experiences I encountered through my life, from growing up emotionally neglected with a narcissistic mother to living out my life with a narcissistic mother, low self-esteem issues, living through menopause and staying sane, to snippets of some of my travel discoveries, sharing first-hand advice gathered through my stories. My featured book here – Twenty Years: After “I Do”, is about how I navigated my marriage happily, despite the challenges of what life can throw our way. Many of the issues I write about are also other people’s issues, this is why my readers can relate, and perhaps through reading how I manage to plow through these events, I can lend some encouragement for someone else’s circumstance.

As for myself, I’m a storyteller and a big believer that if I find something useful, I feel compelled to share with others who appreciate learning something that may enlighten or encourage them. It’s a wonderful feeling to write and share my stories.

Sometimes I wonder, who am I that someone would want to read my books? I’m a girl who experienced a lot since her young life who just wants to share her stories so that others can take something from my words, and hopefully, enjoy the read along the way.

 

Where did the inspiration for your featured book come from?

As some here know, I’m married to a man a generation older than me. I share about what it takes to keep a marriage going strong despite the pitfalls of life that happen, and that could potentially tear apart a relationship.

When I accepted my husband’s wedding proposal, I replied. “Yes. But you have to promise me 20 years Mister!” My sarcastic humor was really my fear of the distant future, knowing we wouldn’t have the luxury of growing old together, but if I was somehow promised 20 years, I would accept that as a good amount of time together. We’re now 20 years married this year.

As this anniversary was approaching, I wanted to commemorate my 20 wonderful years of marriage and share in story that life will always present its ups and downs and dilemmas, but it’s about how I keep my marriage thriving despite our age difference and obstacles presented to us along the way. I wanted to share some of my situations to pass along some learned wisdoms.

Love has no age or time limits.

 

What is your editing process, and do you use any software you’ve found particularly helpful?

Editing for me begins with first round revisions. For those who aren’t familiar with my prehistoric method of writing books, all my books are written in longhand. Once I’m finished writing my first draft, I enter each chapter into the computer and in doing so, I begin the editing process – revision round one begins. Once the chapters are entered, I begin round 2 of edits. By the third round is where I’ll turn on my ProWritingAid program, installed on both my website and my Word docs, to do further edits and discover inconsistencies and typos overlooked through that program.

Next, I like to leave my manuscript alone for a period of time – from a few days to a week, so I can distance myself from it for a while and go back with fresh eyes. While my MS is marinating, I’ll work on other things which are part of the book, such as the blurb, and cover art images I find that represent the book’s essence so I can send to my book designer to help her get a feel for what I’m after. Then when I’m ready to go back to my MS, I print it out to do a paper edit. It’s amazing what our eyes pick up on paper as opposed to on the computer screen.

The next round of edits, I turn on the ‘text to speech’ feature in Word, make myself a coffee and a comfy spot on the couch, and listen to my book being read back to me. This helps me to discover any other typos, missed punctuation, or weird sounding sentences my eyes may have missed. When I hear something wonky, I just pause the reading and highlight the issue to fix later and continue reading so as not to stop the story flow.

After listening to my book and editing . . . continue reading at the Smorgasbord

 

Source: Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore New Series – Sunday Author Interview – #Non-Fiction #Memoir – D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine