Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter it is a delightful romp. I enjoyed the book so much I decided to ask the publisher if the author would grant an interview. She did!
I loved the characters, are they based on real people?
Thank you. I can’t say the characters were based on anyone, at least consciously, although some bits of family members and myself may have leaked in from time to time. I’ve found even if the characters begin as an amalgamation of people I know, they eventually take on their own lives and persona.
Do you see Clair as part of your own persona?
I can definitely see bits of her in myself; I think it’s a natural bleed-over of writing in the first person, and being a beginning author. I have always been interested in psychic phenomena but have never had any earth-shattering skills to back up that interest, and although I haven’t been married and divorced three times, I’ve fallen victim to the “falling in love with love” syndrome. I think those are the biggest similarities.
It is a light, easy book to read, but your use of the Tarot shows some research was involved. How long did the project take, and did you use personal knowledge or 'hit the books'?
I had nine months to write the book and used every bit of it. I can read Tarot cards, but I don’t have them memorized, and have to leaf through a book. So I did refer to Tarot card books. I also had to research the Shawnee National Forest area, and I did enough research on stock terms and stockbrokers just so I’d know enough to not know what I was talking about. Not all of the research made it into the book, but between that and figuring out all the plot points, it kept me pretty busy.
Accidentally Engaged is your second foray into the literary world: did you find it easier to put this book together than your first?
I had high hopes, but no. I’m sure I learned a thing or two, I wrote it in half the time (I really procrastinated with the first) but it was just as difficult, maybe even more so. And now I’m going through the same struggle with my third book. I’ve spoken with prolific writers who tell me the feeling never leaves, it always feels as if you’ve never done this before, and there is always the fear you’ll never be able to do it again.
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