Author Interview with Victoria Bernadine
I’m interviewing Victoria Bernadine today, author of chicklit novel “A Life Less Ordinary”. Welcome to my blog, Victoria, and thanks for answering my questions.
Author Interview
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
I always loved to write, and wrote a lot as a kid, and dreamed of actually finishing a book – LOL. Being an author was always something I wanted to do, but it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve actually been disciplined enough to finish the stories I’ve started. 🙂
Where did you get the inspiration for A Life Less Ordinary?
My own life. I was reassessing my life and choices, and wanting to run away from everything. I couldn’t do it myself, so I had Manny do it for me.
What is your editing process like?
Painful.
…
Well, okay, I’ll share a little more. 🙂 I don’t write sequentially, so my first edit is to figure out the sequence of events and fill in gaps/transitions between scenes. The second edit is to finalize what scenes stay in the story and which ones go, and to smooth out the transitions. The third edit is to smooth out any remaining rough edges. The fourth, fifth and sixth edits are for grammar, wordsmithing, eliminating redundancies, spelling, formatting, etc., etc., – all the nitpicky details that pretty much drive me crazy because I always miss something.
Like I said: painful.
What was the most challenging part about writing A Life Less Ordinary?
There are a lot of storylines in the book, so the most challenging part was keeping all the timelines in sync, and keeping track of where each character was at any given moment. I had a spreadsheet…
What are your writing goals for 2014?
To finish my next book. To finish a couple of novels I’d written previously. To make progress on the sequel to A Life Less Ordinary. To successfully participate in National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) in November. To get started on another new novel…or two…or three…LOL. Basically: WRITE.
Are you working on something right now? If so, can you tell us more about it?
Yes, I am. It’s a romantic comedy called Along Came Jones. It’s about a man whose long-term girlfriend breaks up with him, and a woman who’s a recluse. I’m working towards a May release date. 🙂
A Life Less Ordinary
Title: A Life Less Ordinary
Author: Victoria Bernadine
Genre: Chicklit, Contemporary Fiction
For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her career. But now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving town on a six month road trip.
After placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke’s true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.
Now, armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.
Author Bio
Victoria Bernadine (a pseudonym) is, as the saying goes, a “woman of a certain age”. After twenty-something years of writer’s block, she began writing again in 2008.
Victoria enjoys reading all genres and particularly loves writing romantic comedy and post-apocalyptic science fiction. What those two have in common is anybody’s guess.
She lives in Edmonton with her two cats (The Grunt and The Runt). A Life Less Ordinary is the first novel she felt was good enough to be released into the wild.
Links
Twitter: @vicbernadine
Blog: victoriabernadine.wordpress.com
E-mail: loveofwords@shaw.ca
Purchase your copy:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMJBOSQ
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-life-less-ordinary-victoria-bernadine/1114941600?ean=9780991810215
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4164575
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/299257
Giveaway
Win a $25 gift card of your choice by commenting on one of the tour blogs. All you have to do to participate is leave a comment, and you’re in the draw!
Good morning, Majanka. Thanks for hosting me today! Greatly appreciated, and the interview was a lot of fun! 😀