Author Interview with Greta Boris

Author Interviews

March 18, 2019

Author Interview with Greta Boris

1) How do you plot novels? Do you outline?

I use a method I created called the Plot Menu. I first figure out who my characters are using the Enneagram personality types, then I create a spreadsheet in a three act structure, plug in major plot points, and start writing! I go back to it every 5 or 6 chapters and make adjustments as I get new ideas and learn my characters better.

2) Do you write in one genre, or in different genres?

The only genre, besides nonfiction, I’m published in at the moment is psychological suspense, but I’m working on a cozy mystery and a women’s fiction novel I hope will make it out into the world soon.

3) What is your favorite part of the writing process?

I actually like revising books. I love the collaboration aspect of working with a good editor . It’s hard to see your own writing objectively, which is nerve wracking for me. Getting my editor’s feedback then massaging the book to make it better and shinier is both a relief and a lot of fun.

4) What is your dream as an author?

My personal mission statement is to write stories that touch hearts and change minds. I love it when I hear from a reader that something I wrote did that. I guess my dream would be to reach more readers, so the N.Y. Times list and USA Today list would be lovely. I’ve been on Amazon bestselling lists with my nonfiction and that was exciting too.

5) What would you like your readers to take away from your story?

The Sanctity of Sloth is a story about what can happen when a good woman does nothing. It’s an extreme example, most of us don’t run into dead bodies on a regular basis, but it is based on something that happened in Orange County several years ago. There are people in terrible circumstances all around us, and our tendency can be to look the other way, not want to get involved. I wanted to make the point that not getting involved has consequences too.

6) What are your strong points when it comes to writing? What are your weak points?

I think and hope, I’m getting better with each book. In the beginning I really struggled with plot. My stories tended to ramble down rabbit trails – which is how my mind works. It made a lot of work for my editor! She had to reign me in. Now my plots are much more on point, more structured, but I’m struggling a bit with making sure my character’s motivations make sense.

Over all I’d say my strong points are characters you can relate to and plot twists and turns you didn’t expect. Regarding weakness, I have to rewrite and rewrite to make character’s motivations straight and clear and keep the tension up.

7) Are you working on something at the moment?

I’m currently wrapping up The Color of Envy, book four in the series. Each book is a standalone story, so you can start with anywhere, and each book has a different protagonist. However, I do bring characters I like or need into several of the books, so you’ll see familiar faces if you read the series. Envy is set in Laguna Beach, like the first book, A Margin of Lust. It’s fun to be back in the world of creepy mini-mansions on cliffs overlooking the ocean.

About the Book

Title: The Sanctity of Sloth

Author: Greta Boris

Genre: Suspense, Mystery

Series: The Seven Deadly Sins

There’s one thing more dangerous than testifying to a crime—staying silent.

Locked in the ruins of a California Mission, Abby Travers watches helplessly as a girl dies outside her window. As she struggles between her moral obligation to come forward as a witness, and her commitment to a Medieval religious practice that requires her to retreat from the world, the situation spins out of control.

Abby’s hesitation starts a series of catastrophes. She finds herself at the center of a deadly cover up where every minute counts and indecision could be fatal. She questions all her beliefs and everyone she knows becomes suspect. To save herself and those she loves, she must break free from her self-imposed prisons of stone and fear.

The Sanctity of Sloth is a taut, psychological thriller that answers the question: What happens when a good woman does nothing? Fans of Paula Hawkins and A.J. Finn will enjoy this third book in Greta Boris’s Seven Deadly Sins Series.

Purchase from Amazon

Author Bio

Greta Boris was raised in Greenwich Village, New York by an opera singing, piano playing, voice coach and a magazine publisher. Her original life plan was to be a famous Broadway actor, singer, and dancer, but when she moved to Laguna Beach, California, she changed her plans due to the commute. Today she writes to inspire, entertain, motivate, and so she can afford nice wine.