Interview with Charmaine Gordon

1. What's your genre or do you write in more than one?
>
When I wrote To Be Continued, I never thought about genre or even that
> I was writing a book. Ta DA! Out came a romance. A tiny bit smarter
> with Starting Over,the second book, I realized I had written a
> Romance/suspense book. "Now What?" the third book to be released at
> the end of July is a paranormal.

> 2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?>

As you can see, the genres chose me.>

3. Is there any genre you'd like to try? Or is there one you wouldn't?

> I haven' thought about it but I do have an idea...
>
4. What fiction do you read for pleasure?

> Murder, mayhem, with humor. Elmore Leonard, John Sanford, Robert B.
> Parker and I like Susan Isaacs.

> 5. Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing,
>
Born in a small town in the Mid west-Chicago. Maybe you've heard of
> it...Oh-not that far back. I wrote skits with music and dancing in
> high school and college and later during Air Force years when my
> husband was a pilot. For many years I was an actor with daytime drama
> and movie credits and reached Off Broadway in a wonderful play "The
> Fourth Commandment." At some point I had an idea for a story. Kissing
> the sweet time of acting so long, I began to write.
>
6. Which of your characters is your favorite?

> I love all of my /*survive and thrive*/ women; from *Beth Malone* in
> *To Be Continued *who re-creates herself as the winner she once was
> after being abandoned by her husband-to *Emily Kendrick i*n *Starting
> Over* who learns to protect herself against the stalker determined to
> have her-and dear *Carly Evans* in *Now What?-*a widow who must thread
> the path between two worlds to find happiness.
>
7. Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

> Bad guys are part of the initial plan. I start with a tragedy and end
> with a resolution before the story begins. The rest falls in place.
>
8. What are you working on now?

Just finished *Now What?* and a short story, *Take me As I Am* to be
published in a romance anthology titled Passionate Hearts-to be
published by Vanilla Heart Publishing in the fall.
>
> 9. What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?

> *"Now What? *came to me in my sleep like the other stories.

> 10. Tell me about your latest book and how it came about. Enclose the
> opening of the book around 400 words.
>
> *"Now What?" an excerpt
> *
* *

*PROLOGUE*

/ //It was 2:30 a.m. when the phone rang. I fumbled for it, my heart
starting a race toward bad news. /

/ Our doctor’s voice urged me to hurry. I crammed into clothes as if I
expected this call. Actually I thought all would be well, or did I? It was only a
fever that wouldn’t go down./

/ Only a fever yet the dogs had curled up next to him on his favorite
couch and never left his side all week. His ruddy complexion drained to gray. Only a fever. /

/ I cried all the way driving too fast on Eden’s Expressway. Then the
slow elevator ride to the fourth floor, a sprint down the dim corridor to his room.
He lay on the hospital bed where I’d kissed him goodbye not so many hours before. I’d said, “See you tomorrow.” My husband of thirty years replied with words I hadn’t heard in a long time. “I love you.” Not since the heart attack two years before when he began listening to his heart beat and forgot about me. When he said them, other words flashed across my mind, like writing on a sign: Too late,/
Bobby. Maybe we both sensed the crossroads ahead, the impending doom./

/ Our doctor shook his head. “Bob had difficulty breathing. They called
me. We did everything possible to save him. I held him in my arms when he took his
last breath. Carly, I’m so sorry.”/

/ I asked him to have everyone leave me alone. Settling in beside my
Bob, I held his cooling hand and asked the two words spoken many times during our years together. /

/“Now what?” This time there was no response. I was on my own for the
first time./

/ My hands caressed his sweet face knowing he wasn’t there. Only his shell lay on the bed. The essence, the beauty of his spirit had moved on. I let my eyes gaze around the colorless room; the water glass half empty now, straw bent for easy
access. His toothbrush leaned in a container, toothpaste smeared down its side. The scuffed leather slippers under the bed and striped terry cloth robe—a Christmas gift from the kids, draped over a nearby chair. /

/Homey and homely. And the saddest sight I’ve ever seen./

/ When my fingers touched his wedding ring, I slipped it off and held it
in my fist. The gold band was warm. I clung to him. “Come back to me, dearest.” /

/ I knew from past experience, loved ones always return./

/ /

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