Friday, April 15, 2016

Friday - What She Was Before featuring Claire Gem #MFRWauthor

1. What were you in your life before you became a writer? Did this influence your writing?

Ha! Which era? I've been a hairdresser, a bridal gown designer, and owned a small craft business. I've lived in states, been an accomplished equestrienne, and even raised show Persian cats for awhile. I'm a wife of 38 years, a mother of three (including a set of twin boys!), and grandmother of a 3 year old. Right now I work in scientific research - all of these experiences provide ample fodder for the stories I craft, and I do draw on them often.


2 Are you genre specific or general? Why? I don't mean genres like romance, mystery, fantasy etc. There are many subgenres of the above.

I call my genre New Gothic because it doesn't fit neatly into any one particular subgenre. My stories are contemporary romances, but there is always a mystery, and always a haunting. Contemporary romance with a Paranormal twist.

3. Did your reading choices have anything to do with your choice of a genre or genres?

Yes - I absolutely love authors like Susanna Kearsley, Simone St James, and the late, great Barbara Michaels, who write a similar flavor of mystery/ghost stories to my own. When I ran out of great ghost stories to read, especially those with a contemporary romance in the mix, I decided it was time to write my own.

4. What's your latest release?

HEARTS UNLOCHED, due out today, is the second of my New Gothic romances. The tagline: A psychic interior designer reluctantly agrees to renovate a sexy investor's crumbling hotel on Loch Sheldrake, a lake rumored to have once been the mob's body dumping ground.

5. What are you working on now?

My next projects are to write a prequel to PHANTOM TRACES, my first New Gothic. Tagline: Take a sexy history professor, a geeky Goth chick, and a pipe-smoking, book hurling ghost. Put them together in an antiquated library and...well...
The prequel will take the reader back to six months before PHANTOM TRACES' heroine, Abigail Stryker, took over the library after the ghost chased out the first three replacements of the long-time retiree.
My next New Gothic will be SPIRITS OF THE HEART, set on the grounds of an abandoned mental asylum.

6. Where can we find you?

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