INTERVIEW WITH MARY RICKSEN

I am really happy to have fellow Wild Rose Press Author Mary Rose as Guest of Honor at my Blog today. Hello Mary, why don't you make yourself comfortable and tell us a little about yourself

M.R.: I was born in Burlington, Vermont, which I have always considered to be home. I’ve lived everywhere from Canada to Texas, and now I live in Florida. I love the winters here, but hate the humid, oven like summers. Married forever, my husband is like my left leg. I wouldn’t know how to live without him. Not having children we had dogs to substitute. The only bad thing about animals if they don’t live as long as we do.

I come from a mixed ethnic group. I am a quarter Italian, a quarter Polish, a quarter Irish, an eighth French Canadian and an eighth Abenaki Indian. I am a mutt.

HL laughs. I always did like mutts! (And I love the picture of Junior, your dog.) Well with such a varied heritage to draw on, it's not surprising you're a writer. What a fantastic bloodline. And what do you do for fun - when you're not writing?

I am an avid reader, and I love to garden. In Florida this is the subtropics, so growing plant is a new experience. The soil is so sandy and tomatoes just don’t have that sweet taste like they do in more Northern climates.

I would love to have a kindle, when I try to read at night, my husband freaks about the light, and those little book lights are useless. I am a night
person so reading helps to relax me. Trouble is I can’t stop.

HL: Oh, I can so relate to that! I'm a nightperson too, and I have one of those little nightlights - I wouldlove to have a Kindle myself, I wish they weren't so expensive. Right then, telll your fans - when did you start writing?

MR: I have been writing ever since I can remember. Only now, I don’t throw what I have

written away. I always wanted to accomplish something that I could be proud that I

did. Something I could leave behind since we have no children. Some day someone

will open my book and know I was here. I can hold up my head and be proud that I

wrote and published a book. How cool is that?

HL:What comes first: the plot or the characters?

MR: I do not plot. It takes too many brains. I just write and out it comes. Although in my first book the heroine, has always been there waiting to come to life. I know the story in my mind; I just have to write it. I like to hand write my stories in a notebook and then transfer it to my laptop. It works for me. I have little papers with notes on them that fall out of the notebook all the time. Usually something that popped into my head in the middle of the night and I have made a note. Or snippets of information I have come across. I am probably dating myself, but I had to be dragged into the computer world.

HL: Tell us about your latest release and what you think readers will enjoy about it

MR: My book is a sweet yet spicy story. It is the tale of a young girl who learns to love herself while falling in love with the hero. She overcomes her greatest fears and does it one hundred years in the past. It is a time travel romance, where she’s transported back from 1969 to 1869. I try to give a realistic view of the times, using the diverse ethnic groups that settled in the Lake Champlain Islands area in Vermont, to set the scenes. I try to put my readers there by describing the differences in the times. I throw one problem after another at my characters and have then learn from their problems. I write emotionally, I want to make you cry, I want to make you feel. I want you to know what it was like in a less modern time. What would you do if a mountain lion pounced on you? How would an autistic child be treated in those days? Could you handle living in 1869, without electricity, without antibiotics, without even a phone?

HL: If someone were to play one of your characters in a movie, which character and what actor would it be and why?

MR: I’d like, Hugh Jackman, for my hero, and Julia Roberts for my heroine.

Hugh because he has such an emotional range and could be the good and tender man of my book. Julia Roberts could be my heroine, because she can play an innocent who has a lot to deal with in her past. Yet she is no dummy.

HL:Well, Julia Roberts sounds like a good choice for a heroine - and we have Hugh Jackman as our 'Featured Hunk'. just for you!

So, what have you learned about writing since you were published that surprised you the most?

MR: How much you need to toughen up and learn to take rejection. That I hate to review a story because I’m afraid to hurt the author’s feelings. You have to be so diplomatic.This is another person’s baby on paper. I am always worried about that so I don’tdo it often. And that commenting on a writers blog makes then so happy.

HL: Do you listen to music when you write and if so, what kind of music – or do you find it distracts you?

MR: For me I like it quiet, music distracts me. I like the back sliding doors open to see and hear the jungle in my yard. The sound of the pool fountains and my canary singing is so gentle, that helps me

HL: Ah, yes. The sound of water does it for me too - and canaries have such a beautiful song. What is your personal definition of success?

To me happiness defines personal success. If you are happy with yourself and with

what you do, you are successful.

HL: I'm always interested in what inspires other writers. What is your favourite source of inspiration?

MR: If someone says they like my writing, it’s inspirational for me. Getting a good review can do it too.

HL: Oh yes, it's great when someone else 'gets' your book and loves it too isn't it!

Well thanks so much for being my 'guest of honour' here today, Mary, it's been great learning more about you, and your book sounds wonderful.

You can purchase it HERE

(and it will be available in print from Amazon next Friday)

and find out more about Mary on her website: www.maryricksen.com

Mary's Blog