Cate: Please welcome C.L. Talmadge. C.L., will you please share a short bio with us?
C.L.: Under the byline Candace Talmadge, I am a political columnist for The North Star National. My career as a journalist began in 1976. In addition to fictions, I have written thousands of nonfiction articles for newspapers, magazines, and wire services as well as nonfiction about emotional and spiritual healing resolution.
Cate: Tell us about your latest release and where it's available.
C.L.: My latest fiction is Outcast—Green Stone of Healing® Book Four. At present it is available as an e-book (.pdf format) at HealingStone Books (www.healingstonebooks.com). It should be available very shortly (if not already) as a paperback at any online bookseller or by order through bookstores.
Cate: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
C.L.: I always loved to read as soon as I was old enough to do it. I discovered my knack for writing churning out essays for my high school history and English classes in England, where there were no multiple choice exams. I was first published in my college newspaper, doing reviews of books, films, and plays.
Cate: Are there any other writers, published or not, in your family?
C.L.: My older brother is an outstanding artist, and that includes the ability to write. My older sister Karen is also a good writer and a talented pianist, except she’s also good at science, so that has been her career focus. Writing is my sole talent, so that’s why I do it.
Cate: Describe your writing in three words.
C.L.: Alliterative. Concise. Intense.
Cate: Do you have a writing routine?
C.L.: I get up and sit in front of my computer. I start to write. I worked for decades on serious multiple daily journalism deadlines, which honed my writing discipline.
Cate: How do you pick the character’s names?
C.L.: They tell me their names. Many of them are quite insistent that I use a certain name. If they don’t tell me, I simply use naming conventions in their language.
Cate: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Easiest?
C.L.: The most challenging aspect of writing fiction for me is conveying the depth of my characters’ emotions. Words seem so inadequate for that task. The easiest is plotting. The story I am chronicling has already happened, so I am left to pick and choose what events to include in my novels and what to leave out.
Cate: What’s the most rewarding aspect?
C.L.: I feel as though I am honoring a sacred promise I made my characters to tell their story, so that they would be forgotten no longer. They live again in the pages of my novels and in the minds and hearts of my readers.
Cate: Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?
C.L.: The characters lived on their own, in what we might call past lives. Yes, they haunt my dreams and occupy my waking hours, too. We’re all very familiar with each other. Sometimes this is positive; other instances, not so much.
Cate: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
C.L.: Many readers have said they find the books hard to put down. That isn’t just interesting to me; it’s music to my ears.
Cate: Every author's dream comment!
Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
C.L.: I read a great deal of nonfiction for my work as a political columnist. Right now I am devouring JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. My favorite authors include Jane Austen, Lois McMaster Bujold, Frank Herbert, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Cate: What impact do electronic readers create on the bottom line for authors? Or in people/the environment in general?
C.L.: The full impact of electronic readers on authors, readers, and the environment is yet to be seen. Looking back at the history of the automobile, I believe we are in the equivalent of the horseless carriage stage when it comes to e-readers. But the pace of change and innovation will, of course, be far more rapid. Fasten your seatbelts and hang onto your hats! It’s going to be a really wild ride.
Cate: I agree, publishing has only made the first steps toward a long evolutionary process.
What's next for you?
C.L.: More political columns. Another installment of the Green Stone of Healing® saga. I am on Chapter Sixteen of Book Five. Further down the road, more fiction related to Azgard, the setting for the stone series.
Cate: Where can you be found on the web?
C.L.: The series website: www.greenstoneofhealing.com
My blog: www.healingstonebooks.com/stonescribe
My political columns: http://www.northstarnational.com/category/candacetalmadge/
Cate: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
C.L.: Yes. Please comment! I am giving away an autographed set of the first four novels in my series to one person who leaves an outstanding comment or comments on any of the blogs in my tour. Speak up! Let’s have a discussion. Am I crazy because I believe my fiction is straight out of my own and other’s past lives?
Thanks also, Cate, for including your blog in my tour. I so much appreciate it.
Cate: It's been a pleasure having you here, C.L.! Best of luck to you.
The Green Stone of Healing
The series features four generations of strong-willed female characters who inherit a mysterious green gem ultimately revealed to mend broken bones and broken hearts, protect against missiles, and render its wearers undetectable.
For more information about each book, please visit www.greenstoneofhealing.com
