What is the take-away you want readers to get at the end of the book?  

WithConversations on the Bench, I really want the readers to take away something from the lessons that Sebastian shared.  I don’t think any of them were earth-shattering or ground breaking, but I think they have a lot of insight particularly in the world we live in today.  He shared a lot of wisdom with a lot of people over the years and in doing so impacted their lives.  Learn something from what Sebastian had to say in recounting his own life experiences.  They’re simple and clear lessons but they’re told in a way that only Sebastian could tell them, and they speak to everyone.  I didn’t know Sebastian as well as many people, but I know he was an inspirational guy for many.

Aside from the lessons, I think it’s important for the reader to take away something from Sebastian’s own life story.  Here was a guy of mixed descent.  His father was Filipino and his mother was of French, Spanish, and American Indian ancestry.  He grew up in Charleston, South Carolina during segregation and desegregation, and it was a tough childhood.  He was outcast from the blacks and the whites.  His family wasn’t dirt poor but wasn’t well off.  His father died at an early age.  He went away to college, fell in love with the woman of his dreams, and got a good education then went to work and worked one or two jobs most of his life.  He was a tax auditor for the State of South Carolina, went through a tough break up with his longtime girlfriend, and became morbidly overweight.  He didn’t have a lot, and he was forced to retire early because of his health.  But he didn’t let it get him down.  He didn’t let his weight or his health stop him from enjoying life and trying to make a difference for other people, and he was a selfless guy.  He was always there for his friends and willing to help.  He believed in paying it forward.  Our society is pretty self consumed these days.  If anything, I hope the readers are inspired to be better people and to make themselves better.

This Lady Writes

Do you read reviews on your books and if so, do you respond to them?

 No and no. You know, you ask a very good question here.  But no, I don’t look at the reviews.  Who was it that said you can please some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you can’t please all the people all the time?  I recognize that not everyone is going to like my books, and that’s ok.  I’m not going to worry about it.  I write because I enjoy it, and I like what I’ve written.  I’m not going to change my style because some people don’t like it or because some people think it should be different to come down to their level.  My books aren’t necessarily easy to read, and I’m not going to make them easy to read.  You either like my writing and my style or you don’t.  If you’ve got good things to say, I appreciate it.  Keep spreading the word to friends and family and the public.  That’s a great way for people to find out about my work.  If you don’t like it, say what you want to say too.

This Lady Writes

What are you working on now?  

Gems & Jewels Book II: The Restoration is in the works right now.  I’ve gotten a bit behind with it but I’m still moving it along even though not as quickly as I’d like.  It’s a book based on a family involved in the diamond and precious stones and jewelry industries.  It’s a modern day story like the old TV prime time soaps, Dynasty, Dallas or Falcon Crest.  It’s money, power, greed, sex, backstabbing, wheeling and dealing.  You’ve got an iconic central character, Jarrod, who you don’t really know whether to love him or hate him.  There are the good guys, you know, the good family, and the bad guy, the family that’s out to get the other one.  There’s a lot going on in it, and I’d probably call it a drama but there is a touch of mystery and intrigue, of course.  There are a couple of murders to keep readers guessing.  I plan on making this a series, so I hope readers enjoy this installment.  It’s going to be a bit different from my other works.

This Lady Writes

What is your least favorite part of the writing and publishing process? 

Probably the editing and formatting process.  It’s a pretty integral part of the process in producing a quality product, but it’s time consuming for me.  I’ve got a couple of good editors that review each manuscript then send it to me with their edits, comments, suggestions, and so on.  Then, I have to read through all that they have to say and look at all their changes.  It’s just a time consuming process then you get into the interior formatting and writing a synopsis and reviewing the marketing plan.  I try to delegate as much of this as I can, but it’s hard to be completely removed from the process.  I’ve got to sign off on everything, so I end up being engaged throughout, and I guess that comes from being in business as well.  When you’re the head of an organization, you’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse of the organization and know what’s going on.  I’m involved in the strategic planning then delegate the execution of that plan to others.  It’s sort of the same with the publishing process.  I’m part of the marketing team’s strategic planning then I let them run with it.  I love the creating and writing process.  All the rest is a bit tedious.

This Lady Writes

If you were not writing books, what would you be doing for a living? 

 I actually don’t write for a living.  I have my businesses that are my full time job, and they keep me pretty busy.  I write for the love of writing.  I enjoy it.  It’s therapeutic for me in some ways.  I don’t know that I’ll ever write for a living.  I’ve never really considered that.  I’m focused on a lot things that I have going on.  But let’s just speculate and say that I wasn’t in business.  If I were just writing full time, I’d probably spend more time golfing.  And if I were looking for something to make a living, I probably couldn’t do it golfing.  I’m good but not that good! I’d probably be in corporate finance or consulting of some sort. I don’t know.

How long did it take for you to write the book?  

Actually writing the book was the easy part.  Getting to the point where I could start writing was a bit of a challenge.  I had to rely on conversations with Mr. Clinger and others to get an understanding of Sebastian.  That’s how I got to know him.  It took several years to get enough information from people to be comfortable with writing the book.  Look, each lesson in the book was one that Sebastian had recounted in some way to Robbie, so I had to get the story behind each one.  Between my schedule and other people’s schedules it wasn’t always easy to connect for a long phone call.  It would have been much easier to just get the information from Sebastian, but that wasn’t possible.  Once I had all the information, actually writing the book took about six or seven months.  Then, of course, we had the editing process and publishing.  And really, this is about average for me—six or seven months to write a manuscript.  I don’t sit down and write full time everyday.  I’ve got a business to run, and time is at a premium, so I try to work writing into my schedule as time permits.

This Lady Writes

Share a little about your writing journey. 

 I’ve been writing a long time.  I’ve told this story many times before, but I don’t ever get tired of it.  I started out by writing an alternate ending to a book I was reading.  I don’t recall which one.  This was an exercise I did many times early on.  For whatever reason, I didn’t like the ending and figured I could have done it better. So I did.  From there I wrote a few short stories and a teleplay, and then I decided to take the plunge and write a novel.  I started by writing the outline and making a list of characters and the sequence of events.  Then I jumped right into it.  That turned out to be Murder at the Ocean Forest.  I wanted to go the traditional route of getting an agent and publishing through a publishing house.  That didn’t go the way I was wanting or that I liked, so I decided to be an indie author.  But this process took me a couple of years to come to this decision, and in the meantime I had started The Versailles Conspiracy then stopped then started again.  Once I got focused again and finished that one, I went on to The House of Dark Shadows and The Maynwarings.  But while I was working on these last two, I also was working on Conversations on the Bench in that I was doing interviews with Mr. Clinger from time to time.  So there were a few things going on simultaneously over the years.

This Lady Writes

What was the inspiration behind the book?

This was a project that I was initially a little reluctant to take. My writing this book was first suggested to me during a round of golf, much as I recount in the book itself, by Mr. Clinger. But the project really intrigued me as much as the two men behind the story initially intrigued me. Sebastian was really the inspiration behind the book. He was a larger than life figure who inspired many people in life, so it seemed a fitting tribute to share some of his wisdom with the masses by writing Conversations on the Bench. I certainly didn’t know him in the way so many people did. I didn’t have the luxury of knowing him and interacting with him for years. I really only got to know him in person during one trip I made to Myrtle Beach for a symposium that he and Mr. Clinger were hosting. But even so, I could tell he was an inspirational person just with the limited interaction I had with him.

This Lady Writes