CONSTANCE BRETES( Cont.) INTERVIEW
CONSTANCE BRETES( Cont.) INTERVIEW
MFRW:
CB:
MFRW:
CB:
Who are your favorite characters among the books you’ ve written? I love all my characters, but I especially love Janice and Chris in Book of Love. Janice is resilient, strong and a survivor. She’ s had a rough life. Chris is equally as strong, has dealt with racism, and is a family man. He cares about the community he lives in and his children.
How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing? Every book has a part of me in it, and a life experience that happened to me. I love sharing personal stories of incidents that were humorous or life changing.
MFRW: What song would best describe your life?
CB:“ I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff. My family and I have been through some really rough years. The song resonates with me every day. I love that as I’ ve gotten older, I can see all obstacles in my way, as the song indicates.
MFRW:
CB:
Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow? I have some sort of schedule, but it’ s flexible. I usually get my coffee and get all my social media out of the way first thing in the morning. I’ m also active in a couple of RWA groups and I try to get those tasks done. Then I can spend the rest of the day either editing, writing, or
MFRW:
CB: researching, or all three. If the characters are really urging me to get something down, I’ ll flip the process and get up early in the morning and do the writing. Sometimes through the night I’ ll have dreams, or think of things I want to include in the story and will grab my phone off the nightstand and text myself. That way I get it down, and I don’ t wake up in the morning wondering what the heck it was I wanted to write down.
Tell us about your latest book, including its genre. Does it cross over to other genres? If so, what are they?
Blue As Sapphires in a contemporary romance set in a small town in Montana. Philipsburg is the actual town, though in the book, I changed the name to Frankenburg. It combines my love of sapphire digging, gold panning, gemology, and a subject that I write about in two of my books— domestic abuse. Abuse is not an easy subject to write about, and I have two heroines that come from that background. My purpose is to point out the abuse and deal with it. Show that women can overcome domestic abuse and go on to live happy, fulfilling lives.
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