This
Is How A Heart Breaks is one of your
many published books. How does it differ
from your others?
I had previously written one book which was 365 daily
reflections which was nonfiction. This is my first novel and the first novel of
my Healing Heart Series. Heart Breaks
is a novel about loss and grief and what it means to love someone just as they
are – warts and all. There will be 4
books to this series. Novel number 2 is
called Falling to Pieces and is currently on Amazon and I’m currently working
on novel 3.
What do you think makes a good story?
Characters
that you can identify with and a story line that draws you in. I think it should have the elements of fun, romance,
seriousness and either just be a story to take readers away from their daily
grind or give them something to think about.
When writing This
Is How A Heart Breaks, which
writers/books inspired you?
I
love Nicolas Sparks! I read everything
he writes. I also enjoy reading John
Grisham. Now that I’m an independent author I’m beginning to read novels by
them. My favorite all time novels are The Count of Monte Cristo, Gone with the Wind and The Thornbirds.
What are your ambitions for your writing career? Full time?
Part time?
I’m a bookkeeper by trade, but
am taking a break from the workforce and writing full time. I’d
like to stay writing full time, but if not, I’ll take whatever free time I have
and write. Even if you write full time,
daily life can get in the way.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I
was about nine years old. We had to
write a story for English. I had so much
fun writing my story about “The Pumpkin Man”.
From then on I was writing all sorts of stories on notebook paper –
especially during middle school and high school study hall.
When writing This
Is How A Heart Breaks, did anything stand out as particularly challenging?
Finding
the time. It took me ten years to write
it. I was working and had three teenage/middle
school children. My husband had a job
where he traveled and a lot fell on me. Fiction is much harder to write than
non-fiction and I need peace and quiet to write.
How
did you come up with the story to This
Is How A Heart Breaks?
It
was a dream I had one night – the first Chapter was. I got up and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget
it. I just continued the story on from
there.
What do you like to do when not writing?
Right now, I do a lot of
volunteer work for our church. I am a Stephen Minister and a mentor. I enjoy playing golf with my husband and
watching old movies from 30’s-60’s. I
love to watch football and hockey. I’m an avid Ohio State Buckeyes fan (my alma
mater) and a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
I am also a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.
I have a website www.deborahdearth.org