Meet Rebecca Hamilton author of The Forever Girl

About a month ago, I was offered a copy of "The Forever Girl' by the author herself, Rebecca Hamilton. Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance? I just didn't know if it was for me. I am truly not trying to be insulting, but everyone has their thing, ya know?

Well, apparently, my thing is paranormal/fantasy/romance because "The Forever Girl" blew me away! I was literally consumed by this story and burned through it, hardly taking time to breathe. It is a true story that I got up at 5 in the morning just to make sure that I could find out what happens in the end. Rebecca Hamilton is such an excellent writer.

So, it brings me great pleasure to have a Q & A with Rebecca Hamilton on my blog. 

She has impressed me with her writing, but she has truly impressed me as a person. 

So kick back, relax, and read my Q & A with Rebecca Hamilton...

What is your favorite book? In what way has it inspired you in your writing?

I have a few, but mostly anything by Nancy Pickard. I also really like Marisa de los Santos’ “Love Walked In”. I guess these are the two books that inspired me to look into breaking the writing “rules” when the payoff to do so is high. Such as direct foreshadowing to increase tension, or embracing a character’s voice.

When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

After I wrote my first book hehehe Before that, it was just something I wanted to do so I could say I did it.

You have acknowledged on your blog that in many ways it is impossible to leave yourself completely out of your book. What do you mean by that?

I think it happens in some ways, even if subconsciously. Even imagination is based on what we know. We might make a character who has our best friend’s hair or our child’s amazingly complex eyecolor. Or we may know someone obsessed with butterflies—maybe we write a character obsessed with glass plates, but we’re likely to show the obsession in ways that are familiar to us. Sometimes we write characters that maybe have our sense of humor. Or maybe we write a character who is our polar opposite—but only that can be based on knowing who we ourselves are. One way or another, everything we know and have experienced will help us, even when we are creating things that are entirely “new” to us.

Tell my readers about “The Forever Girl”.

The Forever Girl is a paranormal fantasy novel with elements of mystery, romance, and maybe even a little horror. Some have called it “slipstream”. The story is told by Sophia Parsons, a Wiccan with a hissing in her head that she wants to get rid of. But when she tries to use a Wiccan ritual to get rid of the hissing, it turns into an overlap of whispering voices. The more Sophia tries to cure her curse (which including delving into her family history and discovering an ancestor had been hanged during the Salem witch trial, and then the body went missing) the more Sophia finds herself falling deeper into a world full of bigger problems. Eventually the problems she’s always faced and the new problems she’s come to face will collide.

Where do your ideas come from and how do you develop that idea into a book?

Usually I get a flash of something. A single idea—be it a turning point, and ending scene, or something else—or maybe it’s a voice, just a character speaking the opening lines of the novel to me, or sometimes it’s the character themselves, their personality, that comes to be first. Then I start writing. Usually I write a bit first before worrying about anything else. I do some drafting sometimes, but it’s more of a draft-as-I-go process, and my stories often change as I continue writing. My characters apparently have better ideas than I do.

What do you think is the key to success as an author? Is there one?

THE key? I think there’s way too much involved. I guess maybe the “key” is to do your best every step of the way. To always be learning and growing.

Which writers would you like to have as a mentor?

Nancy Pickard :) I think I’d be over the moon if she was my mentor! She did recently buy a copy of my book, and I’m happy to settle for that!

Do you have any advice for writers?

Write what you love.

What is your current project?

I’m editing my novella, due out this June/July, and also working on Book Two in the Forever Girl Series, which I think may just end up being my FAVORITE book in this series!

               

Rebecca, I just want to thank you for making an appearance on my blog and giving my readers a treat! You are an amazing writer and thank you for your kindness. You are a fantastic writer and you have me as your new fan. Believe me when I say that you will have many others before this series is done!