Guest Author, Laurie Alice Eakes

I have read several books by Laurie Alice Eakes and loved them all. Interesting settings, fun characters, heart-touching plots. I highly recommend that you read her books.

 

Interview:

 

What message do you hope readers take away from this book?

          A sense of hope that, no matter how bad things appear, have faith and they will get better.

 

What do you see as most significant to your publication journey?

          Perseverance sums it up in a word. The only way to get published is to work and work, improve and learn and improve some more and just keep trying.

 

How do your faith and spiritual life play into the picture and affect your storytelling?

          My books, even my secular ones, have an underlying spiritual tone. Humans need connectedness and something bigger than ourselves to look to for strength. Not everyone believes in the same source of faith, yet I believe, even those who believe they have no faith in God believe in something that they turn to, whether they realize it or not.

 

Who/What spurs you to write? Where do your story and character ideas come from?

          What spurs me to write is a deadline. I am an author who works best to deadlines.

          As to where I get my ideas, I’m not always certain. Sometimes I think they popped into my head fully grown. Mostly, though, they stem from something I read or experienced. When I wrote historical fiction, A passage in a nonfiction history book would set my “what if” factor going. For contemporary, ideas are provoked by a news story or a ride on the L (the Chicago elevated train). For example, I heard about a man falling off the tiny platform between cars, and that fostered the idea of someone trying to push someone off that area. Then I ask myself: Why would they want to do that? And thus the process of plot development begins.

 

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you as an author?

          I keep thinking about this, and I’m not sure if I’ve had any funny things happen to me as an author. Or nothing I thought funny at the time. Now I can laugh about the editor who told me my blind heroine would never do what I had her doing. Like some sighted person could know more about what a blind woman would or would not do beyond me, the blind woman who had proof this thing had actually happened. At the time, I was so horrified I wanted to quit writing.

 

What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?

          I love to read. Mostly I read young adult fiction because I don’t write in that genre, so I’m not always trying to rewrite the story in my head. I also like movies, especially the old ones. You know, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, etc. Before I smashed up my knee, I loved long walks. I am hopeful for that ability to return. And I love to be near water. I live close to an enormous lake, and this is incredibly special to me.

 

What books are on your nightstand right now?

          I usually read two or three books at a time, usually one book for research and the others fiction. Right now, I’m reading The Edge of Light by Elizabeth George and Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill. My nonfiction books are Blind Man’s Bluff by James Tate Hill and Complex PTSD by Pete Walker.