Jamie: Tell us a bit about yourself that readers might not know.
Caroline: I started out as a performance poet. I have been a "creative" person all my life. I worked in an intense career day job for half my life to support my family. I am a single Mom.
Jamie: Define a performance poet. . .
Caroline: I have a MFA in Painting and Poetry. I am using visual arts with written narrative. I include painting, photography an digital video of my own. This is not usual type of "reading" standing at a lectern with book in hand. Think o fit as a live full-bodied way to experience a story.
I began working with a computer search engine company at the end of 2011, (Shish, top secret! You will know the name) on book developments that are not "Games" but use visual, sound, and live interaction - not a movie - something else. It's another year until beta trials.
Jamie: What made you decide to become a writer?
Caroline: I have written and told stories since I was a little girl. Capturing something that is part of my circle of life and sharing it with a larger group gives me joy. Perhaps my triumphs and many failures will inspire change, or make a reader think.
Jamie: What do you write and what made you decide to go with that genre?
Caroline: I am not writing one genre. I just published a YA dystopian suburban bildungsroman (that is a tongue twister, try and say it fast three times, and click your heels).
The title is The Lucky Boy. In order to write this book I trained in a Mixed Martial Arts studio. Years ago, I toyed with kickboxing but had not used my hands until 2009. The prose has a fighting and musical beat.
I published poetry, short stories, flash fiction in a good number of magazines. I will not bore you with the list. My blog has short work that is not published. This March 2012, Midwestern Gothic Review printed a flash fiction piece and a photograph titled Fallout Shelter. I am interested in telling a story in my own "special" (such a coy word) way. My writing is not straightforward sentence structure. Each piece will have a melody and a country drummer telling the tale. The "genre" aspect of selling fiction is not that interesting to me. I am using my own way of experiencing the world and loving even the ugliest of monsters. I demonstrate that a wrench, a beaten body, and a near extinct bird have weighted value as much as the moment your first child is born.
My next novel, Eco Terrorist, is working title in progress.
Jamie: Where do you get your story ideas?
Caroline: I have a mind with a million to go, things from walking, running, conversations, my human experience are available facts and storyboards of more work. My children joke, "better watch what you sy, Mom will use it in a character."
Jamie: How do you name your characters?
Caroline: this is like naming your children. a name has a sound, a reference and a meaning. Speak it aloud. Say it fast and slow. Could you love someone with a long pretentious first name? What do you want them to sound like?
Jamie: What type of hero/heroine do you like best?
Caroline: Hero: Smart, flawed, washboard abs, and honest with women. Heroine: Smarter, physically able to beat the boys, and kind.
Jamie: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer. . .
Caroline: I write seven days a week. I work in notebooks. I write notes, character movements, short fiction, and make little drawings on paper. I also take photographs, digital video and paint the ideas. next, I sit at my laptop that is not connected to the internet. A writer must put the hours into the craft. I use a storyboard (large 4x5 white boards that have chapter notes). then I start putting in the time building scenes, chapters and slugging away.
I allow breaks to exercise, pick up my children from school, my day job, and all the little things life springs upon you. I am disciplined about the hours I need to work. I put in a 50-hour writing workweek, and ten for marketing. Other people who are not creative assume that writers do not have to work. A writer learns to say no to frivolous requests. time is the most valuable commodity. I am trying to write to make a living and support my children.
Jamie: Do you have to be alone to write?
Caroline: No. I write at my kitchen table in the middle of my children. I write down ideas when I'm hiking, or writing in public places. I use a variety of methods.
Author Links:
Blog: http://www.carolinegerardo.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/cgbarbeau
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=65195714&trk=tab_pro
Amazon Author Site: http://www.amazon.com/Carolin-Gerardo/e/B004PHVP1C/ref-ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Contest
Caroline will give away 2 (two) e-book copies of her book in a drawing from comments. Simply leave a comment,along with your name and email address!!
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