Michelle Grieps’ interview

» Posted on Dec 18, 2008 in Blog | Comments Off on Michelle Grieps’ interview


If you want to be in either drawing or both this week, just leave a comment on any of the posts for the week with your email address or email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings for Lyn Cote and Michelle’s books end Sunday evening.

Michelle Grieps’interview:

1. What made you start writing?

Dare I admit it? Pride. Some of the tripe I was reading at the time made me want to…well…you get the picture. I thought I could do better. And the saying is true: pride goeth before a fall. That first manuscript I wrote is a steaming pile of…again…you get the picture.

2. How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?

I’ve been writing for about ten years – for publication, at any rate. I sold my first book last spring.

3. How do you handle rejections?

Pull out a tube of Hot-Mama-Goes-to-Town lipstick and kiss those babies good-bye. Then I reach for the chocolate. Dark.

4. Why do you write?

I love the written word. It’s a passion. Why does one have a passion for pistachio pudding and another for a pupu platter? God only knows. It’s His call ultimately.

5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?

Assuming I had free time, you’d find me reading or rollerblading or wrestling with my boxer Tyson.

6. What are you working on right now?

A cozy mystery – which is really a stretch for me. Plus, I’m co-authoring with a writer buddy of mine. Here’s the blurb:

Murder in Paradise whips life into a froth. Zula and Fern Hopkins, sisters-in-law, grudging roommates, and sometimes friends reside in Sunset Paradise retirement community. Their escapades land them in hot water when they attempt to sniff out a killer. The added ingredient of a handsome, young detective who’d make a fine main-dish for their niece spices up the action even more.

7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?

Absolutely. Which parts are up to the reader to guess.

8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.

It’s a Wizard of Oz tale with a medieval twist. Here’s the blurb:
Jessica Neale turns her back on everyone the day her husband dies. After conceding to a vacation in England, a bizarre storm and near-fatal accident alters her reality, and she finds herself in the past. When confronted by a knight bearing the mirror-image of her apathetic heart, it’s a rude awakening to what she’s allowed herself to become.
Colwyn Haukswyrth, as cold and unfeeling as the armor he wears, is a knight who has one focus in life-himself. The product of a family rooted in hatred and greed, he never understood the significance of forgiveness. Until he meets Jessica Neale. More vexing and irksome than any wench he’s ever encountered, this provoking bit of a woman teaches him what genuine love is… a lesson he’ll take with him to the grave.

9. Do you have any advice for other writers?

A critique group is a must-have. I’m in two that are invaluable to me. I know my crit partners will not let me go out in public with a piece of writerly toilet paper stuck to my manuscript’s foot.

10. How important is faith in your books?

Faith is everything. If a reader can’t find a faith element in my writing, then I’ve failed in my purpose.

11. What themes do you like to write about?

Usually whatever God happens to be slapping me upside the head with at the time. In Gallimore, it was choosing to love unconditionally. In another manuscript currently being shopped around, it’s forgiveness. The next will likely deal with fear in some way, shape, or form.

12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?

Well, it’s not actually published (yet), but it would probably be my Viking time travel. It’s my favorite because I wrote it at a time in my life when forgiveness was a continual, daily battle, and I worked through a lot of that with a few of the characters. Here’s a blurb:

People go missing every day. Many meet with foul play, some leave the social grid by choice, but others are never accounted for. Such is the fate of successful linguistics professor Cassie Larson. She leads a life her undergrad students hope to attain, until she tumbles into the North Sea and is sucked into a swirling vortex…and a different century.

Alarik, son of a Viking chieftain, is blamed for a murder he didn’t commit—or did he? He can’t remember. On the run, saving a half-drowned foreign woman wasn’t in his plans.

Ragnar is a converted pagan shunned by many but determined to prove his Cousin Alarik’s innocence. He didn’t count on falling in love with Cassie or the deadly presence of evil that threatens his village in Alarik’s absence.

13. What is your writing schedule like?

Thursday night is my night to run away from home and write. Usually I go to Panera. At that rate, it’s taking me about 2 years to finish a complete manuscript. Things should really speed up now being that I’ve gotten my very first laptop. I edit at home randomly when I can snatch the time.