This week I’m hosting Terri Reed with Danger at the Border, Jennifer AlLee with Last Family Standing, and Gina Holmes with Driftwood Tides (US only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (Sept. 7th) evening.
Hero Interview from Driftwood Tides by Gina Holmes:
1. Holton, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Not sure how interesting it is, but I guess my job is pretty unique. I make driftwood sculptures. My most famous piece to date is a life-size galloping stallion.
2. What do you do for fun?
My girl, Tess, would tell you “not nearly enough” and maybe that’s true. I have a hard time letting go of my work and taking a day off. My favorite thing to do besides make art and hang out with Tess and Libby is spending time with my best friend, Rufus. That old hound keeps me entertained as I take my morning walks down the shoreline of Nags Head.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Saying I’m sorry. I have a real hard time with those two words. Don’t know why, it’s just always been that way.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
I’ve let the people closest to me down a lot in my life and I just don’t want to keep doing that. I want to be the man they see me as, you know?
5. What do you want out of life?
I’m a simple guy. I want to keep making art, keep making Tess happy and Libby proud of me. I want to stay dry of course and then, I guess, above even all of that, I want to do my best to live worthy of the grace God has shown me.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
What’s most important to me is my relationship with God. I’ve turned my back on Him before. Maybe because I convinced myself that he’d turned his back on me. It was a lie of course, God doesn’t walk away from us. I was the one with a turned back.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I’ve got a book on the back of my toilet that I flip through, but I don’t think that’s what you mean. Not much of a book reader. Although, I do tend to make up stories in my head about whatever sculpture I’m working on at the moment.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d have been a better man for my late wife, Adele. She kept a huge secret from me, a daughter. If I’d been a better man, she would have felt comfortable telling me about Libby and we wouldn’t have so much lost time to make up for.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Rufus is a hound that Adele and I found as a puppy hiding under a catamaran. He peeked out from underneath it when I whistled for him, then crawled right into my arms. We’ve been inseparable ever since. I fuss at him a lot, but Tess likes to say I’m all bluff and bluster.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
To the night I fixed Adele’s brakes. I should have paid someone to fix them. I’m not great at that kind of stuff but money was tight. She’d still be here right now if I hadn’t messed them up. I’m trying not to continue to go there though. Adele’s in a better place. The past is the past. One day at a time I’ve got to focus on what I can change, and that’s being a better man for the new woman in my life. Tess is a great gal. She deserves a man who is focused on her in the here and now.
