Author Interview #1 Sommer Madsen

Today it is my pleasure to welcome Sommer Marsden, a paranormal and contemporary erotica writer to the blog and for the first edition of Interview Monday.

Hi Sommer, Welcome to Booked Up Reviews

Hi there! Thanks so much for having me

In preparation for this interview, I went to your website and goodreads page and I saw that you have written over 100 short stories. You must have been a very creative child.

I was pretty creative. During summer breaks, I’d rather sit in the nice air conditioned basement  making my own books or writing my own stories than ride bikes in the sweltering heat. I was no fool.

How do you stay focused to write? Do you have a work room you enter and work in for a specific amount of time? Do you use a computer as your sole base for writing or do you work from notes you may have created by hand?

I do not stay focused. That is my secret! (LOL). I do what another writer friend, Alison Tyler, once referred to as ‘layering’. I write a page, I do the dishes, I write a page, I talk to the dog, I write a page, I bake some cookies...I do this all day long and usually end up with anywhere from 1500-5000 words in a day. However, I just started homeschooling one of my kids again, so I’m curious to see what that does to my word count and my layering technique.

As for notes, I make frantic notes on anything I can, including my hands but I work mostly on a laptop that travels the house with me and iPad that travels the house and out and about with me.

Your new book Restless Spirit is about Tuesday’s journey as she settles down in her new life and her story is about scary leaps. This story will resonate with a lot of your readers, is there any special reason you choose to write about this big leap.

My youth was spent in an insane series of bold leaps. Some would say crazy. The final insane leap was deciding to get married and have the family I said I never wanted. But it turned out I did want it when given the opportunity to stare it in the face. The thing is, if you’re that kind of person, which I think life circumstances made me, you never lose your urge to make those scary leaps. They just translate differently as you age. It’s a popular theme for me. Fresh starts, bold moves, embracing your true desires—even if they scare you to death.

Do you have specific people in mind when you create your characters? Meaning, does it help you to imagine a character as a real person you may know or have seen?

Not at all. My characters are very much themselves in my mind from the get-go. They aren’t stars or famous folk or people in my life. Very rarely do I have a specific ‘model’ in mind for a character visual. One day, I swear I’m going to find a good sketch artist and describe my characters to them so I can see what they really look like!

If your book Restless Spirit was optioned for a film, who would you cast as the main characters?

Tuesday: I have zero idea for this one. I do think that Ksenia Solo  from the new show LOST GIRL would work great. If she wore her blonde wig!

Shepherd: Brent Sexton

Reed: Matthew Gray Gubler

Adrian: Jeffrey Donovan

Thanks for stopping by Sommer.

Thanks for having me!

Sommer has kindly offered to giveaway Restless Spirit and it is not too late to enter here.  The giveaway will end this Friday.