Author Interview: Christine Nolfi - Treasure Me

 My regular readers will recognize this book, as I reviewed it a couple weeks ago.  Treasure Me by Christine Nolfi is a great book and Christine has offered to chat with us.

Christine Nolfi and family

Did you always want to be a writer, even when you were growing up?

Honestly, I can’t recall a time when I didn’t write. Poems. Short stories. Later, novels. After college, I owned a small public relations firm in northeast Ohio. But I was always moving toward the day when I’d write fiction.

Like all writers, I began with an insatiable hunger for reading. As a child, I used to wander through libraries drawing my fingertips across the spines of books. I felt like I was touching other souls, reaching into other lives I would only know through their words.

What kind of books do you enjoy?

I read across genres. I loved Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain is a favorite—who wouldn’t admire the gymnastics required to produce a novel from a dog’s point of view? I’ll read anything Nora Roberts pens. Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, Michael Crichton’s Next, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple—my addiction is only tempered by the number of hours I can reasonably allocate to feed a reading habit.

What is the biggest obstacle you have to overcome when you want to write?

This may sound strange, but my biggest obstacle involves knowing when to stop and rest. I get utterly caught up in my character’s lives. During the first 100 pages I’m able to conduct a normal 9 to 5 routine. By page 250, all bets are off. I wake in the middle of the night with half of a scene spilling from my subconscious and hurry to the computer. Midway through dinner I leap up to scramble for pen and paper because I’ve suddenly solved a story problem. It becomes rather silly, but my young adult children and fiancé are very understanding.

Since you are a new author, what are a few of the best tips you’re received about your writing?

I began writing fiction full-time eight years ago. The best advice came from editors at Penguin and Random House who were interested in my novels, and from literary agents. In each instance I was urged to go deeper into characterization, to put more emotion on the page. I also learned that even though I initially thought I was writing for the romance market, my stories are women’s fiction. Seven years ago, I didn’t understand the distinction between genres.

What was life like before writing?

My twenties and thirties were a blur—working in public relations, living from deadline to deadline. Then my now ex-husband and I adopted a sibling group of four children from the Philippines. Moving from career woman to fulltime mother was a shock. It took many years of doctor visits to The Cleveland Clinic to heal my kids—today they’re all healthy, happy adults.

What is one thing your readers would be surprised to know about you?

The age thing is usually the biggest surprise. I’m fifty-two years old. People usually think I’m much younger. And the composition of my family is always a surprise. It’s not every day you see a single mother with four adopted kids. I affectionately refer to my children as The Asian Invasion. We definitely stand out in any crowd.

When is your next book coming out and can you tell us about it?

Second Chance Grill will appear on Amazon this autumn. It’s a “prequel” of sorts to Treasure Me that depicts the love story of Dr. Mary Chance, the town’s doctor, and Anthony Perini, a single dad with a precocious daughter. Of course the feisty women of Liberty—including Theodora—will be featured. You’ll learn a little more about the “bad blood” between Theodora and Ethel Lynn. Their battle was “fur and feathers” in Treasure Me. In Second Chance Grill, they’re even wilder.

I’ll also release a darker stand-alone novel in September, The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge. And the paperback version of Treasure Me will be available in several weeks!

Where and how can your readers find out more about you and your upcoming books?

I’d be delighted if they’d follow me on twitter @christinenolfi and visit my blog:

http://christinenolfibooks.blogspot.com/