Dorothy Thompson Interview

Hello Dorothy,

The girls of Night Owl Romance are pleased that you have granted us an interview

We would love to get to know you

Could you please start by telling us a little about yourself?
Thank you for hosting me on your blog, Tam! I’m Dorothy Thompson from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and I am an author, the editor of The Writer’s Life (http://www.thewriterslife.net/) and CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours. When I’m not organizing book tours for my authors, I write paranormal romance fiction and non-fiction – from ghosties to relationship how-to to book promoting tips. My muse tends to be multi-dimensional. ;o)

If you could be one of your characters – Who would you be? And why?

I have a WIP that I absolutely adore about three women approaching menopause and they set out on a cross-country trip together. As I was writing it, I always pictured myself in Celia’s shoes. In fact, I will be in Celia’s shoes this September when I actually do make a cross-country trip to visit my childhood home I’ve not seen for 45 years to donate one my books to Buena Vista Library and to be interviewed by the LA Times for doing so. In fact, I’m using this trip for more research in writing this WIP. Celia is more laid-back, but centered, not like her two friends who have talked her into this trip. She’s a follower, not a leader, and sometimes I feel I’m that way, too. I’d rather have my authors in the limelight than myself; but, hopefully, I’ll be able to get rid of that neurosis one day, lol. I always thought of myself as Shiolah, too, one of the leading ladies in my recent book, The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost. Shiolah is a lot like Celia, only she has this inner power to pick up on ghostie vibrations. She was such a fun character.

What’s your favorite genre to read?

I love chick lit. Absolutely absolutely love it. And the reason why I say this is because I love the writing style. These women are hip, they don’t take any bull and they usually go after what they want even if it takes a whole book to get there, lol. One of my favorites right now is A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton. It’s more hen lit, than chick lit, and I identify right away with the characters. It’s a hilarious read.

Who or what influences you when you write?

I may be odd when saying this, but I tend to get ideas from the strangest places. Take The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost. This book is written by Heide Kaminski, Pamela Lawniczak and myself over the Internet after we found out there was a real man searching for proof of the afterlife and he was willing to pay someone a million bucks if they could deliver that proof. Right away, a story started brewing. What if there were a group of women who met over the Internet who had enough spiritual guidance and ghostie know-how (like us) who could go to his mansion and find the ghost he was particularly looking for? The rest is history, I guess, but the surprising finale is what’s going to make everyone sit up and go “whoa…” I won’t give it away, but yes, they do deliver that proof.

What do you do on a typical writing day?

LOL, typical writing day. I’m laughing because I’ve had to cut back on my writing while I have author tours going on, but the typical day is when I can finally turn my email off, turn my promoting sensors off, and kick back. It’s usually late at night because that’s when my muse finally wakes up. I tell her that if she would go to sleep at a decent time, that might help, but she doesn’t listen to me.

When you have writer’s block how do you break free?

I usually don’t have writer’s block because if Ms. Muse isn’t awake, then I just work on other things until she does wake up. If I am in the middle of something that isn’t working, I throw the leash on the dogs and go for a walk around the chicken houses out back. They are huge chicken houses and it’s about a quarter of a mile, so it gives me plenty of time to think. What’s bad about that is that I’ll come up with the coolest scene and, of course, I have no pen or paper, so I have to rely on memorization which doesn’t work sometimes. So, as we’re running back to the house, I’m repeating it out loud over and over to keep it in my memory bank. When you’re running three nuggets short of a Happy Meal, it takes work, but usually I can remember it when I get in the door. Then, I beeline to the computer, leaving the leashes hanging on the dog collars until I finish. Don’t worry…they’re used to it by now. ;o)

The Whole Interview Can Be Read At:

http://www.nightowlromance.com/nightowlromance/interviews/dorothythompsoninterview.asp