Hello loyal readers! Today marks the first Saturday of Author Interviews, now Savvy Saturday. With us is Veronica Helen Hart, the amazing author of four Champagne books and more. Her books are for sale on our online store, Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. In her interview, Hart tells readers a little more about her life as a writer and how she started out.
CBG: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Hart: I first considered myself a writer back in the summer between sixth and seventh grade when I was at Girl Scout Camp – Camp Sakajawea in upstate New York. There was always a talent contest during each two week session. The seven girls in our tent realized none of us twirled batons, sang, danced, or played an instrument. I suggested I could write a play and we could stage it. They agreed. I wrote an early “sit-com” fashioned after the game shows popular at the time, such as 64 Thousand Dollar Question. I confess to taking some literary license with material from tv shows I had seen. The other girls built a set, we created costumes, and went “on the air.” In spite of being generally shy, I directed and played the lead role. In the end, our tent won the talent contest. I have a photo somewhere of three of us, Lillian, Billie Joe, and me holding the blue ribbon.
However, I did not consider myself an author until I sold my first short story, Wendy,to a Canadian religious magazine in 1981. I wrote the story while our six daughters and their friends were in the dining room having a make-up party. I had just read about a funeral being held that weekend by a community group for an unknown teenage girl who had been murdered a year previously. No one had claimed her as their own. I could not imagine such a thing. I created a fictional girl, a fictional funeral, and sent it in, glad to have the story off my chest. A week later I received an envelope from the magazine. My first thought was, “That was a fast rejection.” To my surprise and delight, the envelope included a check!
CBG: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Hart: I don’t particularly intend to have messages in my writing, but as I look back at my books, I see there is always a mother/daughter dilemma. Having serious issues with my own mother, I guess the feelings are coming out in the writing. Sometimes they’re positive, as in wishful thinking; other times they are not so good. The Reluctant Daughters is probably the most serious book when it comes to mother/daughter issues. The Prince of Keegan Bay which starts the entire Blender series of books, covers the problem slantwise. Moira does everything she can to protect her baby, risking life and limb for her. That is what I mean when I say wishful thinking. Throughout the series, Doll periodically questions her own motherhood, but it’s not a major issue. Her big problem is how she dealt with losing her husband. In the latest work in progress, Midnight in Mongolia, Doll worries about Al and Larry when they disappear. She reflects on whether or not she did all she could to find her husband, Barclay, when he disappeared in the Galapagos several years ago. What I like to do with my books is entertain and inform.
CBG: Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Hart: The book that is about to be released, Silent Autumn—Champagne is now taking preorders—evolved from a dream. The dream sequence that originally began the book has long since disappeared only to be glimpsed briefly somewhere in the middle of the story. The dream triggered the futuristic state of the North American continent. Once again, we have a mother who sacrifices herself to save her baby. Our protagonists take the baby with them as they trek across the country intent on warning the Western States’ leaders of an impending disaster set to occur during the Winter Solstice. “Power, absolute authority, and food. The East has the first two, the West, the third. And Taylor Female 8635 knows what is about to happen.”
CBG: Tell us your latest news?
Hart: Current works in progress are the fourth in the Blender series, in Mongolia and a new kind of story for me, a paranormal romance, the working title being, Talk to the Knife. When Marianna Edgewater is fed up with her life in the big city, she searches for and finds an ideal location for her interior design business, an old school building in rural Georgia. What she doesn’t bargain for is a spirit haunting the building begging for justice. Nor does she want to entertain the romantic advances of her architect and contractor, two attractive men. She’s had enough of attractive men trying to control her life in the past. Now she wants to focus in building her international business without distractions. Unfortunately, a voice taunts her every step of the way.
