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| Shelley Lieber, Author Under pen name Elyse Grant THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX |
Shelley
lives in North Carolina with her husband and her other personalities. They all
like to read romance,
comedy, drama, and documentaries, and spend time with friends. Also, they have
a Muse and they all love her.
Don't miss the excerpt following the interview.
Don't miss the excerpt following the interview.
Click the link at the end of this article to check out the First Love Blog Hop and learn about other participating authors and how to win a Kindle and many more prizes.
Q: Given that
you are split personalities, I feel compelled to address questions to each of
you. Let’s start with Elyse. What
inspired you to write THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX (I love that title)?
Elyse Grant: (Thank you ;-)
THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX began life as a nonfiction book by Shelley Lieber
about re-entering the dating scene at age 40+ after divorce. I’m a fiction
writer and I’d been waiting many years to emerge. My opportunity finally showed
up one day when Shelley was struggling to organize and present all the stories
she had conducted from her real-life interviews with divorced and separated
women as research for the book. I saw her falter in frustration and I quickly
jumped out and took over the keyboard, introducing her to the characters of
Leah Gold and Roxanne Stein. Suddenly everything seemed to fall into place, and
the story of THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX unfolded.
Q: One of your
reviewers said that THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX provided “a
great balance of sexuality and everything else that goes into life. The author
has created a wonderful and realistic context for showing how women can become
their own person.” When you decided to write this book was your goal to offer
an entertaining book or to deliver a message?
Elyse Grant: Both. The book has been described as
“erotica with a message,” but in truth, it’s women’s contemporary fiction with
erotic scenes. As a genre, contemporary women’s fiction confronts issues of
modern-day women and their relationships with men, other women, careers, and
children. My intention was to explore some of these issues. Of course, a book
must be entertaining, or who will read it? So, my goal was to explore the
issues in an entertaining and engaging way.
Q: How important is sexuality to
telling your story?
Elyse Grant: Sexuality is an important component
of a woman’s life and integral to stories about women. THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX
explores many components of a woman’s life through two main and two minor female
characters. Sexuality is important to the story, but no more so than motherhood
or creative expression.
Q: Elyse: How do you convince readers
to care what happens to your characters?
Elyse Grant: I don’t try to convince anyone of
anything. I do try to create multifaceted characters who exhibit a range of
emotions and ideas, who make mistakes and have failures, and who are vulnerable
but strong enough to persevere and succeed. As a reader, I know I care about
characters I like or admire, and I believe my readers feel the same way.
Q: Who are your intended readers? What are
they looking for?
Elyse Grant: Well, that’s
really a question for Shelley. She’s all about target markets and things like
that. But I’d say my ideal reader is a woman who appreciates that the pursuit
of purpose, passion, and fulfillment is a bumpy, but enjoyable ride.
Q: Now let’s give
Shelley a chance to respond. Why are you a writer? When did you first realize
that you are a writer?
Shelley Lieber: I am a writer because that’s what I am.
There’s nothing else I do that feels as joyful or fulfilling. I don’t know that
I ever “realized” I was a writer...however, there was a day when I realized
that I would write for a living and publish my work. I was in my 20s and on
vacation at a beach house. I suddenly “saw” myself on the porch of the cottage
with a typewriter and knew that one day my vision would be real. It wasn’t that
surprising to me, really. I majored in English, loved books, and was working in
the publishing industry as a book editor at the time. I began my writing career
some years later as a magazine editor and writer. I became a copywriter and
worked in advertising, marketing, and public relations for a while. But,
fiction was always my first love, and fortunately Elyse Grant popped out one
day to assume that role.
Q: Who are the
Wordy Woman and The Vegan Novelist? (You really do have a lot of
personalities!)
Shelley Lieber: The Wordy
Woman is a publishing professional with almost 40 years experience in the
industry. She wrote 4Ps to Publishing Success and Publishing Made Easy & Profitable. She helps new and aspiring authors write and publish their work.
The
Vegan Novelist demanded recognition in Summer 2012 and started a vegan food and
lifestyle blog. She was inspired to write about her participation in a
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program with a local organic farm.
The
problem we face as a multiple personality is that we share the same 24 hours.
So, if Vegan Novelist is blogging, Elyse isn’t writing, and Shelley isn’t serving
clients. Balance has not yet been achieved. Hence, since THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX has occupied our attention in the past months, Vegan Novelist has not
blogged since last summer (although she appears in the kitchen at mealtimes).
Q: Tell us
something about yourselves. When you’re not writing, what do you all do?
Hobbies? Sailing? Knitting? Standup comedy? Favorite music? Favorite authors? Do you have a muse?
Shelley Lieber: For the most
part, there’s not too much conflict with what to do with leisure time. We enjoy
the same kinds of books and movies: romance, comedy, drama, and documentaries.
We steer clear of horror, violence, and things that don’t feel good. We lean to “green” in lifestyle and
diet, and love to spend time with family and friends. We absolutely have a Muse
and we love her!
About Shelley
Lieber/Elyse Grant/Wordy Woman/The Vegan Novelist
Shelley
Lieber is an author with a split personality. As The Wordy Woman,
publishing consultant, she wrote 4Ps to
Publishing Success and Publishing
Made Easy & Profitable for new and aspiring authors. Her wilder side
writes erotic fiction under the pen name Elyse Grant. THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX is her debut
novel. A third personality common to both Shelley and Elyse is Vegan Novelist, who blogs
about vegan food and lifestyle.
Shelley
is what native North Carolinians not so fondly call a “halfback.” Originally
from New York, she moved to Florida, then to North Carolina. Shelley now lives
in Asheville, NC, with her husband, who is remarkably patient and skillful at
adjusting to her personality switches.
Excerpt from
Chapter 14 of THE PRINCE CHARMING HOAX
“Leah Gold?”
Leah spun
around. A dark-haired man with a white V-neck sweater and jeans was coming
toward her. “Yes?”
“I want you to
know that I think it’s pretty rude for you to leave, knowing I came here to
meet you. I closed my shop early and you can’t even take a minute to poke your
head in and say hi. Who the hell do you think you are?”
Leah stared at
him for a moment, trying to take it all in. “Tom?”
“Yeah, I’m
Tom.”
“I’m so sorry.
You’re right. It was rude. I guess I wasn’t thinking straight.” Leah wished the
ground would open and swallow her up. “Something happened, and I…I guess I
didn’t think at all.”
“Sounds to me
more like you were just thinking about yourself.”
Leah rarely
found herself at a loss for words, but Tom took her breath away. Lydia had been
less than truthful again. Tom was not merely good looking. He was gorgeous. His
green eyes snapped under dark eyebrows as he stood there glaring at her. He was
tanned, and she caught sight of straight, white teeth as he snapped at her.
Leah bit her
lower lip. “Look, Tom, I know I haven’t exactly made a great first impression,
but if you’ll give me another chance…”
Tom looked into
her eyes, but didn’t say anything.
She held out
her hand to him. “Hi, Tom. I’m Leah. Thank you for coming to meet me.”
His entire
posture relaxed. Tom had been keyed up, ready for a fight, but Leah seemed to
knock the wind out of him. His mouth softened from a straight, angry line to a
grin. “Nice to meet you, Leah. I probably shouldn’t have told you off like
that. It’s just that…I haven’t been having such great luck lately with women,
and I guess I took it out on you.”
“Actually, it was
my own misfortunes with men that had me leaving so soon.”
The two stood
in silence for a moment, just looking at one another.
“Would you like
to go back inside?” Tom asked.
“No!” Leah
answered. “But tell me, how well do you know Lydia and Philip?”
“Not very well.
I met Lydia at the gym and I’ve done some printing jobs for them—programs,
flyers, and things. I’ve met Philip once or twice when I dropped off their
orders.”
“You’re a
printer?”
“Yes, I have a
shop in Pompano. How about you, Leah? Where do you work?”
They stood in
the parking lot talking, not paying attention to the darkening sky or the time
passing. Leah was so engrossed in their conversation that she was suddenly
startled to hear Ali calling her name from a distance.
“Mom, what are
you doing out there?” Ali stood in the theater doorway. She made her way to
Leah’s car. “I was looking all over for you when I came out of class. Why are
you in the parking lot?”
“Ali, this is
Tom Ryan. Tom, my daughter Alison.”
“Hi, Ali,” Tom
extended his hand.
“Hi, nice to
meet you,” Ali said as she shook his hand. She turned to Leah. “Can we go now?
I’m starving.”
“All right,
Ali. Get in the car. I’ll be right there.”
Leah winced as
Ali slammed the car door, but smiled at Tom. “Thanks again for coming tonight.
I’m glad you followed me out here, even if it was to tell me off!”
Links
Amazon
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/wordywoman
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