It’s Week Six of the All Romantic Suspense Blog Tour and our guest author is Leanne Dyck. Welcome, Leanne! Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to interview you:-)
Leanne: Greetings from beautiful Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada. Thank you, Ursula for this opportunity. I hope your readers enjoy the interview.
It’s my pleasure, Leanne. Glad you could make it. I’d like to begin by asking you a few questions about you and your writing process. Also, we’d love to hear more about your book, The Sweater Curse, and where readers can get a copy. So, Leanne…tell us more!
Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser?
Leanne: I’m a flexible plotter. In my teens I wrote never-ending stories. Fearful of similar outcomes, I like to start with a plan. My muse grants me permission to change this plan as often as I wish.
What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
Leanne: Make a daily commitment to read, write and promote yourself.
What is your writing day like? Do you have a specific daily word or page goal?
Leanne: My bum is in the chair from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Daily activities include answering emails, working on my manuscript, writing a blog post, researching and participating in promotional opportunities.
Have you ever experienced writer’s block? If so, how do you find your way back?
Leanne: Have I? Oh, yes. In fact, I wrote an article on strategies I’ve employed to effectively overcome the BLOCK. I would be happy to share this article with your readers.
Tell us about your first acceptance!
Leanne: Encouraged by the success of my self-publishing cozy mystery (MAYNELY A MYSTERY), I made a pact that I would do everything in my power to find a publisher for THE SWEATER CURSE. I began hunting in October 2010 and by June of that year I found Decadent Publishing.
There’s nothing like the rush you feel achieving a goal you fear is unattainable.
What are your writing goals?
Leanne: Dream big or go home is my motto, so… I want to write a best selling series that spawns a hit movie.
What books are currently on your nightstand?
Leanne: John Grisham’s THE INNOCENT MAN
What is the last book you read?
Leanne: Sheree Fitch’s PLUTO’S GHOST (YA). Jake, the lead character, is dyslexic. This story appealed to me because I’m dyslexic and am currently writing a novel with a lead character that shares my “disability”. PLUTO’S GHOST was a quick and entertaining read.
If you could go back in time, where or in what period would you find yourself?
Leanne: The 60s.
What part of your writing do you enjoy least?
Leanne: Writing a synopsis.
How long does it take you to write a complete novel?
Leanne: It varies, and I’m happy to give each of my projects the time they need. THE SWEATER CURSE (novella) took me five years of often-interrupted writing. MAYNELY A MYSTERY (short novel) took a year.
What are you currently working on?
Leanne: TURNING is a young adult adventure loosely based on my time in the government-run youth group Katimavik. I’m approximately 50% of the way through and my estimated completion date is the end of June 2011.
I’ve also begun working on the sequel to THE SWEATER CURSE.
Favorite vacation spot or place you’d like to visit but haven’t yet?
Leanne: On my mom’s bucket list was a trip to New Zealand. She never got to go. I would like to go in her stead.
Do you have a favorite book and/or author?
Leanne: Joline Godfrey’s OUR WILDEST DREAMS: Women Entrepreneurs Making Money, Having Fun, Doing Good.
This book gave me hope when I had run dry.
My mom’s death sent me into a deep depression. I knew who I was with her strength and support. Before her death, I was an Early Childhood Educator caring for children at a day care while studying to obtain my social work degree.
After her death, I was lost. I had nothing left to give to myself let alone anyone else. I was trained to work in the social services. My career had to change. I had to do something else, but what? OUR WILDEST DREAMS helped me answer this question.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Leanne: Each of us shares a common bond.
Don’t accept the knitter stereotype
Believe in the power of art and the value of artists.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Leanne: I’ve always loved story. I was a shy teen—writing gave me a world to control.
What do you like to do for fun? Hobbies?
Leanne: I like to spend time with family and friends, volunteer in my community and engage in solitary pursuits such as knitting and photography.
What question are you never asked in interviews but wish you were?
Leanne: Tell me about your blog. The Sweater Curse blog is devoted to my two passions—writing and knitting. Offered on this blog are podcasts of me reading from The Sweater Curse, a knitting tutorial, samples of The Sweater Curse sequel, and interviews with authors and knitwear designers. I’m also currently running the “Your Favourite Sweater” short story contest and am accepting submissions of 500 words or less. Each story will be published on my popular blog. One lucky contributor will win a copy of THE SWEATER CURSE.
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
Leanne: I’ve enjoyed writing many genres. In fiction, I’ve written a cozy mystery and a dark thriller. In non-fiction, besides writing a learn-to-knit pattern book, I’m currently writing a creative non-fiction humorous young adult adventure. Each of these genres has their appeal, but I’m fickle. What I’m currently writing generally gives me the most comfort. TURNING is no acceptation.
How do you deal with rejection?
Leanne: To help me deal with rejection, I tried an experiment. I walked into my local bookstore. I wandered from book to book, reading the back covers. I realized two things. First, no one publisher published all of the books. Second, I realized how taxing it must be for a publisher to decide which book to publish. A good publisher not only creates a book, but also sells it. In order to do an effective job, the publisher must believe in the value of the story. I asked myself, “Did I like all the books I saw?” Truthfully, I answered, “No.” Surprisingly, I came to this conclusion: sometimes the kindest thing a publisher can do—especially if my story doesn’t appeal to them—is to reject it.
Great interview, Leanne. Do provide us a link to your post on overcoming writer’s block. I know I’d love to read it:-). Can you now share a blurb and some reviews for The Sweater Curse?
Blurb: Aspiring knitwear designer Gwen Bjarnson is stuck in Purgatory. To escape, she must re-examine her life, journey through her past and right a wrong. But which wrong?
Young and in love, she works to establish her career, except fate has different plans. One rash act and she loses everything. Never resting, always seeking, and yearning for what she can no longer have, Gwen faces the truth: if she remains, others are destined to die.
How will she solve the mystery before it is too late?
Reviews
Stitch by colorful stitch, Leanne Dyck knits a tale of intrigue with The Sweater Curse. Set against the backdrop of Canada and told in the first-person voice, the readers steps into the life–or rather, afterlife–of Gwen Bjarnson.
With a physician mother who has her sights set on career advancement, and a father who’s left emasculated in the wake of his wife’s ambitions. Gwen is placed in the care and keeping of her Aunt Oli’s loving and capable hands–gentle hands that teach her how to knit.
Her love of knitting stays with Gwen as she finds herself estranged from her family and squeezed into the lives of the upper echelon of society where trophy wives dangle from the arms of fragile, old millionaires. Drifting from house to house, she always has her knitting needles–the one constant in her life. Like a revolving door, men come and go, drawn like moths to a flame, enjoying erotic pleasures with Gwen. Until the fateful night when she meets Jaron Cardew, a self-published novelist who sees her for what she is–an artists–and believes in her.
Drawing her into his circle of friends, Jaron and Gwen become emotionally entwined. While purchasing skeins of yarn–a decadent blend of wool and alpaca–to knit a sweater for Jaron, the shopkeeper warns Gwen, “knit your boyfriend a hat, scarf, socks–anything but a sweater.” But she doesn’t heed the sage advice. Knit with love, the sweater turns out beautifully–quite literally to die for!
–reviewed by Laurie Buchanan
http://holessence.wordpress.com/
The Sweater Curse: A Modern Edda
Leanne Dyck has crafted a tale as exotic and existential as Danish Isak Dinesen’s. Her novella begins with a Ship-of-Fools fashion, with a bitter voice in some mysterious waiting room beyond the grave. The speaker, Gwen Bjarnson, returns us to her childhood years in Bloudous, a small town in northern Manitoba with a major Icelandic population. Her sweet and easy-going father is a simple father, but her mother is an ambitious doctor bent on pursuing her career.
Gwen finds solace in the love and care of her Auntie Oli, she shows her the art of crafts. “Knitting wove us together.” But dark forces will take the family from their safe haven to Vancouver, where her storyteller dad falls quickly into alcoholism. Stubborn but vulnerable Gwen is torn between two worlds, the tradition of her common-sense, hardworking forbearers and the demands of the modern life with its soul-crushing and superficial definition of success. To marry? To go to university? To become a fashion designer and a master of wools, colours, and patterns? Or to drown one’s sorrows with liquor and the “sweet breath of Mary Jane”? IN the creative atmosphere of Kitsilano where “anything goes”, love may come to Gwen, but is she ready to receive it? Temptations come at a price.
Overhanging this brooding and complex story is the time-honoured tale of the Sweater Curse. Knitting a sweater for a man who is not yet a husband will bring tragedy. Creating modern characters against the fateful background of the sagas. Dyck gives them free will to choose their won destinies. This book defies genre definitions as it finds its unique place on the fiction shelves. Here’s hoping Leanne Dyck returns many times to the intriguing roots of her family’s past.
–reviewed by Lou Allin
http://www.louallin.com/
She Felt No Pain (RendezVous Press, Oct, 2010)
That Dog Won’t Hunt (Orca, Oct 2010)
On Kindle: A Little Learning and Man Corn Murders
Where can readers find you?
Website: www.oknitting.com
Blog: http://sweatercursed.blogspot.com
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