It is great to chat with author Carol Schoenig the recipient of a 2017 NYC Big Book Award
We all loved your novel The Caretaker at Black Velvet Seductions. You must be delighted with this recognition?
Yes, I am delighted.
How did you get nominated for this award?
I entered this contest, I sent the manuscript and a month later I was informed that I was one of the winners.
Would you mind telling us a bit about your background? How you started writing and what drew you to romance?
My story is very glamorous. Back in my twenties, I submitted a short story contest at Harlequin. I didn’t win, so I thought I can’t write. I spent twenty-five years in the human resources world. I always wanted to write. I’d write articles for newsletters for work. I would make up stories for my grandkids off the top of my head. I would joke with co-workers that when I retire I was going to sit on a beach and write risque novels. I had visions of living the lifestyle of Murder (Romance) She Wrote.
Can you describe your writing process?
Is it fun to do or you find it hard work?
I’m not a planner. I get an idea and go with it. However, that can lead to delays and I am seeing the value of planning and plotting a story out.
Writing is fun in the sense that you create characters and lives and have control over their thoughts and feelings. It is hard work and requires discipline to keep to a writing schedule and promote your book at the same time. But seeing your story come to life is exciting.
Do you read a lot of romance?
Yes, I read a lot of romance. Romantic Comedy and Romantic Suspense are my favorite genres. I know what I like to read and so I try to write what I would read. The Caretaker is different than most romance stories in that it is for the more mature baby boomer generation. But I think even a younger person contemplating marriage would face the same situations, children not wanting to share their parents with others. I’ve had my readers tell me that it was a story they could relate to and want more like it. The baby boomers want to know that there is hope for them and that it isn’t too late to find another love. But there are issues and obstacles even at the age of 65+.
Since the publication of The Caretaker, what have you been working on?
I”m nearing the completion of the first draft of Prosthetic Love. Delving into the world of a woman who loses her leg in an accident and her finance months later because he can’t deal with the situation. We live in a world of beauty and perfectionism, how does someone with a prosthetic leg deal with dating. Intimacy.
I also have a rough draft of a story with no title yet. Most romance stories have rich powerful men, what if it is the woman that is rich and powerful?
Once a month I have dinner with high school friends. Some of us have been friends since grade school. They keep asking me to write a story about us. There are ten of us, some married fifty plus years, some divorces, some widowed.
Hopes for the future? My hopes for the future, pending currently is an entry I submitted to have The Caretaker considered for a made for TV movie.
Richard, I would like to take a moment and thank you and Laurie Sanders for the encouragement and support you provided getting my book published. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Thank you, Carol, it was a pleasure chatting with you. We all loved your book and can’t wait for your next story
You can read The Caretaker here on Amazon and it is available from many outlets such as Barns and Noble, I books, Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and many more.