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Book: The P.U.R.E
Author: Claire Gillian
Expected Publication: April 16,2012
Publisher: J Taylor Publishing
Pages:292 Pages
Format: Ebook
Source: J Taylor Publishing
You can check out my review for this book here
Welcome Claire Gillian to my blog and thanks for the great interview.
What made you want to become an author?
Becoming an author was probably one part pipe dream and nine parts "I couldn't not write", if that makes any sense. Writing a novel had always been a fantasy, sort of like marrying a prince, becoming a movie star, or winning Jeopardy. It was something I'd been privately drawn to my whole life, though I rarely indulged it. I had poems and bits of stories stashed away here and there, even had a poem I wrote selected for my high school year book's closing page. I never credited those attempts as anything more than poseur efforts. It wasn't until I tried writing fan fiction that anything really took root. Showing my writing to internet strangers with only a common love for a favorite TV show (no comment on which one) and receiving a positive response, sparked me to create a story of my own. I started with just a few scenes that grew and grew until suddenly I thought I might be able to keep going until I hit fifty thousand words, the magic number for National Novel Writing Month. I never looked back after that, though the fruit of that first labor lies deep within my writer's trunk.
What was the hardest part of this story for you to write?
The ending was the hardest. I did a major rewrite of that because I was really unhappy with it plot-wise. So the ending now has a different killer and is built upon completely different motivations than my first attempt. The other part I found challenging was getting the story's starting point set at the proper place. The P.U.R.E. was my second attempt at writing a novel, started back in 2009, and I was still very green at novel writing. I have many drafts on multiple computers and flash drives to prove it. The only encouragement I had to persist with The P.U.R.E. was the common critiquer's theme of "great voice", nevermind the "buts" that inevitably followed and that I systematically tackled over the years as I learned more about the craft of writing.
What inspired you to write this book?
P.U.R.E. or PURE (gonna drop the periods here because they are a pain) was a term I always found tragically funny. It dates back to my own early years in public accounting. In many respects, Gayle is me--top graduate who had absolutely no idea how to be an auditor for a very large, very powerful CPA firm. I wanted to capture that sense of knowing you're so much better than how you're being perceived but being frustrated again and again at your constant screw ups and cluelessness. As a new hire, everyone whispered about who they believed the PUREs to be, but we all hoped the same wasn't being said about us.
I worked in public accounting for over eleven years and it's been decades since I left (yes, I'm really old) but my early experiences in a job the general public knows next to nothing about remain incredibly vivid.
What can we look forward to from you next?
I have an anthology (Tidal Whispers) that releases in June, containing my short story The Sweetest Song and stories from three other authors--Jocelyn Adams, Julie Reece and Kelly Said. After that I have a story coming out in a steampunk anthology, Conquest Through Determination. No release date on the latter one yet. I have a novella out on submission that I'd click my heels over if accepted. Beyond that, I have an urban fantasy novel in need of some spit polish before I can start shopping it, though I may write book two in the series before I do so. Then there are the other two pen names and their efforts...suffice to say there aren't enough hours in the day.
What would you like your readers to know about you?
I really try not to take myself too seriously. The P.U.R.E. may not resonate with everyone but my next book just might, because I am nothing if not tenacious. Doesn't mean I'm a bad author...at least that's what I repeat to myself over and over again at night as I go through my endless list of to-do's. In terms of technical excellence, the best of authors can fail miserably while the less talented can ascend to great heights. Making that connection with the reader goes beyond the words and sentence construction but to the heart of the material, which, in my opinion, is the characters. I don't always know what I'm doing but I always strive to make you feel...something. As Maya Angelou once said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” If I've done that--made you laugh (first and foremost that), made you sigh, made you gasp--I've succeeded.
What are you reading right now? What is your favorite book genre
I just started Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare on the heels of Jennifer Armentrout's Obsidian and the Shades of Grey trilogy. I am an eclectic writer and reader who loves YA novels (dystopian and steampunk, in particular), romances (all types but with a weakness for historicals), chick lit, erotic romance, thrillers, cozy mysteries, and urban fantasies. I can't choose a favorite genre because I love diversity. When I get saturated with bad-ass urban fantasy or YA dystopian, I'll switch to a round of light-hearted, funny romances or chick lit or contemporary YA. When the heat level of the last category leaves me a little chilly, I'll warm up with a blazing fire of erotic romance, then douse it with a cozy mystery. That I also write under two other pen names demonstrates my severe literary confusion, strike that, diversity.
Wasn't that interview great and make sure you enter the giveaway below to win an e copy of the book.
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