Author Interview: Paula Vince
Today, I have the pleasure of talking to someone special – award winning author Paula Vince. Paula writes inspirational New Adult dramas with suspense, mystery and romantic elements. Intrigued?
Read on and meet this fascinating author.
About Paula:
Award-winning author, Paula Vince loves to evoke tears and laughter through her novels. A wife and homeschooling mother of three, she resides in the beautiful Adelaide Hills of South Australia. Her youth was brightened by great fiction and she’s on a mission to pay it forward.
Her novel, Picking up the Pieces, won the religious fiction section of the 2011 International Book Awards. Her novel, Best Forgotten, was winner of the 2011 CALEB Award in the fiction category and also recognized as the best overall entry for the year. She is also author of The Risky Way Home, A Design of Gold and the Quenarden Trilogy. Paula is also one of the four authors of The Greenfield Legacy.
Her new novel, Imogen’s Chance, will be published in April, 2014.
Paula’s books are a skillful blend of drama and romance tied together with elements of mystery and suspense.
Find out more at www.justoccurred.blogspot.com
Welcome to Jenny’s thread, Paula. I’m thrilled to have you with us today and am looking forward to learning more about you and your writing.
Imogen’s Chance is your ninth book to be published and more than one of your books has won awards. How did you start writing and why?
I think writing has been in my DNA since I was small. At school, whenever we got a chance to do some silent reading or write stories, I’d be instantly happy. I found it very easy to get involved in the worlds of story book characters, so it followed naturally that I wanted to write them. The initial choice was to make myself happy, so if I could make others happy too, it would be a bonus.
Paula, your books are often about troubled young men and women in their early 20s usually facing some big questions in life. What attracts you to writing about this age group?
I first started trying to write novels when I finished University and got married, which happened at the same time. Back then, I was the same age as my characters, which made it easy for me to relate to them. Since then, I’ve kept the habit going and suddenly I’m older, while some members of my family are a similar age to my characters. I have a nineteen-year-old son and a 23-year-old nephew boarder, as well as younger children.
I also remember those twenties as a memorable transition time in my life. I felt that childhood was finally behind me, and the adult world beckoned. It was an interesting stage where I’d switch from anxiety to enthusiasm and back again in a flash. I decided that, as I could swing so easily between apprehension and anticipation, it was a perfect age to set in stories.
Can you see yourself in any of your characters?
I think there are bits of me in all of them. I can certainly relate to Imogen’s honest longing to do all the right things, without knowing how much of her past she ought to reveal to the people in her life. I can even relate to Asher, who I initially thought was completely unlike me. His personal uncertainty and sense of not living up to expectations is something I’ve been familiar with at different times.
As a reader, what do you think makes a good story?
I think that, first and foremost, the characters must be easy to love and empathise with. Readers should find it easy to imagine their physical appearances, even though descriptions may be sparse. In the same way, we ought to be able to hear their distinct voices in our minds’ ears while we read their dialogue.
Secondly, the plot should be tense and fast-moving enough to bring the best out of the characters and hold our interest. The very best stories leave us with that ‘book hangover’ feeling, when we don’t want to begin a new book because our head is still too full of the last. (I find these are the times I pick up non-fiction instead, until the impressions begin to fade away.)
Who/what are the biggest influences in your writing and why?
I think I’d have to say every author whose books I’ve immensely enjoyed, although there are far too many to single out. I might also mention my husband, Andrew, who has always encouraged me. When we were first married, I told him that although I’d always wanted to write fiction, I didn’t think I had it in me. He kept urging me to give it a go, telling me that he was certain I’d come up with a good story.
What do you find is the most difficult aspect of writing and how do you cope with it?
The marketing part, which comes with each new book, is always a challenge for me. I’m not a natural salesperson. Daydreaming is easy, but recognising opportunities as they whiz past is not so easy. Often, I’d hear about opportunities in retrospect, and think, ‘If only I’d known, I could have gone to that.’ Unlike my hero, Asher, I don’t have the gift of the gab, which means coming up with the right things to say when I’m trying to sell books at public forums can be a strain.
As for coping strategies, I think it’s just a matter of doing it often enough to get used to it.
Faith is woven through your books sometimes more understated, at other times more obvious. Can you tell me what faith means to you?
I’ve battled with fear and uncertainty at different times in my life, and my faith has always pulled me through. Since I was very young, I’ve had a fascination with the way God may choose to work in people’s lives. This makes it easy to create characters who become intrigued with the same subject.
Without giving too much away, what is your favourite moment in Imogen’s Chance?
Okay, I’ll say the bit with the lights in the cabin. It made me very happy to write that. I hope that’s cryptic enough to make everybody want to read the book. Apart from that, I liked all of the interactions between Asher and his brother, Seth. In the early stages, I had the feeling there might be a bit of friction between those two, but had no idea why. As I let them have their way and converse with each other, the hidden chinks in their attitudes toward each other started showing, surprising even me. I loved it when the buried feelings of those two young men came to light.
Launching a new book is a very busy time so I know you have lots of things on your mind, but I can’t help wondering – do you have some other writing projects on the boil?
It’s all still in my head at the moment, except for a few rough jottings on paper. As well as wanting to write a nostalgic story based on my grandfather’s real war experiences, I have some ideas regarding more romantic triangles, guilty secrets and unexpected turns of events like nothing I’ve written so far.
Thanks for inviting me to discuss my book with your readers, Jenny. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
Thanks for talking with us Paula. I’ve enjoyed reading a number of your books over the last couple of years, including Imogen’s Chance. I find your books entertaining as well as giving me lots to think about. Thank you so much for sharing about yourself, your books and your life as a writer. We wish you great success with the launch of your latest book Imogen’s Chance.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know Paula. Let me encourage you to check out her blog for information about Paula’s Blog Tour through April – with the chance to win copies of Imogen’s Chance along the way and a special promotion Greenfield Legacy Pack for the first three people who leave a comment at every visit spot, and tell Paula about it on her blog. Don’t forget to comment today too.
Jeanette O’Hagan
***
About Imogen’s Chance:
She has given herself a chance to fix her personal history. But will old mistakes bring up new emotions?
Imogen Browne longs to make up for past mistakes before she can move on. She quietly resolves to help the Dorazio family, whose lives she accidentally upset. Her biggest challenge is Asher, the one person who may never forgive her. And he is facing a crisis of his own. Imogen must tread very carefully, as trying to fix things may well make them shatter.
A sensitive story about misplaced loyalty, celebrating life and falling in love. Can family secrets concealed with the best intentions bear the light of day?
Tags: author interview Paula Vince, Imogen's Chance, Jeanette O'Hagan, Paula Vince, Paula Vince's Blog Tour
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Paula, I loved reading about your favorite spots in the story and how the reaction between the brothers grew when you allowed them to flow. What a mystery fiction writing is! Thanks Jenny for some very interesting questions.
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for giving me those interesting questions to work on. I thoroughly enjoyed answering them. Thanks also for including the links to my blog tour.
Thanks Paula and Jo.
It is amazing how the story grows and characters take on lives of their own.
Jenny
Hi Jo,
Isn’t it a great thing, when your fictional characters seem to come to life and prove that there is still more you can learn about them? Yes, if you’re ever down in SA, I’d love to show you Port Elliot and the Adelaide Hills.