Romance Writer's Revenge

I bet you’re not going to believe this. I barely believe this, but Thursday, October 1^st, is the two year anniversary of this humble little ship. Two years. Do you know there are NBC television shows that haven’t lasted that long—or are even as interesting as we are? (Yeah, I suppose that is a little more believable.)

 

In honor of us managing to not sink this ship in our 730 days of sailing, we’re going to have two weeks of interviews! There will be the published authors’ interviews (Courtney Milan on Thursday, Louisa Edwards on Friday the 9^th, and Kimberly Killion on Tuesday the 13^th); and there will be the NYP authors’ (that’d be us) interviews. All will be endlessly fascinating. Today’s NYP author interview is Sophie Sinclaire, author of In the Beginning, Again—go harass your local bookstore for it now.

 

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Hellion: Welcome, pirates and wenches! It is my very great honor to introduce to you today an author very near and dear to my heart, a sister quite nearly if I may be so bold, the charming and witty, Sophie Sinclaire!

 

Sophie: Why, hello, Hellie, it’s so great to see you again! Thank you for having me on board the ship. Really, I was quite flattered, I wasn’t aware anyone knew about my book! I didn’t even know it was…published. *glancing around quizzically* Can that happen?

 

Hellion: I have my connections. Pirate. Neither here nor there; let’s focus on you! I just read your debut book, In the Beginning Again, and I must say it was wonderful. Charming, hilarious, but poignant. Mostly hilarious though.

 

Sophie: Oh, good, I was shooting for funny. *coughs* Wow, this is nerve wracking. I have a whole new respect for authors who come on the ship now. Is there any rum?

 

Hellion: *hands her a drink* There is no reason to feel nervous. I’ve interviewed scads of authors. I’m harmless.

 

Sophie: *glancing around* I don’t suppose Jack is…

 

Hellion: *laughing* It’s hopeless. No one wants to interview with me. Jack! Get out here!

 

Sophie: No, you’re great, really…

 

Jack: *entering from a trap door and dusting off his jacket* It’s just I know how to make a woman feel comfortable in her skin, until she’s more than willing to lay herself bare. *kisses the back of Sophie’s hand, giving his best smoldering look* Hello, kitten, I’m very glad to finally meet you.

 

Sophie: I am so, so glad to be met. *shakes head* OMG, did I just titter?

 

Jack: It’s nothing, my pet, quite common. So where were we? Ah, yes, the interview. I too got to read this book—as my sweet Hellie says, it was quite amusing. In In the Beginning Again, you’re featuring characters, if you will, of people we all know. Specifically the original romantic couple, Adam and Eve.

 

Sophie: You mean the original odd couple, yes, it features them. They’re a hoot, really. Always bickering about something. Married folk. This book is like Extreme Makeovers: Marital Counseling Edition.

 

Jack: But not based on any married people, you know.

 

Sophie: Oh, God, no, I want people to actually want to get married at the end. If I based this on the married couples I knew, people would probably stop getting married. No, I just pretended I was married and what sort of stupid things would send me over the edge, demanding a divorce, and I decided the KitchenAid would probably do it.

 

Jack: A KitchenAid? What’s a KitchenAid? Does it hold rum?

 

Sophie: Yeah, well, I mean nobody divorces over a KitchenAid. People divorce because they stop communicating; and when they are communicating, they’re not saying what they really mean, what the real problem is. Eve is your typical housewife: the hard-working nurturer who is quite simply tired of being taken for granted. But instead of saying, “You’re a jerk and you take me for granted”, she says, “I’m divorcing you because you got the KitchenAid.”

 

Jack: That does sound a lot like my last wife. What was her name again? Francesca? Francoise? *shakes head* It’ll come back to me. Anyway, women do divorce over the funniest stuff. You don’t remember their name. You were helping the chambermaid make the bed…ah, well, you live, you learn.  I found Eve to be a very complex character—I thought you did a great job at making her well-rounded *making woman shape with his hands*– and well, you know. Tell me, did she come to you that way or is she based off anyone you know?

 

Sophie: Well, it’s dangerous really to create characters based off other people in your life. But I suppose she is a little. Eve is really a sort of extension of me and a couple of friends I know, who’ve also had relationships, the sort of relationships where you fight about dumb, dumb stuff. Like how to put the lid on the skillet the right way.

 

Jack: Interesting. How about the other characters? What about Adam? Is he an extension of anyone? Men you’ve dated perhaps? *grins roguishly* Men you want to date, perhaps.

 

Sophie: *titters again, then coughs* No, Adam is very much the marrying type, and I’ve never dated the marrying type myself. I date the Lucifer type. Adam is more like me and my father.

 

Jack: So you also have father issues? Most excellent.

 

Sophie: Wow, am I out of rum already?

 

Jack: *pours her more rum* That is the thing about this ship. The rum is almost always gone. Drink up, drink up. What about Lucifer? Is he based on men you’ve dated then?

 

Sophie: No, he’s smarter than the men I’ve dated. I’d say he’s me, but with a penis.

 

Jack: *drawing back slightly and giving Sophie a once over* You don’t, do you? *shakes head* I mean, never mind. What about Elizabeth? A fetching little piece she was.

 

Sophie: Definitely me, but with a lot attitude like another friend of mine. Elizabeth’s secretive nature is definitely more like my friend and less me. But the smartass, all me.

 

Jack: Let me see if I’ve got this right: Eve, Adam, Lucifer, and Elizabeth are all based off you, in some form or another?

 

Sophie: Yes. Wow, that sounds far more narcissistic than I intended. Though, I suppose you’d know more than anyone about having multiple selves running amok, wouldn’t you? And if you think about it, all authors put a little of themselves into all their characters. That’s not uncommon. But I’m not in every character in my book.

 

Jack: Which character in the book doesn’t have you?

 

Sophie: God. He’s completely made up.

 

Jack: What is In the Beginning Again about exactly? For those readers who haven’t had a chance to pirate a copy like Hellie and I.

 

Sophie: Oh, what any romance is about: boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love; boy screws up; boy and girl have a failure to communicate and make each other miserable for thousands of years in marriage counseling; boy and girl get a divorce; boy and girl are sent to Vegas to find new soul mates, but upon placing personal ads, they end up falling in love with each other instead.

 

Jack: What’s up next for Sophie Sinclaire?

 

Sophie: Oh, I thought Lucifer has been waiting rather patiently for me to break his heart and then give him his happily ever after. He has a lot to learn, but I think he deserves a second chance.

 

Jack: I totally agree. Everyone should get the benefit of a second chance. If only Francoise, Frannie!—it was Frannie, I knew I’d remember her name—had had an open heart like you. Sophie, I want to thank you again for guesting with us today, and I wish you much future success in your writing adventures. I’m sure In the Beginning Again, as well as Lucifer’s sequel, will be great successes. Do you have anything you’d like to ask the crew?

 

Sophie: Of course! Adam & Eve is a reunion story—so mainly I want to know what everyone thinks of reunion stories. What do you think of stories that feature married couples with married couple drama? What are some of your favorites; and what sorts of things do think make for good reunion/marriage stories?