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~ Carolina Valdez ~



 

Before concentrating on writing romance, Carolina Valdez had more than sixty publications to her credit, ranging from children's stories to articles in professional journals. A public health nurse with an advanced university degree, she won RN magazine's First Award for Writing, and has also been published in the American Journal of Nursing. She was a Guideposts Writers Workshop and Guideposts Reunion Workshop winner, and her work has appeared in that periodical and several Daily Guideposts books. Among her other wins are the Soul-Making Literary Prize for Essay, the Marjorie Davis Roller Award for non-fiction, Della Crowder Memorial and Millenium awards for poetry, and the Norman E. and Marjorie J. Roller first prize for a story about a horse that can float on water. Carolina is a member of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. Her story "Marathon Madness" appears in "LAndmarked for Murder," their recent crime anthology.

Welcome to Sensual Reads and Reviews Carolina. It's lovely to see you here today.

Thanks so much, Deborah. It's my pleasure to be here!

Can you tell our readers just how long you have been a writer?

I fell in love with writing when I was eight. Worked on my junior high school newspaper, won an essay contest in the ninth grade. But I was twenty-eight before I realized I was not only an R.N., wife, and mother--I was also a writer.

What was it that gave you the final push to submit your first story?

That was the year I had an opinion, wrote it up and sent it to a magazine I'd taken for several years. They not only published it, they paid me for it. I also won RN magazine's First Award for writing a few months later. That prize equaled a week's income as an R.N. Talk about thrilling.

Has your life changed in any way since you became a published writer?

Knowing I was a writer encouraged me to submit more articles and stories plus enter contests. Each
success among the many rejects kept me hanging in there.

What do friends and family think of your work?

They think it's great I write and am published. They aren't aware I also write explicitly sensual stories.

Do you have a specific ritual that you go through when writing? ie. phone off the hook, candles or music to set the scene?

I just sit down at the computer and write. I always begin reading and editing at Chapter 1. I begin at Chapter 1 every writing session. I don't write the whole story and then go back to edit.  After I've edited what I've written, I move on to add more story for that session. When finishing a
long novel set in Early California, I'd put on a CD called "Flavors of the Drum." It was songs and rhythms of Native Americans, and it put me into that creative world they call "flow" or "bliss." I looked forward to stepping into that world and spinning out my story.

Can you describe for us a typical day in the life of  writer Carolina Valdez?

I have breakfast, check my emails and MySpace pages. Do I need to blog today? Next comes exercise time. I'm not a person of routine, so then my days are always different. Some days I write, some I don't. I may spend time at the library or Goggling research. If I'm meeting an Amber Quill Press deadline, I'm more structured.

Which of your heroines would you say is most like yourself?

None of them, really. They all have bits and pieces of what I know and think.

To date, which of your heroes is your personal favorite and why?

Hmm, I luv 'em all! Creating Lance Davison intrigued me the most, I think. He's a hunk, has the strength of a medieval knight, and has special powers as a wizard. His weakness is that he's been cursed. He's honorable and committed. Beyond great sex, he knows how to love truly and completely.

Can you tell us a little about your latest release?

In "View from the Top," from Amber Quill Press, passion melts the sand to glass on the surfing beaches of southern California. But she's a billionaire's daughter and he's the son of a plumber. 

I grew up in south Cal, so it was fun to write about what I know. I think the billionaire idea was triggered by seeing Donald Trump interviewed. What would it be like to be a billionaire's daughter? And how might a romance with someone at the lower end of the income/prestige pole work out? The story formed from those ideas.

Are there any WIPs  that you can tell us about today?

A coffee table book on dragons in Barnes and Noble triggered this idea. It's a fantasy novella for the "Enchanted" Amber Pax, to be released in December. My working title is "Where Dragons Fly." My heroine is a shapeshifting dragon  who falls in love with a knight. Because she has a sacred dragon destiny, their love may not survive.

Next month, my time travel/fantasy/shapeshifter novella "Portal to Darkness" will be released by Amber Quill. During Mardi Gras, Diana is spun on a carousel back to the Dark Ages by Le Faye Morgan, a jealous witch. Diana doesn't know her new lover, Lance Davison, is a wizard knight. He follows her not only to protect her but to save his brother's holdings. He also wants to be freed of a spell cast on him by the evil wizard Mardroc. Mardroc and Morgan have other plans for him. 

And lastly Carolina. What are your hopes and dreams as a writer for the next twelve months?

Always, to get better at writing stories. I'd also like to finish a novel set in Egypt.

Thank you for joining us today Carolina. May I take this opportunity to wish you lots more success in the future.
 
Again, I thank you for the chance to be here with your readers. And I wish them happy sensual reads.




Interview conducted by Deborah Kimpton
Sensual Reads & Reviews
June 2007


 

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