Whale Island will be out on the shelves in August, 2009…
Tell us about Whale Island
Whale island is about hiding. It’s about a woman named Chalese Hamilton who is hiding who she was in her past and who she is now in her present.
Her mother and her sister share in her secrets. They live on an island off the coast of Washington and have formed entirely new lives with new names. Chalese is an outrageously popular children’s book writer and illustrator, but few people on the island know. She simply wants to blend in with everyone else and have her privacy. But secrets usually don’t hold forever and when Aiden Bridger, a reporter, arrives on the island, the secrets are up…there’s a few twists to the story, a number of dogs and cats, a yellow house, paints and colored pencils, a pet communicator, a wily best friend and a pregnant sister who are edgy and wild and bring laughter and trouble to Chalese’s life, a poker tournament, and a few drawings that hit the internet that were never, ever supposed to be on the internet…
What do you like about writing novellas vs novels?
I love writing novellas because you have to move the story right along…think of a speeding freight train only stack it with books. You only have about 25,000 words. Not much, really, when you’re trying to tell a whole story. I love that it’s short and easily handleable and manageable. The other novels I write are about 135,000 words. Now that’s a monstrous amount of words.
Tell the truth. Are a lot of the characters in your books based on real people?
Nope. Not at all.
Chalese and Brenda and Christie put a truck in a lake. Did you ever do that?
Nope again. That would have been bad. I’m an ex - fourth grade teacher. (Hello to all of my 200 former students! I hope you’re still reading and writing all the time!! Please write to me and tell me I was your favorite teacher EVER!) Teachers usually resist putting trucks in lakes unless they really don’t care for the person. It’s just bad manners.
Chalese and Brenda also climb on top of a skylight to spy on an ex – boyfriend of Chalese’s. Was that taken from personal experience?
That's a negative. I’m too scared to get on a roof. I might slip and land on my precious fanny. Why would you think I would ever spy on an ex-boyfriend anyhow? Do I look like the kind of person who would scramble up on a roof wearing night vision goggles and a black face covering hat? I do? Do you really think so?
Where’s Whale Island in real life?
I think of it, loosely, as Orcas Island in the San Juans which is where we had many, many summer vacations as a family. I’ve been going to Orcas since I was about 12. We’d go for ten days and hang out, camp, swim, explore, hike, walk around the lake. I love that island and I’ve brought my own kids there, too. We’d camp in a little tent trailer and my younger sister would sometimes have screaming nightmares or she would talk in her sleep. Nothing like waking up to someone having a screaming nightmare. My sisters and I would lay out in the sun and fry like clams. We’d walk around the lake and plan our wardrobes for the coming school year.
How does your husband feel about you creating all these hot love scenes?
He doesn’t know because he doesn’t read those parts. Don’t tell him.
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| My novella, Whale Island, coming out in August, 2009 |
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