Hello, Judy Winn

Thank you so much for being here, Judy Winn.

1: What genre do you write?

Right now … Romantic Mysteries.  Those stories where there is a real mystery to be solved, a murder or a theft, but there is a love story that is important.

I write in other areas, children’s, non-fiction, mainstream, even Confession Magazines.

2: Ah my favorite genre. So tell us, how long have you been writing?

Gosh.  The first story I remember writing was when I was 10.  I still remember how my young heroine hid a jewel in a squeeze toy to outfox the villain. I thought that was pretty clever. 

But you know I didn’t really like English when I was little, in grade school.  It seemed a real chore, but I didn’t want to make a bad grade. 

I did a little self hypnosis, I guess you might call it, and told myself “English is my favorite subject”, “English is my favorite subject” until I began to convince myself. It must have worked because I love English, love words, love reading and love writing.

3: English was my favorite subject also. What do you like the most and least about writing?

Plot is hard for me. I think in terms of character, but sometimes I can’t make “my people” get into enough trouble.

What I like most is when I get so involved in writing something that time just doesn’t exist. You know when you get so lost in what you are doing that you think an hour has gone by and then you realize the whole darn afternoon has flown by?  Sort of a meditation, I think.

4: Gosh, that’s what I love most also. Maybe it’s living in another world. And, what do you do for fun and relaxation when not writing?

Well, I love to read.  I’ll read the backs of cereal boxes at the breakfast table if the morning newspaper is late.

And I like to sew, although I don’t do as much of that as I used to do. Crossword puzzles, sudoko, walks on the beach or the woods, yoga, and sometimes cooking is fun. (I like to read the cookbooks more than make the recipes though, if you want to know the truth.)

5: LOL. So which authors do you like to read?

Oh my.  Well, I really enjoyed your book “Double the Trouble” recently. 

J.A. Jance is my favorite, and Janet Evanovich.  She makes me laugh right out loud.  “The Ladies No.1 Detective Agency” author, Alexander McCall Smith? Those stories set in Botswana are adorable.

Remember Carolyn Keene? I know “she” was more than one writer, but I still think I’d enjoy a Nancy Drew mystery.  When I was around eleven or so, those books were my lifeline.  I’d go to the library and pile them into my bicycle basket, pedal home, and disappear into a world of roadsters, little boats, and a sleuth who could take me away with her.

I like to go into the library and pick up a book by an author I never heard of. Exploring books that way introduces me to lots of new folks.

6: Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed my book. Wow, I think The Nancy Drew Books are part of the reason I write. I loved  them, too. Tell us, what’s the one thing you’d most like people to know about you?

I’m nice?  Well, at least most of the time.

I have traveled a lot, been married for nearly 53 years…to the same good man, started to college 10 years after HS and my children helped me pass French by drilling me on vocabulary from my textbooks so I could graduate.

I am a pilot, earning my private, instrument and commercial ratings, but I don’t do that anymore.

But that is more than one thing…just one thing? Ok.

I’m nice.  Most of the time. 

7: Multi-talented. My goodness you sound like you had a busy life. I wonder how you find time to write. Tell us about your current novel, where I can find it?

“The Silver Seahorse” is a story about a courageous young woman who has her future planned, when everything she trusts and loves is suddenly gone.  Danger and betrayal surround her when she investigates family secrets. She has to solve some dangerous problems and hopefully learn to love and trust again.

MuseItUp Publishing has a release date projected for August 2012.

8: Sounds like a great story. Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?

Don’t give up.  Keep writing and keep sending your work out. And read everything you can get your hands on.

9: Great advice. Now a question I get asked often. Do you base your characters on real-life people?

No, they just seem to pop up full blown in my head. I have to name them and then they just materialize. Once they have a name, I can sort of see them.

10: Mind do the same thing. I sometimes wonder where they come from. How did you come up with the idea for this book?

I think the idea of things not being exactly as you have assumed is interesting. My main character Nessie Polite is raised by her mother, and my mother and I lived alone for a number of years, so I can understand the ties being so strong. Nessie’s situation is not mine, but I guess some of my emotions tumble into her.

11: I think of little of us slips into all our characters. What are you currently working on?

I so liked the setting of Beulah Beach in “The Silver Seahorse”, I have an idea for something else happening there.  Not a sequel really, but using the area there and a minor character or two.

12. Sounds great.Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you?

“The Silver Seahorse” is my first novel to be published and I am so excited to be working with MuseItUp

13.I hope we see a lot more from you. Where can we find you? Website? Blog?

Well.  I’m working on that.  Any suggestions?  Maybe I should get a face book page too.

Definitely get a blog and yes, go on Face book. Readers need a way to find you.

Unedited Excerpt:

The funeral director opened the clasp of the silver necklace, the only jewelry Kaylynn consistently wore, discretely slipped it off the narrow throat and held it out. Nessie felt her Grandmother come up beside her just as she reached for it.

“Bury the damn thing with her,” she hissed. “Nothing but bad luck since she got it. Get rid of it.”

Nessie felt a familiar tremor race down her back with the icy words. Why did Gran always make everything worse? How did she ever give birth to a woman as good, as wonderful, as caring as her mother? Tears burned her eyes but she would not answer her. Instead, even though her fingers were too shaky to make it easy, she deliberately fastened the delicate silver chain with the little seahorse pendant around her own neck.

I’ll take care of it for you, she promised. She stroked her mother’s fingertips for one last touch before taking her seat.

Anne Marie, her mother’s business partner and closest friend, slipped into one of the posh upholstered chairs with mahogany arms beside her at the front of the chapel. She wrapped an arm briefly around her shoulders. “Hang in there, Sugar,” she whispered. She gave her a quick hug, released her, but stayed beside her. Gran settled on the other side of Nessie, still bristled from the exchange by the casket.