S. L. Gore

Interview for Life Choices Pump Up Virtual Book Tour

Thank you to Pump Up Your Book.  Here is the interview I did for their virtual book tour promotion of Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths published by Turning Point International.

My Wichita Southeast High School graduation picture 1965

Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?
A: I daydreamed constantly as a child, inventing whole new worlds for myself.  This lasted well into my teens when my device for falling asleep each night was a cinematic adventure I played out in my mind with myself the beautiful and desirable heroine in some far off place in another time.

Creative writing was always my forte in school.  I especially remember one short story in high school about a football player scoring a touchdown which, when read aloud to the class, was declared by all that it could only have been written by an athlete.  That was never me.  I’m afraid of balls.

Do you remember your first published piece?
A:  I certainly do remember my first published piece.  It’s “A True Love Story” in Life Choices – Navigating Difficult Paths.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?
A:  The most frustrating part is getting noticed.  The most rewarding part is getting noticed.

Jesper, my husband of 35 years

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life?  Do you have support?
A:  I am most happily married for 35 years.  Of late, my home life has become my writing life and vice versa.  My husband is my biggest supporter and has become a publisher and publicist to help both publish and promote Sex and the Zen of Shopping, my first book.  He is also encouraging me to write my memoir and says to put in all the good sex – and not just with him.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?  Where do you like to vacation?  Can you tell us briefly about this?
A: I love to shop, travel and entertain.  Basically I need to be on the move constantly, whether physically or intellectually.  I can be alone and write for days on end; then I explode and have to cook an elaborate meal, set a beautiful table and enjoy the company of good friends.

I’m not sure I know what a vacation is.  Traveling is how I live in the now.  I used to require traveling to a place where they speak another language or I didn’t feel like I had been anywhere.  I certainly don’t want to see the same restaurants and eat the same kind of food.  But of late I enjoy reconnecting with old friends, who may or may not live in exotic places.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?
A: I’d be back in Egypt on the Nile in the Rose Suite at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, sitting on the balcony overlooking Elephantine Island, watching the boat traffic and listening to the sounds of the river.  Do I really need to explain why?

Who is your biggest fan?
A: My husband.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

View from my house

A: At my dining room table with a view out the picture windows onto the Pacific Ocean.

Library of Alexandria

What’s your favorite library and why?
A: The New Library of Alexandria because of the wonderful coalescence of ancient iconography with modern architecture.

What’s your favorite bookstore and why?
A: Any used book store.  I love getting books for cheap, but I especially love finding all those eclectic, out of print treasures that you didn’t even know existed.

Do you have any pets?
A:  Not now, but if I did, it would be cats – black ones.

Max

What are you reading right now?
A: Just about any book written by women for women that is a best seller or close to it.  I’m reading all genres, but particularly romance and memoirs, trying to figure out if I can write something that will actually sell.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.
A:  I don’t think so.  It wouldn’t be a secret any more.  If it’s worth telling and at all interesting, I want to put it in my next book.

What’s the first thing you notice when you meet someone?
A:  Their energy field.  Sometimes I feel like I see right past the body, although body language tells you almost everything.

Have you ever won anything?
A:  Do elections count?  I garnered a big percent of the vote out of a field of candidates for School Board.  After that, I lost more votes (on the School Board) than I won.  That’s what happens when you are on the side of the students.

What’s on your to do list today?
A:  Complete this Interview Form. Continue working on the Press Kit for my website http://www.sandragorenielsen.com to promote Sex and the Zen of Shopping.  Work on my next book which will be a memoir recounting my travels in North Africa, including a 6 month hitchhiking adventure across the Sahara.  Post an article on my blog www.sandraoffthestrip.com.  Make a lamb and bean tajine for dinner.  Take a walk along the raging ocean.  Take a long bubble bath.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in February/March via a virtual book tour.  Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?
A:  You have to have a presence everywhere you can, but the internet is where it’s happening.  It will only grow.  Virtual book tours are one of the ways that you have a chance to break through if you’re not connected to one of the big publishing houses that have things sewn up in the conventional channels of distribution and publicity.

January 24, 2010 at 6:24 pm 2 comments