posted on May 19, 2015 by Jeanne Devlin

Four Questions with Women’s Fiction Author Terri DuLong

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I will never forget the first four things I ever heard about women’s fiction author Terri DuLong: 

1) She was a big knitter

2) She was a former registered nurse from Boston

3) She started her writing career as a contributor to Bonjour Paris (she loves all things French) and did more than forty articles with a fictional canine narrator!

4) And she lived on a tiny island off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico (who knew the gulf had islands!?).

Now I had always wanted to learn to knit well enough to make one of those great ski sweaters and I found the idea of a canine narrator a hoot, but I have to admit it was the idea that the Gulf of Mexico had not one but at least five secret islands (more if you counted the uninhabited ones) and Terri was lucky enough to live on one that stayed with me.

Terri went on to turn her island living into the beloved Cedar Key Series. This fall Kensington will publish the first book in her new Ormand Beach Trilogy.  We checked in with her recently to see what she was up to, and she was kind enough to answer my four questions—and a bonus!

Patterns of ChangeQuestion:  What is the craziest way an idea for one of your books ever came about?

Terri:  Probably when I met a friend who did spinning, and I discovered she actually spun dog fur into yarn. I had never heard of this before, despite being a knitter. When she showed me the actual process, I knew my main character in Spinning Forward would be doing this in my story.

Question:  Name a women’s fiction author whose books you admire and why?

Terri: That’s a tough one. I have so many but I really love Kate Morton’s work.  She’s Australian and is able to create authentic characters while weaving a spellbinding plot.

Question:  Let’s talk favorite love stories.  What’s your favorite book and movie?

Terri: I’m dating myself here, but my favorite book continues to be A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford and favorite movie would be Casablanca.

Question:  Let’s talk about your new upcoming novel, Patterns of Change: tell us something about this book that you’ve never shared with anyone before?

Terri:  I created a secondary character, Isabelle, and unknowingly wrote just enough about her that by the end of the novel I knew she had to be my main character for Book 2.

Bonus question:  Tell us something about you that you’ve never shared with readers before.

Terri: I detested gym class so much in high school; I used to beg my mother to write a note so I could be excused.  And yes, she complied.

Thank you Terri for dropping by Let’s Talk About Books.  And if anyone has a question for Terri, please feel free to post it!

terridulong.com

We’ll see you next Tuesday.

—Jeanne Devlin

Jeanne Devlin

Jeanne Devlin

Jeanne Devlin is editor of The RoadRunner Press, an award-winning traditional publishing house based in the American West. An editor of newspapers, magazines, and books for more than thirty years, she has also worked on national marketing and publicity campaigns with such publishers as Simon and Schuster and St. Martin's and for a number of New York Times bestselling authors, including Robyn Carr, Sabrina Jeffries, Debbie Macomber, Linda Lael Miller, and Wendy Corsi Staub. A graduate of the Stanford University Publishing Course, Jeanne is a member of the Children's Book Council, the National Book Critics Circle, and the Oklahoma Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. She also consults with boutique publishers.

http://www.theroadrunnerpress.com

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