Welcome to this week’s interview with guest author Judi Phillips, featuring her book Tales from Around the Campfire Circle, a collection of five sweet romances.
Nice to meet you, Judi. How do you take your coffee?
JP: Ah, coffee, the elixir of life. Probably at least 10 years ago, I was visiting Son #1 and he had a Nespresso espresso machine. Easiest thing in the world to use. So for my birthday that year, I e-mailed my kids and told them that’s what I wanted for a present. Wonderful children that they were, after many hilarious e-mail replies, I received one and use it ever day–more than once. I also frequent Starbucks, especially when I want to do some editing or plotting or figuring out where to go next in my book.
Ally: Fortunately, my magic pot can fulfil any request. While I pour, please introduce yourself to readers.
Judi has had stories in her head as far back as she can remember. However, being lazy (her friends like to point out that she’s efficient), and being a legal assistant, she knew she could never complete a manuscript if she had to write it on a typewriter. Then, along came word processors, and those magic cut and paste and delete icons. There was no stopping her after that. Within a few weeks of her first job with a computer, she started her first story, a house-beautiful, vogue thing about lawyers. Needless to say, it will never be published — but she honed her description skills on that project, so nothing is ever wasted.
That first story (originally named as A Case for Love) now entitled Opposite Sides, has been significantly rewritten and is a novella in the Campfire Circle stories.
Six years ago, Judi relocated to New Mexico and is living in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains at the southern end of the Rockies. No more Februarys in Maine for her. She lives a block away from Son #2 and his family, and her Yorkie, Mishka. Despite his small size, he rules the house.
Unknown factoid left out of Judi’s bio: “Over the years, I have visited North Africa a number of times. First to Cairo, Egypt, then Tunisia twice (the inspiration for my book, Night of Turmoil, set during the Arab Spring Revolution, and many visits to Morocco where No. 1 son lived with his family. Last year, they moved to Ivory Coast in West Africa and I’m looking forward to a trip there this fall.”
Contact the Author:
Judi hangs out on the web at: http://judiphillips.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judi.phillips.50
Posts random blogs at: http://sugarspice-judi.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @judiphil
Sign up for her newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cJIJWD
E-mail her at: judi.phillips.writes@gmail.com
You can watch trailers for her books at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUJo-C1MCZhbjIEsC_8vHg
Drop in anytime.
Ally: What inspired you to write your featured book?
JP: The actual inspiration for the Campfire Circle stories was a call for submission from a friend of mine who was an editor at a small newspaper in Maine. She was looking for authors to submit stories that were serialized, approximately 1,000 words per episode. I answered the call, the stories were published in the Windham Eagle and a year later I got the rights back. Hence the bundled books and the addition of a novella.
Ally: Are you traditionally published or self-published? How did you make your choice?
JP: I am self-published after working with small presses for several years. That was a very helpful experience because I learned what is involved in producing a book. When one of my publishers went out of business, all my rights and rights to the covers were returned to me, and I decided that was the time to self-publish. I love having control of the editor I work with, my cover artist, and choosing my own publishing date.
Ally: Do people from your real life show up in your books?
JP: My great great grandfather, Charles Frazier, inspired the book, Wishes and Dreams. He was a sea captain sailing the Maritime Silk Road between China and the US East Coast. I thought it would be fun to write a humorous ghost story with him as a grumpy old ghost, haunting the house he built for his daughter and where his great granddaughter is operating a B&B.
Ally: How many drafts or passes do you do before submitting a book to your editor?
JP: Because I have awesome critique partners, I only make 1 pass through the book before submitting it to my editor. And she usually doesn’t have major suggestions, just things that need tweaking. However, I’m a slow writer, and that first draft is pretty clean.
Ally: What’s next on your writing agenda?
JP: My current writing project is a time travel that starts in 2020 with the heroine traveling back in time to 1931. I chose that time because the events are not so very different from 2020 (10 years after the Spanish Flu pandemic, the Great Depression and Prohibition are still going on). A nice juxtaposition, without the characters having to wear masks.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose to answer?
JP:
- A memorable book I’ve read: Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson
- The book I’m currently reading: Home Waters by Elizabeth Devlin
- My most watched TV show/series: Star Trek in all it’s versions, starting with Kirk and from there on.
- The type of music I prefer: Used to be called soft jazz and is now adult alternative. It’s great listening for writing–no words most of the time.
- The last time I rode a train: From was Rabat to Tangier, Morocco, then took a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain.
Ally: Thanks for visiting my blog, Judi. Before we finish, can you tell us a little bit about your featured book?
Tales from Around Campfire Circle
Genre: Short Story Romance
Rating: Sweet
Follow the adventures of the residents of Campfire Circle, cul de sac as they face disasters and fall in love in these 5 short stories. Taylor & Brad are Blown Together during a tropical storm. Karrie and Jack discover their own Winter Fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Brenda and David battle a flooding brook brought on by April Showers. Melissa and Jason face obstacles to celebrate Midsummer’s Eve. Taylor and Brad overcome multiple disasters Just in Time on the day of their wedding.
In the novella, Opposite Sides, attorneys Janelle Whitney and Scott MacGregor are on opposite sides of a divorce case and have cabins on opposite sides of Campfire Circle. Can love prevail or will they remain on opposite sides?
Buy Link for Tales from Around the Campfire Circle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YSP7C1T