Interview with Sinead MacDughals

Books-n-Kisses is pleased to welcome Sinead MacDuglas to the blog today.  

Sinead, can you please share with us a little about yourself
Sure. I’m a born and bred Canadian with deep Irish roots, a bit of a cynic who still believes in magic, and I talk way too much, especially when I’m nervous. I’ve always been a late bloomer, and a horrible procrastinator, so it’s no surprise that I’m just now getting to publishing my writing, after over 30 years of dreaming about it. The only things I ever started early were talking, reading and writing.

Have you always wanted to be an author?
Just about as long as I can remember. I also wanted to be an astronaut, an anthropologist, a veterinarian, a doctor, a rock star, a teacher … well the list is incredibly long. Being an author is the only one I really stuck with though.

What is your most interesting writing quirk?
I don’t know about interesting, but maybe weird. I absolutely cannot read a novel when I’m writing one. I can read short stories, articles and blogs, but I have to set aside longer works when I’m writing. See, I tend to get right into a novel I’m reading, and then the piece I’m working on gets, well, for want of a better word, tainted. It’s like I absorb the personalities of the characters, and their emotions, and then I catch myself drifting out of character in my own writing

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?
My first full-length novel just released through Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing. It’s a contemporary crime fiction novel with some really dark overtones.

The main character, Emily O’Shea, is working two part-time jobs, and struggling to keep her marriage together. She writes a column for the local paper, on exceptional teens in the community, and she has her eye on a spot in the news department. Just an average woman, living an average life, but there’s more to Emily than she’s letting on. She’s been running from her past, and hiding from the truth of it for a long time, and the reader meets Emily just minutes before her entire world begins to fall apart.

Someone abducts a young friend, and past subject for the column. Emily starts getting creepy phone calls. The most terrifying monster from her childhood is on the loose, and her deepest secrets are about to be exposed. When she gets pulled into a murder investigation, and her ex-lover is one of the lead investigators, things really go sideways!

The main story takes place in, mostly, just six days, in the summer of 1995.

How did you come with the idea for this story?
The original Learn To Love Me was supposed to be a Women’s Lit. book, actually. I stalled in the ninth chapter and, at a friend’s advice, scrapped the whole thing, except for a few of the characters. Emily was such a deep, troubled soul, I just couldn’t abandon her. See, my friend, (and cover designer for the book), just couldn’t believe that one woman could go through so much and keep her sanity. I made a flippant remark about having her “snap and start taking people out”, and he thought it was a great idea for me to write a murder mystery.

I thought about it afterward, and realized that years of reading true-crime and profiling books, and religiously watching shows like Law & Order, CSI Vegas and Criminal Minds, had given me a pretty solid base for mystery writing.

I decided to give it a shot, and began an outline for the new Learn To Love Me.

Can you share with us your current work(s) in progress?
I have three projects I want to work on, but only two I’ve begun. One is the story of a woman who has a car accident and wakes up in limbo. She finds that the world of mythology and religion is a lot more connected, and a lot more complicated, than she ever believed. Before she can move on to her next destination, she’ll have to defend every major decision she made in life, and negotiate the terms of her continued existence.

The other project I’ve begun is somewhat a sequel to Learn To Love Me. I say ‘somewhat’, because this book is a dark paranormal fiction, but at least three of the characters from Learn To Love Me will play a role in it. It takes place in 2025 and up,  and involves cults, psychic abilities, soul mates and Native American culture, in a strange mix of the past and future.

Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why?
I always answer this the same way, and this is no exception. I want to meet Richard Bach. His book, “The Bridge Across Forever” is the first modern novel to really get into my head and under my skin. I can’t even remember the character’s names, details of the story, or progression of the plot, but even after over 20 years, I can still remember how it made me feel to read it.

I want to know how he did that!

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?
I have a long answer, but I’ll keep this one short. Just write. Observations, musings, feelings, write it all down. The more you do that, the more you’ll get comfortable with your voice. The technical stuff can suck the life out of your writing like a starving vampire. Find your style and voice before that happens.

Can you share with us something off your bucket list.
Go to Ireland. and see the places my Nana and Papa were born and raised in.

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?
I`m absolutely dying to get my hands on a paperback copy of Beyond the Never. It`s an anthology by the five ‘first wave’ authors at CH&BB. The cover is gorgeous and the concept behind the stories has me in awe. Unfortunately, my TBR pile is somewhere around 45 books deep already, so even when I get a copy, it’s going to be a while before I get to read it.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Two things, if I may.

For the readers: If you pick up a copy of Learn To Love Me, please let me know what you think. I live for feedback! In fact, one of my favourite things to hear from readers, is their guesses on the ‘bad guy’ while they’re still reading, and if they change their mind as the story progresses. Reviews are always appreciated, of course. I think the same goes for any writer, really. I have yet to meet an author who doesn’t pray, every day, for a new review.