Author Interview - Tami Hoag

On Wednesday I reviewed Tami Hoag's book, Secrets to the Grave.  She has graciously agreed to answer a few of this huge fan's questions.  It is hard to not be caught up in the giddiness and be serious!  Please help me welcome Tami Hoag to Under The Boardwalk

What are your favorite books, and what makes them special to you?

This time of year I always go back to my favorite Christmas read: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It's funny and touching and real.

In general, I don't have favorite books, nor do I re-read books. I get so little time to read for pleasure, I want to have a new experience every time I get the chance.

If you were stranded somewhere, what book would you like to have with you?

If I was stranded in the wilderness, I would want the biggest fattest book on survival ever written. If I was stranded at the airport, I would want something that could sweep me away, touch and amuse me. I've been wanting to have the time to pick up Eileen Dreyer's historical romance, Barely A Lady.

Do you have any special writing rituals? Do you write consistently in one place or anywhere the mood strikes?

I'm a nester. I have my office with my stuff around me and my dogs on their bed at the foot of my desk. I always paint my offices the same warm, Tuscan yellow, and I have a big fat leather desk chair designed by NASA so I can sit in it for hours on end. That said, I'm writing this sitting in a rental car in a supermarket parking lot in LA, so I can and do write anywhere I have to. I just prefer home.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Famous! I always wanted to be a writer, but also went through a practical phase when I thought I would go into psychology. Turns out I get to do both.

What's the most daring thing you have every done?

When I was 9 I got up on one of those giant slides at an amusement park on a dare from my father. I was absolutely terrified. I didn't even like climbing up to the top. I don't like heights, and I don't like feeling out of control, but I did it anyway because I'm a knothead. I lived to tell the tale, but I wouldn't do it today

Every writer has a dream about the impact of their writing. What do you want your readers to come away with after the last page is turned?

I want readers to come away from a book feeling exhausted, exhilarated, satisfied, but a little disappointed that the ride is over. I want the characters to continue to live on in the reader's mind. I want them to want more.

Can you discuss with us what you're currently working on?

I'm just doing the research and preliminary work for another book set in Oak Knoll in the late 80's-early 90's. It has to do with the disappearance of a teenaged girl and the impact that has on her family and on the man accused of the crime. It's about the need for revenge and the dark road that need can take a person down.

Thank you Tami for taking time to share with us.  I, too, love The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Looking forward to the third book in your series after Deeper Than Dead and Secrets to the Grave.

Tami's publisher has graciously offered a copy of both books (Deeper Than Dead and Secrets to the Grave) to be given away.  Please do not enter here, but on this post. 

Author Interview - Holly Weiss - Crestmont

Today, I am privileged to welcome Holly Weiss to my blog. 

Congratulations on your debut novel! Have you always had the passion to write?

First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to interview on your blog. I’m honored to be here.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but was not serious about it until 2006. I sang professionally for thirty-five years. My main means of creative expression was through song. About five years ago, I contracted Post-Polio Syndrome, a late-life extension of the polio I had as a child. The increased weakness and fatigue put an end to my singing career. God led me in the direction of writing. One voice led to another, so to speak. Writing is now my means of creative expression, but music will always be an integral part of me.

Any specific reason you chose to set the story in the 1920s?

What a fascinating era! Women fighting for the right to vote, prohibition, the growth of jazz, fashion, cuisine—I found all of this intriguing. I stayed overnight at the present day Crestmont Inn in 2006. An old staff dormitory built in 1926 has been converted into luxury suites for present day guests. I started to think about what life would have been for staff staying in a hot dorm while working hard over the summer at this inn. The research was fun. My husband bought me a 1927 Sears Catalogue as a gift, which helped me to understand everyday items people used back then. Did you know you could buy a house from the Sears Catalogue? They had several different models and would ship it in pieces with construction details. When I discovered that, I patterned Mrs. Cunningham’s house after a “Maytown Sears house.”

Strong female characters seem to be the backbone of this story and Gracie seems to discover herself through relationship with these women. Did you have an influential woman in your life that helped mentor you into adulthood?

My mother was always my strongest supporter and confidant. She loved that I had a ministry in singing sacred music. I remember one church concert I did with four other performers in the dead of winter. There were two people in the audience, the pastor of the church and my mother, who had driven one hour over icy roads to be there. Both of my parents were extremely supportive of my singing. Crestmont is dedicated to both of them.

The United States has so many historic inns and hotels. Why did you choose the Crestmont Inn?

I’m so glad you asked this question. I believe God led me directly to the Crestmont. My husband and I needed a stop-over while travelling. I researched places on the internet and The Crestmont Inn popped up, so I made a reservation. Once there, it was like God hit me over the head with a 2 by 4 and said, “Your mission is to write about this place.” During one of my many trips to the inn to do research, I got out of the car and heard church bells ringing the hymn “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” And He did—through the four years it took to write Crestmont.

How much of your passion and background in singing is reflected in Gracie? Did you feel a special connection to her?

Singing has been a huge part of my life for over thirty-five years—as a soloist and as a teacher of singing, so I think it was inevitable that much of that spilled over into Crestmont. Gracie meets a famous opera singer, Rosa Ponselle, who is doing a concert at the Crestmont. They become close and Ponselle gives Gracie a voice lesson. I wanted my voice students to enjoy that aspect of the novel.

I feel very connected to Gracie, although from a different time in my life. Authors tend to find characters within their own experience. Drawing a character from one’s own life carries with it the danger of assuming self-absorption when the writer is asked to articulate the origin of the character. Without becoming overly personal, I’ll simply say that Gracie begins the novel in a somewhat broken emotional place similar to where I found myself twenty years ago. Reviewers have called Gracie everything from “refreshingly naïve” to “weak and timid.” I stand by her characterization. What is important to me in real life or fiction is not where a person starts but how she stretches herself. A quote from Dag Hammarskjold essentially says what happens to you doesn’t count, but rather what you make of it. Long before self-help books were on the shelf, Gracie struggled to find herself — and flourished. I’d rather you read her journey than to tell you mine.

The Crestmont Inn is just as much a living and breathing character as the humans in the story. How important was it to fully capture the essence of the Inn?

I’m glad you asked about the inn, because I wrote it as a caretaker and an agent of grace. The inn functions as a refuge for many characters in Crestmont and has been a comfort in my own life. Gracie found family there that she never could imagine could be hers. The present-day innkeepers have been wonderful to me by telling me their stories and giving me pamphlets and newspaper articles about the inn’s past. They are part of my extended family now.

I travelled to Eagles Mere, PA, to the current day Crestmont Inn, several times during the writing of the novel to interview the current owners, former staff and townspeople. As soon as people heard I was writing a book about the Crestmont, they perked up and said things like, “My aunt loved working there.” Or “Oh, that old Crestmont was quite a place.” During one of my book signings, an elderly lady brought me photos and mementoes from when she worked there as a teenager. She was thrilled to share them with someone else who cared about the old Crestmont. Frankly, I felt a responsibility to these people who loved this place so very much. I wanted to be true to their memories.

I’d like to mention one more thing. The Crestmont Inn is a survivor. The “big house” that I wrote about in my novel, had to be torn down in 1981, but the Crestmont still exists in a different form. The laundry house was converted to a gorgeous dining room and reception hall. Luxury suites evolved from a hot, cramped dormitory. What clinched the concept of the book for me was the story about the Mennonites purchasing the wood from the old Crestmont, hacking it off the building and loading it onto their trucks to build barns and so forth. I saw the “big house” living on in different forms. The image brought tears to my eyes when I heard it and when I wrote the scene in the epilogue.

Stopping at the Crestmont Inn changed Gracie's life. Have you ever thought how different her life would have been if she hadn't stopped?

My immediate response is that Gracie didn’t have the voice to sing on the vaudeville stage, although that was her dream. Had she pursued that goal, her sense of inadequacy and woundedness would have been exacerbated by the futility of auditioning successfully. Mrs. Woods comments on a book Gracie is reading, Sister Carrie. “Running from home to be a famous actress wasn’t exactly what Carrie expected.”

More importantly, my intention in writing Crestmont was to show that Gracie, as an emotionally fractured person, could grow in ways that made her a healthier, more whole individual. She was a very isolated, albeit determined young woman. Her time at the Crestmont Inn forced her to forge relationships that brought out the best in her — her generosity and graciousness. Caring for Mrs. Cunningham made her grow up. Time spent in prayer and at church strengthened her faith. Had Gracie not found the Crestmont, I believe she would have been more empty and lonely than she had been before she found it.

By the way, stopping at The Crestmont Inn changed my life as well. The idea to write “Crestmont” was born one hour after we walked in the door.

There is a strong theme of family in "Crestmont" both in ties that get stronger (Gracie and the Woods) and those that get weaker (Madeleine and Mrs. Cunningham). How important is family both to you and to the story?

I wanted family to be key in the concept of the book, but not in the traditional sense. My father always said, “If you don’t have family, you don’t have anything.” I agree with him completely, but one thing I wanted to show in Crestmont is that family can also be found outside of one’s biological family.

Writing Margaret’s grief over her father’s death was therapeutic for me because my mother died during the writing of the novel. I decided to write my grandfather, Warren Sloan, into the novel, because that would have made her happy. He invented the automatic pinsetter for bowling alleys (although he sold it shortly after) and gave me the perfect way to round out PT’s earlier life with Sloan as his mentor. Neither Gracie nor PT has family to speak of, but find it at the Crestmont.

I also decided to include my husband‘s poetry – he is the “Paper bag Poet” whose poems prompt a yearning for love in Gracie. He actually wrote one of the poems to me while we were courting. How could I leave that out?

Any last thoughts for your readers?

We all find at some point in our life the inability to do what we always found fulfilling. For me, it was when Post-Polio syndrome forced me to stop singing. I hope my story can show others that we all have other outlets of creative expression and other paths of fulfillment waiting for us if we are open to them. Isaiah 43:19 says “See, I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?”

How can readers connect with you?

My website. Look on the contacts/links page for an email link.
You can follow me on http://twitter.com/HWeissauthor. I love to hear from my readers.

Determined to take control of her life, sheltered Gracie Antes leaves her unhappy home in 1925 to pursue her dream of a singing career. On her way to the big city, she accepts a job as a housemaid at the bustling Crestmont Inn. Once there, Gracie finds a life-changing encounter with opera singer Rosa Ponselle, family she never imagined could be hers, and a man with a mysterious past. Relive the 1920s with a colorful cast of characters. Discover with Gracie that sometimes we must trade loss for happiness.

Set in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, the story is interwoven with details about the town, the rich history of The Crestmont Inn, and the family who passed ownership from one generation to the next. Many attempts have been made to explain how the mountaintop lake nestled in this tiny town came to be. Crestmont gives a new twist to an old Native American legend, setting the tone of grace around which the story is built.

Let the period of the Roaring Twenties spark your interest with its unique social mores, fashion, jazz, and yes, a little bootlegging thrown in for pizzazz.

Crestmont has me wanting to go this place for a vacation!  Very quickly you are swept away in the lives of the owners and employees as well the running of the hotel.   An enjoyable historical fiction debut.

Thank you Holly.  Details about Holly's book can be found here.