Interview with a Bored Florist (but Gifted Writer)

Today I'm interviewing Arlene Webb, one of my IPs and co-bloggers over on the Take it to the Stars blog. From first hand experience, I can tell you Arlene is a talented writer with a very fresh voice. (Pssst....and just between you and me, this is a name you may want to watch for in the SciFiRom section in the future. ;) )

Q: Arlene, you’ve written a unique Science Fiction trilogy with a heavy dose of romance that doesn’t involve star ships, blasters or another civilization. Where did you get the inspiration?

A: There’s many vibrant colors surrounding me in my profession—running a florist shop—I was coerced into managing when the wholesale greenhouse I ran got flattened by a tornado. There’s too many shades of boredom that surround me in a job I’ve been at too long. Color took on personality, characters were born, they hijacked the series.

Q: When did you start writing?

A: About six years ago, my son went off to college. Yippee, an empty nest and the notebooks started filling.

Q: When is your prime time for writing?

A: Every waking moment customers aren’t annoying me. Sure, I’d sleep at my paying job if the phone would stop ringing, but most times it’s a sentence here, a whaaat do you want there, then a rewritten sentence. But Sundays are my most favorite day.

Q: Besides writing, what else do you invest a lot of time doing?

A: Reading, critiquing, but unfortunately the bulk of my time is spent earning a living.

Q: How many writing projects are you working on?

A: Two and a brood. I’m polishing book 3 in the Color series, just started a stand alone that’s got a minor tie in to the series, and I’m mentally cluttered with the wrap to the series.

Q: Who are your favorite authors or who has inspired you?

A: Barbara Elsborg. Bill Watterson. Harlan Corbin. TC Boyle. Christopher Moore. JK Rowling. Tolkien. Frank Herbert. Kurt Vonnegut….just a few that immediately come to mind. The list is endless.

Q: Do you have a most favorite book?

A: Nah. I’m too easily delighted, and surrounded by too many wonders to play favorites. I do have a book, Robin Hood, I stole when I was seven. (Hey, put the phone down. Petty theft has a statue of limitations, and I didn’t murder that particular librarian.) It’s pretty tattered and torn, so I’ll twist your question to oldest book.

Q: What’s your favorite Science Fiction (Romance) movie or TV show?

A: Ohh, again, there’s too many to have a favorite. Buffy, but not the movie. Fireflies series and Serenity. Stargate Atlantis. Heroes. X-Men...

Q: Who is you favorite character from your stories and why?

A: Malcolm. He’s the most annoying. If you have an hour I’ll go into detail, but you might as well give up getting him to do something he doesn’t want to do. His character grows more complex with every book so that I, his reason for being, have to go round and round with him if he feels the slightest detail is off. Every other character cooperates, grows and expands without trying to take me with them. I mean, the nerve trying to teach your creator what’s what, but you have to respect that in a character.

Q: What do you enjoy most about being a writer?

A: It can be painstaking drudgery, and it seems never ending to learn how to pour convoluted detail from your head to make a logical sentence, but most of all I love snickering to myself when a line works itself out to have an ironic twist.

Q: What do you enjoy the least?

A: The hours that disappear.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell us?

A: Yes: Thanks for being such a great friend, Laurie, and for promoting sci-fi-romance on your blogs and encouraging me to keep writing.

Thank you, Arlene, for doing this interview. I'm looking forward to seeing your novels--and your particular word palette--in bookstores in the not-so-distant future.