Author Stephanie M Sellers Interview!

Hello All! Please help me welcome author of Oginalii to my blog today!!

AW: Tell me about yourself…

Collector of hats, stories from strangers, and apparently dogs.

AW: What genera do you write and why?

Young Adult and Women’s Fiction largely impart to my deep empathy level. Children and dogs always warm right up to me. Writing Women’s Fiction delves from learning to fall gracefully and survive well. Have learned that I like men like I like my horses, with a little buck in ‘em. Makes for good stories.

AW: Tell us about your latest book….

OGINALII is Cherokee for My Friend Like Horse is to My Heart came to fruition from the character outline for my novel, BLACK PURSE. Was told that the outline of child was too endearing and fascinating not to make it into a story.
Creating psychohistory of protagonist, Exilee Sheffield, led to a delightful path back into childhood. I drew from events which occurred with childhood school mates and from Lumbee Indians who I have ridden horses with as an adult.

AW: What was your inspiration for this book?

Found a letter on the floor at a church after a funeral. Knew the departed as a local drunk. The letter was written by the departed’s twelve year old daughter. It made me cry. This child inherited nothing from him. She had only two pictures of her and him together. But she wrote of his kindness and friendliness and how much she will miss him. Reading this letter inspired the theme of OGINALII. Love never really leaves you.

AW: Do you have a favorite character and why that one?

Exilee, the sassy child who grows up bold, is my favorite because she is like the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Says and does what a lot of folks are just thinking about saying and doing. She’s got grit.

AW: Did you find anything particularly difficult in writing this book?

Revealing the relationship between Exilee and her auntie was trying. While her auntie is grieving for the loss of her sister, Exilee is grieving for loss of her mother. Both want something from the other. But neither will openly admit what they need from the other. It is said that stubbornness is a Native American Indian trait.

AW: What project(s) are you currently working on?

Putting the shine on BLACK PURSE. As one woman’s story of overcoming unfolds, so do the pages of The Underground Railroad. The finales climax will surprise even the most centered readers.
Have always been fascinated with the fact that there is no written history of The Underground Railroad as it was occurring. A few private journals have been unveiled but there is no documentation. Living in the South has allowed me to follow up on this curiosity. One event that stands out is when my neighbor inherited her mother’s home place and was given a tour by an elderly man. Under a tobacco barn was a partial basement. He told her that slaves hid there enroute. It was part of The Underground Railroad.
When I think about the hardships and war of slavery and compare it to the condition of our great Nation today, I can’t help but put the same shame on our lack of action against injustice and illicit behavior today. Americans need to stand up for what is right and wrong and not back down. This comparison plays out in BLACK PURSE as a struggle against media’s conditioning to accept illicit and abnormal behavior as acceptable; a twentieth century underground railroad battle. Americans have been so busy letting themselves be easily entertained that many haven’t even realized the impact of liberal media on the mind and its social and economic consequences.
BLACK PURSE will hopefully be available in August 2011.

AW: Do you have any interesting quirks you want to tell us about?

Put me in a room full of strangers and I will learn more about them in one hour than their neighbor’s learned in ten years.
I am also a mean horse advocate. Don’t get in my way. Horses as National Treasure. Make Horse Slaughter History with Fair Taxes and Committees. Petition and addresses on website. https://sites.google.com/site/horsesasnationaltreasure

AW: Do you have any advice for writers out there?

Apply several coats of car wax over ego. Find two good readers who will read, shoot and advise ruthlessly. Then hire an editor. Rewrite and repeat the first two steps. When you’re down to bare skin and don’t flinch, it’s ready.

AW: Where can we find you?
Facebook listing is my name, Stephanie Sellers. I participate in Book Blog as myself. My website is FictiononFact, https://sites.google.com/site/fictiononfact.

AW: And of course we have to know, where can we find your book?

OGINALII is Cherokee for My Friend Like Horse is to My Heart is for sale with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble as an ebook.
Read first chapter of upcoming novel, BLACK PURSE, at FictiononFact, https://sites.google.com/site/fictiononfact. Links to books for sale with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are on website.
BLACK PURSE will have a sequel. While the lead character from BLACK PURSE, Exilee, is busy with a new life, her nearest best friend brings a guest to her family farm, a Lumbee Indian, fresh from prison, who captures the heart of her other best friend, Robin. White Lightening, snake charmers, a dark shadow from the past’s forbidden relationships and a big money winery cover ground and wake a sleepy town.
Feel free to contact me at stephaniesellers1@windstream.net. Love hearing from readers.
Later, Oginalii.