Welcome, Carol. Tell
us how much of yourself you write into your characters.
I have always been drawn to the vulnerable, especially
children and the elderly who often have no one to speak for them. In my
writings a character may become that voice.
What is the quirkiest
thing you have ever done?
I don’t know about quirky, but the scariest was riding a
camel along the edge of Mt.
Sinai
When did you first
discover that you were a writer?
While attending a business convention with my husband I bought
a book on creativity and completed a ten-minute “free-writing” exercise. At
that moment I was hooked. This was twenty years ago when I was nearly fifty
years old.
We are in the same
age range. Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.
Historical fiction, Biographies, Bible studies, and
Children’s Picture Books are at the top of my long list.
How do you keep your
sanity in our run, run, run world?
By reading Scripture each morning and praying—a lot.
How do you choose
your characters’ names?
Some come from newspapers, especially the obituaries. I love
to visit old cemeteries. And some characters have names from my childhood.
What is the
accomplishment that you are most proud of?
Helping to raise two awesome children.
If you were an
animal, which one would you be, and why?
I would love to be the Carolina Wren because even though it
is a small bird, it can belt out the sweetest melody with total self-confidence.
I love songbirds. What
is your favorite food?
That’s easy. Vanilla ice cream covered with hot caramel
sauce.
I love vanilla ice
cream with caramel sauce, but I haven’t tried it hot. I’ll have to now. What is
the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you
overcome it?
Fear of never being good enough. I don’t know that I’ve completely
conquered that monster, but I keep trying.
Tell us about the
featured book.
Agnes Hopper Shakes Up Sweetbriar is about a widow who moves in
with her daughter after a kitchen fire destroys her farmhouse. After several
months, the two women agree they cannot live together, and Agnes moves to a
nearby retirement home. She soon decides she must find another place to live.
But after she runs into her best friend from high school, and begins to make
other friends as well, she realizes Miss Johnson, the administrator, rules with
a heavy hand for sinister reasons. Agnes must eventually choose between her
feisty self-reliance and the self-sacrifice that comes from caring for others.
Sounds interesting. I
know what book I’m going to read next. Please give us the first page of the
book.
After the fire and smoke cleared, leaving my house in a pile
of ashes, I reluctantly moved in with my daughter, Betty Jo—along with my pet
pig, Miss Margaret. I was grateful to have a place to lay my head but soon
found myself testy with my daughter, treating her like the child she is, even
though she’s pushing fifty. “Are you going out?” I’d say. “What time will you
be home? Take a wrap. Air’s got a nip to it.”
Betty Jo, when she spoke to me at all, used her normal,
snippy tone. “I’m roasting in this house. Did you turn the heat up? Again?” And
then she might add for good measure, “Stay out of the kitchen, Mother.”
Three months later we came to an understanding, and though
it was a gradual, unspoken thing, it was a fact. Neither of us could tolerate
living with the other. I needed my own place and she needed … well, to be rid
of me and there was no use trying to beat around any bush.
So on a sultry August morning a week after my seventy-first
birthday, Betty Jo loaded my few belongings into her shiny, black Buick and
carried me to Sweetbriar Manor, Sweetbriar’s senior-care alternative that,
according to the brochure, offered a rewarding, enriching lifestyle.
“If you ask me, there’s nothing sweet about it,” I grumbled
under my breath. But of course she didn’t ask me. Only dropped me off, wished
me well, and sped away. Well, maybe I’m stretching the truth a little, but
that’s how it felt.
Ten minutes into my stay at this place I knew two things.
No, three. One, senior-care alternative was code for, “We don’t care what you
do in your tiny room as long as you don’t ring the bell and bother the help.”
Two, Sweetbriar Manor would own all my assets in six months if I stayed. And
three … oh, fiddle, I can’t remember the third thing, but if you’ll hang around
for the rest of the story I’m sure it will come to me.
I love that opening. How
can readers find you on the Internet?
Email: carolgheilman@gmail.com
Website: www.carolheilman.com
Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/carolheilman
Facebook: www.facebook.com/carolheilman
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarolHeilmanThank you, Carol, for sharing some of your life and this new book with us.
Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Agnes Hopper Shakes Up Sweetbriar (The Adventures of Agnes Series) (Volume 1)
- paperbackAgnes Hopper Shakes Up Sweetbriar: A Senior Cozy Mystery Novel (The Adventures of Agnes Series)
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