Pump Up Your Book Chats with Women’s Fiction Author Mary Carter + Giveaway

Mary Carter will be right in this very spot live on Friday, April 9 from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., answering any questions you may have about her women’s fiction book, My Sister’s Voice (Kensington).

Leave a question or comment (along with your email address) between now and 11 p.m. on April 9 and you can win a free copy of her book!

The lucky winner will be announced on April 26.

ONLY THOSE LEAVING EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE ELIGIBLE. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL ONLY BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS CONTEST.

Thank you and good luck!

Mary Carter is a freelance writer and novelist.  My Sister’s Voice is her fourth novel with Kensington. Her other works include:  She’ll Take It, Accidentally Engaged, Sunnyside Blues, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has just completed A Very Maui Christmas, a new novella for Kensington that will be included in a Christmas of 2010 anthology. She is currently working on a new novel, The Pub Across the Pond, about an American woman who swears off all Irish men only to learn she’s won a pub in Ireland. Readers are welcome to visit her at marycarterbooks.com.

Thank you for this interview, Mary.  Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?  Do you remember your first published piece?

My first story was, The Boy and the Mouse.  I was four.  Truthfully, the writing was childish.  In third grade I won a writing contest, this one was about a dog and a muskrat.  I don’t know why, being a girl, all my early stories were about boys and rodents.  Hmm.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

The most frustrating side is that I still have to work a day job to make a living.  It’s like having two full-time jobs.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life?  Do you have support?

I am single.  No children.  Perfect writing conditions.

My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter (click on cover to purchase at Amazon for only $10.12)

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?  Where do you like to vacation?  Can you tell us briefly about this?

I have a local Irish pub I like to go to, where they have a lot of great live music.  I also like to go to Broadway plays, museums, comedy clubs—all the great things NYC has to offer.  I love to travel— my last big trip was Barcelona a few years ago, and this summer I plan on going to Ireland.  (My next novel takes place in Ireland!)

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?

Honestly, there is a BLIZZARD outside as I write this and I still have to go to work.  The United Nations is closed, all schools are closed, and I’m still having to go out.  So right now I’d settle for just being on my couch for an hour, but that’s a boring answer, so let’s say Rome.

Who is your biggest fan?

I’m sure it’s my mother.  If there’s a bigger fan out there, it would scare me a little.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

On my couch.

Do you have any pets?

When I was living in Seattle I had two dogs and a cat.  My cat was named Manhattan, and  I’d had him for seventeen years (since I was seventeen), and he’d moved all over the country with me.  I went through a divorce and decided to move back to New York City.  The animals didn’t want to go, they like space to run, and the cat was seventeen and ailing, too ill to survive the trip.  I’m not allowed dogs in my current apartment, but the next place I live I plan on getting another dog.  I love animals.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.

I named the character Lacey in My Sister’s Voice after a girl I knew at my performing arts high school.

What’s on your to do list today?

I am going to be writing guests blogs, answering interview questions, and working on my new novel.  I’m also going to eat nachos and watch the blizzard.

Now I’ve got a couple of fun questions for you.  If Tom Hanks, in the movie Cast Away, unearthed a copy of your book, how would that help him find a way off the island?

I suppose he could burn it and send smoke signals.  That’s what they did before Twitter and texting.  Personally, I think it would be better company than a volleyball.  I suppose from now on I could equip my books with cell phones and a GPS, just in case this very likely situation should arise.  But my book is hot, so I’m afraid the volleyball might fall in love with it and Tom will feel left out.  It’s a complicated question.  But I think the obvious question is:  Why would he want off the island if he had my book?

You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for authors, American Book Idol, with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi and the newest addition, Ellen DeGeneres, to determine whether your book will make it to Hollywood and become a big screenplay where you’d make millions of dollars.  What would impress them more – your book cover, an excerpt or your author photo – and why?

Okay, how much time do I have to get ready for this?  Because I have a series of workout videos that are supposed to show visible results in 10 WORKOUTS.  Since they involve weight lifting, I have to do them every other day.  That makes 20 days.  So any less than twenty days and I’ll have to go with the excerpt.  I wont SING the excerpt though, or that’ll be the end of my career.

You just got word that your book has received the 2010 NY Times Bestselling Book Award and you have to attend the ceremony to give an acceptance speech.  Anyone who’s anyone will be there and it’s your shot for stardom.  What would you say and who would you thank?

First, I would thank Tom Hanks for reading my book on his island.  Then I would thank the judges of American Idol for loving my post-workout body and my excerpt.  I’d thank the readers, and my agent, and my editor, and my mother, and my Irish boyfriend who is still reading my first book, and I think I may be on number ten before he finishes it.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in April and May via a virtual book tour.  Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

I am dying to get word of My Sister’s Voice out into the virtual world, and I hope, from there, it will spread to the real world. My publishing company does not send many authors on real book tours anymore, and so a virtual tour seems like a great alternative.

Thank you for this interview, Mary. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

Thank you, and please stay tuned for a give-away on this site as well as on my website, marycarterbooks.com.

You can visit Mary’s official tour page here to find out where she’ll be appearing!