Please Welcome Patricia Yager Delagrange author of Moon Over Alcatraz

Patricia Yager Delagrange has written Moon Over Alcatraz. She has goodies to give away which you will be entered to win if you comment. So don't forget to at least say HI!

Patricia will award a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and to the host with the most comments (excluding the author's and the host's).

Moon Over Alcatraz

by Patricia Yager Delagrange

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

Following the death of their baby during a difficult birth, Brandy and Weston Chambers are grief-stricken and withdraw from each other, both seeking solace outside of their marriage; however, they vow to work through their painful disloyalty.  But when the man Brandy slept with moves back to their hometown, three lives are forever changed by his return..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

INTERVIEW

June 26, 2012

Christine Young Romance Writer

1.What or who inspired you to start writing?

In 2009 my daughter came home from school and told me her friend asked her why her mommy didn’t have a job.  I had been a stay-at-home mom since becoming pregnant with my son in 1993.  However this gave me pause.  I realized I had more time since my two kids were becoming more independent.  So I went to the Apple store, bought a MacBook, and told my family that I was going to write a book.

2.How did you come up with ideas for your books?

Ideas come into my head for whatever reason.  For Moon Over Alcatraz I’ve always been intrigued by how parents live through the death of a child.  Being a mom, it’s always bothered me to see Amber Alerts and news reports about children who are kidnapped and found murdered.  How do parents get through that?  So I decided to write about the loss of a child at birth and how the couple deals with their subsequent grief.

3.What components are necessary for the genre of this novel?

I write women’s fiction which centers around a main female character and how she deals with whatever difficulties are thrown in her life path.  Women’s fiction novels may or may not have a Happily Ever After, but my novels always do.  I believe that attitude is everything and in my books the woman always finds her inner strength, jumps through life’s hurdles, and makes it through to the other side.

4.What expertise did you bring to your writing?

The expertise I bring to my writing is the simple fact that I’ve lived a varied life which I believe enhances a book immensely.  I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and have attended universities in Madrid, Santa Barbara, and Oregon.  I’ve travelled throughout Central and Eastern Europe and lived abroad for a year.  I’ve worked in various offices, from Price Waterhouse in San Francisco to an office of a private Chinese entrepreneur in Alameda.  I own a horse and have been learning to ride for the last ten years.  I love all animals and have two chocolate labs, the mother and her son.  I am a mother of two teenage children.  I think a full life has given me the opportunity to write about a wide variety of characters and themes.

5.What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

That “riding” my 1,425-pound horse Maximus is harder than “writing” an 80,000-word book.  Learning to ride has been the biggest challenge of my life and I bring that persistence and determination to my writing.  I am an extremely determined person and when I decided to write a book, nothing was going to stop me.  And when I finished, I knew then that I could do it, so I started writing another one.  I now have four completed, edited, and critiqued novels.

6.    As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

My plans are to write a fifth book as soon as I have a bit of time.  Right now I’m sending out query letters, searching for an agent to represent me and my writing.  As soon as I finish that, I’ll be writing another book.

7.    If you could be one of the characters from any of your books, who would it be and why?

I would be Jessee Bradford in my book Taken Away.  Jessee is a veterinarian whose wife and child disappear.  He moves away from his home in Santa Barbara, California, and takes over his grandfather’s vet practice in Earlham, Iowa.  There he finds love, a family connection, and his own happily ever after.

8.    Do you outline your books or just start writing?

For my first three books, I was a complete “pantser”.  I had an idea of the theme for the book and the people involved and I would sit down and start writing.  When I finished I would spend as much time editing to get it right.  For my fourth novel, I had complete writer’s block.  The author who edits and critiques all my work suggested I write out a synopsis and chapter outlines after we talked about possible ideas for a novel.  I did as she suggested and was able to write my fourth book much easier than ever before.  So now I’d call myself a “plantser” where I do have a plot, yet I don’t outline everything down to the last detail.

9.    Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you've gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?

My biggest hobby is riding my horse.  I have incorporated that in Taken Away.  Jessee Bradford, the veterinarian, meets a woman who is a horse trainer in Iowa and their relationship blossoms.  There are several scenes with her and her horses and it’s obviously a big part of her life.

10.  Do you have an all time favorite book?

One of my favorite books is the Horse Whisperer, for obvious reasons.  I loved seeing Tom Booker bring an extremely damaged horse back to its owner through his kindness, love, and understanding.

11.  What is your favorite reality show?

My favorite reality show would be Animal Cops: Houston.  Although sometimes it makes me cry, I love the happily ever afters for a lot of the animals.  I am an animal lover to the max.  My blog is all about endangered animals.

12.  Who is your favorite actor and actress?

My favorite actor is Russell Crowe.  When I saw Gladiator (for the first of a gazillion times) I fell in love.  My favorite actress is Meryl Streep.

13.  Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?

When Brandy and Weston are at their baby’s funeral you can feel she’s in the pit of depression.  He’s also very sad, but since she carried the baby to term, she’s having a very hard time accepting it wasn’t something she did during her pregnancy that caused her child’s death.

14.  If you were a casting director for the film version of your book, who would play your lead roles?

I’d love to see Sandra Bullock as Brandy and Keanu Reeves as Edward.  I love the way those two work together.

EXCERPT

Three days later we were standing at the edge of a hole in the ground at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Hayward, the silence so thick, the insides of my ears buzzed like a distant swarm of angry bees.  Mr. Peralta and another gentleman stood off to the side while Weston and I held hands next to a tiny casket.

Weston had chosen a simple mahogany box with gold handles, a bouquet of white lilies graced the top of the small box.  I knelt down and laid a kiss on the smooth wood then wiped off the tears that had fallen on top.  Weston joined me, placing a single red rose in the middle of the lilies.

He helped me up and we stood side-by-side in silence, my guilt over her death like a stone in my empty belly.  I missed everything I’d dreamed would be happening right now, yearned for all that could have been.

Weston nodded at the man standing next to Mr. Peralta and our baby was slowly lowered into the gaping maw.  She reached the bottom, and a bird landed on the rich brown dirt piled next to the grave.  It pecked around, chirping a little song then flew off - as if saying goodbye.  My heart squeezed inside my chest.

I picked up a small handful of soft dirt.  “Goodbye, Christine,” I whispered, throwing it on top of her casket.

Weston wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to his side.  Why her?  Why my baby?  Was this supposed to make sense?  And, if so, to whom?

We drove home in silence.  No words existed to express my grief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I attended St. Mary’s College, studied my junior year at the University of Madrid, received my B.A. in Spanish at UC Santa Barbara then went on to get my Master’s degree in Education at Oregon State University.  I live with my husband and two teenage children in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco, along with our two very large chocolate labs, Annabella and her son Jack.

My horse lives in the Oakland hills in a stall with a million dollar view.

http://www.patriciayagerdelagrange.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Yager-Delagrange/204510679568596

http://twitter.com/#!/PattiYager

Patricia will award a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and to the host with the most comments (excluding the author's and the host's).

Please don't forget to leave a comment.