Interview - Lynette Sofras and her book 'Wishful Thinking'

Exciting news! 
I'd like to welcome my fellow Glass Slipper Sister, Lynette Sofras, to my blog! Lynette and I are part of a multi-author campaign to promote Cinderella-themed stories, holiday recipes and party ideas, and to meet wonderful readers who love happily ever afters as much as we do. 
It's great to have you here, Lynette. Lets learn a little bit about you... 

Tell us about your Cinderella book.

Wishful Thinking is a rags to riches story about a single mother (Jess) who encounters Christian the former lead singer of a successful band (Wishful) just before Christmas.  Here is the back cover description:

A high-speed blow-out in the fast lane of a busy motorway! Miraculously, Jess and her young son escape almost-certain death.

Then, like another miracle, Jess encounters Christian Goodchild, pop idol turned Hollywood A-lister and a man most women only ever meet in their dreams. Both are touched by the enchantment of the moment - leaving them longing for more.

But Christian is enmeshed in a relationship so damaging that Jess doubts their love can survive in the glamorous but complex world of celebrity. Could it all turn out to be just wishful thinking?

What kind of research did you do?

I didn’t need to do a great deal, but since Christian has to spend time in Hollywood, I did check out maps and hotel descriptions over there, since I’ve never been to the U.S., unfortunately.  With the rest, I was on fairly familiar territory.

Did any of your characters sometime take over and write the book themselves? Who?

I love this question because that almost always happens.  In this story Christian’s former girlfriend and fellow band member, Amber extended her own part quite considerably. On the surface she was a great role model for her teen fans, but beneath it, she was a real mess.  She’d had a tragic childhood and refused to let anyone forget it; but she also suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder which accounted for her manipulative behaviours.  None of this was planned, but it continued to develop as Amber took over her own role.  

What do you prefer: ebook or print? Why?

In the very early days of ebooks, I was one of those people who insisted that print books would always be preferable.  How wrong I was.  The sheer ease of using ebook readers, their portability, the flexibility of print size, the volume of great books you can store on them, and the lower cost of ebooks makes them one of the best inventions of the century.  I much prefer reading books on my Kindle to print books now.

How long have you been writing? When did you decide to become an author?

I decided to become an author as a very young child and wrote stories throughout my life.  However, I only began publishing them about four years ago, when I was able to give up my teaching career and follow my childhood dreams.    

What did you do when you received your first Acceptance Letter?

I almost fainted because it was so completely unexpected.  You see my first story, The Apple Tree, had been entered into a writing competition without my even realising it.  I received a notification that I’d won first prize along with an offer of publication.  Once I recovered from the shock, I was delighted.

All writers have suffered from writer’s block at least once in their career. What’s your go-to cure?

I have two cures: one is to read a great book because this can inspire you to your own efforts and the other is quite simply to sit at your computer and start writing.  Unfortunately, this is often very difficult to do and authors will usually find a multitude of chores to do to put off this moment, because they’ve allowed their block to take over.  If you just write anything that comes into your head, no matter how rubbishy it sounds, and keep at it, you can often work past the wretched block.  Another aid is to keep a notepad and pen handy at all times to jot down ideas.  These will come at the oddest times – perhaps late at night or in the early hours.  If you record them, you can revisit them and flesh them out more until inspiration strikes or the muse comes out of hiding.

Sometimes the romance genre gets a bad reputation for being cliché and full of Fabios. How do you respond to that?

To some extent it is the readers who shape the genre.  If you don’t meet their expectations, they soon let you know.  If your heroes aren’t alpha enough, your heroines feisty enough or your endings happy enough, you soon know about it.  For my part, however (and I know several romance writers who feel the same) a good romance should incorporate elements of other genres to add the spice.  I hate stereotypes and feel it’s important to give my characters weaknesses as well as strengths, and some very awkward obstacles, to make them as humanly realistic as possible.

Where can we find your books?

All titles are available from Amazon, using this link: http://www.amazon.com/Lynette-Sofras/e/B0084YN70O/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0; and Wishful Thinking can be found at all regular outlets.  

Readers can visit my website http://www.lynettesofras.com for more information and to read excerpts from all of my novels.

Thank you so much, Lyn, for stopping by my blog. I hope you had fun! 

Here's a little more about our Cinderella group... 
Come join the fun! 

Here's our Facebook Group page if you'd like to stay updated on all the Cinderella fun! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/482493158588214/

Check out our Cinderella video to get a feel for all 15 stories... 

This compilation book of 15 Cinderella excerpts, recipes and party ideas will be out late December 2015.