I am thrilled to introduce everyone to Claire Cook’s work. I am her new biggest fan after hearing her speak at The Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference. She seems like a perfect choice to kick us all off and you are about to find out why. Please help me welcome Claire to the giveaway! I look forward to reading your comments.
About Claire Cook
Claire Cook wrote her first novel in her minivan outside her daughter’s swim practice at 45. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of her second novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. She is now the bestselling author of eight novels, with a 9th, Wallflower in Bloom, coming from Touchstone on June 5. Publishers Weekly calls it “fun and inspiring” and says “Cook’s humor and narrative execution are impeccable.” Read an excerpt (and find Writing and Reinvention pages) at ClaireCook.com, and follow Claire on Facebook and on Twitter.
About Wallflower In Bloom
Deirdre Griffin has a great life; it’s just not her own. She’s the round-the-clock personal assistant to her charismatic, high-maintenance, New Age guru brother, Tag. As the family wallflower, her only worth seems to be as gatekeeper to Tag at his New England seaside compound. Then Deirdre’s sometime-boyfriend informs her that he is marrying another woman, who just happens to be having the baby he told Deirdre he never wanted. While drowning her sorrows in Tag’s expensive vodka, Deirdre decides to use his massive online following to get herself voted on as a last-minute Dancing with the Stars replacement. It’ll get her back in shape, mentally and physically. It might even get her a life of her own. Deirdre’s fifteen minutes of fame have begun.
This year’s author interview theme? The story of Claire’s writing career in miniature! Here’s what I asked Claire:
When did you know for sure that you were a writer and that writing would be a major energy focus in your life?
I’ve known I was a writer since I was three. My mother entered me in a contest to name the Fizzies whale, and I won in my age group. It’s quite possible that mine was the only entry in my age group, since “Cutie Fizz” was enough to win my family a six-month supply of Fizzies tablets (root beer was the best flavor) and a half dozen turquoise plastic mugs with removable handles. Still, it took me until I was 45 to circle back to my writing. The good news is that, as George Eliot once said, “It’s never to late to be what you might have been.”
Who has always been behind your writing career and who helped pull you up the ladder of success?
I have the most amazing readers in the world. They’ve been behind me, book by book, spreading the word and cheering me on in this midlife career of mine. It makes me feel like I’m writing for all of us, and in many ways, I think I am.
What is the most frequent comment you hear about your book (or books) from readers? Tell us a little story about the response to your work.
I hear two comments over and over again: “I can’t remember when I laughed out loud like that” and “OMG, you’re writing my life.” They both make my heart sing!
• • •
Now it’s your turn. You remember how this works right?
I ask you a question. You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.
Please just respond once, even if you make a typo. 😉
Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books). Please read the complete rules at least once!
Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! I hope to see you here every day this month. Bring your friends!
Q: If you could become rich and famous for writing one thing and one thing only. What would you want that one thing to be? Don’t over-think it. Just answer from the gut!
Ready, set, comment!
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Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
Time was up for this giveaway. Please comment during the time period. Thanks! (But it’s a good exercise anyway, right?)
I write about my family. We laughed every day and moved every year. I’d lived a dozen different lives before I was finished with high school. But you know what they say about burning a candle at both ends? Well it’s true. They’re all gone, early and tragic, and I alone carry on the responsibility of sharing the laughter and the lessons. Our stories fill my head and I let the words pour out onto the page, carrying on my family’s storytelling tradition with passion and urgency.
There is a magical middle-grade walking around my mind (well, I have completely outlined it) that I would love to become famous from. It deals with hope, belief, magic,fantasy,animals and trees. There are characters in the books that were inspired by my father and all of his brothers. Since they are all no longer with me, I’d love this book to become published.
I’m so excited that your giveaway is here. I look forward to it every year.
Maribeth:)
If I could become rich and famous for writing only one thing would be to a writer for the President of the United States. Whether the elected individual is a male or female(hopefully, I would love to see one in my lifetime or my children/grandchildren…I’m 40!). I would cherish the opportunity to write about that person..good or bad!
Rich and famous for writing one thing only? Definitely for writing a nonfiction telling women and female teens it is good to love themselves, to learn to laugh, breath, relax, to receive love and adoration as well as to give, to dole out sincere compliments freely, to not be afraid to set emotional and energetic boundaries and then to enforce those boundaries as people and situations try to cross those lines and lastly to spend the time figuring out what they want and need and then ask for help achieving those goals. Yes, that’s definitely my book calling.
I would want to be remembered for writing that one very memorable screenplay that mad people laugh and cry and hug the one they love for the next 100+ years. I think that writing should take the reader to a place where they either laugh or cry (0r both) because these are strong emotions that are sometimes hard to show. To be able to write something that causes those emotions would bring me great joy.
Congrats to you, Diane! You are the winner!
I love that George Eliot quote! I’d want my one thing to be something that convinced nearly everyone who read it to start, and/or continue, keeping a journal!
What fabulous answers!! I enjoyed reading them all! Thanks so much for including me, Christina!
The thing I would want to write, regardless of whether it led to riches or fame, would be a series of books that inspired children to read. I’d love to be able to create a story that would draw children to a book, and make them better readers. Finding a secret formula of characters, themes, art and language that could entertain and encourage elementary aged children would be the fulfillment of dreams that money and fame can’t touch. Although, I wouldn’t be turning them down.
I wrote a very fanciful, very whimsical novel that is both dark and hopeful. It’s hands down my favorite thing that I ever wrote, and nothing has come as easily to me since. It was pure joy! The language is high, the characters were created from the depths of my heart. If I could become rich and famous for anything, I would hope it would be for that! 😀