The Romance Reviews

The Romance Reviews

Carmen DeSousa Pink Diamond Interview

Sinner here!! Welcome to our new interview series- the “Pink Diamond Interviews" which I will conduct! These interviews feature "Lipton-isms” fashioned after the interview style of James Lipton, host of the popular show “Inside the Actor's Studio”.

Here's the plan: I will ask our guest the usual introductory questions, followed by a few writing related questions. Then, we’ll move on to the "Lipton-ism" section. Here, I’ll ask various James Lipton-like questions, some of which you’ll see time and again, but sometimes the questions will change depending on who our guest is.

At the end of the interview, you will find a section I’m calling “Final Words of Wisdom” which will be offered by our guest ... sometimes.  I might not always let them answer this question during the interview and instead insist that they spend more time with us blogging!  Yay!

At the end of the interview, you will find links to our guest's website and media pages because I just know you’re going to want to know more!




Carmen DeSousa, is the author of She Belongs to Me, now available on AmazonBarnes & Noble, and Smashwords




Hello gang! Sinner here and I'm very excited about being the interviewer for the Pink Diamond Interview series!

Minnie met Carmen on Twitter and after perusing her blog, she followed and later stalked her on Facebook. No, I'm just kidding! But we both read the first chapter of her story and Minnie saw a lot of herself in Carmen's writing. We both agreed we just had to interview her. It was because of her writing that Minnie decided to begin a series of monthly author interviews with our fave authors. Sharing is caring, you know!

Today, we’ll spend some time getting to know Carmen and what makes her tick. Tomorrow, she’ll spend some time with you all without any of my meddling. J 

So, without further ado, here to inaugurate this new facet in the pink diamond that is Minnie's budding writing career, we are honored and happy to present to you, with a two day extravaganza, Carmen DeSousa!

Carmen, welcome! Thank you for your help in inaugurating this new series!! Are you ready for the inquisition? Yea? Cool! Get comfortable and we’ll begin.

Please tell us a bit about yourself and what inspired you to begin writing.

I've been reading and writing since I could hold a book; it was only natural that one day I would attempt to write my own novel. I’ve been through many things in my life, so some of what I write is true some of it is fiction. Of course, I’ll never divulge which is true and which isn’t; I’ll leave that for the reader to ponder.

This is a recent five-star review on amazon.com for She Belongs to Me:

She Belongs To Me by author Carmen DeSousa was a terrific romantic suspense book. The story started off with a "bang" literally and then the love story of Jordan and Jaynee is told as past and present are blended together. Readers get to see glimpses of other characters and how they are connected to Jordan and Jaynee and what possible involvement they might have had in Jaynee's shooting. The author did a great job developing all the characters in this story and created a story filled with love, intrigue, and suspense that had me riveted until the surprising reveal at the end. I am so glad I discovered this book and look forward to reading more books by this wonderful author.

Tell us how you came up with the idea for this story.

Honestly, I just sat down one day and started typing. I had an idea, and from there, it just blossomed.

What gets your juices flowing?

Again, I use little snippets of reality and mix in a whole lotta "what ifs". I will literally be driving down the road and an idea will pop in my head. Thank goodness for Dragon Dictation on my iPhone.

Plotter or pantser?

Definitely a pantser. I will confess that even I don’t know #whodunit, until I reach the end. I let the story unfold as the characters come to life. If they cannot convince me they’re innocent, then I make them the proverbial ‘bad guy’, and as my readers keep informing me, they never know who the ‘bad guy’ will be.

What is your writing process? Do you edit as you go along? Do you listen to anything in particular? 

I try to write at least three to four hours in the day, edit my pages that evening, and then when I try to sleep, my characters start to tell me what they want to do tomorrow. Pandora is a necessity, especially in the summer months when teenage boys are home. I listen to modern piano lullabies—my favorite, Yiruma. Of course when I’m not writing, my station is tuned to new country.  

What drives you when and if you ever feel like giving up and, how do you overcome those feelings?

Definitely my 14-y-o son. He is my biggest fan, and in some scenes—my guinea pig. Obviously not all scenes, as I do have quite a bit of romance. Even though I would rate my writing as PG13, there are just some things you don’t share with your teenaged son. LOL!

How do you handle “writer’s block”? 

I work on a different project. I have four completed novels, one of which is published, one is scheduled for spring of 2012, and two more for the end of the year that always need tweaking. And then, there are twelve more ideas in my notebook, which I occasionally visit and add scenes. So, if I have a block on one, I visit another. Also, I will occasionally read my current WIP from start to current scene and then, amazingly, the next words just fall into place.

Do you have any previous works or works in progress you’d like to tell us about? 

“Land of the Noonday Sun” is scheduled for spring of 2012.

Minnie was once asked the next question in an interview and we thought it was such a great question I am openly admitting to stealing it!  If we were to observe you in the act of writing, what would we see? 

As my hubby so eloquently put it, “I understand why people would buy Bill O’Reilly’s book. He has a TV show, and he’s well-known; but you, you’re just sitting there, in your sweatpants. Why would anyone buy your book?” Okay, don’t be upset. He meant it entirely different than it came out, but yes, that’s me, sitting in my sweatpants at the dining room table I’ve commandeered, typing away.

As a woman, you realize that there are young girls who have similar backgrounds as yours and might be looking at you as a sort of role model. How do you feel about that and what advice would you give them?

I would say, no matter how bad it seems…holdout for happiness. True love exists.

Excellent advice; advice we all should consider seriously. Now for the fun part! Lipton-isms! The answers to these questions should be just one word; whatever pops into your mind first, ok?

What's your favorite curse word?

For John’s sakes! (I know it’s three, but it’s what I say.)

Ha! Ha! Ha!! Ok. What's your least favorite curse word?

Taking the Lord's name in vain. Again, I know it's more than one, but I obviously can't write what I don't even like to hear. Honestly, other taboo curse words don't offend me, as most people use them as adjectives anyway.

If you had to choose one superhuman power, what would it be?

Fly

Where is your favorite place in the world?

Mountains

When is your favorite time of day?

Morning

What would your friends say is your best trait?

Forgiving

If you could time travel, where would you end up?

I wouldn’t change a thing! (Sorry, I broke the rules again. J)

It's ok. As our esteemed guest, you're allowed! If you could shape shift, what or who would you shift into?

Porpoise

What’s your favorite food?

Pizza (Is coffee a food?)

Hmm, I guess coffee could be a food...if you eat the beans!

And now, Words of Wisdom:

To conclude this interview, I was going to ask you if you had any words of wisdom to offer our readers. However, since this would be your opportunity to get on a soap box, I decided that you should blog about it instead -- as our guest -- tomorrow.  

So there you have it!  Ladies and gents! That was Carmen DeSousa, author of She Belongs to Me and she will be back tomorrow with her special blog post so please, check in again tomorrow.


This is Sinner Reems -- signing off!

She Belongs to Me is available at:




Be sure to visit Carmen's website at:  http://www.carmendesousa.com/






6 comments:

  1. I love this quote: "I would say, no matter how bad it seems…holdout for happiness. True love exists."

    I hope your word gets out to them. Best of luck to you and great interview!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sandy,

    Thank you for your comment. If you've read about me, you would know that this is something that I am working on. I trusted my true love and things didn't quite work out the way I thought they would. Come back tomorrow and visit with Carmen as she is our featured guest blogger.

    Thanks again!

    Sinner

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well Sinner, you certainly know how to make an interview interesting, esp the Lipton-isms. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to know more about the author, Carmen DeSousa and will follow-up on the author's links. Thank you! Looking forward to the next "Pink Diamond" Interview.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous, I know who you are as you just called me. Thanks for your undying support!! Regarding Carmen, as I told you on the phone, you really do need to follow up on her links. She's awesome!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for your feedback, Sandy and Anonymous. I, too, believe Minnie---I mean---Sinner did a wonderful job, and I am honored she chose me as her first guest. I look forward to seeing y'all when you visit. ;)
    Carmen

    ReplyDelete
  6. To my guest, Carmen, my new friend, i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! Through your generosity you have introduced me to people who might not have known about me otherwise. I am very grateful. I want to wish you unbridled success with "She Belongs to Me" and all your future endeavors!

    To all who have read my first Pink Diamond Interview, thanks for the visit! I'm happy you enjoyed it!

    Sinner

    ReplyDelete