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Current
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WHEN TWILIGHT COMES (4+) |
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Getting to know Gwynne
Forster….
Do
you use a pen name?
Gwynne Forster is
my pen name. I do not use my legal name in connection with fiction writing,
because I use that name when writing scholarly/academic texts.
What
is your occupation (other than being a writer)?
Demographer
What
is your dream job?
I think I have my
dream job. I love what I do, and I am fortunate enough to follow the profession
for which I am trained. My graduate studies pointed me to the field of
demography. I am comfortable and happy at it. Research and written analysis in
that branch of the social sciences is the fire that boiled my intellectual
water, so to speak.
What
is your favorite book?
I have a lot of
favorite books because books satisfy a mood I'm in at a particular time.
However, the only book that ever kept me awake all night was Langston Hughes'
Simple trilogy, most especially, "Simple Speaks His Mind."
The Writing that keeps us all enthralled…
Tell
me how your writing career began.
I began writing
fiction because my work took me on long overseas trips, and during those
flights, I was unable to do work I'd brought along with me. Concentration was
difficult. I picked up some novels at airports, but could usually find only
romances overseas, and began to read them.
When my seatmates got pushy, I would read to escape into privacy. Once,
when it was too dark in the cabin, I closed my eyes, pretending sleep, and told
my self a story so as not to concentrate on the choppy flight. That story kept
cropping up on subsequent flights until I wrote it down. I didn't offer it for
sale and never will. But it taught me I could write a complete novel, and I was
hooked. I started my first novel,
SEALED WITH A KISS, January 1994, an editor bought it in October 1994, and it
was published in September 1995. After three Arabesque novels and two novellas,
I became a lead author for Arabesque and have remained that. I have nine novels
and three novellas for Arabesque, three novels and a novella fro Genesis Press
and a novella for St. Martin's
So
RIC readers can find any work they may have missed, please list your novels, and
the years that they were published:
Published
Mainstream Fiction by Gwynne Forster:
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WHEN TWILIGHT COMES
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Published Romances by Gwynne Forster (in chronological order):
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Sealed with a Kiss
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Against All Odds 1996
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"Christopher's Gifts" in Silver Bells
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Ecstasy
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"A Perfect Match" in I Do 1998
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Obsession
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Naked Soul
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Beyond Desire
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"Love for A Lifetime" in Wedding Bells
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Naked Soul
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Fools Rush In
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Against The Wind
-
Swept Away
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Midnight Magic
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"Miracle At Midnight" in Midnight Clear - (ISBN 1-58571-039-3) 2000
-
Secret Desire - (ISBN 1-58314-124-3) 2000
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"Learning To Love" in Going To The Chapel
-
Scarlet Woman
Noteworthy
Credits
-
1998: Ecstasy received both the 1997 Affaire de Coeur Critics and Readers awards for best contemporary ethnic romance of 1997; and Gwynne Forster was voted one of ten best romance writers among all romance writers published in 1997
-
1999: NAKED SOUL received both the 1998 Affaire de Coeur Critics and Readers award for best contemporary ethnic romance of 1998, and Gwynne Forster was voted by the critics as one of their Ten Favorite Authors.
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1999: Obsession and Naked Soul nominated by readers for best contemporary ethnic romance of 1998.
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2000: FOOLS RUSH IN received the Affaire de Coeur award for the best romance with hero and heroine of color published in 1999, and critics voted Gwynne Forster one of ten favorite authors.
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2000: Gwynne Forster voted 1999 AUTHOR OF THE YEAR by reviewers of the Romance In Color web site; Romance In Color gives AGAINST THE WIND it Award Of Excellence.
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2000: AGAINST THE WIND nominated by Romantic Times magazine as best multicultural romance of 1999. Gwynne Forster nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award.
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2001: Gwynne Forster nominated for the first Vivian Stephens award for Lifetime Achievement and for three Emma Rodgers awards - SWEPT AWAY, "Miracle At Midnight" IN MIDNIGHT CLEAR, SECRET DESIRE [cover] (Romance Slam Jam 2001 conference)
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2001: Black Writers Alliance honors BEYOND DESIRE with its 2001 Gold Pen Award.
Your
first mainstream fiction novel will be released this month.
Please tell us about your shift from AA romance to AA Fiction.
My romance novels
have all contained at least two important subplots, mainly because I just don't
write category romance and don't find it interesting. Lately, reviewers'
comments have suggested to me that I was veering away from romance. My editor
gave me the green light, and I took it with what amounted to pure glee. I
enjoyed writing WHEN TWILIGHT COMES; IT SIMPLY POURED OUT OF ME. I have a strong
romance, ONCE IN A LIFETIME, coming out for Arabesque in July, and I believe
it's one of the best I've ever written.
How
was writing this story different from writing romance?
Yes, of course. I
had no set of "don't's" and "do's" to constrain me. I was
own my own with my imagination and skill as a writer the only regulating
factors. Of course, I also had as restraining factors my beliefs and values, but
these had as an additional role the liberation of my thinking.
Tell
me about your latest novel.
In all the world,
only two things are important to Marge Hairston: her work as a journalist, and
the three children she raised alone after her husband's death. Handsome Drogan,
tempestuous Cassie and gentle Sharon share warm affection for each other, and a
profound pride in their mother, who turned The Woodmore Times into North
Carolina's most influential African American newspaper.
But even a family as close as the Hairstons can be torn apart when crisis
hits--as it does when Marge is taken seriously ill. And when she insists that
one of her children abandon a comfortable and successful career to continue her
work at the paper, Drogan, Cassie and Sharon suddenly find their cherished close
relationships unraveling. Soon the
two older children are at odds with their mother, their spouses and their world.
This story is about the terms of reconciliation.
What
inspired this story?
I'm not sure. As a
social scientist, I am always aware of the family as the nucleus of society and
the principal factor in a person's socialization. So I am interested in the way
family members interact and why they interact as they do. Family dissolution is
simpler to construct than the building up, the making of a real family, but it
is what society focuses on. I said, what if a family looses its glue, and begin
constructing the story.
Are
any parts of your own character or life are reflected in your
hero/heroine
and their struggles?
I stay away from my
personal life when writing. Even though I have
What
would you like your readers to take away from your story?
Human relationships
are fragile and those among family members no less so than others. Indeed,
intimacy provides potent knowledge with which to damage another, to injure or
destroy a relationship. Who know us better than our family?
Friendships can be as strong, as powerful and as meaningful as family
ties. Without true loyalty, however, either friendship or a loving family can
prevail.
So
that our readers can meet you and discuss your book with you, please list your
tour dates.
-
February 2, 1-4 pm, Diana's Books Plus, Book Launch Party, 297 Stanley Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
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February 8, 3-6 pm
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February 9, 2-4 pm, Waldenbooks, Green Acres Mall, Valley Stream, NY
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February 15, 4-6 pm
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February 22, 12-3 pm
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February 23m 2-4 pm
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February 27, 12-2 pm
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MARCH 1, 12-2 PM
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March 2, 1-3 pm
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March 23, 12-2 pm
How
can readers contact you?
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GwynneF@aol.com or P.O. Box 45, New York, NY 10044
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Web site: http://www.gwynneforster.com
I am grateful for
the support of the many individuals who buy my books, read them and tell their
friends about them, and I appreciate this opportunity to greet them all
personally. My thanks, too, to Romance In Color and its staff.
Gwynne Forster