Q & A with Rosemary Clement-Moore

Enter to Win one of Rosemary’s Books and visit her website for more information on Splendor Falls and her ‘Hell’ series.

What better way to lead into a Q & A session (coming SOON!) with Rosemary Clement-Moore than by reading, in her own words, what she gets do during break time:

“I’ve been writing stories all my life, even when I should have been doing other things, like studying Algebra. My first paying job was as Chuck E. Cheese. I worked in theatre for years, and now I’m writing full time, which is my dream job, because I get to work in my pajamas and take a break every afternoon to play Guitar Hero.”

***

BotH:

It’s great to have you in the House, Rosemary!  I’d love to start with you sharing how you got your start in writing.

Rosemary:

Writing has always been a game to me. I was all about the make-believe when growing up, and Mom taught me very young to make up “movies” in my head when I was going to sleep, or on long car trips. From there it was a short step to start writing them down. (Usually while in math class)

But my high school career counselor said my spelling grades were too bad to be a writer and I should stick to the sciences. But I kept writing for fun, and made best friends with spellcheck, and finally realized I could do this. All I had to do was find the discipline to finish a book! Which I did, finally. And after that, things went very quickly. I attacked the submission process like a tactical objective. It helped that (besides being fabulously talented), I was submitting Prom Dates From Hell when YA paranormal was hitting its stride.

BotH:

Did you always know you were going to write YA?  Do you think you’ll ever crossover to adult fiction?

Rosemary:

I didn’t plan to write YA, though I did (and do) read quite a bit of it. When I was a teen, there wasn’t a ‘teen’ shelf. Once you were done with Nancy Drew, if you didn’t like the Babysitter’s Club, you were out of luck. Interestingly, many of the books that I got from the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelves are now shelved in YA. And it’s a natural fit.  Look how many SF/F books and movies have a YA type theme of discovering your destiny, the idealistic apprentice/prince/farmboy must master magic/save the kingdom/defeat the evil empire.

So I write what I write, and it happens my characters are eighteen and fall in the genre. (Well, and they’re in college.) I think that’s why I already have a lot of crossover readers–I once got a fan letter from three generations of readers, and I was thrilled. That was exactly what I was aiming for. A book that young, and not so young, adult readers would all enjoy.  So I definitely think I’ll crossover to adult fiction. Eventually.

BotH:

Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil.  Your ‘Hell’ books are so fun and thrive on girl power.  What’s the craziest thing you’ve had Maggie do as she battles evil?

Rosemary:

Well, she goes undercover in a sorority in Hell Week, which is only crazy because of Maggie’s personality. But I have a soft spot for this scene in Highway to Hell (the third in the series)… Maggie and her best friend Lisa wreck their car on the way to South Padre Island and are stuck in Nowhere, TX, where the townspeople are convinced the chupacabra is killing their cattle. The girls decide to investigate, and by the end, Maggie–who tends to battle with her brains rather than her brawn–has to ride a horse, joust with a demon, and, as she puts it, channel her inner Lord of the Rings. It all ends in… Well, I can’t tell you.  But fire and brimstone is tame by comparison.

BotH:

Splendor Falls is a gothic ghost YA romance.  How is it different from the ‘Hell’ books, and will there be a sequel?

Rosemary:

From the description, you can guess that it is more spooky and more, well, romantic.  Both Maggie and Sylvie Davis (the heroine of The Splendor Falls) are extremely strong characters–Sylvie is a ballerina, and as she says, ballerinas are made of willpower–but where Maggie has herself pretty well figured out, Sylvie has had the rug ripped out from under her. She was a rising star when an injury ended her career, and suddenly she’s lost her independence as well as her dreams.

When she is shipped off to Alabama to stay in a run down antebellum estate and starts seeing ghosts, she thinks depression has sent her off the deep end. Then there’s this guy (of course there is!) and she can’t help feeling that their lives, past and present, are entwined in ways she can’t–and he wont–explain. So in addition to solving an ancient mystery, she has to reconnect with her past to figure out what she’s going to do with her future.

The Splendor Falls is a stand alone novel, but my next book is another paranormal mystery romance that takes place in the same ‘universe’ as TSF. So you never know who may show up.

BotH:

Loved having you here, Rosemary!  Best of luck with all your adventures and projects!

Rosemary:

Thanks! Delighted to be here.