Hi Mary, welcome to Fliterary! We love making new friends.
Let’s sit together on the swings and you can introduce yourself:
Hi Lisa! I’m Mary Moore, thanks
for having me today. I’ve been married to my husband, Craig, for 27 years and
we have one “child,” our black lab, Darcy. We are originally from the Washington , DC area, but
ten years ago we moved to Virginia in the
beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains . We have
survived the culture shock J
and now it’s our home.
I began writing about 17 years
ago, but it was just for fun and just for me, so when we moved to Virginia , we just boxed
up the stories and put them up in the attic. During a bout with breast cancer,
I used the months of treatment to rewrite some of the stories and have been
blessed on my recent journey to be published.
My debut novel, The Aristocrat’s
Lady, that came out in late 2011 was a wonderful surprise. It won an RT Reviewer’s
Choice Award and the Holt Medallion Award from Virginia Romance Writers, a
chapter of the RWA. They were wonderful blessings on top of many readers that
sent me notes about how the book touched them.
You have a new book out, what’s it about?
It’s called Beauty in Disguise.
It’s an inspirational historical romance set in Regency England. The heroine, a
lady who has come down in the world, must make a living. But she discovers that
women will not hire her as a governess or companion because of how beautiful
she is. They are afraid their husbands will be tempted by having a beauty in
the house. So she creates a disguise that allows her to become invisible to
men. She settles into life as a companion to a young lady until the only man
she ever loved comes as a guest in the house and eventually recognizes her.
Their journey takes them from misunderstanding and anger to forgiveness and
renewed love.
Where can we buy it?
Actually, for the month of
January, it will be in every WalMart in the country. Love Inspired Historicals
have their own shelves within the Harlequin line of books. It will only be in
stores until the end of January. But it is, of course, available on Amazon.com,
Barnes & Noble.com and Christian Book Distributors.com. You can also download it to Kindle and Nook.
If we invited your main character to sit with us, how would she/he react?
She would be very nervous. Since
she has donned her disguise, she is very uncomfortable as herself. She was too
well known when she was in London
for her Season and she is always afraid someone will penetrate her disguise.
She is actually very intelligent, compassionate and has a wonderful sense of
humor. I think people will like her very much.
What would they say? What advice would they give?
If she felt comfortable, she
would be able to tell you about the bad choice she made when she was young that
brought her to this point in her life. But she would not complain; she would
own the mistake and talk to you about the children has been able to love as a
governess and the good that she did for them as well as the good they did for
her. In terms of advice, she would definitely talk about following your faith
and the direction of those that love you to keep from going through the
hardship she has. She would tell you to follow your heart!
If any one person from history could sit with us, who would it be and why?
That’s easy. I would love to sit with Jesus for lots of reasons. I would thank Him for dying to save me. I believe if I were in His presence, I would want to just worship and praise Him. But I admit, I’m human enough to think I would want to ask Him a million questions, a million why questions, and I’d probably be amazed at the big picture which only He could ever see.
Why did you choose to be a Christian writer and what does it mean to
you?
Originally, my stories were
secular, but they were clean. The only
Regencies I was able to find those many years ago were beginning to get pretty
explicit. But as I mentioned earlier, while I was sick I felt like I could
share some of my experiences and the ways God has been involved in my life
through those stories. So I rewrote them with a message. It has been wonderful
because it has taken the pressure off of monetary success and/or critical
acclaim; I pray readers might be able to find a message in the story that
speaks to them. And I love hearing from readers who have been touched in some
way.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
You know another thing I learned
in the years between writing the original stories and now? Experience! When I
reread them, I was surprised at how shallow and immature they really were. I
would advise an aspiring author to be sure and create a depth that is real; and
if you can use personal experience to accomplish that, all the better. The
other thing I would say is to persevere. When my first story was rewritten (and
rewritten and rewritten) it still took almost a year to find an agent, then 6
months to a year to prepare the proposal to pitch to publishers. There are many
other steps once you get a publisher interested, so you can see that even when
your story is the best it can be, it doesn’t happen overnight. But write the
best story you can then persevere until your dream comes true.
Where can we find you on the web?
You can contact me and find out
information about the book at www.marymooreauthor.com
or you can email me at mmooreauthor@swva.net. I also have an author page on facebook.com/mmooreauthor
and you can tweet me at http://twitter.com/sugarbean1020.
Thank you so much, Lisa, for
having me today. I really appreciate this opportunity!
5 comments:
Sounds like an amazing story, Mary! What a great premise.
Wonderful post. I tweeted.
Thanks so much guys!
I read Beauty in Disguise on Kindle this past week. I enjoyed very much the main character. She truly needed to see God's forgiveness in her life. The story showed how God is in control of our lives and waiting for us to accept His love and to forgive ourselves. Wonderful book! Thank you, Ms. Mary for the awesome truth shown by this story. Susan
Gorgeous cover and I like the premise! Thanks for the interview. :-)
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