Welcome, Ms. Hamilton, to Love Romances and More and to our interview.  The readers and I, look forward to this talk about your books, and getting to know you on a more personal level. 

Let us start off by telling you a little about this exceptional contemporary authoress, Cynthia Hamilton, with short blurb from her book LUCKY AT LOVE.
 

Some guys just never give up…
…As journalist Allison Tyler-Wilcox discovers when she meets seven-time divorced, mule-breeding Jake Sorenson. What’s really behind her trip to Jake’s rural Oregon ranch, and will her views on life, love and marriage ever be the same? 

Ms. Hamilton, if you would be so kind as to tell the readers a little about yourself, and what you do when you are not busy writing? 

I’ve lived in Santa Barbara since 1979. I moved here on a whim to escape a bad relationship. That move changed my life forever. My good luck started right away when I was hired to work at a beautiful, enchanting French restaurant called Chanticleer. Little did I know then that the owner, a man named Guy Hamilton, would one day become my husband. I took up residence with him and his two small children a year and a half later. 

When he sold his restaurant/bar/wine cellar in 1983, we moved to New Orleans, where he was born and raised. We lived in the French Quarter for two years, a thoroughly Bohemian experience that I immediately took to. Those two years exposed me to a wide variety of characters and cultural experiences I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. The place had such a profound impact on me, that when I started writing six years ago, New Orleans was the setting for my first novel, which is entitled The Road to Manchac. 

When we returned to Santa Barbara in 1985, my husband got ‘a real job’ as a mortgage broker. As I needed to be available to take care of my step-children when they visited from London during the summer and holidays, I only involved myself in activities I could put aside when they were with us. I volunteered at a youth crisis shelter and sat on the board, but I spent most of my time painting, and designing and making mosaic furniture. After ten years of doing whatever I pleased, my husband recruited me to run his mortgage company. I’ve been at it ever since. So much for doing as I pleased! 

Once I got a handle on my responsibilities and made it through the ‘Refi Madness’ in the late ‘90’s, I began casting around for a creative outlet that would be compatible with my 9-5 job. I hit on the idea of writing – something I had never believed myself capable of – because it would not only fit into my schedule, but as I was beginning to have physical problems, I figured writing was something I could do if I were ever confined to bed, thanks to laptop computers and the Internet. What I wasn’t counting on was developing an unquenchable desire for creating fictional plots and characters. 

Looking back, I see now that writing is what I was cut out for all along. It was an ability that was always in me, but never nurtured. And as it turned out, devoting myself to the discipline of writing was a good choice for another reason, the one I had in mind eight years ago when I started on the seemingly endless quest to find out what was wrong with me. But as of this month, the search has finally ended. I now know that I have Lyme Disease.  

Because it has taken so long to get an accurate diagnosis, the disease has progressed to the point that will make treating and curing me of it longer and more difficult. In the last couple of years, it has really affected my coordination, making typing a ridiculous challenge. This is one reason it has taken me so long to write my fifth novel – but I haven’t given up. I can’t write for more than an hour or two a day on the weekends, and I sometimes miss one of those days due to severe pain, weakness or fatigue. But the really good news is that I know what’s wrong with me and I will be starting treatment at the end of the month.

Besides writing, walking is my other favorite pastime. My husband and I walk all over Santa Barbara – though our walks are a little shorter than they used to be – and I walk by myself up at our ranch in Santa Ynez on weekends. It’s when I’m walking that I actually write my novels. 

Ms. Hamilton, who is your great inspiration?  

My inspiration comes from people I meet, situations I observe, or stories that I hear. I make it a point never to create characters or scenes directly from real life, but I use certain details of persons, places or things as a jumping off point. I would never want any of my characters to closely resemble someone I’ve met or heard of. I like the experience of creating characters out of whole cloth. Plus I don’t want anyone to feel like I’ve stolen pieces of their lives and exploited or distorted them for literary purposes.

What was the hardest scene to develop in LUCKY AT LOVE?   

I wish I could think of something, but I found that book especially easy to write. Once I figured out the POV and the female protagonist, the rest was a snap. As soon as I got Allison and Jake together on a page, the story just clicked. And coming up with supporting characters was just as effortless. I should always be so lucky!

Do you have a special formulation or technique when you write? 

No, I just let it come to me. The storyline, the characters and the dialog come about in snatches, not necessarily in the order I need them, but I just have to tuck future scenes away in my brain until it’s time to commit them to the page. 

Ms. Hamilton, what is the nicest thing another author has said about you?  

An author whom I admire very much said that I’m an “elegant and insightful” writer. Another author said after reading Lucky at Love that I had “hooked” him, that he couldn’t put the book down. I was very gratified by such high praise.  

They say everyone has a dream, what is yours? 

To spend four hours a day writing.                                                                          

Do you do a lot of background research for your books?

Yes, if I am not thoroughly familiar with a subject that appears in the book, or to verify details for accuracy’s sake. Though I try to keep the characters and situations in my books fictional, I feel it’s important to have a solid backdrop of facts. Otherwise, the story or the characters wouldn’t seem as believable.

Could you tell the readers how you came up with the premise for LUCKY AT LOVE? 

I really did meet a man at a wedding who had been married and divorced seven times. He was a tall, charismatic yet almost offish looking man. And he did make an offhand proposal of marriage to me. But that’s where the similarities to the man I met and Jake Sorenson end. I will say that I knew the moment I left the wedding I was going to have to create a character who had been married and divorced so many times – and knew he was one of those people who shouldn’t be married – yet was almost compulsively drawn to new relationships. I just had to understand how that could be possible.

Ms. Hamilton, do you have any special interests or causes you would like to share with the readers? 

I do have a strong love of nature, which is fortunate, as our ranch is on the verge of a national forest. In the past week, we’ve had a bobcat, a coyote, a mountain lion and a skunk on our property – all a little too close for comfort. The skunk was twenty feet away from our open back door when I spied him! 

How long did it take you to write LUCKY AT LOVE? 

One year.

Is Jake modeled after anyone you know? 

I would like to say that I only met the inspiration for Jake that one time at the wedding. I have since heard through his niece that he has married for the eighth time, believe it or not.  

Would you like to tell the readers what the future holds in your writing career, Ms. Hamilton? 

I hope to have a full recovery (it will take some time – a year or more), and get back into a more regular writing pattern. If I have any control over it, I’ll write more books than anyone will care to read!

How can your fans reach you, Ms. Hamilton?  

By visiting our website – www.woodstockpress.com  (My email address is cynthia@woodstockpress.com) We’ve got sample chapters of yet unpublished books, reviews and reader’s comments, etc.

Ms. Hamilton, do you have any advice for aspiring authors? 

Listen to your characters. If they are well developed, they will resist you if your plans for them don’t ring true. This was the case with Allison and Jake. I don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t read it, but I can say that the book was not intended to end the way it did. 

I would like to thank you Ms. Hamilton, for sharing your talent and time with the readers of Love Romances and More.  I truly enjoyed reading LUCKY AT LOVE and hope to read more from you soon! 

Thank you, Janalee! I enjoyed your questions. And I’m so glad you liked the book. My best regards to all.