Denise: When you met a handsome, young naval officer in Hawaii was it love at first sight? Tell us about your first day and where he proposed. Where has home been for you and your husband?
Cynthia: Wow. That covers a lot of territory. Well, I don't know that it was love at first sight when I met my husband, but it was definitely love at first date. It was a New Year's Eve dinner dance under the stars at a World War II vintage officers club on Waikiki Beach. Sigh. I couldn't have written a more romantic scene. <g> Life and the Vietnam War separated us for a while, so the proposal didn't come 'til much later, but he was worth the wait.
Since then we've made our home in a variety of places -- twice back in Hawaii, Scotland, Japan, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington. We're in California for now and seemed to finally be settled, but you never know. We're both so used to moving that the moving bug could strike again at any time.
Denise: Your travel kindled your curiosity and led to a degree in cultural anthropology. How have you applied your knowledge in your romance novels?
Cynthia: I've used it in a general way, in just knowing how people interact, but I was finally able to use it in a more specific way in Everything That Glitters by making my hero an anthropology professor.
Denise: What inspired you to be a romance writer?
Cynthia: I had never read romance - like a lot of unenlightened people, I didn't believe it was intellectual enough - until a houseguest left a Harlequin behind. I was desperate for something new to read and the only thing in the house I hadn't read was that romance so I picked it up. By the end of the book I was hooked. It wasn't long before I wanted to write my own. I'd done some nonfiction, articles and newsletters, but discovered romance was a lot more fun.
Denise: In Everything That Glitters, published by Thorndike Press, in April, Jo is the owner of an antique shop in New Orleans. Why is Greydon Cantrell so interested in her inventory?
Cynthia: Greydon is an anthropology professor who is also an undercover customs agent concerned with the looting and sale of antiquities from ancient cultures.(There's my anthropology background showing through <g>) Anyway, he suspects Jo of being involved. One thing that excites me about this edition is that it's large-print. With an increasing number of people suffering from macular degeneration and other vision-limiting problems, I'm so pleased that more romances are available in large-print now so that readers can continue to enjoy the books they love. My mother-in-law has macular degeneration and is thrilled that she can finally read my books.
Happily, another of my earlier books, Blue Skies, will also be released in large-print Nov. 23 by Thorndike Press. The hero, Monk Jamieson, is a navy pilot stationed back where the widow of his best friend and fellow pilot lives. Gina has sworn off pilots, they don't live long enough, but Monk is giving her second thoughts. Monk is my second naval officer hero. Hmm. I wonder where that is coming from. <g>.
Denise: Five Star published your novel The Man Next Door in June 24. Set in Oahu's North Shore you take Giselle D'Amato away from her California executive desk and place her in her great-aunt's house. Why did she leave California and what is her new goal in life? What does her neighbor, Stoney Breeden want out of life?
Cynthia: Giselle discovers that her fiance, the son of her employer, is having an affair with his secretary. She loses her fiance and her job in one fell swoop and escapes to the beach house in Hawaii she has co-inherited with the man door to it. Her new goal is to turn the place into a bed and breakfast. Her challenge is to overcome the objections of her reclusive neighbor, Stoney, who only wants to be left alone and is horrified at the thought of a steady stream of tourists trooping through the property. I've set three books in Hawaii now. It's one of my favorite places and setting a book there gives me a chance to mentally dwell there again for a while.
Denise: We want to know all about Friday's Temptation, your new novel to soon be published by New Age Dimensions. Tell us about novelist Taylor Sloane and his latest challenge in his life. Who helps him get through each day?
Cynthia: Friday's Temptation was probably the most interesting book for me to write because when the book opens the hero, Taylor, has just been blinded in an accident. Taylor grew up in foster homes and has learned the only person he can count on is himself. Suddenly he is forced to depend on the Girl Friday he hires to help him with everything from meals to his current work-in-progress.
Because I was not able to use what he sees to set a scene or describe anything, everything he experiences had to be lived through his other senses. Sometimes when I was writing the book, I would have to close my eyes and think, "what does he hear? what does he smell?" Romance is so sensual, it was an interesting challenge to have only four physical senses to work with. I find it curious that my current focus seems to be on vision, or the lack of it. It seems to be coincidental, but I don't believe in coincidence. I think there is an intelligence that guides everything, so I'm waiting to see what else on this subject comes up.
Denise: What books, clubs or e-groups have you benefited from along the way?
Cynthia: The most helpful group, bar none, is Romance Writers of America. The resources available to new and seasoned writers both are fantastic. A great book once you get beyond the basics is "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King. A writer who regularly signs six-figure contracts recommended it to me and said that it changed her writing overnight. I found it to be one of the most helpful books on writing that I've ever read and recommend it to everyone now.
Denise: I have to know what your family thinks about your novels.
Cynthia: I think they're proud of me. Of course I could be living in big time denial. <g> My husband likes to think all my heroes are modelled after him, and as he supports my writing, I'm not about to disillusion him. My two daughters are grown now and beyond that stage of being embarrassed at even having a mother. They're amused by the genre I've chosen to write in, but don't read my stuff. My books are pretty sexy, and they say that thinking of their mother and sex at the same time is just too weird. <g>
Denise: How have you promoted your books?
Cynthia: In the past, the only promotion I've done is through reviews. I recently began writing my how-to column on romance writing and I love interviews like this that I can do via the Internet. I tend to be a rather reserved person in public and find personal booksignings to be uncomfortable. This format is much easier. And a bonus is that I can do it in my bathrobe. <g>.
Denise: What's your current writing project? Does it have a home already or you have to market it first?
Cynthia: I just finished a short mystery/romance and will hopefully find a home for it soon. I currently own and run a Curves fitness center and that keeps me so busy that I don't have as much time for writing as I'd like. I'm hoping to be able to dive into a new writing project soon.
--interview conducted by Denise Fleischer
November 18, 2005
Copyright Denise Fleischer
