Author Christine d’Abo

Thomma Lyn posted this great interview meme on her site. Basically, she asked me five questions and I have to answer them. If you are interested in participating, it’s simple! Post in my comments that you want me to interview you and I’ll leave you five questions of your own. Now, on to mine!

1. How do you feel about the very first novel you wrote? I have some serious mixed feelings about it. It’s terrible. Really, really bad. The problem with it had to do with the fact I was trying to write a historical, but my writer’s voice is far from it. On the other hand, I still love the idea. I love my characters and their relationship. It was also a wonderful learning experience for me. I completed a novel! Who cares if it was good or not, I knew I could do it. I need to totally rewrite it someday.

2. Do you put aspects of men you know or have known in real life into your stories’ heroes? I sure do! There are aspects of my husband in every single hero I write. Not always physical, not always behaviour, but always a small bit. And sometimes I put some characteristics of my dad in there too. I love them both.

Oh…and Gerard Butler, Vincent D’Onofrio, Hugh Jackman, Richard Dean Anderson…I could go on.

3. Which do you like better, cats, dogs or neither, and why? I’m a cat girl. I had a dog when I was little, but ever since I’ve had cats. I just find them comforting. Someday I may have a dog though.

4. Tell me about one of your favorite fictional characters (can be one of yours or somebody else’s) and why you like him or her. I like alpha males who make me laugh. A strange combination I know, but I find it really attractive. Most of the male character from the Stargate universe are like this. I also love The Phantom of the Opera. There is something very attractive about the wounded hero.

5. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Until I was fourteen I wanted to be a movie director. I was all set to go to film school until I met my husband. I’m quite happy to be a writer though.

That’s it! If you’d like to play, leave a comment and I’ll come up with five questions for you.

I’m so excited that I’m finally done this first draft! I love the story but it was painful to write at times. Not sure why, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out once I tackle the second draft.

I’m going to wait a week or so before I look at this again. I need a break from it and want to work on something fun. So that means today I’ll be starting my Halloween story on my lunch break…if I get one. Not looking too good at the moment.

As I promised, here is a recap of what happened this weekend at Test The Nation. Please bare in mind I can’t let you know who won, but I can certainly share my experiences.

Due to the impending storm on Friday, I had to scramble to get my flight changed. I didn’t want to risk not getting out of NS and missing the taping. After some fancy talking I found myself at the airport at 3:15 and ready to go. Of course rushing came at a price. I forgot my digital camera at home. I did buy a camera while I was there and will digitize those pictures as soon as I have them developed.

The hotel I was staying at was wonderful. I have to say it was the first time I actually slept while I was away. Saturday morning I didn’t have to be at CBC until 11:30 am. As it wasn’t a far walk, and I was still running on AST, I found myself with time to kill. So I sat down with my pen and notebook (I didn’t want to bring my laptop) and wrote. I broke through the issue I was having with Perfect Match and managed 20 pages! I was thrilled.

When the time came I packed up my things and made my way over to CBC. I immediately met up with Amy and Wylie was soon to join us. After a few minutes of freating Vicky arrived and we all began to chat. CBC lobby was very cool. For you Canadians out there, they had Casey and Finnagan’s tree house from Mr. Dressup. I geeked out and took pictures.

We were fed and mingled with the other teams. The Comedian were fun and wanted to try and join our team. We were tempted…for a second. Wylie and I found the seating plan for the game. It turned out I was going to be in the front row (groan). The only good thing is that I’d be next to Wylie.

The next thing we know we’re being moved into the studio. There were 260 of us so this wasn’t an easy task. The studio was very cool, but the chairs were a bit hard on the back. I took lots of pictures and will post them once I get them scanned.

We had one quick test run to see how everything was going to work. And then we were off. The taping went until 5:00pm, and we had to do a few reshoots which was funny. “Act excited and like you don’t know what’s going to happen!” These were our instructions LOL!

As thank you gifts we all got t-shirt and notebooks with the Test The Nation logo on it. I love mine and will take a picture of me wearing it tonight.

I can’t wait to see the final result in September.

When it rains…you’re usually in a plain trying to land through a major wind storm…

Seriously though, this week is set to be another crazy one. I’ll be teaching eight hours a day and on my lunch breaks I’ll be doing ergonomic assessments. The sucky thing for me is that means I won’t get much writing done at lunch. The suckier (new word, go with me) part is I’ll be so tired I won’t have a lot of energy to write when I get home. It also doesn’t help that I’m still tired from the weekend. But I’ll get through.

I didn’t make it back to my computer yesterday to tell you about Test The Nation. I’ll try and do that a bit later today or tomorrow. I need to set my goals out for the week so I can try and keep focues on everything.

• Second round of edits on The Bond That Ties Us. I’m expecting them sometime early this week. When they arrive they’ll take priority.
• Finish first draft of Perfect Match. I’m one love scene away from being done. I figure about 5-6 pages. I’ll be getting through that if it kills me!
• Critiques for people. I have two waiting and one more on the way. I’m mostly done one, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
• Start Halloween story. I know I’m pushing it with this one, but I’d really like to at least make an attempt at a first chapter. We’ll have to see.

What do you folks have on your plate?

I wanted to have a quick post to let everyone know I’m alive and well. I made it to and from Test The Nation, even surviving a rather challenging landing in the middle of a high wind and heavy rain storm.

My hat’s off to CBC for putting on a great show! We found out that it won’t be airing until September, but that didn’t dampen any spirits. I’ll do a longer post on the events once I wake up a bit. Yes I know it’s late afternoon, but I didn’t get to sleep until 3am!

For those of you who get CBC, I urge you to watch the Test The Nation: IQ Test tonight. It will be airing at 8pm, EST.

Okay so I’m supposed to be flying to Toronto tonight for Test The Nation. Of course tonight we are supposed to get hit with a major snow storm tonight. Right around the time my flight is supposed to be leaving. So ladies and gents cross your fingers, toes, arms, legs…and anything else you can think of that I’ll get off the ground.

I’ve even studied!!!

On the writing front I haven’t been doing so well. I managed to get all my edits done for The Bond That Ties Us and so far about 1000 words written on Perfect Match. I haven’t ever looked at it in the past three days. I was hoping to get some writing done on the plane and in the hotel room tomorrow morning. I won’t be taking my laptop, so it will be the old fashioned pen and paper method. Hopefully that means I’ll be able to finish it.

As long as my flight leaves…

St. Partick’s Day is Saturday!! I love this holiday and all the fun that’s around it. So for this week’s Thursday Thriteen I thought I’d take a look at…

1. Green. I know not everyone likes green, but I do. I look good in green! Probably has to do with my hazel eyes and hair colour, but gosh darn it you have to go with what works.

2. Shamrocks. I’ve always been fascinated with them ever since I was a kid. They’re very balanced and kind of look like hearts. I like that. Never found a four leaf one, but I’ll keep looking.

3. Party! It’s a great time of year to get together with friends for a party. You don’t even have to be Irish! Plus there’s no expectations of presents or baking. Bonus!

4. Leprechauns. Whenever I see a picture of a leprechaun I think of a looney toons cartoon with Porky Pig. He is staying at a hotel and gets terrorized by two leprechauns. Makes me laugh every time.

5. Beer. Now don’t think I’m a big beer drinker. I’m not. It makes me a bit sick actually. But once a year I feel obligated to pick up a mug and give a toast. Seems like the least I can do.

6. Kissing. Other than Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day seems to be a good one for kissing. Maybe it’s just my French husband compensating for something…not sure…not going to argue.

7. Faeries. I know it’s not as popular an icon as the Leprechaun, but there’s something wonderful about Faeries. Mysterious, deadly, and sensual all at the same time.

8. Irish Music. I grew up on the East Coast so Irish music has always been big in my house. I can even proudly admit to watching The Irish Rovers Sunday nights on CBC. And with that admission I’ve officially dated myself.

9. No Snakes. I always felt for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I hate snakes. Any Saint that managed to get rid of some of them is A-OK in my books.

10. Rainbows and Pots of Gold. I could use a pot of gold right about now. I could quit my day job and stay home and write all day! If you find one, please consider sharing.

11. Sense of Heritage. Being half Irish it really gives me a sense of belonging to something bigger when we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In our busy lives it’s not always something we consider, so the reminder is appreciated.

12. Taking with a bad accent. Okay, so I suck at the whole Irish accent thing. But come on! Everyone tries to do it. It’s fun!

13. Any excuse for fun! I’m a fun type of girl. I like to get together with friends and family to have a good time. This is one more reason to do it big!

As some of you know, I will be participating in the CBC version Test The Nation: Language Skills show. It is taping this Saturday in Toronto. I’m a member of the Romance Writers team and I’m psyched! Completely freaked out that I won’t be able to answer any questions, but psyched!!

The English language is a messed up but wonderful thing. I think you noticed the weirdness if you have children. The odd word combinations, and especially them trying to figure out how to pluralize words can be funny.

I’m glad there will be a large group of us there participating. If nothing else I’ll have fun with Amy, Vicky, Wylie and all the other TRW members. I’m also looking forward to meeting the group of writers that will be coming down from Ottawa. We’ll have giggles if nothing else.

Last night I managed to finish up my first round of edits for The Bond That Ties Us. I added around 4000 words and will probably try and add another few thousand to get it up to 70,000 for a final word count.

I’d forgotten how much I really liked these characters. Until recently, I hadn’t looked at this story in nine months. Being so far removed from it made the editing easier, but it also let me enjoy the story again. I would come to sections and smile seeing elements that I hadn’t even realized were there before. I was able to tie them in with the bigger plot and made it seem I’d intended to do that all along.

Of course I did…

So that’s goal one down for this week. I’m hoping to get a lunch break today so I can get back to Perfect Match and work on finishing it up. The nice thing about doing the edits on Bonds, I know the things I should be looking for with Match. It has been a great learning experience as a writer for sure.

On a TV note, 24 rocked last night. I was so happy to see Martha and Aaron come back, even for a little bit. It gave nice closure (or it willl in an episode or two) to that plot line. I missed Heroes and can’t wait till it’s on again.

This week should prove to be interesting. I spent most of the weekend going over my edits to The Bond That Ties Us, and am almost done. I’m hoping to finish it up today/tonight and get it back to my editor. I find I’ve added quite a bit to the atmosphere of the story and hopefully enriching the plot as I go. I’ll have to give it another read through before I hit send, but so far so good.

My day job has another busy week ahead of me. I have a lot of training to do and I hope my voice holds out. I lost my voice this weekend and just managed to get it back late yesterday. Cross your fingers for me.

I also have to do some studying for Test The Nation which is tapping Saturday. I’ll be flying up to Toronto Friday night, taping the show Saturday and flying home Saturday night. Then I’ll be hiding in my bed Sunday. I’ll be visiting Wylie’s site all week for my lessons. I just hope I can remember it all!