Welcome Nancy Famolari!

1. Tell us about your upcoming/recent release.

My present release is “Summer's Story” from Red Rose Publishing. The setting involves horse breeding, training and harness racing. Summer's father, a famous trainer, dies leaving her a potentially great trotter, Meadow. Summer's life is complicated by two men. Ned owns the breeding/training farm where Summer and her father lived. Ned loves her, but she believes that he was responsible for her father's death and won't allow him t help her. Davis, a racehorse driver, also loves her and wants to help her get Meadow to the races. Max, another owner, wants Meadow for himself and will stop at nothing to get her. The book traces the problems faced by Summer and answers the question of whether she gets her horse to the big races and whether she finds love.

2. What gave you the idea for your upcoming/recent release?

My husband and I raised and trained Standardbred racehorses for fourteen years. Although Summer's story is fiction, I used many of the incidents I saw or experienced to create the characters and the plot.

3. How much time does it take you to finish a book?

I usually write my books for the first time in a month (about fifty thousand words). Then the fun begins. It takes me a year or more to rewrite. I have to add to the plot (usually a sub plot) and the characters need to be filled out.

4. What is your favorite part of being a writer?

I love creating characters and seeing how they interact in situations. I particularly love writing the book the first time The characters start to live. It's almost like watching a movie.

5. What is your least favorite part of being a writer?

Rewriting is a two edged sword. I like to see how the characters develop and I love getting insights into them. However, rewriting is work.. I'm not terribly good at it, but you have to try to make sure the grammar is good, typos must be eliminated, and the plot has to hang together. You have to make sure you are consistent from one scene to another with names and place descriptions. All in all, it's detail work and not my favorite activity.

6. What are you working on now?

I'm in the revision process for the second novel in my Montbleu Murder series. The first book will be published by Red Rose Publishing in 2009. It's about the murder of the wife of a prominent citizen in the small town of Montbleu, Pennsylvania. For the first time we meet the woman who will become police chief, Chess Devon, and her former lover, now the Chief of Detectives, in Scranton, PA. Their romance (or lake of same) is one of the elements that pulls the series together. The present book focuses on the terror of a young writer living in a house that was the scene of an unsolved murder. I won't say more about it, but it's a new thing for me. Many of the characters are the same, but I added a paranormal element that was great fun.

7. All writers started out as readers – who’re your favorite authors?

I love mysteries. My favorite authors are Dorothy Sayers (Gaudy Night) and Elizabeth George (everything except, “What Happened Before He Shot Her). I also like to read romance and biography. In fact, I'll read almost anything.

8. What are your goals as a writer?

I hope to continue my work on the Montbleu series. I have a YA novel based in the Standardbred business that I want to get published ,and I have more stories to tell that will involved Summer. I love developing my characters and I don't see any end in sight.