And the Day Came - 2017
Ms. Moore,
Thank you for taking your time for me
Who are your
influences?
I’m partial to women authors with strong female
protagonists: Kathryn Stockett, Fannie Flagg, Rebecca Wells, Alice Hoffman,
Sarah Addison Allen and Susan Gabriel. I like a little bit of magic and humor
mixed with the real lives and frailties. I also can get in touch with the dark
side and like to read Ann Rice, Gillian Flynn, Joyce Carol Oates and Paula
Tieck DeBoard.
When did you begin
writing?
I was 62 when I started writing in earnest. Yeah, I’m a late
bloomer.
How do you come up
with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc.?
I’m past middle age I suppose, so I’ve met some people. A
retired social worker, I’ve had varied experiences and I like to observe
people. During my career, I noticed even the most deplorable abusers had a
story and a history responsible for their decisions. I also owned and operated
a bed and breakfast for seven years. Someone said you never know people until
you sleep with them. Well, I’ve slept with over 600 people, so there’s that.
Seriously, I remember little details about people and have no problem recalling
those things when I try to describe a character. My favorite characters are
those marginalized in our daily lives, the ones we overlook, not the usual
suspects. They move around behind the scenes observing, giving us information
and helping us understand the nuances in the big picture.
If you could actually
meet one of your characters, who would it be?
Why?
I’ve met all my characters. We are intimate. They pop up in
my head long after I’ve published their stories to tell me things I want to
revisit. My favorite characters are Pup, in my novel, Tangled,
a Southern Gothic Yarn and Teddy in And
the Day Will Come. Neither of these characters were main characters, but
they provided a perspective the protagonist could not. Both had limitations in
their daily living, but they also had strengths some people never develop. I
like the underdog. And speaking of dogs, all of my novels have dogs in them,
probably my other favorite characters.
Do you work from an
outline?
I have to admit I’m a pantser. I’ve tried to remember all
the writing classes I’ve taken and using the outline to plot. However, I enter
a zone when I start and just keep going until I’ve told the story, then I
rewrite and rewrite and rewrite.
Tell me about your
favorite scene in your novel(s).
Some of my favorite scenes are in Josephine’s
Journals, Book Two of the Sabine Trilogy. Sabine, Book one is free for
download from my web site, by the
way. One of my favorite exchanges is Sabine talking to the spirit of her
deceased mother, Josephine, a mentally ill alcoholic: “Josephine,” Sabine’s
calling my name, but she knows I can’t answer. “Please listen to me, Josephine.
Sometimes you give me a headache. This is what I know about dying. I know this
from Remy, Billy, and Jared. You will never be gone. You are here in me and
with me. We are all connected. Your body is gone, but you are here. You are a
soul, Josephine. I have some choice in how you are with me, but you have some
input.” Sabine is struggling to explain herself. I have no idea what she’s
talking about. Who the hell is Remy? Why do I have to tolerate this? I should
be resting peacefully somewhere, under white, fluffy blankets. That was my
vision.
“I know things die. Things are always dying. Cells are dying
every second of every minute. That doesn’t mean that they don’t come back; they
do, but they can’t come back as the same dead thing. They have to fix
themselves to come back as a new thing,” Sabine said. I don’t understand what
she is trying to say. Does this have something to do with what Nadine told her?
“This is not a departure site. It’s not just a place to
leave for somewhere else. It’s the school of life. There are lessons. You don’t
get to leave with no consequence. There are lessons to learn. Whatever you
experienced, Josephine, was a lesson. You have the choice to learn the lesson
or to repeat it. This place, this earth, all these souls, all of this is a
constant, the vessels are not us. The soul is who we are, but only when we
learn the lessons are we complete. You are not done, Josephine. There is no
exodus, no emptying, no retreat. There is a graduation to another lesson. That
is what I know. What I don’t know is how time is kept. My hunch is there is no
time. Time is something people created to help them make sense of being. We
need time to help us organize our lives, but in the universe, there is no ‘our
life’, there is life, so time doesn’t mean anything.” Sabine is rambling. “So,
in the big scheme of things, there is no age, no good or bad, no judgment. Like
Billy said, ‘it is, what it is’. There are consequences, but you don’t get to
pick them. You just react. Your reaction is what you have control over. If
something happens you don’t have control over, so be it, but mind your reaction
and your judgment. Look outward, Josephine, and there is judgment, look inward,
find yourself and release the judgment. Accept who you are, what you have been
through and how you want to fix your broken pieces. That’s all I can say and
that’s more than I was supposed to say.” Sabine must be done with her rambling.
I still don’t know what she’s talking about.
Can you tell us a
little about your writing philosophy?
I write and I would love it if someone enjoys reading. I
feel a responsibility to write words that are not toxic and can be helpful, a
life lesson, positive in the end.
Have you ever tried
writing in any other genres?
I’ve written women’s fiction, young adult, and middle grade.
I write the story and then try to figure out where it fits. I don’t tie myself
to a brand or genre when I start the story. I know that’s not what authors do
if they want to be a bestseller. I’m writing because I enjoy and publishing
because it’s a challenge.
Do you have any
interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?
I had a major promotion fail. Well, it worked out because I
received reviews, but I flubbed the upload of my novel for a coveted BookBub
promotion. I blogged
about it. Although I think I check and recheck things a thousand time, I’m
still a beginner and should always test things before sending it into the
internet world. Ya know? Well, lesson learned about that, until the next lesson
anyway. My philosophy is I really don’t know anything about anything and should
always be open to possibilities, especially the possibility that I can really
screw up.
Do you listen to
music as you write?
On the behalf of my reader's Phyllis, I would like to thank you again for your time ~
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About the author ~
Connect with Phyllis
Phyllis was born and raised in south Texas. Small town, rural settings are what she knows best, but she loves being in the city and imagining the characters that inhabit the dense population. Southern authors have been her favorite. They capture the character and place she knows and expose everything that is wrong with it along the way. She believes artist, no matter their medium, have a responsibility to use their platform for the greater good. Not everyone has to agree. However, they should be willing to look, listen, and contemplate another perspective. Her goal is to present many perspectives in the essence of her characters.
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