Folks, please give a warm welcome to the interview with Caroline Taylor, who has a new thriller out – Loose Ends! Scroll to the end to check out the giveaway!
Name one of your favorite books and tell us which 3 characters you would kiss, marry, and kill.
One of my favorite books is actually three: The Balkan Trilogy, by Olivia Manning. I would definitely kiss Sasha Drucker, as Harriet Pringle does in the book, but I would marry Charles Warden, who is a gentleman and much more likely to survive the war. The person I would kill is Guy Pringle, Harriet’s husband, who is so concerned about the welfare of everyone around him, he completely ignores and dismisses his own wife.
What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?
The mystery of my experience living abroad as a teenager formed the basis of part of the plot for my novel Loose Ends. As for what could become a plot for a future novel, I have always wondered if David Ferrie, whom I knew as a child, actually did have anything to do with the Kennedy assassination. Many nonfiction books have covered the topic ad nauseam, so whatever plot I constructed for a novel would have to put a credible twist on facts that have already been revealed.
If you could give any literary villain a happy ending, who would you choose?
I would make Joe Christmas in Faulkner’s Light in August understand and accept who he is and become a better person for it. But, of course, that would negate the novel’s central purpose.
Is there a genre or literary niche that you feel hasn’t gotten its deserved amount of attention?
Women’s fiction—not because of the genre but the label. If Jane Austen were around today, her novels would be called women’s fiction, which would likely turn away a good half of the potential reading population. And yet the themes and stories in women’s fiction are worthy of anyone’s attention and make for a very satisfying, even illuminating, reading experience.
If you could, what book or movie or TV series would you like to experience for the first time all over again and why?
The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney. The first time I saw it, I broke into tears—not the sniffling kind but actual sobs. I would like to experience that film again to see if I can figure out what made me cry so hard and to find out if it might have the same emotional impact.
What has been your worst or most difficult job? How does it compare to writing?
My worst job was the high-level non-job I had at the U.S. Department of Education where my hiring, I later discovered, was intended solely to boost my boss’s prospects for promotion. I had no real work, so I wound up studying for my master’s degree on the taxpayer’s dime—for which I am not only sorry but truly grateful. I had hoped the job would be challenging and rewarding, and it was neither. But writing is both of these things, not to mention fun.
What are the top 3 historical time periods and locations you would like to visit?
1. Guatemala at the height of Mayan civilization
2. Britain during the Roman occupation
3. Berlin after World War II but before the wall
What upcoming events and works would you like to share with readers?
My short story collection, Enough! Thirty Stories of Fielding Life’s Little Curve Balls, will be published by Literary Wanderlust on April 1. Some of those stories reflect work and life experiences; others are pure imagination. My suspense novel, The Typist, will be published by Black Rose Writing in June 2018. This novel is set in Washington, DC, in 1966, during the Cold War.
About the Author
Caroline Taylor is the author of two mysteries featuring P.J. Smythe, What Are Friends For? and Jewelry from a Grave; and a nonfiction book, Publishing the Nonprofit Annual Report: Tips, Traps, and Tricks of the Trade. Click on Short Stories to see essays and stories she has published.
A lifelong writer and editor, Caroline has received numerous awards for editorial and design excellence for publications she produced for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NIH Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, BoardSource, and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.
She is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America.
About the Book Loose Ends
When armed gunmen invade Carson Mahoney’s Washington, D.C., home in 1976 and then blow it up, she decides she must disappear. She’s already a suspect in the murder of her former husband, so calling the police is not an option. Neither is jail. Carson turns to her sister Cameron for help.
But Cam has her own troubles. Now living in a West Virginia religious commune, she discovers the commune leader “counseling” a three-year-old girl with his fly open. She slashes his throat and flees with the child, only to be captured. But jail is no option for her either. It is a hell that stretches back ten years to a foreign country where both sisters were imprisoned for debt owed by their parents, a place where raping female captives is a job perk. Cam manages to escape the commune only to wind up cornered in a hotel room. The only way out is a three-story fall to the ground.
Meanwhile, the thugs who invaded Carson’s house reach her before she can summon help, and she learns that she is one of many loose ends to be tied up because of her former husband’s role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier.
Giveaway!!!
Caroline Taylor and JKS Publicity are offering up 1 paperbook copy of Loose Ends. US only due to shipping. Do the Rafflecopter thing below or answer these questions in the comments: 1) What villain would you give a happy ending if you could? 2) Do you live in the US? 3) Leave a way to contact you (email, twitter, etc.) should you win. Giveaway ends May 4, 2018, midnight.
