Indie’s Questions with Joan Reeves
Name: Joan Reeves
Occupation: Author, published in print and ebooks; Blogger; Freelance Writer
Website: http://SlingWords.blogspot.com and http://www.JoanReeves.com
Who is your favourite author? I’m afraid this is a question I simply can’t answer. I have too many friends who are authors, and I wouldn’t want to choose one above the other for fear of hurting someone’s feelings! Even listing a few that I frequently read is difficult because I read so much, and I have eclectic taste. Let me just say that I enjoy reading the books of these authors, in alphabetical order: Nina Bangs, Gerry Bartlett, Gregory Benford, Cheryl Bolen, Elaine Raco Chase, Linda Howard, Joe Konrath, the late Eric Van Lustbader, Dean Koontz, Kerry Sparks, Colleen Thompson, Cynthia Wicklund, and the late Kathleen Woodiwiss who started it all when it comes to the modern romance.
What is your favourite book? My keeper shelves in my home and on my Ereader are huge! I’ll just list some in no particular order: Watchers and Lightning by Dean Koontz; Lord of Always and In the Garden of Temptation by Cynthia Wicklund; Open Season by Linda Howard; Artifact by Gregory Benford; Video Vixen by Elaine Raco Chase; Ninja by Lustbader; Nisei by Cheryl Bolen; A Rose In Water and The Wolf and The Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss.
What is the first e-book you read? I may have read some nonfiction reports as ebooks, but I don’t recall the titles. The first ebook I distinctly remember, because it was so good, was Lord of Always by Cynthia Wicklund.
What is your favourite book cover? I’ve seen some stunning ebook covers, but I have to say that I like my covers best! No surprise, right? I do think the sensual, evocative cover of Just One Look, my first ebook, helped make it a Kindle bestseller. I’m lucky because my cover artist is my daughter, a graphic artist who once worked in the art department for a major metropolitan newspaper. Now she teaches art in high school and does freelance graphic art design on the side.
If you could be a character from any book, who would you be and why? This is one of those questions that stumps me because I’ve never wanted to be anyone but myself. Even when I’ve gone through challenging, and sometimes tragic, times, I’ve never wanted to become someone else.
However, in thinking about this, I realize that I create fiction as an escape from my world and its problems. So perhaps I am trading places with a character after all. My first published novel Summer’s Fortune (coming to ebooks) was written after my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and began his downward spiral. Immersing myself in a fictional world and dealing with a fictional character’s problems was an escape from my own world where there were situations that I could not change.
I can’t remember who first said this: “We use fiction to make sense of our own lives.” I believe that’s true. Sometimes we authors create a character with a similar problem and try in the course of a book to find resolution and acceptance. Sometimes we create characters who are a vehicle of escape from our problems.
