Interview with P.G. Forte: "I actually dreamed most of the book" @pgforte #interview

PG Forte inhabits a world only slightly less strange than the ones she creates. Filled with serendipity, coincidence, love at first sight and dreams come true.

She wrote her first serialized story when she was still in her teens. The sexy, ongoing adventure tales were very popular at her oh-so-proper, all girls, Catholic High School, where they helped to liven up otherwise dull classes...even if her teachers didn't always think so.

Originally a Jersey girl, PG now resides with her family on the extreme left coast where she writes contemporary and paranormal romance in a variety of sub-genres.

PG loves hearing from readers. She can be reached directly at: pgforte@pgforte.com

                                                                                  

Website Address: www.PGForte.com

Twitter Address: https://twitter.com/PGForte

Facebook Address: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorPGForte/

TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life, P.G.!  Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process.  Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning?  When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

PG: Thank you. It’s lovely to be here.  You know, I often find it hard to pinpoint exactly how or when I got the idea for a story, but that certainly wasn’t the case with Finders Keepers. I remember distinctly how that one came about! I actually dreamed most of the book. I’m not talking about an isolated scene, or a single character, or even a quirky idea that I thought would make a fun story with a little bit of work. No, this was an entire plotline. The whole thing played out like a movie in my mind. I think there was just one minor change I had to make to the original dream-idea. And there might have been a few missing plot points that I had to fill in, but otherwise, the story in the book is pretty much the story that was in my head when I woke up.

TWL: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

PG: Well, as you might imagine, having your subconscious mind serve up a shiny new story idea first thing in the morning was not exactly a hardship. And it’s certainly not always that easy! But story ideas are everywhere. I guess my best advice for finding them is to keep an eye out for anything that could be shaped into a story, and to stay curious. Play with ideas. If you’re a writer, I think “What if…?” is a question to pretty much constantly ask yourself!

One of the more difficult aspects of writing this book was the world building. This was my first foray into science fiction. So even though the story practically wrote itself, in some respects, the book is set in the near future (maybe fifty years from now) so there were still a lot of details I needed to figure out in terms of how people lived, what new-to-us technology they took for granted, what sort of things were outdated, what was still hanging in there. I do think I made a big mistake when it came to the types of car they drove. I’m old enough to remember a time when we all believed everyone would be driving flying cars well before 2019, so when I looked to the future I may have erred on the side of things not being as radically different as they probably will end up being.

TWL: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

PG: Finders Keepers was originally published by Loose Id, LLC. Sadly, the company closed their doors last year, which is why I’ve recently re-released the book myself. Loose Id was a wonderful house to work with. Their editing was exceptional. Their cover artists were wonderful. I eventually published six books with them over the course of several years and I think there was only one cover that I didn’t absolutely love. They were originally suggested to me by a friend of mine who knew them from conventions she’d attended, and professional associations she belonged to. It is getting harder to find publishers who accept unagented submissions, so I was glad for the recommendation. Groups like RWA (Romance Writers of America) are a great place to look for publishers.

TWL: Is there anything that surprised you about getting your first book published?

PG: That it happened at all was a huge surprise! I met my first publisher at a writers’ convention, where I pitched my book to her over lunch. She asked to see it, I sent her a manuscript, and a few weeks later she offered me a contract. At that point, I had written five or six books and had nothing to show for it but stacks of rejection slips. So it was extremely gratifying—to say the least!

TWL: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

PG: I’m hoping to release two new books this year. Lightning in a Bottle is a steampunk romance that is due out in October as part of the Common Elements Romance Project. Lightning will be the second book in my Winter Hearts series. I have a short prequel to the series available as a free read on my website. http://www.pgforte.com/WinterHearts.htm

The second book I’m hoping to release in 2019 is called Selkie. This one’s a paranormal romance set in nineteenth century Ireland, and the third book in my Celtic Legends series.

I’ll be self-publishing both those books and (hopefully) re-releasing the rest of my orphaned books either in 2019 or by 2020.

TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

PG: Hopefully that this was my first attempt at Science Fiction! I’ve loved the genre for years, but never really had a viable story idea before. I’d like to think that lack of experience doesn’t show.

TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

PG: I think the message is the same one at the heart of most of my books: the importance of family and community. Finders Keepers is about three lost souls who find themselves in their new and/or renewed relationships with each other. For all the sexiness, it’s a very sweet book at heart.

  

TWL: Thank you again for this interview!  Do you have any final words?

PG: I guess I just want to say to anyone who has been thinking about writing a book, but hasn’t yet done so: go for it! Writing is fun, it’s frustrating, and as a business it gets harder every year, but it’s absolutely worth it. And, unlike so many other dreams, it’s a passion that can last your whole life. When I started writing my first book, I had only the vaguest idea what the story was about, but I wanted to know more. I wrote to find out the missing parts. Thirty books later, I think that’s still what I’m doing—one word at a time.

About the Book:

Title: FINDERS KEEPERS
Author: PG Forte
Publisher: Chapultepec Press
Pages: 150
Genre: SFR/Menage

BOOK BLURB:

Sometimes finding what you want is the easy part. 

Caleb is a bionic soldier with little-to-no memory of his past. Aldo's an undercover cop who's searching for the man who got away. Then there's Sally, an ER physician who used to be married to Aldo's late partner, Davis. Sally's just looking for a reason to keep on getting up every day. 

This holiday season, chance will bring them together and give them an opportunity to help one another find what they each want most. But every gift comes with a price. And keeping what they've found once they've found it? Yeah, that's gonna be the hard part.

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