Interview with Katherine Garbera

Katherine Garbera is the USA Today national best-selling author of more than 50 books. She started making up stories for her own benefit when she was on a competitive swim team in high school. She says that although she won lots of medals her heart wasn’t in swimming but rather in the stories she created as she swam laps. She later worked for Walt Disney World and did everything from touring around VIPs to being a production page on the New Mickey Mouse Club. She claims that it might be possible that Britney, Justine and Christina owe her a nod of thanks for keeping all those kids who had to go to the bathroom from interrupting their performances. Sounds like that was fun, Katherine, now tell us more. What made you want to write and how did you get your first break?

I have always enjoyed reading and after my daughter was born decided to try writing. I wanted her to know to always go after her dreams and I felt if I didn’t set the example by going after my own, then she might not go after hers. So I started writing about six months after she was born. I finished my first manuscript and then attend a writing workshop in South Florida where I lived at the time. I joined RWA and a critic group and three years later I made my first sale after winning the prestigious Maggie Award of Excellence for unpublished authors.

I can certainly empathise with that feeling. I started writing when bored by the nappy routine. Do you ever find yourself writing in odd places, like the bath? 

Nope. I pretty much write at my desk every day. One of my writing mentors said this, that writers write, they don’t talk about writing, they just put their butt in the chair and write every day. I have written in bed late at night when I’m on a deadline and one time I wrote sitting next to an Alpine lake in Yosemite National Park in California.

Have you ever taken part in the NaNoWriMo and written like mad throughout November? If so, did you find it effective?

I’ ve not done NaNoWriMo but I have written like mad at different times during the year and I have found it very effective. There is something freeing about just getting the story down and not worrying about editing it.

You sound fairly driven, but what do you do when the going gets tough? 

I go back to basics and remind myself why I love writing. I have a list of affirmations that hang next to my computer at my desk. And I re-read them when I’m a little lost and don’t feel like writing. It is the same list I’ve had hanging by my desk since I started publishing in 1997.

Writing is fun & easy for me.
I deserve to be paid well for my writing.
Everyone wants me to succeed.
My writing time is always well spent.
I know enough to write well.
Editors love to buy what I write.
My whole life nourishes my work, my work enriches my whole life.
My writing talent is a gift from God.
The writing I do is my gift to the universe.

A great deal is demanded of writers these days in the form of social networking, do you engage in any other kind of promotion? 

I like to design bookmarks and post cards and send them out. And I do enjoy being on Facebook and Twitter as well as a group blog site that I’m a participant at:
http://www.jauntyquills.com.

Thanks for that, it’s always interesting to learn of new sites. You clearly do signings too. Now tell us about your latest book, and what inspired you to write it. 

In the UK my latest book is REUNITED...WITH CHILD. Its the last book in my Miami Nights series about three brothers who own the hottest Cuban club in Miami. The story idea was inspired by Dancing with the Stars the USA version of Strictly Come Dancing. The heroine in the first book is a dancer in the club. REUNITED...WITH CHILD is a reunion love story set against the steamy nights of Miami and the glitter of Manhattan.

 
Strictly is very popular here in the UK, let’s hope your book does well as a result. And now for some more frivolous questions. What would you most like to find in your Christmas stocking? 

A trip to Paris and some yummy See’s Candies.

What is the craziest ambition you ever fulfilled? 

Earning a third degree red belt in Tae Kwon Do with my daughter.

What was your favourite book as a child?
My favorite book as a child was A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L’ Engle.

Are you ever driven to write by hand? 

No, I can’ t read my own hand-writing when I write fast and the words for my novels come to me in a stream that’s hard to keep up with when writing by hand.

Thank you so much for sparing the time to talk us Katherine, and for stepping in to fill a slot at the last moment. it’s been fascinating. 

I wish you every success with the books. 

Freda 

To find out more about Katherine visit her website: http://www.katherinegarbera.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Katherine-Garbera/15831806521

Twitter: @katheringarbera

Interviews on the RNA Blog are conducted by myself and Kate Jackson. They are generally for RNA members only, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me at: mailto:freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk