Interview with Author Kathy Bryson

Kathy Bryson

 Florida

Good morning, Kathy!  Welcome to Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors.  What have you written? 
Feeling Lucky and coming in Summer 2014, the sequel Restless Spirits

What is your favorite genre to write? 
Romance with a touch of something extra. I was fortunate to find a publisher, SoulMate Publishing, that specializes in cross-genre fiction.

Favorite food. 
Roast beef as in stroganoff and French dip sandwiches.

Tea or coffee? 
Coffee, definitely coffee. I cannot start the day without it!

Pizza or ice cream?
Ice cream, preferably with chocolate. Though those cookie pizzas are pretty good too!

Where would you like to visit? 
Paris, Vienna, Rome - I visited London and Italy in high school, but I’d love to do the Grand Tour again!

Favorite musical artist. 
Tough choice! I listen to k.d. lang when I’m relaxing, Pat Benatar or Brian Setzer when I need energy and Chris Isaak when I’m blue. I’ve been know to rock out to Guns N’ Roses and I love the Metropolitan Opera’s live telecasts!

Do you listen to music when you write?
 Actually I can’t. I need quiet to concentrate. I like music when I tweet and email and such, but to get writing or grading done, I have to turn everything off.

What makes you laugh?
Silly stuff. I like dumb jokes, bad puns, goofy costumes. You just can’t take life too seriously.

How old were you when you started writing? 
Junior high. By the time I finished reading through my elementary school and the local children’s library, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I studied English in college and finished my 1st book then, but I struggled to find the time and energy to write once I started working. Switching to teaching gave me that necessary time.

Describe your perfect evening. 
Quiet, reading or watching a good movie on TV.  Just me and the kitties fighting for couch space and control of the remote. 

Where do you get your inspiration? 
Feeling Lucky was inspired by Kathy Love’s Fangs, But No Fangs. She wrote a funny scene about a vampire getting his butt pinched by an older lady, a “she-clown.” I laughed, but then I thought that was a little unfair. Older ladies can appreciate a good-looking man too! Then it occurred to me that vampires might be sexy, but what you really need is to capture a leprechaun because they have money! 
Restless Spirits was a very different scenario. The overriding question there was how do you bounce back after you accidently set your best friend’s house on fire? So far, not a personal experience, thank goodness!

What do you do when you get a writer's block? 
Go for a walk. Getting out and moving around helps my brain jump to whatever conclusion it can’t see on the computer screen.

Who is your favorite author?
I love good satire, especially sci-fi/fantasy that pokes fun. My favorites include Robert Asprin, Terry Pratchett, Craig Shaw Gardner. My favorite paranormal romance authors take an irreverent approach – Dakota Cassidy, Michele Bardsley, Molly Harper. 

Best book you ever read. 
Oh, I have a library full of books that defies an easy choice! Shakespeare, however, has been my go-to source for this series. Not only did he help define fairy lore in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest, he just has such beautiful language! A pleasure to read and hear.

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why? 
Probably my mom. I end up writing a lot about mother/daughter relationships because they have this great inherent conflict. Daughters want to please their mothers, but they don’t want to be their mothers. Mothers want to protect their daughters, but have to let go. My mom and I are very different people, but we’ve learned to respect and appreciate our differences. She’s a great person to bounce ideas off.

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Marie Curie. She was born when women weren’t allowed to study and excelled in a field that even now women struggle in.  And she did it at the turn of the last century during great political unrest and social change. She was one of the founding pioneers of a then entirely new approach to the natural world, physics. She became the 1st woman to win a Nobel Prize in Dec. 1903, but just six months earlier, in June 1903, she wasn’t allowed to present to the Royal Institute of London because she was a woman. She did this all with the help of her husband, Pierre Curie, so I’d love to get her take on work and relationships today, a hundred years later.

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer? Read everything! Dr. Seuss said it best – “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

Do you have any links for us?
Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/kathybryson22
Twitter is https://twitter.com/kathybryson2

Book is available at http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Lucky-ebook/dp/B00DH6HQ9M/

website-blog is http://kathybryson.wordpress.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOIdqDhbcjA

Kathy Bryson's Feeling Lucky Book Trailer
www.youtube.com