Featured Interview With Debbie Manber Kupfer
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in London and have lived in Israel, New York, North Carolina and today live in St. Louis, MO with my husband, 2 kids and the real ruler of our household our kitty, Miri Billie Joe.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can’t remember a time when I was not fascinated with books. My favorite childhood read was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which I could practically recite from memory.
I also started writing at a young age and wrote a series of “books” in exercise books all based around my friends and school.
I carried on writing in adulthood, but rarely showed my writing to anyone. I always thought I would eventually write a novel, but felt I had all the time in the world. When however a few years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer I started to realize that if I wanted that dream to become a reality I needed to make it happen, so in November 2012 I started writing P.A.W.S. during NaNoWriMo. At the end of the month I had written the first draft of my novel, but still didn’t really know what to with it.
A few months later I decided to take my prologue to a local writer’s group. At that meeting I met Robin Tidwell of Rocking Horse Publishing and the rest as we like to say is history.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have many favorite writers as I love to read, but my absolute favorites are Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and J K Rowling. Rowling is probably the biggest influence on my writing as my main series, P.A.W.S., is YA fantasy and I believe all YA authors owe to debt to Rowling for getting kids excited about reading.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Rocking Horse published the second book of my P.A.W.S. series, Argentum, last November and I am currently working on number 3, that all being well will be out later this year.
I also recently self-published a book of logic puzzles with my son, Joey. This was a labor of love. We took a long time putting the puzzles together and making sure they were perfect.
Lastly this week I published a brand new ebook of three short stories – Will There Be Watermelons on Mars? The book is based on my experiences in Israel and while the stories are speculative they also hold a lot of truth.
I’m also really excited to be able to use a photograph of Jerusalem that my father took on the cover. He was an avid photographer and left me with thousands of his photographs. You can check out his pictures on a FB page I set up in his honor, The Photographic World of Walter Manber.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Debbie Manber Kupfer’s Website