Featured Interview With M Pepper Langlinais
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Texas, outside of Austin, and then we moved up to the Dallas area when I was in sixth grade. But I mostly identify with my French Creole roots in southern Louisiana; we spent all our vacations down there with my cousins. Now I’m out in California (San Francisco area). I don’t have pets but I do have three kids, and that’s kind of the same thing.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My parents are readers so it was natural for me to become one, too. I taught myself to read when I was three and never stopped. When I was six or seven, I started writing “newspapers” for the neighborhood kids. Except the stories weren’t real, they were serials that I made up. (I did also create mazes and crossword puzzles.)
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I go through phases. I did a Dean Koontz and Stephen King phase when I was in middle school (and I still do read Mr. King from time to time). Victoria Holt for a while. Michael Crichton. And Anne Rice in high school. Neil Gaiman and Nick Hornby in college. But what I really love is historical fiction (Alison Weir). And I love Jane Austen and Shakespeare, too. Kate Morton, Sarah Addison Allen are other favorites. And I return to Zilpha Keatley Snyder now and then, when I’m feeling nostalgic for my childhood.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Andra has the ability to make people’s wishes come true, and when she’s called to help up-and-coming actor David Styles, she can’t figure out why–he has everything he wants and needs. Then Andra realizes it isn’t David at all. Not exactly. There’s actually something inside David that’s calling to Andra, but in order to fulfill her duty, it may mean destroying David himself.
Readers have asked for a sequel, and I’m in the planning stages for it; I played with the idea as part of the A to Z Challenge this past April.
You’ll find that the idea of fate and hidden personas is pretty strong in most of my work. The YA novel I’m writing now has very similar themes. It’s something that fascinates me–the idea of “meant to be” or search for a particular soul mate. The agony of being without your other half. And then what happens when you find them. Because I don’t believe it’s all easy street after that. In fact, I believe it becomes much more complicated.
So “The K-Pro” isn’t exactly a romance. There’s attraction, but the draw is something otherworldly.
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