Featured Interview With Agatha Rae
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Agatha Rae and I am Polish. I live in a beautiful city of Gdynia, on the north of my country. I have a wonderful mutt, a rescue dog, called Flicka.
I am a huge fan of Canadian rockers The Tea Party, a cinema-goer, and a CD-collector who is trying to put together a Charles Bukowski PhD. I am currently working on the second volume of Tangents for Firefly and Wisp and another ESL project for Polish market.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved reading. Books have always been around me and I had my first writting attempts when I was seven, or eight years old (I remember my stories were strongly influenced by “Alice In Wonderland” at that time). I graduated from an English Department at a university here in Poland, a department which only deepened my love to books and written word, and before I started writing fiction, I’d published many articles in Polish magazines and newspapers concerning my professional field of interests, namely, teaching English. Then, in 2013 my debut novel, “Oenone” came out, courtesy of my wonderful independent American publisher Firefly and Wisp Books, and since that time it has been one fantastic ride. I’ve had two novels (“Oenone”, “Tangents”), two novellas (“The Belt”, “The Garden”) and a Christmas short stories collection publsihed (“Coming Home For Christmas,”, co-written with the queen of romance, Danielle Lee Zwissler) published. My novel “Tangents” was also released in Sweden. I am working on the book’s second volume now.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Among my favorite authors are definitely Stephen King, Tennessee Williams, Richard Yates, JD Salinger, Jack Kerouac, Bill Bryson, Charles Bukowski, and Polish authors Katarzyna Tubylewicz and Andrzej Sapkowski.
I have a few favorite genres to read. I definitely love good psychological stories with a sprinkle of horror or thriller. I also enjoy the 1950’s/1960’s novels in which the characters would discuss social and psychological dilemmas while having countless drinks and smoking one cigarette after another, trying to comprehend the world at the verge of a huge social revolution. I love, absolutely LOVE Bill Bryson’s travel books, because his sense of humor is simply incomparable with anyone else’s, but I wouldn’t say that travel books are inspirational for me per se.
My books are generally difficult to describe genre-wise, because in each of the stories I’ve written so far, there at least two or three different genres which are intertwining. There’s adventure, mystery, horror, romance, drama, and so on, and so forth. Everyone will find something suitable for them in my books 🙂
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Tangents vol. 1”.
Rick is a successful writer living in New York City. Anna has just lost her job as a college teacher in Boston. Dan is a frustrated insurance agent from London, and Matylda is a Polish girl scout getting ready to settle in Madrid. One day, they fall asleep and when they wake up in the middle of some mysterious woods, they have only one thing in common – they all want to return home…
Tangents is an adventure/drama novel, destined to be a two-volume publication, which deals with such problems as relatiosnhip crises, religion fantatism, searching for happiness, determination to rebuild a relation with a person’s loved ones. It’s all settled in a rather mysterious surroundings and has a quite big supernatural element putting the whole story together. It’s Firefly and Wisp’s first international release, since Tangents has been also published in Sweden.
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