Featured Interview With BJ Knapp
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is BJ Knapp. I’ve written a book called Beside the Music. I was raised in East Windsor, Connecticut, the same town as my main character. Right now I live in Rhode Island, which is the smallest state in the US, just to the east of Connecticut. And yes, I do have pets. I have a beagle named Nemo, and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Potter. Nemo was the inspiration for Vito, the beagle in Beside the Music.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I used to write stories when I was very small. I didn’t know how to write words yet, but I knew how to make letters. So my stories consisted of a string of letters the corresponded, basically, to the first letter of each word. When I’d try to recount the story, I’d forget what the letters represented–which necessitated my learning the rest of the letters in the words I wanted to use.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My ultimate favorite is Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain. I am a huge dog lover, and this story just made me wonder what my dogs are thinking at all times and whether they understand what I am talking about.
My favorite genre is women’s fiction, but I am also a sucker for memoirs written by women who have escaped cults and rock star memoirs.
The person who inspires me the most is my husband Todd. He makes me want to write better; he’s the one I bounce my ideas off of, he’s the one who sat with me at a fancy restaurant on Shelter Island many summers ago and plotted out Beside the Music with me.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Can the act of mailing a fan letter change a life? Brenda Dunkirk didn’t think so. She also didn’t think 80s metal star Keith Kutter would have actually read her letter. Watching him stand in the rain on her patio and compose a new song is something she never imagined.
Brenda thinks she’s the luckiest woman in the world when Keith’s band, Hydra, and their entourage declares her home as their base camp while recording their comeback album. She fantasizes about late night lyric writing sessions at her kitchen table and being the first one to hear all the new songs. She is confident that with her help the band will get back on top where they belong. Swept up in the glamour of being the rock and roll muse, Brenda risks her already faltering marriage. Tim, her husband, walks out on her and Hydra’s chaos, and to make matters worse her boss is threatening to fire her if she doesn’t her act together at work. The band will not leave until the album is done–it could be another month or it could be another year.
Ultimately Brenda must choose between the secure contentment of her marriage or the allure of rock and roll. She must decide: is it possible to be one man’s wife and another man’s muse?
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles