Featured Interview With Claire Plaisted
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was brought up in Sandbach, Cheshire, England. I very old town which goes back to the Doomsday book. As a teenager I moved to Colwyn Bay, North Wales, spreading my wings with great success, much to the surprise of many people. I loved living by the seaside, it was wonderful. While I lived here I saved for a trip to New Zealand. A place I had always wanted to go and where I have cousins. It was here I met my future husband. I migrated to Palmerston North, New Zealand and married my man. We have had four children, though lost our youngest as a baby due to complications.
Today we live in the beautiful area of Rotorua, full of lakes, forests and cultural diversity, I couldn’t be happier.
I have been researching family trees for 13 or so years now, today I research and format the stories for others for those special occasions – like family reunions.
I have two cats, who don’t like each other much. Both are adopted, one from the SPCA. Sylvia is grey and white and i tend to call her Sylvia Fat Cat. The other cat Matilda was inherited from my mother in law. I call her Tilly Flat Cat – that is how different they are.
It was because of my Family History Research that I fell into writing…
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I discovered books for enjoyment at the age of 12. They were books like the Famous Five, by Enid Blyton, Biggles by C W Johns and of course the best Narnia Stories by C S Lewis. Loved them all, though another special favourite is The Valley of Song by Elizabeth Goudge.
In 2012 I was sitting at my desk where I had been doing some research for a book. The book was for an 80th birthday, and data gathering was really slow. With nothing much to do I opened a word document and started to write. Three chapters later I sent to two friends in the UK who said….WOW we ant more, don’t forget the sex scenes.
Sex scenes – I gulped, you can’t be serious ladies. Well yes they were. So yes after much blushing and embarrassment I added scenes to keep them happy. The story is called ‘Mystery at Crosswick Manor’ and is set in Regency Gloucester and London – this work is still unpublished, due to the fact extra research is needed to get it correct for the time period.
Since that time I have written an adult series based in New York at ‘Garrett Investigation Bureau’ (GIB) The series starts with Malachy’s Unit. There are five books so far. I also have two short stories one Fantasy Erotic and a Children’s Book which was written to prove I could write books without adult content. Yeah I stopped blushing eventually. All my books can be found on Kindle and Smashwords, as well as seven being in print.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
C S Lewis is my favourite children’s author, due to the fact the Narnia stories are for children of all ages. Yes I still read them. I also like Clive Cussler for his historical content in his adventure stories. I like a good thriller too some authors I have read are J D Robb, Linda Fairstein and Karin Slaughter.
I like a story which lets you escape, so it doesn’t matter what genre it is as long as I can get absorbed into it.
The pixie/muse on my shoulder! I have no real idea what inspires me to write. My fingers and characters seem to take over most of the time and can be quite demanding, I first wrote due to boredom and enjoyment. Today I write because fans want more and have enjoyed the read, so I try and give them what they want.
My books can twist and turn in the most unusual places, they are generally fast paced and quite visual. A bit like watching a movie in your mind, so I’ve been told.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Mascosta’s Dreamgirl,” is my latest book and is now available online in eBook and Print.
Hilton Mascosta is a graphic artist and agent for Garrett Investigation Bureau (GIB). He is a loner and one tough guy, doesn’t like women, in fact he doesn’t overly like people. When he does have contact he is a gentleman to the ladies, he does care, sometimes too deeply. He can work in a team, though prefers to be left to his art.
Hilton is close to 6 foot tall with dark hair and fab abs. The story starts with Hilton hearing a woman scream, from there on in it get complex, terror in New York, assassins on the rampage, a mad doctor and a woman he finally doesn’t seem to be able to resist. Trouble is the woman isn’t who she thinks she is. Will love win out?
I am a prolific writer, I can’t be sure how long it took to write due to the fact I have had other projects on the go at the same time. This is book five which I started probably September last year. Books six and seven are in progress. Book six was started for NaNoWriMo Month and I wrote 50,000 words in 13 days. It still isn’t finished though. So you see it is quite difficult to gauge a time length. Mascosta’s Dreamgirl is about 100,000 words with lots of explosions in it.
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