Featured Interview With Phyllis H. Moore
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Phyllis H. Moore is a native Texan, raised in rural South Texas. She has a master’s degree in social work and retired from that career in 2004 when she bought and restored an historic house to operate a bed and breakfast. She’s met many characters in her life and always wanted to use that inspiration in storytelling. Strong females are the protagonists in all of her tales and there is usually a social issue or two to tackle. Phyllis enjoys resilient children in “coming of age” stories, feisty, flawed adults who continue to learn their way in the world, and characters who discover their authentic selves after years of living to please others. Recently, she’s enjoyed writing a series of mysteries, but her love is a Texas gothic with scoundrels and church ladies. She retired to Galveston Island Texas and lives there with her husband, and an adopted mutt, Savannah.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can’t remember not reading. I always had a book to read, especially during the summers for nap time, from the public library. I enjoy fiction, especially historical fiction and nonfiction. I loved being introduced to the classics in school. I didn’t explore writing until I was 62 and living on an isolated ranch in South Texas. I started doing it to pass the time, but I became addicted when characters would continue to talk to me and inspire me to tell their stories.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
The first novel I feel in love with was Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier. I like the southern authors, Faulkner, Somerset Maughm, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald. Now, I like mostly female authors, especially magical realism, like Alice Hoffman, and Sarah Addison Allen. I’m currently reading Kristin Hannah. I’ve enjoyed all of her books. When I was younger, I read all of Stephen King’s books. I like a scary story, not gore, but a nail-bitter. Love Rosamunde Pilcher’s books. I think I’ve read every one, specially The Shell Seekers.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I usually write two books a year, but this year has been different. You would think a pandemic and social isolation would give me plenty of time to write, but it’s been hard to focus. My son goes to work in a hospital every day and that’s worrisome. However, I have settled down to focus some. I don’t force myself because it’s something I love to do when I’m ready. Currently, I’m working on the fourth book in a series of cozy mysteries. Meg Miller is the amateur sleuth. She doesn’t look for crimes, they find her. I’ve watched her grow from Book One, A Dickens of a Crime, where she found a dead body in an historic house she would docent for an annual homes tour. It was someone she knew, and she thought the woman’s husband was the murderer. Meg is like me, technologically challenged, so in the second book, don’t you know, her cell phone would get her in big trouble. In the third book, she unlocks the mystery of her deceased mother, a woman who committed suicide when Meg was 11. These revelations come about when she inherits a coastal ranch out of the blue. So, in this fourth book, Meg has embraced her intuitive abilities, her new found wealth, and new friends, but it’s reconnecting with old friends that will take her to another part of her little hometown and expose her to characters she didn’t know existed. I’m still figuring out who that will be, but I’m looking forward to meeting them, too. These cozies aren’t the cartoon cover type. I like my characters to have more depth than breadth. I want them to be likeable, but not without flaws, more like old friends than perfect. If they are relatable, I feel like I’ve done a good job. A reader should think they are more like them, than likable, (thought they could be both). Settings are important to me, also. I’ve lived up and down the Texas coast. I like to introduce readers to the landscape, the animals, the for a and fauna, etc. I want them to feel like they know the houses, the views and the pets. All of my characters have pets. I use Pinterest to set up boards for each novel. There readers can see the clothing, the food, the rooms, the cats, dogs, and horses. The images on Pinterest inspire the holidays in my books, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas and family gatherings. I like going up in my character’s attics and digging through their stuff. In Sabine, I did that while’s Sabine’s mother, Josephine was in the mental hospital. By the time she got home, Sabine had redone the whole house. It was so much fun.
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