Featured Interview With Vivienne Hartt Quinn
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born in New York, raised in Connecticut and Arizona. Left for college in Massachusetts. I’ve lived in Kansas City, southeastern Washington, northern California, and now I make a very happy home in a beautiful 1940 Arts & Crafts house ninety miles up the Hudson River from New York City. When my mom died, I inherited her ten-year-old cat, Charles, and fell head over heels. He’s long gone, and now I have an imp of a tuxedo cat named Smooch, who is three.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have the first essay I ever wrote when I was eight. The first sentence is, “I like to think about fairies and witches.” I still do, only now I call it fiction. My mom was hugely liberal and beneficent about reading. As long as I was reading, I could read anything in her book. This means I “read” things that totally whiffed me at the time, but it gave me a lifelong fascination with learning. I read daily, and when I don’t, I’m cranky.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m a spiritual teacher, and for a time, this meant that I read all sorts of self-help and psychology with a big, fat, juicy novel guiltily on the side when I couldn’t help myself. I realized in short order that I learned more from the fiction than I did from the supposed teachers! One of my favorite authors is Diana Gabaldon–because she writes a depth treatment of a marriage, not a romance. I am most interested in applied spirituality–namely, how to live a spiritual life. Her characters do that. I also enjoy Laurie R. King, Dorothy Gilman, Sierra Simone, and, believe it or not, Barbara Cartland. Right now, I’m reading the 31 books in the Misadventures series. I also love classic fiction, Shakespeare, everything about the theatre. I love to get book recommendations!
Tell us a little about your latest book?
This book is the first in a series of LGBTQ Romances dubbed Boots & Boas. There are three so far. When I wrote this one, Attending Physician, it was after a double-dare by my oldest friend. She meant to get me out of a really sad place–and it worked! 25 days. 1 novel. I put it up on Amazon and started to get sweet reviews, one of which asked if I was doing to take the story of Raven’s Butch Brigade–a band of queer butch brothers, a chosen family–and tell all their stories? Honestly, it had never dawned on me, but I lit up at the suggestion. So I sat down to play around with another couple: these are all butches who’ve been friends for years and they collectively decide that they want to find their femmes. Anyway, the second one to grab my attention was the geek butch, Dex. Within a trice, I had the story and was merrily writing again. Well, then the stories of all eight of them started to burble up. #3 is about the cop butch, and his broken heart from losing the love of his life, and his healing from it so he can show up for Gillian, his new love. I’m deep into #4 now.
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