New York Orphan by Rosemary J. Kind
Please welcome Rosemary J. Kind author of New York Orphan
Rosemary J. Kind will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
New York Orphan
byRosemary J. Kind
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GENRE: Historical Fiction
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INTERVIEW:
- What or who inspired you to start writing?
It goes back so far it could only be my mum. I had the fortune to grow up surrounded by books with a mum and a grandfather who had very great loves of literature. If you combine that with me being an introvert then it didn’t take me long to realise that my best friends were a pen and paper for writing and a book for reading.
- How did you come up with ideas for your books?
I find ideas everywhere. They can come out of chance comments, things I see, questions people ask. I have more ideas than I know what to do with. This one came from a passing comment about Charles Loring Brace and the Orphan Train Movement. I’d never heard of it before and my mind went into overdrive wanting to know more and thinking about the possible different lives the orphans might have led. Projects of that scale are inevitably going to work out well for some children and badly for others. It left me wanting to know more.
- What expertise did you bring to your writing?
Writing historical fiction needs someone who loves research. I wouldn’t be writing in that genre if I didn’t have a deep interest in history. 1800 onwards is my area of interest, it’s really no good asking me what went on in Roman Britain! I had to do a lot of research when I studied years ago and did spend a summer working as a research assistant, which I loved. My biggest problem is knowing when to stop researching and start writing.
I do think it’s important to remember not to include everything I’ve found out. The research should not impede the story. It’s background and context which are important, after all I’m writing fiction rather than non-fiction.
- As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
Too many books, too little time. I was going to write a contemporary novel that I’ve outlined, but the characters in New York Orphan have refused to be put aside. The next in the series ‘Unequal By Birth’ comes out on October 18thand I’m already writing the one after that. I have the outlines for another series and two contemporary novels, so I don’t plan to be idle anytime soon.
- If you could be one of the characters from any of your books, who would it be and why?
I don’t think I’d choose to be any of them as I give them a pretty hard time. Having said that there is a little of me in many of them. I love that in writing them I can give them all the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Unfortunately, as in real life they don’t always choose to do that. Overall, perhaps I’d choose to be Miss Ellie. I have a great deal of admiration for her.
- Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?
Interesting question, yes I do. Of course if it didn’t help then I wouldn’t be a member but it is about balance. I learn a great deal by critiquing work for other writers and I do always value their input to my work. What is sometimes important is to remember that we write in different genres. On occasions, what is right for one genre would not be appropriate in another. Having said that all genres should be well written and we can certainly help each other with that.
- Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I’m a through and through planner. My starting point is the single line hook which summarises the theme of the book. For New York Orphan that is ‘How strong are bonds of loyalty when everything is at stake?’ It gives me a very clear focus for the book and, as long as I answer that point, I have a pretty good idea that the reader will be satisfied.
I work up each level from there, blurb, synopsis, chapter plan and then write the story.
- Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you’ve gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?
My main hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog Breed in the UK. I don’t know about my characters but my love of dogs certainly spills over into my writing. Most of my novels will have a dog in there somewhere and apart from that I’ve written a non-fiction book about the breed. I’ve also written my dog’s diary as a blog for over thirteen years. It is now one of the top pet blogs in the UK and a couple of books have come out of doing that.
- Do you have an all time favorite book?
I have a number but if I have to choose one it would be Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. Whilst quite different in style to my own writing, it combines the beauty of story, poetry and humour in an unbeatable mix.
- Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?
There are a number of occasions which are very hard for the characters. Even as the author, after going through the book several times they still had me in tears. One of those is most certainly when Mammy dies and the children have no choice but to deal with situations no child should have to face.
- Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series.
The funny thing is that I never intended to write a series. It all started when the proofreader said she could not wait to read the next one. ‘What next one?’ was my reaction. Then, out walking the dogs, the characters took it upon themselves to clamour for attention. By the time I got home I knew exactly what the theme of the next in the series was. I was part way through writing it when I realised the need for a ‘free’ book for marketing purposes so I went back and wrote a novella ‘The Blight and the Blarney’ which precedes New York Orphan telling how the family first left the Irish Potato Famine and headed to America. It’s available to download from Amazon.
Now I’ve lived with the characters for a while and they are as real to me as many people are. I want to know what happens to them every bit as much as the readers.
- Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?
The hook for Unequal By Birth is ‘How far will you go to fight injustice when your family is at risk?’ It comes out next month and continues the story where New York Orphan leaves off. Now I’m writing the one which follows that and whilst Unequal By Birth looks at issues of equality, in the one which follows we move into corruption.
BLURB:
From fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, to losing his parents on the ship to New York, seven-year-old Daniel Flynn knows about adversity. As Daniel sings the songs of home to earn pennies for food, pick-pocket Thomas Reilly becomes his ally and friend, until he too is cast out onto the street.
A destitute refugee in a foreign land, Daniel, together with Thomas and his sister Molly, are swept up by the Orphan Train Movement to find better lives with families across America. For Daniel will the dream prove elusive?
How strong are bonds of loyalty when everything is at stake?
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EXCERPT:
At the end of the block, the buildings clambered over the tentacle-like roots of a massive tree, its shape and leaves quite different to the ones he knew back home. Leaning against the trunk, with his knees pulled up to his body, sat Tom. Daniel felt awkward approaching him. He didn’t know what to say. He went and sat beside him and began stripping the bark from a twig he found lying on the ground.
“We’ll be thrown out when she dies.” Tom drew the back of his sleeve across his face.
“She’ll get better.” Daniel spoke more in hope than certainty.
“You’ve lived in Ireland all your life and you’re still an optimist? Welcome to reality. Folks don’t get better, they die. Or they leave you. Don’t you want to know where me da is? That drunken eejit. He works the railroads some place. Said he’d send money back for us. Said he’d send for us to join him. He’s out there drinking hisself silly, while Mammy lies here dying.”
Daniel felt a flood of anger, not at Tom’s absent father but at his self-pity. “You don’t think I knows what it’s like? I’d lost everything.” His nostrils flared as he spoke. “I found you and Molly, that’s my hope. I ain’t got no one but yous.” Feeling the overwhelming urge to cry, but desperate not to show his weakness, he instead punched Tom’s arm.
Tom punched him back and before long they were sprawling in the dust, each trying to pummel their frustration out on the other, until they eventually fell laughing in a heap. They were hardly more filthy and tattered than when they began.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Rosemary J Kind writes because she has to. You could take almost anything away from her except her pen and paper. Failing to stop after the book that everyone has in them, she has gone on to publish books in both non-fiction and fiction, the latter including novels, humour, short stories and poetry. She also regularly produces magazine articles in a number of areas and writes regularly for the dog press.
As a child she was desolate when at the age of 10 her then teacher would not believe that her poem based on ‘Stig of the Dump’ was her own work and she stopped writing poetry for several years as a result. She was persuaded to continue by the invitation to earn a little extra pocket money by ‘assisting’ others to produce the required poems for English homework!
Always one to spot an opportunity, she started school newspapers and went on to begin providing paid copy to her local newspaper at the age of 16.
For twenty years she followed a traditional business career, before seeing the error of her ways and leaving it all behind to pursue her writing full-time.
She spends her life discussing her plots with the characters in her head and her faithful dogs, who always put the opposing arguments when there are choices to be made.
Always willing to take on challenges that sensible people regard as impossible, she established and ran the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction for six years building it to become one of the largest in the world, representing over 300 authors and carrying over 1600 short stories. She closed it in order to focus on her own writing.
Her hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog in the UK and when she brought her beloved Alfie back from Belgium he was only the tenth in the country.
She started writing Alfie’s Diary as an Internet blog the day Alfie arrived to live with her, intending to continue for a year or two. Thirteen years later it goes from strength to strength and has been repeatedly named as one of the top ten pet blogs in the UK.
For more details about the author please visit her website at www.rjkind.comFor more details about her dog then you’re better visiting www.alfiedog.me.uk
Twitter @therealalfiedog
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rjkind/
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/NewYorkOrphan
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Rosemary J. Kind will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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