Q. What inspired you to become a writer?
A. I never had any interest in becoming a writer. In college I was a math major, not an English major! For my final humanities requirement to graduate, I had the opportunity to take Creative Writing (at Keene State College), but instead chose to take Images of Women in Literature. Then, in 2014, THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING happened to me, and I suddenly felt compelled to share my story with the world! After 50+ years of thinking I was an only child (as my parents had led me to believe), I suddenly and unexpectedly learned that I actually have a much older half-brother in another country from my dad’s time serving in WWII!
Q. Do your personal experiences influence the stories or subjects you write about?
A. YES! My memoir is very personal.
Q. Are any parts of your book drawn from your own life experiences?
A. YES! My experiences are the reason that I wrote my memoir.
Q. What message or feeling do you hope readers take away from your work?
A. I hope that they will empathize with each of the main characters involved in this situation, to see things from their various points of view.
Q. What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?
A. I hope that readers will relate to how important it is to take advantage of opportunities presented to them, even if they are a bit scary.
Q. What was the biggest obstacle you faced while writing your book?
A. Lack of time, and too much sitting. When this happened to me, I worked full-time in a sedentary job, so trying to write on the weekends really didn’t work very well for me. I needed to retire to be able to devote enough time to sitting down each day to finish writing my book.
Q. What feedback from readers has meant the most to you?
A. When a woman who had read my book came up to me at an event and had lots of pertinent questions for me, and said she really enjoyed reading my book
Q. Do you prefer writing early in the morning or late at night?
A. Definitely early in the morning. I’m too tired at night to think clearly.
Q. If you could give your younger self one piece of writing advice, what would it be?
A. Don’t believe that journaling/keeping a diary is “worthless”.
Martha Levallee’s page at https://nhauthors.com/martha-levallee/.