What’s your favorite meal?
I love to cook and in the summer I love to make salads. My favorite meal is a “throw everything in there” kind of salad I’ve been making for years. It’s not something I could every write a recipe for because it depends on what’s in season and on hand. Right now, for example, I’ve got lots of tomatoes from my garden. I’ll also throw in an avocado or two, and lots of lettuce (although my garden lettuce is beginning to bolt). A can of garbanzos will help, and so will some salad shrimp. Then there’s whatever I managed to find at the farmer’s market this week—lemon cucumbers, watermelon radishes, carrots of various hues, even lion’s head mushrooms. Toss it together with some yummy olive oil and maybe some flavored balsamic and you’ve got a great meal!
What movie do you love to watch?
As a thorough-going romantic, I have to admit that I love Casablanca. My romance-writing friends have told me repeatedly that it’s not a romance since it doesn’t have a happy ending, but I’m not sure I agree. Rick and Ilsa can’t end up together without destroying Ilsa’s marriage, and Ilsa’s marriage to Viktor is important. Rick and Louis heading off to fight the Nazis isn’t exactly an unhappy ending. And before that happens you have all that wonderful dialogue (“I came to Casablanca for the waters.” “There are no waters in Casablanca. We’re in the desert.” “I was misinformed.”). It’s just a marvelous movie.
Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge and thank for their support?
I wouldn’t be published or writing happily without the Romance Writers of America. More specifically, I wouldn’t be published without the San Antonio Romance Authors (SARA), the San Antonio branch of RWA. When you’re first starting out, I think it’s crucial to have support. You need people to read your stuff and give you reactions, and you need people to hold your hand when you feel crushed. Most important of all, perhaps, you need people who are going through the same trials you’re going through. It helps not to feel alone, and it really helps to see that there’s actually light at the end of the tunnel. At SARA I had the example of some excellent writers—Desiree Holt, Delilah Devlin, and Cerise DeLand among others. They helped me see what you could do if you just kept at it.
What other jobs have you had in your life?
Before I began to write full time, I taught English and Communication at a Prominent University in San Antonio. In fact, my specialty was technical and science writing, about as far from fiction as you can get. I also taught Web design and copyediting, along with a class in the basics of page layout. The copyediting was a lot of fun, actually. It grew out of my moonlighting job as copyeditor for an underwater photography magazine. Although I learned a lot about scuba diving in that job, I learned even more about commas!
Do you find the time to read?
Yes I do, even if I have to do it when I’m on the treadmill! I think all writers need to read while they’re writing. Reading sort of “primes the pump” for writing, at least as far as I’m concerned—they both come from the same creative part of your brain. I don’t usually read the same kind of thing I write. So, for example, I like to read historicals and regencies while I’m working on contemporary stories and mysteries while I’m doing paranormals. But my own words seem to flow more easily when I’m reading someone else’s.
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Genre – Paranormal
Rating – R
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Website http://www.megbenjamin.com/
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