So…What happened to that story???

The following is an excerpt of author Carol Hoenig’s interview with Mel. Edwards for the Votre Vray Creative Women project.

Why does someone purposely get up each day and face a blank page or computer screen with the intention to write fact or fiction? For Carol Hoenig it was a matter of self-preservation. “Growing up, I was never a debater. I’d just fumble unless I really knew my stuff. I question my verbal choices when spoken. When I write I can say, ‘Okay. That’s what I was trying to get at.’ Something in me tells me what I have written is right, and then I know I’m done. Still, if I know it isn’t finished, it keeps niggling at me. Even now when I blog I try to give it an hour to set before I put it out there.”

Leading such an exacting verbal existence may seem exhausting so many, but not for Carol. “I grew up in a little town north of Plattsburg, NY, and I learned early one that when I wrote poetry in school people would laugh at my quirky humor (in a positive way). So I kept at it. I never called myself a writer before I was published, but when I was being taken by the industry, I knew it was time.”

Who inspired her? “I know it is cliché but I had a home economics teacher in 7th grade that I showed a story I was working on. She was interested in it. Then, I saw her again when I was in the 12th grade and she asked about my character (Tommy). I was mortified, because I didn’t want to let her down. I told her I was working on it even though I hadn’t touched it.”

Her high school influences apparently went much further than one teacher’s interest. When Carol’s first book was published one review compared the novel to To Kill a Mockingbird. “It was my first review, and I waited for it to come out. Three hours later, I learned they downsized my job. I looked at the review as a signpost, took my severance and put the word out that I was going to try going it on my own. I got my first freelance job the same day.”

The rest, we hope, will make her-story!
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Please visit Carol's website: http://www.carolhoenig.com/