Interview and Giveaway with Author Alice J. Wisler

It's my pleasure to welcom Alice J. Wisler to the blog.

Q:  What was your inspiration for A Wedding Invitation?
A:  I received a wedding invitation intended for the previous owner of my house. The invitation was beautiful and the reception was to be held at a country club in New York. I wondered: What if I crashed this wedding? Instead, I let my main character end up at the wrong wedding.

Q:  Have you always wanted to be a writer?
A:  Yes, ever since I was in first grade and I wrote stories with stick-figure illustrations and stapled them together.

Q:  Do you plot out your story ahead of time, or do you think it up as you go?
A:  I plot ahead of time. Publishers want a synopsis, so this makes me go deep into the story and get it all lined up before I set out to write it.

Q:  What’s your favorite part of the writing business? What’s your least favorite?
A:  I love it when I’m about ¾ of the way through writing a novel. That’s when I love, love, love to spend all my time writing. Hours pass and I’m in my own world. Sometimes I even forget to eat.

Q:  After becoming a published author, what surprised you the most?
A:  What do you mean Oprah doesn’t know who I am? :)

Q:  What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to a fledgling writer?
A:  Don’t give up. Keep writing to improve your voice and the craft.

Q:  If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?
A:  I’m sure I would have discovered some drug that would help others and earn me millions.

Q:  What event, writer, or book has most impacted your writing life?
A:  The cancer-related death of my four-year-old son Daniel in 1997 has impacted my writing more than anything else. He was a sweetheart and I miss him each day.

Q:  What’s the one far out sci-fi technology you’d most like to see become a household item?
A:  A robot that cleans the entire house with one press of a button.

Thanks for taking the time to visit with us, Alice. Blessings to you!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice J. Wisler is the author of RAIN SONG (Christy Finalist 2009), HOW SWEET IT IS (Christy Finalist 2010), HATTERAS GIRL and A WEDDING INVITATION----all by Bethany House Publishers. In memory of her son, she teaches online grief-writing courses---Writing the Heartache---and at conferences across the country. Visit her website: http://www.alicewisler.com/.

ABOUT THE BOOK: A Wedding Invitation
Samantha Bravencourt ends up at the wrong wedding in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and from there, the past starts to come alive. She meets Lien, a former student from her days of teaching English-as-a-second-language at a refugee camp in the Philippines as well as Carson, the man who taught with her, the man who broke her heart. Now she and Carson are asked to help Lien find her mother before Lien's wedding date. Why is the past so hard to forgive? And dare she take another chance on love?


WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of A Wedding Invitation, just leave a comment on this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, October 10th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) Good luck!