Episode 17 Conversations over Milk & Cookies - PS Bartlett
Welcome to Episode 17 of Conversations over Milk & Cookies hosted by Kindle Ninja.
What is this madness, you ask?
We interact with them everyday, directly through tweets, or indirectly through re-tweets, but we don't really know much about them. Their personalities really don't shine through in 140 characters.
All the EPISODES of Conversations over Milk & Cookies can be found HERE. Or you can just look to your right and you'll find the Quick Links.
Let's get to know PS in more than 140 characters, shall we?
KINDLE NINJA (KN): Welcome to Conversations over Milk and Cookies. How do you like your cookies?
Chewy? Crunchy? Crumbly? Something else?
How about baked or
raw? In which case, my answer would still be yes.
I’d
assume I’m the person you’d want to drink Milk with, but who’s the person you’d
want to have coffee with?
Without a doubt that
person would be my mother. Our best times together were spent drinking coffee,
eating bologna sandwiches and watching old black and white movies. She passed
away in July of 2009 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. I inherited her
immunity to coffee after eight PM. I can drink no less than two cups of strong
coffee after eight o’clock at night and sleep like the dead. Come to think of
it, I do it every night.
Has your cat Columbus
ever eaten your manuscript?
Nope. He has however
attempted to eat my laptop and I have photos to prove it—one of which I have
included.
I’ve seen your
drawings/paintings. I must say, you’re quite the artist. Can you draw a ninja holding
milk and cookies while doing a backflip?
Thank you for the
compliment. I accept your challenge. The hard part is finding a ninja willing
to pose for this masterpiece. Any takers?
Writers are very
interesting people with strange and quirky habits. What is your strange writing
habit?
We are? I must be a
very boring writer because the craziest thing I do is beg my family for peace
and privacy, and no matter what time I sit down to write, nothing and I mean
nothing worth reading comes out of my head until after midnight. I can be fed
and bathe after midnight but interrupting me may indeed release the gremlins. There
have been some days when I have written some worthy words but I was most likely
still in my PJ’s and had no clue what time it was.
Seriously though…I
just get my coffee, my flash drive, my laptop, get into my comfy clothes and hit
the mute button. Then there’s the thing about my hair. It cannot touch my face
while I’m writing.
What would you
consider as your 15 mins of fame?
I don’t believe I’ve
had that yet. I don’t want it either. I’d settle for the next twenty years or
so of quiet obscurity surrounded by grandchildren and animals. I just want to
write great stories that people love. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care
about making money because I do but I only want enough to meet my family’s
needs. I don’t wear jewelry, I drive a fifteen year old truck and a night out
to me is sitting out on our deck under the stars drinking an Irish coffee with
my in-laws. Fame is fleeting. I want success.
How important is the
choice of character names in your novel
(or any novel for that matter)
When I was pulling my
ideas together for Fireflies, choosing the names of the characters was beyond
the level of importance because I chose their names based on their meanings.
Those name definitions were the foundation upon which I wrote the characters.
Not all of my stories are like that but Fireflies is an example of using the
actual name meanings to define who the characters will be.
In the novel I am
currently writing, I struggled a bit because I wasn’t sure who one of the main
characters (Maddox) would be as a person. Will he be gallant and strong, tough
on the outside and mushy on the inside or romantic with a silly streak? I ended
with all of the above and I adore him. Maddox means in some translations, "Macho,
yet surprisingly elegant" and that’s just scratching the surface.
The female lead is a
bit more complex but since she is the heroine of the story, shouldn’t she be?
However, her name denotes the color white; pure, creamy-white color of ivory;
or to the hard tusk used for carving fine art and jewelry. She is all of the
above and then some. The easy answer is it is incredibly important to me most
of the time.
If your novel “Fireflies” would be made into a
movie, who do you want to play the main character/s?
Hailee Steinfeld is
my absolute LOVE for Teagan.
Saorise Ronan as
Liffey
Ewan McGregor as Owen
Whelan
Diane Lane as Sarah
Whelan
Chord Overstreet as
Eli Morgan
? as Ennis
And who will direct
the movie?
Spielberg of course. Who
else could direct an epic of this magnitude? ;)
How
do you feel about doughnuts without holes?
Rebellious
things they are! However, if they’re bursting with marshmallow and powdered
sugar, rebel on!
What’s the book you wished you’d written?
Gone With the Wind. I
don’t know why except for it is a masterpiece of historical fiction and I’d eat
it like a banana split if I could.
What’s the book that positively shaped you?
There isn’t one. I’m
the result of every book I’ve ever read—even the bad ones. Can I blame them for
my mistakes?
What would you rather be doing now? (instead
of answering these questions).
I would be either
playing with my granddaughters or writing my book. Although stretched out on a
catamaran somewhere in St. Thomas with a cold rum punch, lying next to husband
as he fans me with a giant palm leaf ranks pretty high. I do however highly
recommend Play Dough Magic Ice Cream Swirl and eye strain.
What do you do to decompress?
SLEEP. Laugh. Watch a
good movie. Mostly sleep.
If you had a tattoo where would it be?
I do and wouldn’t you
like to know where and what it is? Okay I’ll tell you…right shoulder. Superman
shield. My name in Kryptonian. Don’t judge me.
What
was the last song you heard?
“All of Me” by John
Legend. I only moments ago managed to solidify enough to type this. Nothing
like a John Legend puddle of lovely.
Can you sing a line to me?
“You give me
aaallllaaallllaaaallllaaallll of youuuuu….”
Which actress would
you like to play YOU in the movie version of your life?
Ha! I wouldn’t want to
put anyone through this again!
On a scale of 1 to
10, how excited are you about life right now?
Right now I’m at
about a 7. Things could be better. I’m neither sad nor mad but yeah, it could
be better.
Nicholas Sparks or
Dan Brown?
Brown
J.K. Rowling or
Stephenie Meyer?
Rowling
Ninjas or Pirates?
Pirates but only
because I’m up to my eye patch in them in my newest book!
Ninjas rock though ;)
