• How long have you been writing?

I started back in the 8^th grade when I began writing the world’s most awful poetry.  I still have a few of them and they are really funny! I’ve just been writing for as long as I can remember.

• What is your favorite genre to write?

I’m not sure I have a favorite.  I seem to do a little of everything—I have a memoir, short story collection, poetry chapbook and three novels.  I write what comes to me and in whatever form it wants to take. I guess I could tell you my least favorite and that would be memoir.

• Which genre have you never tried before, but would you like to try out?

I’ve never tried a play or movie script.  I’m terrified of them because I know nothing. But maybe someday.

• Please tell us about your book.

The Beautician’s Notebook was inspired by my own beautician, DeLana Holden, who owns A Cut Above in the small town near where I live.  The book is a cozy mystery with a little romance sprinkled in. When Willa Jo Temple is found stabbed through the heart on the floor of her beauty shop, the good folk of Summerset, NC are sent into a tizzy. Rumor has it, Willa Jo kept a notebook detailing all the secrets her customers had told her over the years, and she was going to write a tell-all book. Everybody in Summerset has secrets.  Is there a secret worth killing for?

• Which character was your favorite, and why? Which character was your least favorite, and why? What was the hardest part about writing your book?

My favorite character is Avenelle Young, the preacher’s wife.  She’s a middle-aged woman who has tried for years to be the perfect minister’s wife. Yet, there is another side to her, a side her husband has no idea exists. She is funny and a little crazy—like me, I guess.

My least favorite would have to be Ralph Myers.  He is very wealthy, married but a philanderer. He is completely selfish.

The hardest part about writing this book was finding the time to write.  That is always my biggest challenge.

• What is your writing routine? Are there things you absolutely need to start writing?

Ideally, I write in the mornings, until around 1 pm. But life is seldom ideal. I have to carve out the time, tell my friends and family I’m working on a new project and my mornings are sacrosanct. Then, I have to have the discipline to get my bottom in that chair and work! I need Diet Coke, snacks (sadly—for me, writing is fattening!) and quiet.  I also need time to veg out. I need what I call ‘dream time,’ a time when I can sit and let the ideas cook. A daily walk and daily meditation/prayer time.   I am not perfect at keeping these habits, but I try.

• How long did it take you to write your book from start to finish?

This one took about three months.

• Can you tell us about your editing process?

I’m very lucky in that I have a couple of dear friends who are also writers who are my early readers.  My husband, Frank, is my first reader and he usually helps a great deal. After I hear what they have to say, if the comments resonate, I fix those points.  I read and read and read until I feel I have it ready.

• Is this book part of a series? If so, how many installments do you have planned?

No, though a lot of readers have asked for a sequel. I don’t have one planned but who knows?

• Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Read the great writers of the past and the respected writers of the current day.  Read about your craft. David Huddle’s The Writing Habit, John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction, Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle, On Writing by Stephen King…there are just so many great books about writing.  Far too many to list here.

• Why should everyone read your book?

It’s funny, poignant, and of course, we all want to know ‘who dunnit.’

• If you could meet three authors, dead or alive, which authors would you choose?

Oh, that’s a tough one.  I’d pick Shakespeare, Gerard Manley Hopkins (the poet) and Thomas Hardy.

• What inspired you to write your book?

My beautician.

• Are you working on something at the moment? If so, can you tell us more about it?

I’m working on three books at the moment.  Two are set in West Virginia where I grew up and one is set in North Carolina where I live now. One is about a madwoman, one is about a man who wins a girl in a poker game and one is about mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. I’m about halfway finished with each book, so my plan is to finish them this year.  We’ll see if that happens.

The Beautician’s Notebook by Anne Barnhill

Publication Date: April 12, 2017

Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC

eBook & Print; 304 Pages

 

Genre: Mystery/Romance/Contemporary