Author Interview with Isabell Lawless

Isabell Lawless: in her own words, “She owns CornerliveMusic Production Company, holds a Masters Degree in Ethnology, and enjoys life being a vodka drinking, meatball eating Swede living in the US.”

Author Isabell Lawless

You are a Swede living in the United States; what is your backstory?

I grew up in Sweden and at age twenty-one I left a dysfunctional relationship behind me, which also happened to become the inspiration to my first novel ‘Beast of Venery’, I met my future husband on an online dating site. As most Swede’s live or study abroad for some time in their life I sold my belongings, took a five weeks vacation to the US and fell in love. Not only with my husband-to-be, but the country itself.

I saw in one of your recent Facebook posts that you had a character in your head, and you felt compelled to write a paragraph about him, perhaps as part of a future novel. Please describe how your characters drive your novels.

So far each and every character in my books show up in my dreams: walking out from behind a building, showcasing their physical features by staring at me, sometimes telling me a few words, and then leave. If the dream happens to wake me up I scurry to the living room writing down the persona or any of their spoken words before heading back to bed. At times a person’s action compels me to investigate who he/she is and what their backstory might be. As throwing a bloody axe down in a field of grass before running away, throwing an object of importance toward me, or simple tell me what’s on their mind.

I rarely see people in my waken state and draw inspiration from them, more so potential characters hide behind a curtain of sleepiness and in my dream state of mind before entering.

You described ‘Beast of Venery’ as semiautobiographical; how close is it to real life?

There are two major violent scenes in this novel that are fictional, the sinister antagonist’s personality, spinning twists and turns with mind games, is my way of writing him out of my life. The book was partly written as therapy and partly a way of spreading a voice to those who has yet to leave that type of quiet tyranny behind.

What inspired your Gass County Novel Series?

For quite some time these four different male characters lived in my head, their lives interlace with one another, and from my love of reading books taking place in small towns, I decided to let them live in the same rural city but gave the four of them their own novel. They seemed alright with that idea.

How would you describe your writing process?

A main plot is always in place when I start writing a new book. I have certain major events that I know will take place before hand, but after that I let my pen to the work to see where it might guide me.

Do you have a favorite beverage to drink while writing?

In the morning coffee is my dearest friend, but when the day has been long and the mind is in need of relaxation a glass of wine doesn’t hurt my creativity, if any it makes the writing darker, more violent, and sometimes very erotic.

If you could share a meal and conversation with the fictional character of your choice, which character would you choose, where would you dine, and why?

I’m a romance/erotica/suspense reader at heart and fell head over heels in love with author Candis Terry’s character Reno Wilder, the sulky, hard working, but oh so hot cowboy in her novel, Anything but Sweet (Sweet Series – Wilder Brothers). Not only does his persona resemble my husband’s but what woman could decline a cold glass of wine in the backyard then being pushed up against the side of a dirty truck next to a barn at sunset just to devour one another? I know I wouldn’t.

Thanks for having me!

AMAZON:

Beast of Venery:

http://www.amazon.com/Beast-Venery-Isabell-Lawless-ebook/dp/B00N1DVD2C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1438229134&sr=1-1&keywords=isabell+lawless

Burned Gasoline:

http://www.amazon.com/Burned-Gasoline-Gass-County-Novel-ebook/dp/B00SAGVLR2/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1438229134&sr=1-4&keywords=isabell+lawless

Once Upon A Killing: