Life at Open Heart Publishing

Becky Warner, featured author for “An Honest Lie, Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child” is here to share with us some interesting things about herself, her work, and this very interesting book coming soon from Open Heart Publishing.

The floor is yours, Becky!

 
Hi Becky. Can you tell us what was your favorite book as a child and why?

Huckleberry Finn- I read it when I was fifteen and related to Huck so much so that after I finished the book, I did some checking on the author. I was shocked to find out he’d been dead a while and that someone could write something so emotionally charged that it reached out from the pages and touched me so dramatically.

What made you want to become a writer?

Same reason as question no. 1. It always amazes me how you can reach a total stranger simply through the written word. Every single time someone reads something I’ve written and compliments me on it, I’m absolutely thrilled.

Is “Thompkins Literary Review” your first story to be published?

No. I’ve had several poems and short stories published as well as a fiction novel.

You recently had a book signing that was written up in the local newspaper. Isn’t that right?

Yes. Here’s the link to the article: http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2007/12/16/front/iq_466666.txt

The article goes into detail not only about your struggle to get this book published, but also about how you came up with the story for your book, “And the Bull Saved Me.” How did you come up with “Thompkins Literary Review,” your story in An Honest Lie?”

“Thompins Literary Review” is based loosely on personal experiences and my son and husband’s sometimes humorous reactions to my writing efforts.

It seems your son and husband do influence your work. Let me ask you some questions about your personal beliefs, and I’m starting with a heavy one. Have you ever contemplated committing a crime?

No, for three reasons. First, God would know, my mother would know and I’d know and none of those three would be happy about it.

Well put, Becky. Another question, do you believe in life after death in any form?

Absolutely. Otherwise, what’s the point of living? One’s story doesn’t end with death. A new chapter simply begins.

Back to your writing, what other sorts of creative writing are you currently involved in?

I’m finishing my 9th fiction novel and outlining a play.

We’ve mentioned a couple of your published works. Can you tell our readers what else you’ve had published and where it was published?

My comedy/romance novel “And The Bull Saved Me” (under my pen name- Alex Rose) was published by PublishAmerica and can be found at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com My short stories “Commuter Trains and Ankle Chains,” and “You Move Me” (under my other pen name- Rose Alexander) were published by Double Dragon Publishing and can be found at Carnaldesirespublishing.com My non-fiction credits include The Scribblers Club newsletter and The Candy Factory Gazette. My poem “God Loves You” was published in the American Poets Society compilation, Reflections, and my poem “The Middle Ground,” published by VoicesNet, Inc., was awarded Special Recognition in the Voices Net Anthology.

Can we have an example of one of your husband or son’s humorous reactions to your writing efforts?

Sure thing. After I’d written my third book, my son accidentally found out that I also wrote ‘Erotica’. He walked up behind me while I was writing at my computer one night and read what was on the screen. His response was immediate and indignant.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, his tone so uncannily similar to my mother’s, back when I was a girl, that it made me wince. My automatic panic ‘cover my tracks’ mechanism kicked in and I started scrambling, thinking of alibis to get me out of trouble. I’d already come up with a couple good ones when I remembered who I was talking to and came back from nastyolgia lane.
“It’s nothing.” I told him. Then I explained to him calmly, which is something he was not, giving him my reasons for delving into the seedier side of literature. However, the horrified look on his face as I told him made me feel like Clarence Darrow informing the jury at the Scopes trial that they were all descended from monkeys.
Some things are just too upsetting to face.
“What do you mean you were just experimenting?” he said, his face contorting in repugnance.
“I’m working on some erotic short stories.” I told him. “After writing a romantic scene in my last book I wondered if I could write a full-blown sex scene. It’s sort of a writing exercise”
“A writing exercise?” he groaned, rolling his eyes like he was dying. “You’ve got to be kidding me! What do you mean a writing exercise?”
“I thought it would be a way to teach me how to write my characters better. To kind of get inside their heads more. To write something with less dialogue and more..uh…physical and mental content. And since there’s not a lot of talking when people have sex…..”
“Oh my God!!” he bellowed. “I don’t want to hear any of this! Does Dad know what you’re doing?”
“Your father doesn’t care. Besides the two of you never read my stories…..” I stopped in mid-sentence, realizing that I’ve let the proverbial ‘cat’ out of the bag. My days of writing freedom were about to end. Unless my guess was wrong, I’d just pressed him into service as resident ‘writing monitor.’ I quickly tried to cover my tracks, telling him that it was only an experiment and that I hadn’t even saved the story.
“Oh yes you have!” he griped, pointing accusingly at the title bar in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. “You’ve even given it a name! ‘Playing With Passion’? You’ve got to be kidding me! It’s nothing but Porn! What are you planning to do with this stuff?” He paused and a frightened expression filled his face. “Holy Cow! You’re not posting this stuff on the Internet, are you?”
The thought had never occurred to me but I didn’t answer right away because I was now feeling a bit of indignation myself. I wasn’t used to having my teenage son teach me morals so it seemed only right to make him sweat a little.
“You haven’t? Have you?” he said, his eyes now big as saucers.
“No.” I replied, trying hard not to smile. I started to add that it might be worth looking into when he abruptly cut me off.
“Good! And promise me one more thing!”
“What’s that?” I asked, suddenly propelled back in time to a similar lecture by my father on the evils of premarital sex. He should have told me about the perils of postmarital sex instead.
“Don’t ever work on that stuff when my friends are around! Okay? Promise?”

Will you tell us what your new novel is about?

My new book is a fiction novel titled, “Lightning Strikes Again” about a man named Gene who gets hit by lightning and afterwards, can read minds. He disappears for about eleven months when he’s poked and probed by a group of scientists. He re-appears in his hometown after he’s lost the unique ability and meets up with his best friend, Aaron. Aaron finds out that Gene lied to the scientists about losing the ability and for the next two weeks, follows Gene around, finding out what’s he’s been doing with his new-found talent. Aaron ends up in one crazy situation after the other as he gets caught up in Gene’s schemes. The zaniness continues as Gene talks Aaron into helping him look for a guy they both suspect might be a serial killer, whom they track down, but only at the cost of possibly being the man’s next victims.

Thanks for taking the time to share some thoughts with us Becky! We’re all eagerly awaiting the publication of “An Honest Lie, Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child,” and reading your short story, “Thompkins Literary Review.”

Becky Warner writes fiction and non-fiction under the Nom de Plumes of Alex Rose and Rose Alexander… Her comedy/romance novel And The Bull Saved Me (Alex Rose) was published by PublishAmerica. Her short stories Commuter Trains and Ankle Chains, and You Move Me (Rose Alexander) were published by Double Dragon Publishing. Her non-fiction credits include The Scribblers Club newsletter and The Candy Factory Gazette. Her poem God Loves You was published in the American Poets Society compilation, Reflections, and her poem The Middle Ground, published by VoicesNet, Inc., was awarded Special Recognition in the Voices Net Anthology. She started out writing personal poems for her friends and then graduated to short stories and novels. Becky resides in Ohio and heads a local literary group called The Scribblers Club. Their goal is to bring together area writers to share ideas and resources, and to promote one another’s writing efforts. One of her happiest writing experiences was when she and a fellow Scribblers Club member had book signings together at the same bookstore. Her friends in the group inspired her so much that she based one of her novels on them, appropriately titled The Scribbler’s Club (a mystery about a local legend and The Underground Railroad- as yet unpublished). She grew up in the Lake Erie area of Ohio and bases many of her story locales there. She also enjoys reading and craft shopping in Amish country.