Interview with Francine Craft featuring
IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME

THEIR HEAVENLY MARRIAGE IS TURNING INTO A HELL ON EARTH!

interviewed by Romance Designs

Please tell us about IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME and what readers can expect from this story.

IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME is not a mystery, per se.  It is a story with large elements of mystery.  It is the saga of a man and a woman who fall deeply in love and are beset by harrowing occurrences.  You could almost say Murphy's Law is in full effect for their romance.  The story begins in Minden, Maryland and ends in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain (in the Canary Islands).  I think readers can expect a fair grounding on the life of World War II's Brown Babies who are the children of African American Gi's and European women.  They will also find deep sensuality and sexuality and a relationship that is gifted.  It is a story that moves from one debacle to another, with intense love making the circumstances bearable.  And it has a surprise ending that I thought quite good.

Can you briefly introduce us to the Dosha Steele and Christian Montero?

Dosha Steele is a gifted pianist and music professor at a college in Minden, Maryland.  She comes from a close-knit family, The Singing Steeles, and has weathered a broken engagement with a wealthy cad who went to prison.

Christian Montero is the son of the chief of homicide of the Puerto de la Cruz Police Department.  His mother was a Brown Baby.  His grandmother is a Cartamantica who is also gifted and is famed for Tarot Readings.  Over time her own psychic abilities have led her far afield of everyday readings and she is revered through the region and beyond.

Tell us about Tarot Card reading. Do you have a special interest in this?

I once was intensely interested in the Tarot.  I am less so now, but it remains an interest.  Magic has always been a favorite subject with me.  I understand that it is the feeling of powerlessness of humans that makes us believe in magic.  I don't know, but it has always been a topic of high interest and I think will remain so.  I have many books on the Tarot and Magic and I enjoy them.  I don't think I altogether believe in magic, but it adds a nice touch.

What inspired you to select the locales you did for this book?

I have a cousin who lived long years in Germany and served in the U.S. military.  He and his German wife visited that area several times yearly and although they now live in Texas, they still attend La Carnaval there annually.  I spend hours talking with them about Puerto, looking at their numerous photos and videos and have met people from Puerto.

Can you tell us briefly about the Brown Babies of World War II and what intrigued you to write about them?

This is largely covered in my description of the book (question l).  Only thirty-eight countries legalized these babies and in some countries their lot was difficult, the mothers ostracized.  They fared better in Spain and especially in Puerto which is a cosmopolitan place with people of every color and culture. 

How did you research this book?

As I stated before, by talking hours with my cousin and meeting people from Puerto, studying brochures and videos my cousin and others took for me.  I haunted the internet and read much about the area and what the people are like, their food preferences, clothes, entertainment.  I talked with friends of my cousin in Puerto who were very helpful.

Mystery plays a pivotal role in IF LOVE IS GOOD TO ME. Did you enjoy writing a suspenseful story with lots of death and intrigue? Is this the direction we will see you following for future books?

Yes.  I always enjoy writing about death and intrigue.  They are so much facets of human nature, yet it is always shocking when someone is killed and always breathtaking when mystery unfolds before our eyes.  Many of my romances are suspense, but to me do not really fall into the suspense category and cannot be judged as such.  My books are simply stories with lots of suspense.  And no, this is not my future direction.  I am working on a murder mystery per se and once a very prestigious publisher was interested, but I got involved in something else.  In my spare time, I work on this.

As a leading African-American romance writer, can you tell us how this sub-genre is developing and expanding?

I think this sub-genre has hit its highest level that I can remember.  More and more readers seem involved, especially in romantic suspense.  Books with mystery unraveled are selling well.  We all remember REBECCA  by Daphne du Maurier and NINE COACHES WAITING by Mary Stewart.  I have never read anything better or that I preferred.  So mysteries have always been popular and I think always will be. I just picked up an older book on writing mysteries and the author prophesied that beefcake would become as popular as cheesecake.  Well, we're there in spades.  Drool on, ladies, there's more to come.

Do you have advice for new African-American aspiring writers on how they can break into the market?

Yes, I do have advice for new African American aspiring writers on how they can break into this market.  Study it carefully and read, read, read.  Don't limit your reading to A-A material.  You need a wealth of knowledge.  Join a writer's group.  Take courses in writing; there are many good ones.  If it's romance fiction per se you're interested in, be sure you understand that this writing carries its own rewards and pitfalls.  Visit Slam Jams whenever you find them.  Write to romance writers, A-A and others.  Many will answer and it gives you an "in" feeling.  Prepare to labor and to wait.  Some succeed quickly and some take more time.  But whatever you do, keep sawing.  Never give up!

Can you tell us about your thoughts on the romance genre in general and what you enjoy about writing in this genre?

I enjoy writing about the romance genre because it's so intensely loving, passionate, sexual, sensual.  What some genres mock as treacly and full of sentimentality, the romance field embraces and I think gains in humanism by it.  After all The Holy Bible is chockfull of romantic sagas.  And I think all religious tomes lay claim to the same.  I like the minutiae involved in romance fiction because I love reading about what people wear and eat and what a summer day feels, smells, is like.  All I can say is romance now, romance forever!

How do you come up with your stories? Do you outline your stories from start to finish, or do you create your story and refine it later?

My stories come to me sometimes in a single sentence I'll read or especially in a song I hear.  Sometimes dreams bring on a story.  Scenes simply flash behind my eyelids and I am off and running.  I outline my stories by hand from beginning to end on huge sheets of white paper tacked together, beginning with my characters.  I refine later, all right.  And I write and rewrite twice.

Can you tell us about your journey to first becoming published?

I have written since I was a child, but always got frightened when an editor was interested.  I came up in a small town, then on a Mississippi junior college campus and oh, I loved to read and write confession stories.  (I was forbidden to read them, so they went under my mattress.)  I couldn't very well be published because my secret would be out.  On my own, I wrote, but never tried to sell.  Then what I thought was a good story came to mind and I wrote "DEVOTED."  I sent it to Harlequin, which sent it back with a nice letter explaining that they didn't do atmosphere.  I immediately sent it to Kensington Books and Monica Harris who accepted it and it was one of the first books they published under the now famous Arabesque banner.  Such is history.

Tell us what your day-to-day writing schedule is like.

I get up at 5:30, have coffee, check book stats and other publishing material, read my e-mails, get grapefruit and a handful of walnuts, then it's to my computer if I'm writing, or to my writing table if I'm outlining or rewriting for about 2 hours.   I have a full meal around ll:00 and shortly after re-write everything I've written that morning.  That afternoon, I do my exercises, go for a walk, write some more and re-write what I've written.  I probably write about 2-l/2 hours in the morning, one in the afternoon, with about 2 hours of re-writing all told.  And yes, I save plenty of time for friends.  My beloved companion died in November of 2003 and he is a hard act for anyone to follow.

Where can readers purchase your book?

My books are available on order at any good bookstore.  They are most handily available at www.eharlequin.com, www.amazon.com, and www.bn.com. 

To learn more about this fascinating author, be sure to visit Francine's website at: http://www.francinecraft.com/