Running a small press is just like running a business with a group of employees – well almost. I don’t actually get to see them every day and we can’t gather around the water cooler to chat. Since we all see each other only virtually, I thought it might be nice to ‘introduce’ our authors to both each other and their readers via a series of short interviews. These interviews will run every couple of days for the next month or so – it’s a neat way of finding out how similar authors can be, and yet so different.
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Today, I am proud to present Abbie Williams, our newest author and one of our authors 
published under our Everheart Books imprint. She has worked extensively with Meghan Tobin-O’Drowsky, the Editor for the imprint. Her recently released book, Forbidden, is doing very well and has been well received by reviewers and bloggers. While I don’t know Abbie all that well, I was sure happy to learn more about her from her interview. We found out about her via another one of our writers, proof that good things come from good people!
1. The first book I can remember reading is: The Little House on the Prairie series was my favorite as a little kid, and my mom read all of the books to me. The first books I remember reading on my own were the Betsy, Tacy and Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Then I got a little older and started sneaking my mom’s romance novels from under her bed…and my writing career was born!
2. The first book I ever wrote was: called The Great West, and featured a girl my age at the time (12) whose family was journeying along the Oregon Trail. I wanted to live in that time period so badly that the only way I could really “be” there was to write about it and live it that way. It started as an adventure story but then morphed into a romance. I couldn’t help it.
3. An average day in my life goes like this: up at 6 to get ready for my day job, which includes caring for my family and teaching English lit at a local high school. I fly to get everyone where they need to be before appearing in my classroom by 7:20 for 1st hour, coffee in hand. I teach four sections of English and one of Speech, and am done by 3:30. After that I make the rounds again, get homework going for my kids while making supper, supervising bedtime routines and then meeting up with my laptop like an elicit lover and maybe getting an hour or two of typing in before bed!
4. I found out about Central Avenue Publishing from: a wonderful friend whose sister-in-law is published with Central Avenue. I decided to submit my book because: I thought I would take a chance!
5. The last book I read was: called Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve, and it was exquisitely lovely.
6. In order for me to sit down and write, I need: my kids to be occupied, whether with friends, television, or sleep!
7. My ‘day job’ is: teaching high school and serving as CEO of my household.
8. I carve out time to write by: hiding in the laundry room and ignoring the guilt that suggests I should be lesson planning, or doing laundry, or sorting socks, or baking banana bread…or…
9. In order to find time to write, I feel as though I sacrifice: sleep! But I wouldn’t have it any other way!!
10. I am currently working on: a story about a woman who returns to her hometown with her daughters after seventeen years away.
11. The best piece of advice I ever got was from: Gus McCrae, Texas Ranger, from Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, and it was to the effect that you should appreciate the little things in your life, the details, because life is in those details. He used a glass of buttermilk as a metaphor; it’s always stuck with me. I would marry Gus McCrae.
12. The best piece of advice I would give is: make yourself happy first, because only then will you be able to make others around you happy.
Thanks, Michelle, for the questions! It is my pleasure to be associated with Central Avenue Publishing and a fine group of fellow writers.
Central Avenue Publishing 