Pat Sloan - Meet Author Marie Bostwick

First I have to say that I FINALLY got to meet Marie last weekend at the quilt show!! We have been online friends for awhile and we finally got to meet!  I did an interview with Marie that will air in late July.

Her new book is fabulous... and I wanted to interview her AND do a giveaway!  Read on... and meet the wonderful Marie!

** Marie are your quilt theme books connected to each other, or are they stand alone stories?

My Cobbled Court novels, A SINGLE THREAD, A THREAD OF TRUTH, A THREAD SO THIN, and the newest, THREADING THE NEEDLE, are part of a series and I know many people feel very strongly about reading a series in order. So, if that's what people need to do I won't try to talk them out of it. 

However, I do write each book in such a way that it can easily be read as a "stand alone".  As a reader, I hate it when I begin a book and feel like I walked into the middle of the movie.  That's why I go to lot of trouble to make sure my readers will understand and really enjoy every Cobbled Court novel whether they are starting with the first or the fourth book in the series.  This is especially true of THREADING THE NEEDLE because the story centers around two brand new characters who have never appeared in the previous books.

**We are twitter friends, so I know how hard you work at book writing. What is a typical day or week like for you while you are writing?

If I'm not touring, I work office hours, fairly long ones, Monday through Friday.  As my deadline approaches, days off disappear and the hours get longer and longer.  Often I'm up until one or two in the morning working. 

These days, writers have a lot of work to do besides just writing, so I tend to break my writing up into several sessions throughout the day, each lasting forty-seven minutes.  I set a timer and write without interruption until it goes off, then take a short break to answer email, write a guest blog, talk to my agent or publicist, and, of course, visit with my friends on Twitter and Facebook.  After all, a girl can't work ALL the time. 
  


** Do you take time between books to do something else, how much time?

I don't get much time between books anymore.  Once I finish touring with THREADING THE NEEDLE, I hope to take a couple of weeks off then get right back to work right.  That's pretty typical for me.

** Do stories come to you in a flash, in bits, how does it work for you .. or is it always different?

The broad plot and characters for each book tend to come to me all at once.  I generally wake up in the morning and poof!  There it is.  However, the smaller bits, plot twists, secondary characters, and the like, come in smaller bites as I'm writing.

**  Is there someone you'd like to study with ... or even just hang out with? Past or present.. and what would you and your 'chosen one' do together?

I would have loved to meet Mr. Charles Dickens -- we are both big believers in the value of a happy ending.  There is a very, very old restaurant in the Covent Garden, the theater district of London, called Rules, where they serve things like steak and kidney pie and pigeon broth. They say that Dickens used to eat there and, when I did, several years ago, I kept trying to imagine what it would be like to dine with him there, perhaps after attending a play together.  Dickens was a great lover of theater, as am I.  And we both did a bit of acting before we took up the pen as our chosen profession.  I like to think we'd have lots to talk about.

**  The Book you are currently reading

    Oh, gosh, I'm always reading a lot of books simultaneously.  Right now, among others, I'm reading a memoir called "Cheerful Money" and "The Paris Wife", a novel about Ernest Hemmingway's first wife.

**    Your Favorite Movie

    I can only pick one?  Hmm.  That's tough - but if I had to pick, I'd say "Places In The Heart" with Sally Field.  It's a great story about a strong woman who makes her own way against tremendous odds - those are my favorite kind.

**   A Song that makes you 'dance the happy dance'

    "The Twist!"  I actually won a Twist contest once.  Of course, that was many years ago.  I'm not sure my twist is quite as twisty as it was when I was younger - but I still like to do it.

**  The Color you have always LOVED.....

    Sapphire blue!  I'm sure I'd like actual sapphires too, if anyone wanted to give me one...(Honey, are you reading this?)
   
Visit www.mariebostwick.com - where she blogs, has a internet group, and more!

CLICK HERE for Marie's travel schedule, maybe YOU can meet her!

CLICK HERE to Order a copy of the book from my Amazon Afflicate

Marie and I are SURE you have some really wonderful stories

to share with us, and one of you will win a copy of Marie's book.

Here's the scoop...

The opening scene of THREADING THE NEEDLE talks about how the two main characters, Madelyn and Tessa, who were neighbors and very close friends as little girls, used to sneak out at night and have "adventures" - once they "liberated" a farmer's pigs, no one ever knew they were the culprits.  

Tell us what ADVENTURE you and YOUR BFF did as a kid, teen or college student! What kind of mischief did you get into that your parents never knew about? 

Leave a comment Below, winner picked Sat evening!

Comments

[Marjo Mullins]

When I was a kid much of the country was in a scare about polio and how you would get it. My Mom was a firm believer that adequate rest would help prevent polio so every afternoon during the summer we had to take a nap. After I was 9 or 10 years old I felt it was a great insult and a waste of time to take naps while there was serious playing to be done. My Mom would not hear of my plan. So once my younger sister fell asleep and there were no sounds of movement in the rest of the house I would quietly loosen the screen from my window and slip out to go play with my 2 best friends (they didn't have to take naps like a baby!) I was short but fortunately there was a water spigot just below our window and I could reach it with my toes, balance myself and ease slowly to the ground behind the shrubbery. My sister and brothers never knew about my daily escapes and my Mom never said anything. My loyal friends knew about my escapades and even came over a few times to watch me climb out the window but never ratted me out to anybody. Just one snag occurred. I couldn't get back in the window so I'd come back home about an hour after my escape, hang around in the yard away from direct view of windows and wait until someone from inside came outside to play. Then I would quietly join them and go back in the house when they went in. I only remember once that my Mom asked me when I had gone outside. I, of course, had to tell a lie and say I went out when I woke up and she was in the bathroom! What a sneak! And I wondered where my own kids and grandkids came up with things to get into. I will confess that if they were supposed to be in their rooms, I always checked a couple of times to see if they were really there!

[Sharon Griffith]

Ohhh Pat you did bring back a wonderful memory for me. My best friend and I worked doing community service as a volunteer at the hospital. We were there on a Sunday and it was a pretty boring day so we needed to get into something and we found the maintenance man and pleaded with him to give us a key to one of the golf carts. We sadi we would help bring the people up from there cars to the door so after awhile and it was not busy we made it to the parking lot and all I can tell you is we had a wonderful time just riding on the golf cart all thru the parking lot until we got caught and was told what the polocies of volunteering at the hospital were.....we did get into allot of trouble but we had a wonderful time....thanks for the memory.

[Marty Askins]

I love your blog. I was the youngest of five kids, so I got conned in to doing everything, since it was always blamed on me, but my parents knew better.

[Evelene Sterling]

As kids we use to go around to the neighbor's fruit trees and sneek fruit off of them. I'm pretty sure they knew that we were the culprits and probably watched us while we thought we were being sneaky.

[JKW]

This is a wonderful interview by a friend of a friend. I met both of you on FB and was able to meet both of you at Houston International Quilt/Doll show. I enjoyed meeting both of you. Marie signed a copy of her book. Fortunately, I am in NH visiting a friend (since 3rd grade) and Marie came to NH. No, I'm not stalking her I happen to be here (LOL). However, unfortunately we had a very sick pups that couldn't be left for a day the day she was at Keepsake quilt shop and I couldn't see her and purchase the signed copy. Pat, you captured Marie beautifully with this interview. Blessings, Janet

[Bette]

At the NC Symposium last week I took a class from Leslie Riley on collage. Since this was a new concept, similar to what you described, I was working outside my comfor zone. I survived with three collages, and actually finished them at home this week.

[Anne]

My friend and I would sneak out and chase the "mosquito truck," which emitted a poisonous smog to kill those overpopulous, biting bugs. We were forbidden to ride our bikes behind the truck, and now I understand why!

[Velveteena]

I was so excited about the book that I quickly downloaded it from Audible.com so I could start it on my daily commute!! Love you both, and would be so happy for the hard copy to go with the other three!

[Jenice]

One night when I was staying overnight at a friend's home we decided to toilet paper her cousins house. We lived in a very rural area so we rounded up toilet paper and shaving cream from her bathroom. We had to walk 3 miles to her cousins house and every time a car drove by we had to hide in a ditch so we didn't get caught. One of our community members would have stopped and given us a ride...lol We toilet papered and shaving creamed their home while they were watching Johnny Carson...lol...we were never caught.

[annmarie]

My brother (5 years older than me) had a bright yellow slug bug (one of those little Volkswagon). I had just gotten my driver's license & he wouldn't let me drive it. So one nite I snuck into his room, borrowed his keys and my BFF & I went joy riding. Brought it back unscathed with the tank almost empty. He never did figure it out!

Love Marie's books - thanks for the chance.

[Georgeann Knowles]

After reading these stories I led a pretty quiet life growing up.

[Sherry Jagels]

oh my, since i was a perfect child, i don't have any mischeivious stories to tell. hehehe. my little sister was afraid of mushrooms/toadstools for some reason, so of course , i used to chase her with them and make her cry. does that count? thanks. I LOVE her books.

[DeAnn]

My BF and I dated BF's in HS. We spent several weeks trading pranks. The boys would stuff my car with newspaper, we would drive to one of their cars and stuff it with the same newspaper. They would then return the favor...... The best was the night they toilet papered my house in December. It rained and the TP froze, so, we rolled it back up and TP'd their houses!!! We were into recycling even back in the 70"S!!!!!!!!

[Jane T]

My Best FF in high school was also my next door neighbor. We got into a lot of things we don't think our parents ever knew about. One thing we did was drive 60 miles to this restaurant that had one of these machines that you would dial in letters and they would be imprinted onto this aluminum circle. We had just gotten our driver's licenses and were only supposed to drive around the neighborhood.

[Joan]

I had my share of teenage mischievious behavior...one that sticks out is sneeking up to a house that had a mother cement pig and several piglets and taking one piglet each night for a week. The next week we returned them, one a night...all dressed up in various costume...we were the talk of the town (population 500) for a long time.

[Marie Bostwick]

Great stories here! I have a few myself but decorum prevents me from listing them here. I can rat out some of my kids - with 3 boys I have plenty of stories to choose from. My youngest and this group of 7 boys always traveled in a pack. I never let more than 3 stay at my house at any one time because the second you got 4 together, their collective IQ's dropped precipitously. During one sleepover, they duck taped Benj to a kitchen chair, put the chair on a sled, and pushed it down a hill - Benj volunteered for this because it was worth two "man points". Hearing the story, I went ballistic! "He could really have been hurt!!" Youngest looked at me and said, "Well, we put a helmet on him. We're not stupid!" Oh yeah?

Good luck in the contest everyone!

[Deb]

This is pretty "tame mischief" actually, but one year I opened every single gift of mine under the Christmas tree and then wrapped everything back up again just like they were. Of course, I acted soooo surprised on Christmas morning, and no one knew. But now I'm always reminded and teased about that year. So did they really know I did it?!! Or did I confess in my sleep?! :)

[Tracey]

I enjoy reading your blog! I'd love to win the book!

[Liz Kisielewski]

My bff & I took a bus on a school holiday to a huge park & hung out there for the day. Did not do anything exciting while there, just walked around. Since we were only about 12, it was a dangerous thing to do. Never told my mother!

[Janet]

I really don't think you want to know what I got up to as a teenager. But I'd love to win the book.

[Thepiececorps]

I had two BFFs, Di and Marg, yes we were the proverbial 3 musketeers. When Marg's mother passed away from cancer at the young age of 36 she was sent away to Oklahoma, to relatives she'd never met. We were all heartbroken, and being teenagers everything seemed more dramatic than it really was ...so Di and I snuck away, walked to the bowling alley, and made a collect call to Marg using someone else's number from the payphone. It never occurred to me to NOT use a number of someone I knew. My parents were called and the "spit" hit the fan. It was the first and last time I ever heard my father use the F bomb! Friendships are an awesome thing, Di and I live in different states now but keep in touch "watching" our children and grandchildren grow up.....Barbie

[Jquilts75]

Hi Pat, this book sounds great!! I can't remember any big adventures my best friend & I went on or being mischievious, just too scared parents would find out & be grounded for life! Still had fun. I sure would love to win this book, I'm a quilter & love to read too.

[Joyce]

My BFF in grade school used to go with me across a busy street (we weren't allowed to cross), on our bikes, go to a 711 type of store (which we weren't allowed to be in), and buy candy with the money I had taken off my dad's dresser!

Enjoyed your interview & look forward to the book!

[Christine M]

My best friend and I used to wag school, We'd go home to her house as both her parents worked so no-one was home! Not as exciting as some of the other stories above!

[Cahenell]

One mischief night, three of us girls toilet papered and shaving creamed our boyfriends' houses and cars. Still haven't told my parents and I've been married to him for 19 years!