Hi all!
Please give a round of applause to Veronica Moreau, aka Lisa Proulx. She has graciously agreed to be on my blog today so let's get right to the interview, shall we?
What is your name? Do you use a pen name (if so, why?)? My name is Lisa V. Proulx and under that name I write horror and inspirational books and under the pen name Veronica Moreau, I write erotic romance with a rock and roll edge.
Tell me a bit about yourself: I'm a laid back 70's chick who loves to write! Writing and animals are my passion. I've raised Rottweilers for over 14 years and I love to be outdoors in nature. I am also a belly dancer.
What type of genre do you write? I started off writing horror when I was in elementary school and continued until my first book PUNCTURE, a vampire novel, came out in 2004. When I lost my mother in 2006, I began writing inspirational stories of overcoming tragedies through personal growth. My latest book under my pen name, Veronica Moreau, is an erotic romance.
What genre to you personally read? I love reading about celebrities and enjoy books about their lives. I also read a lot of inspirational books on becoming a better person and trying to make a difference in the world.
Tell me about your latest? LICK AND A PROMISE~Diary of a Rock Star Groupie is actually based on an event that happened to me when I was 17 with a famous rock star.
At 16, Poppy Bishop was a teenage runaway. At 18, she was in bed with the lead guitarist of one the biggest bands in rock history. She went on to become Poppy Bleu, a “famous” groupie who bedded rock stars, their wives (and girlfriends) and became a junkie by the time she was 21. However, she never forgot her first rock star…and he never forgot her.
For over 20 years, Poppy Bleu was known in the rock and roll world as the best backstage lay and liked, loved and hated by some of the world’s biggest rock stars. Her story is one of sex, drugs, and rock and roll and how she went from groupie to junkie to author and became the love of a lead guitarist’s life who saved her from a life of ruin.
LICK AND A PROMISE is Book One in the Rock Star Series
What sparked your passion for books and the art of a good story? My love for books and words in general started at a very young age. My mother Victoria enrolled me in a book club before I attended Kindergarten and each month, I would get a new book in the mail. She would sit down with me every night and help me read it and we would highlight the "big" words and I would learn to read them. My father Philip was a Frenchman who went on to become an English major who had a passion for speaking English correctly. He was a very strong influence on me when it came to writing, spelling and speaking correctly. They were both, very, very supportive of me.
Is there a particular book that changed or affected your life in a big way? After I lost my mother in 2006, a series of tragedies befell me and rocked me to my core. I did not think I would survive nor did I care to at that time. The book "The Secret" changed my life by helping me to see that I in fact was causing a lot of the negative things to happen to me and once I changed my attitude, things began to turn around for me. The book could have been written by my mother since those were the same teachings I was raised to believe in but somehow along the way, they got lost. Well, I found them again!
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp? In my inspirational books, yes. I want people to be kinder to one another and realize that we are all in this together. In my horror books, I want to scare you and make you realize that good will triumph over evil and in my erotic romance, baby just hang on and enjoy the ride!
What challenges have you faced in your writing career? People think that writing is so easy, well let me tell you, it's not. Everyone who writes just wants to be noticed, to be accepted as a writer and praised for his/her work. Sometimes you get to a point where you think, gee I've done all this work and still nothing...well keep trying. Rejection letters suck but hey they are part of the game and every few letters I get, I revise my query letters, change something...if writing is your passion, you can't give up.
What has been your best moment as a writer? The whole journey has been and continues to be pretty neat. I have gotten more serious about my writing in the last year than ever before. I truly think the best is yet to come!
Who is your author idol? I have a few authors who are my favorites...Jeannie Kalogridis who writes horror and wrote one of my favorite books, "Covenant With The Vampire"....Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote, "Eat, Pray, Love"...I have never read anyone who wrote exactly how I feel about things like she does...Ranae Rose who writes steamy romance novels...she is a close friend and a wonderful writer who captures the essence of an era and transports you to that time and place and envelopes you with her words.
Although he is not a real person, he is based on a real writer, Earl Hamner...John Boy on The Waltons was my very first inspiration to be a writer. He would sit up in his room every night with the door shut and write down his feelings and life as he saw it on Walton's Mountain. He was so full of passion and excitement when it came to writing and I remember as a kid when I watched him, I could really relate to him.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters? Yes, in my vampire novel PUNCTURE, the female character Veronica was based on me. I think every female I write about is me, or wants to be me. In LICK AND A PROMISE, my groupie chick Poppy is based on me although she was a bit more wild than I might have been but the book is part fiction and part non-fiction. I'll leave it up to the readers to figure out what's what. :)
Do you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do? There is always more baby!
What does your workspace look like? Well, on my big ol' antique desk...an exotic Moroccan lamp, a gargoyle statue, my computer screen and keyboard, a photo of me and Kurgan, my Rottweiler who is over 14 years old and the love of my life, a little funky notebook, pen holder, sticky notes, pens, a calender and a spoon (for my yogurt)
Have you ever had a day when you just wanted to quit? Although there have been times when I am so frustrated that I wanted to scream, I will never give up. Writing is my passion and it means too much to me. I am going to make it happen!
What do you do when you’re not writing? Not writing? Bite your tongue woman! :) I love to work outside, garden and take care of my animals. I love to walk in the woods and pick wildflowers (my favorites) I have also been belly dancing for over three years and that is pretty cool. I am a homebody who loves to cook, bake and spend time with my family.
What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer? Oh, are we sane? News to me! :) All I can say is, again, if this is your passion, your breath, your soul...you must, never, ever give up on what you believe in. If you are having a crazy day, take a step back and do something normal until you feel sane again.
Did you have a moment when you realized you were meant to be a writer? I wrote my first story when I was about eight years old. It was a horror story called "Lily Was a Witch"...I wrote a horror poem in 9th grade called "Screams of No Reply" and my English teacher had it published in the newspaper. I got a lot of calls and praise over that and I realized that my parents weren't the only ones who thought I was talented. I knew then that I wanted to write.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors? It's easy and cliché' to say to follow your dreams...you need more than that to make things happen for you in the writing world. Make sure you have a good, solid story. Let someone you trust look over it for you. You will need a second pair of eyes. Search out every avenue for help...there are a zillion and one sites you can search for help in any genre. Be persistent and if you believe that strongly in what you are doing, someone else will too.
After this book, what is next? LICK AND A PROMISE is Book One in the Rock Star Series and I will be working on Book Two (title to be coming soon). I am also working on another book about my mother and I am shopping for an agent on a book I wrote about her life story.
Your website? www.lisavproulx.com
Your blog? http://lisavproulx.wordpress.
Other websites? FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/lisa.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters? Yes, in my vampire novel PUNCTURE, the female character Veronica was based on me. I think every female I write about is me, or wants to be me. In LICK AND A PROMISE, my groupie chick Poppy is based on me although she was a bit more wild than I might have been but the book is part fiction and part non-fiction. I'll leave it up to the readers to figure out what's what. :)
Do you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do? There is always more baby!
What does your workspace look like? Well, on my big ol' antique desk...an exotic Moroccan lamp, a gargoyle statue, my computer screen and keyboard, a photo of me and Kurgan, my Rottweiler who is over 14 years old and the love of my life, a little funky notebook, pen holder, sticky notes, pens, a calender and a spoon (for my yogurt)
Have you ever had a day when you just wanted to quit? Although there have been times when I am so frustrated that I wanted to scream, I will never give up. Writing is my passion and it means too much to me. I am going to make it happen!
What do you do when you’re not writing? Not writing? Bite your tongue woman! :) I love to work outside, garden and take care of my animals. I love to walk in the woods and pick wildflowers (my favorites) I have also been belly dancing for over three years and that is pretty cool. I am a homebody who loves to cook, bake and spend time with my family.
What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer? Oh, are we sane? News to me! :) All I can say is, again, if this is your passion, your breath, your soul...you must, never, ever give up on what you believe in. If you are having a crazy day, take a step back and do something normal until you feel sane again.
Did you have a moment when you realized you were meant to be a writer? I wrote my first story when I was about eight years old. It was a horror story called "Lily Was a Witch"...I wrote a horror poem in 9th grade called "Screams of No Reply" and my English teacher had it published in the newspaper. I got a lot of calls and praise over that and I realized that my parents weren't the only ones who thought I was talented. I knew then that I wanted to write.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors? It's easy and cliché' to say to follow your dreams...you need more than that to make things happen for you in the writing world. Make sure you have a good, solid story. Let someone you trust look over it for you. You will need a second pair of eyes. Search out every avenue for help...there are a zillion and one sites you can search for help in any genre. Be persistent and if you believe that strongly in what you are doing, someone else will too.
After this book, what is next? LICK AND A PROMISE is Book One in the Rock Star Series and I will be working on Book Two (title to be coming soon). I am also working on another book about my mother and I am shopping for an agent on a book I wrote about her life story.
Your website? www.lisavproulx.com
Your blog? http://lisavproulx.wordpress.
Other websites? FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/lisa.
FaceBook Author Page https://www.facebook.com/
Where can your book be found? https://www.smashwords.com/
Where can your book be found? https://www.smashwords.com/
What a great cover! Please thank Veronica/Lisa for joining us today and we hope her new book does well.
Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce
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