#WriterWednesday Interview with B. J. Bowen
/
I’d like to welcome author B. J. Bowen to the blog today for #WriterWednesday!
Things you need for your writing sessions: My computer. I can’t imagine how it is possible to create (my mind goes faster than longhand) or revise without one!
Things that hamper your writing: Emails! Facebook! Computer glitches!
Things you love about writing: I can keep editing until I’m happy with what I’ve written.
Things you hate about writing: Marketing! Self-promotion! Ughh!!
Hardest thing about being a writer: Coming up with fresh ideas.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Once you’ve had an idea, writing a scene, especially one with characters you love.
Things you never want to run out of: toilet paper, ideas, direction
Things you wish you’d never bought: CDs I only like one song on; clothes that are cute, but the wrong color; another book!
Words that describe you: tenacious, friendly, soothing
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: tenacious, tactless, unconnected
Favorite music or song: Any Bach, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings
Music that drives you crazy: rap
Favorite smell: Lilies of the Valley—my grandmother used to have that perfume.
Something that makes you hold your nose: the smell of bad animal shelters—urine, feces, & pain
Something you wish you could do: Technology
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Shhhhh! Grant writing—everybody wants a grant writer, but what if you fail and a deserving program goes without funds? It’s never happened to me, but it’s nerve-racking and stressful.
Something you like to do: Writing.
Something you wish you’d never done: Gone to the amusement park with my (at the time) seven-year-old daughter. I got nauseated from the whirling around and around rides, and the roller coaster was scary!
The last thing you ordered online: A book! What else?
The last thing you regret buying: ANOTHER book. It wasn’t very good, and it was expensive.
Things you always put in your books: The symphony.
Things you never put in your books: Violence (sounds odd for a murder mystery, but it’s true), and dead dogs/cats/other animals.
Things to say to an author: “I loved your book. It made me laugh. I posted reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble.”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “Why did that character act this way or that? I would have…”
Favorite places you’ve been: Utah Grand Canyon/Best Friends Animal Shelter, Costa Rica
Places you never want to go to again: A big city.
Favorite books (or genre): Cozies, women’s fiction
Books you wouldn’t buy: Horror novels, books where the dog dies
People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Marianne Williamson, Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood
People you’d cancel dinner on: They’re all politicians, and even thinking of them makes me angry.
Favorite things to do: Lunch with a friend
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Fighting with the computer.
Things that make you happy: Beautiful colors, beautiful landscapes, my daughter, my dogs, not necessarily in that order.
Things that drive you crazy: Crowds, people who ignore the facts because their mind’s already made up.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Give birth to my daughter.
Biggest mistake: Expect people in my life to make me happy.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Hot air balloon ride.
Something you chickened out from doing: Attending a séance.
The funniest thing to happen to you: In 8th grade I measured myself for a dressmaking pattern. My mother was surprised that the measurements were so large, and insisted she had a 24-inch waist. She took the tape measure to show me. As I recall, she started at 32, then began pulling the tape measure on the way to 24. At around 26.5, the tape measure broke! (Maybe you had to be there).
The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: My daughter and I were visiting a wild mustang shelter. We were given a bus tour of the horse area. I asked what that thing hanging down between the horse’s legs was. In my defense, he was a small colt, it was HUGE, and I’m a city girl. As I recall, the tour guide’s answer was, “That’s the way we tell if it’s a boy or a girl.”
The coolest person you’ve ever met: a minister who accepted everyone, wasn’t afraid to play like a kid, and spoke eloquently.
The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: I’ve never met a celebrity in person.
The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I’m sad the book had to end. I loved the characters.”
The craziest thing a reader said to you: “I wouldn’t have spent my money the way that character did.”
About B. J.:
Barbara (B. J.) Bowen is a freelance writer. She was a finalist and Honorable Mention in the 2018 Focus: Eddy Awards for her article, “Letting Go with Grace,” published in Unity Magazine. Ms. Bowen is also an accomplished professional oboist who played with the Colorado Springs Symphony for nineteen years.
Drawing on her quirky fellow musicians and orchestral experiences, she created the mystery series, "Musical Murders.” The first is "Music is Murder" (Release date, 6-9-21). The second is "Ballistics at the Ballet" (Release date 9-14-2022) The third is "Fireworks on the Fourth" (Release date 5-8-2023).
She is a member of Sisters in Crime, lives in Colorado with two canine friends, and has a stock of musical puns and a song for any occasion.
Let’s Be Social:
www.bookbub.com/authors/b-j-bowen
www.facebook.com/barbarabowenauthor
