Ask the Author: Claire Matturro
Answered Questions (6)
Claire Matturro
Well, um, let’s see, my most recent published book is Sweetheart Deal, and I got my inspiration for that from reading a story in the Cairo Messenger, the biweekly newspaper from Grady County, GA. The newspaper article was outlandish, but sad, which, bottom line, is true about most Southern Gothic stories. So I wove that Southern Gothic element into my legal mystery series and came up with Sweetheart Deal. That said, my most recent manuscript, Wayward Girls (now in the hands of my new agent) is coauthored with Penny Koepsel, Ph.D., a psychologist. We were inspired to write it while comparing notes and stories at an all-class reunion of the dysfunctional boarding school we both attended as teens. One of us said, “We ought to write a book.” So we did. However, our manuscript quickly evolved from our “Trouble with Angels” kind of personal hi-jinks stories into something very dark and inspired by a true story arising out of multiple tragedies at a wilderness school for delinquents in Texas. Regardless of inspiration, Wayward Girls is totally fiction.
Claire Matturro
I get to work in my pajamas with one cat draped over my PC and another purring in my lap.
Claire Matturro
Paying attention to life and the news and studying history all inspire me to write. So many stories, some of them need to be told. Besides I’ve nearly always wanted to write, partly because I love to read and partly because writing was in the family gene pool. All of my several careers have a common element of writing. And, I love words!
Claire Matturro
Wayward Girls! Our new agent, Liza Fleissig of LizaRoyce Agency, is out there working her magic with the manuscript. In Wayward Girls, two teen girls might be delusional killers—or not. Falsely labeled as mentally ill and stuck in a remote boarding school in an orange grove, unlikely best friends Jude and Camille might have been even worse than wayward girls. But then again, somebody might have been stalking them. Not even their lawyer knows as the two teens are prosecuted for murder as adults--despite their youth.
Claire Matturro
This is not going to be totally original, but it will be totally sincere and heart-felt. Read. Read. Read. Pay attention to what makes a great book great, take notes, outline books that cry out to you, and examine the techniques and the language in those books. Write. Write. Write. Join a writers’ workshop. Take creative writing classes at community colleges, universities or in adult education. Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write.
Claire Matturro
I never get writer's block! Sometimes my fingers get tired of typing, but my mind bubbles forth without any blocks at all.
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