Author Spotlight - Q&A with BJ Robinson

STEPH: I don't know much about Whispering Cypress. What's it about?

BJ: Here's a blurb:

You'll never have peace here. Leave the past where it belongs, or it will ruin you.
Spring Showers stared at the cutout newspaper letters pasted on a sheet of typing paper. Her heart pounded harder than any nail gun, and she placed her hand over her chest as if to still it. Nothing about the rundown campground prepared her for such a threat. Who could possibly care if she restored it?

After a decade of no contact, she purchases the campground a man from her past dreams of owning and hires him to repair and remodel the cabins. She still has feelings for him, and the sparks are still there -- smoldering like embers from a left-over campfire. A male friend from the city visits and trouble brews. A girl is attacked. Hackett is arrested. Did authorities arrest the right man? The girl is pregnant -- who is the father?

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?

BJ: Whispering Cypress took about six months to write. Once I started it, I kept plugging away a little at a time.

STEPH: How much research did you have to do?

BJ: The type of research I did for this novel was vacation travel in Tennessee, the fun type. I lived in Louisiana and know camp-ground settings, and I traveled and visited in Mississippi. Those are the three settings in the novel.

STEPH: How does the cover reflect the story within?

BJ: The cover is my favorite out of my other novels because it makes you want to go there, as readers have said. I've had awesome compliments on it. It reflects the story within because the main character, Spring, buys a campground, and the cabins must be remodeled. She hires a former beau, Hackett, to restore them. The action takes place at the campground setting. A young girl is attacked across the river from Whispering Cypress Campground, Spring and Hackett live on the campground, and the ending of the novel takes place there.

STEPH: Spring is the heroine. What are her strengths?

BJ: Spring is compassionate, caring, determined, and loving. Weakness? Too trusting of others outward appearances.

STEPH: What does Hackett find appealing about her?

BJ: They went to high school together a decade earlier and dated. He feels she understands him, and he's comfortable with her, because he knows she knows him. He's attracted to her physical looks, but it goes deeper. The two of them have so much in common. They both fell in love with Whispering Cypress Campground, and they both wanted to make it their home, but Spring beat him to it, which causes conflict in the beginning of the story. Both love the river, camping, the serene setting, trees, and the beach. He is attracted to her love of nature, and he begins to figure out what he can do to win her heart back.

STEPH: What is the theme of the novel?

BJ: The novel has more than one theme, and I like to allow my readers to discover them for themselves, but one theme is all life is precious and that one is spelled out in the book trailer. It's the main theme. Another is family is precious. These are two main takeaways of the novel.

STEPH: As a writer, where do you draw inspiration from?

BJ: Life, childhood memories, vacation memories, my family, and my pets, but most of all God and His creative inspiration found in nature. He is the greatest artist of all time and paints the most beautiful, inspiring canvases for the world to see. I love to see heavenly blue sky merge with the ocean or a river surrounded with trees, where you see nothing but water, trees, and sky. I've enjoyed campfires and have been inspired by the glowing embers. I've sat on a green, grassy riverbank and found inspiration to write. This summer we vacationed in Grand Isle, Louisiana, and I loved it. I would've loved to have had more time to sit in a chair on the beach and write. Of course, the time flew by and there wasn't enough of it. I penned my first-prize winning short story with pen and a notebook sitting by a river.

STEPH: Do you have an ebook reader? If so, which one?

BJ: I have a Nook, but I got the free Kindle download for my PC, and I have an ipad I use for most of my reading.

STEPH: Fun question: What's your favorite summer fruit?

BJ: I have more than one. I love peaches, but I have to say strawberries if I have to pick an absolute favorite. I've written two novels set on strawberry farms: Last Resort and Southern Superstitions. I grew up around Louisiana strawberries, not Georgia peaches, but I love those peaches as well. I picked strawberries as a young girl to earn extra spending money, and I packed them as a young mother and brought my babies to the packing shed with me. I love strawberries with sugar, sugar and cream, and in strawberry shortcake. Strawberry is my favorite jam and jelly.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSVAPKrmKU&feature=youtu.be

Whispering Cypress Book Trailer

http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-329/Whispering-Cypress-BJ-Robinson/Detail.bok Whispering Cypress at Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc.

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