Topic: Author Interview
Ayn Hunt The Person
1) What three words do you think describe you as a human being?
Ambitious, practical, worrier
2) How do you think others would describe you?
Ambitious, understanding, dreamer
3) Please tell us what you are most passionate about outside of writing.
Literacy. I think every child should be taught how to read well, and to understand what he or she reads. Reading is not only essential to learning other skills, but for broadening our horizons as well. When we read our books, they should be able to take us to a special place far away from our problems. Without the ability to read, people are facing life with a sad disadvantage.
4) Do you have any pets? If so introduce us to them.
I used to have a cat who I loved like a member of our family. She was with us for nearly 20 years. Then, last year, when I got another one, I found I’d become seriously allergic to cats and had to give her away.
5) What is your most precious memory?
The moment the nurses put my new baby in my arms at the hospital. It was indescribable -- the peace, the joy, the contentment.
6 What is your most embarrassing memory?
Getting hiccups when I got up to give a talk to a local Rotary Club group. I’ll never forget the expressions of those faces looking up at me. Fortunately, after a few minutes of me wanting to drop through the floor, one of the ladies near the podium gave me a glass of water, and I was able, somehow, to get through the rest of the speech without serious mishap.
7) If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing with your life?
I’d probably be a teacher. I loved teaching part time, especially whenever I was assigned to an elementary school.
8) In two paragraphs or less, write your obituary.
Ayn Hunt-Amorelli: wife, mother and writer, who believed in aiming for the farthest star, knowing you will get at least half-way there.
Ayn Hunt The Writer:
9) Can you describe the time you realized you were indeed a “real” writer?
Despite having written non-fiction articles which were published occasionally throughout the years, it took the publication of my first novel, Unwilling Killers, to feel like a real writer. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep nights. I kept waking up, thinking, “I really am a writer. I really am!” I walked around in a daze for weeks..
10) What is going on with your writing these days?
I’m in the middle of writing my fifth book. After my third novel, a Gothic featuring ghosts was published, I decided to stretch my creative wings and write a steamy Romance under Ayn Amorelli (my married name) By the time Contract Bride was published, I was hooked on the genre and immediately started another.
11) What are your future goals for your writing?
To write as many published books as I possibly can. To me, writing is cathartic, and helps keep me grounded.
12) Can you describe a typical writing day for you?
I usually get up around four in the morning and put on the coffee and take my shower while hubby is still asleep. By around five or so, I sit down at my desk which is in one of our spare bedrooms and re-read what I’ve written the day before. I don’t aim for a set number of pages, but just keep going until 10:30 or 11, with a few short breaks, then fix lunch, which is my first meal of the day. That’s followed by an hour-long nap and straightening up the house. Then I work on emails and write for another hour or so until it’s time to fix dinner. After dinner with hubby and spending some quality time with him, I check my emails again, then go to bed around 9:30 and read a few pages of whatever book I’m reading before I turn out the light. It sounds boring, I guess, but I love it. I need a lot of time by myself, creating my own little worlds, living through the characters which come alive for me.
13) Why do you write?
To keep sane, to keep grounded in a world where the news is often bad.
14) What writer most inspires you? Why?
There are too many writers to name. I love both Romances and Mysteries of all types equally.
15) How do you define your writing?
I concentrate on the psychological make-up of the characters I create. There’s very little graphic violence in my books, but a lot of suspense. I’m a pantzer, in that I never know what my characters are going to do next. That’s part of the fun of writing for me. Once I create them, they take on a life of their own, calling the shots, surprising me.
16) In one sentence – what do you want people to say about your writing in fifty years?
No matter what type of book she wrote, it was always exciting.
Ayn Hunt The Details
17) Can you tell us where to find more information on you? Website? Blog?
My websites are www.AuthorsDen.com/aynhunt and ` www.GottaWriteNetwork.com/AynAmorelli.html
18) Is there a place readers can reach you?
Sure. My websites or at AynHunt@aol.com
19) Can you list all your book titles so people can look for them?
Unwilling Killers, Obsessed, The Haunting, which are all under my pen name of Ayn Hunt, and Contract Bride, under Ayn Amorelli. Unwilling Killers and Contract Bride are also sold at Amazon.com.
20) For new readers – what can they expect when they read your books?
A lot of excitement with unexpected twists and turns. I write about ordinary people being placed in extraordinary situations which tests their limits to the max – in both Romances and Gothics.
In conclusion:
21) Take as much space as necessary to speak to our readers – what would you like them to know about you and your writing?
I never write a book that I would not go out and buy. And I don’t follow trends. I write what excites me, living through my characters, seeing what they see, tasting what they taste, feeling the roller coaster of emotions ranging from the sublime to sheer terror or heart-braking failures. I laugh when they do and cry when they have done their best and their best wasn’t always good enough to save them.
