Interview with Maggie Preston

Maggie Preston – Author of Sex and Insensibility

I’m so excited to get the chance to introduce you to Maggie Preston. Her debut novel Sex and Insensibility came out yesterday! What a fabulous event for an author! I absolutely love the title, don’t you? But then again, I’m a Jane Austen fan, so of course that title got to me! And her premise is fabulous… in a dark, twisty sort of way.

Interview:

Tell us about your current release/next WIP?
Sex and Insensibility is a story of second chances, one of my favorite topics because I think almost everyone needs and deserves a second chance at times. Lara Haley has decided it’s time to change her life, right after her entire world implodes. Will Kenner wants to pick up where they left off 17 years ago, after a relationship interruptus found him in the back of a police car on the way out of town.

What was the inspiration for your latest/current release?
I was inspired by a news story where a woman ran over her cheating husband three times in the parking lot of the hotel where he’d gone to meet his lover. It sort of snowballed from there.

What shares your time when you’re not writing?
I’m in career transition. I spent 12 years as a chemist, then another 12 in quality management for pharmaceutical companies. Now I’m working as a quality consultant and technical writer, trying to decide what is next. Plus I have some wonderful friends and family, especially my daughter, and we are scattered across the country, so I travel as much as possible to visit them. I’m also a scrapbooker and photographer.

What would your 12 year-old-self think about where you are now?
I wanted to be a doctor when I was 12, so I think she would say, “What happened?” And my answer would be, “Organic Chemistry.” I wasn’t bitten by the writer bug until a little later.

Writing has changed a lot in recent years. What are your favorite & least favorite changes?
I love and hate self-publishing and all the independent publishers that have popped up. I love that it has brought some really good non-traditional stories to the book shelves. Aric Davis is one of my favorite authors and I don’t think he would have made it with a traditional house. On the other hand, it also means that almost anyone that’s written the words “The End” on a manuscript can get it published. Readers are still developing the sixth sense about books in today’s market. They don’t look at the publisher and see if it’s an established house, or a fly-by-night operation. Editorial input is not always robust and many books get out to the public before they’re really ready. That makes them wary with new authors.

Everyone has a secret book or movie they HATE to love. What’s yours?
Oh I can’t believe I’m going to admit this, but it’s the Twilight series. They’re cheesy and not really well-acted but the movies and books captured the attention of its audience. I was stuck on the tarmac for two hours in Denver once and a woman saw me reading one of books and we started talking and more women joined in. All ages. And we talked for hours about the characters, the story, what would happen next. I hope someday I can write a book that does that for people: connects strangers on a plane or in a coffee shop or sitting in a park.

Does that pique your interest? Then read on! Here’s an excerpt from Maggie’s book!

“A penny for your thoughts.” That easy, relaxed voice pulled Lara from her wandering thoughts.

“You’d better bring your Visa card.” Her mouth went dry but Lara resisted the urge to lick her lips. That might look like an invitation.

She licked them anyway.

Lara wanted Will to proposition her. Like that night at the lake. With her cheerleading sweater pushed high over her ribs, her hands tangled in the leather of his bad boy jacket, his thumbs brushing the white cotton of her bra. She always wore white cotton back then. Ladies wore white cotton and didn’t guzzle drinks with names like a Long, Slow Comfortable Screw.

But then again…times they were a’changing.

“No credit cards.” Will looked at her beneath the fall of sleep tousled blonde hair too short to be fashionably long and too long to be intentional.

“You could write me a check. Of course, I’d have to ask for some identification.” She tried for humor but failed miserably. His gaze made her aware of every inch of exposed skin and given the sensible nature of her outfit, there wasn’t much. Still…wherever he looked, heat followed.

“You know who I am, Lara.” His voice deepened, thick with unspoken words, something she didn’t want to name reflected behind the chocolate depths of his eyes. Will was light and dark, water and oil, fire and ice. He was everything you wanted but nothing you expected. She’d fought that knowledge in high school, caught between the expectations of her family and friends and what she knew to be the truth behind Will Kenner. Lara didn’t want to fight it anymore.

“I know, Will.”

Her voice sounded breathy, shallow. Maybe because her heart leapt up to lodge in her throat. Or maybe it was sliding lower. Her body pulsed, hummed with a rhythm all its own. Parts that hadn’t hummed in years were now playing The Flight of the Bumblebee. Words and emotions tied themselves around her brain and Lara struggled to put them into something intelligent. She pushed to her feet suddenly needing to be vertical but the world swayed and Will reached out to steady it.