Welcome to our Haven! This week we have an author who has become a great friend and that is so precious. Charmaine, welcome! It's a pleasure to have you with us. Our readers are thrilled to meet new authors. Tell us a bit about your amazing background!
Charmaine: Thank you so much for having me as your guest. Your site is very nice here! A bit about me...I have years of experience as an actor on daytime drama. Stage, spokesperson and commercials plus writing sketches for Air Force shows helped prepare me for the wonders of a writing career. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time when immersed in the written words of others, that I was like a sponge, soaking up how to construct a scene, write dialogue, and paint the setting.
My writing effort came later when I wrote a two page story, sent it to son, Paul who commented, "Cool. Can you write ten pages?" Seemed impossible but the story poured from my fingers and seventy thousand words later, I typed The End.
I kissed my acting career goodbye, leaving on a high note with the lead in an Off Broadway play, "The Fourth Commandment" author Rich Knipe. It was great fun and time to move on. Movies like "Working Girl", "Road to Wellsville" and having the pleasure of Anthony Hopkins company at lunch, working with Mike Nichols in "Regarding Henry" and singing outside with Harrison Ford, crying with Gene Wilder over loss on another set, When "Harry Met Sally" with the whole gang singing It Had to Be You. Lots of fond memories. My first job as stand-in leg model for Geraldine Ferraro in a Diet Pepsi commercial with Secret Service men guarding her and her daughters. A sweet time.
RH: Wow! That is a wonderful background. Your stories reflect your talent! Readers, here's an excerpt from one of her books and be sure to check out her newest release, The Catch!
Here’s a blurb from one of my
faves, Reconstructing Charlie.
Charlie Costigan has a secret.
Home life gone from bad to the worse when she protects her mother from another
vicious attack by her drunken father. Midnight. Clothes thrown into an old
suitcase, she races for the bus with a letter to an unknown aunt and uncle. 'This
is my daughter. Embrace her as if she were your own.'
Determined, Charlie begins again.
Alone with her secret.
After I wrote The End, two
secondary characters came to perch on my shoulders and complain. “How about us?
Tell our story. “ I caved and began the process all over again with Sin of
Omission. “A lie by any other name is still a lie” to paraphrase Shakespeare.
My favorite scene from this book
is where Shelley Jackson finally tells the truth in the presence of her lover,
Jimmy Costigan and her best friend, Charlie, Jimmy’s sister.
“Charlie, you accepted me as a
friend and roommate but how would you feel if I were to marry your brother and
bring color into the lily white home of your Aunt and Uncle. I’ve been there.
So pristine and perfect. I envied your life and all the love they have for
you.” She took another deep breath and reached for the twins in Jimmy’s arms.
He relinquished them so readily it made her pause and when he again refused to
meet her eyes, her mind moved on. Maybe their father didn’t want them after all.
“That’s about all except to say I’m sorry. I’ve committed a sin of omission by
not coming clean. If you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, we can work
it out. Ball’s in your court.”
