Welcome! This weeks Author of the Week is Jeanne A. Moore. Jeanne discovered her love of writing later on in life but she goes to prove you're never too old to follow your dreams! Hello Jeanne, welcome to the author of the week interview, it's wonderful to meet you. Let's start with learning a little about you. First of all, before I answer this question, I’d like to thank you for interviewing me. It’s a pleasure. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles and moved to Honolulu in 1979. For most of the time I’ve been here, I’ve lived by myself and now my sister and I live together. In addition to writing, my hobbies are reading, crocheting, and when the COVID restrictions are gone, socializing with my retired friends at the food court at the Ala Moana Center, the big shopping mall in Honolulu. How wonderful to live in Honolulu, I think I should be jealous! Can you tell me about your books Jeanne? My books are all collections of short stores, with the exception if Aunt Zelda and the Real Santa, which is a single short story. Those books are: Romance in a Flash (eBook only) Romance on the Run (eBook and paperback) Aunt Zelda and the Real Santa (e-book only; short story) Stories of Hope (eBook and paperback) Love Speaks Softly to the Heart (eBook and paperback) What encouraged you to write and do you hold another job as well? I’ve always enjoyed writing, but never pursued in until after I retired. I retired at the beginning of 2015. After a couple of years of hanging out with my retired friends at the food court, I felt like I was at loose ends and wasn’t doing anything that was mine. So, I began pursuing my gift for writing – which I always said I didn’t have time for when I was working an 8:00 – to – 5:00 office job. Having writing to focus on balanced the time I spent socializing and gave a balance to my life. At least you're now sharing your works with the world! What’s the main thing you love and hate about writing? I love creating characters and a world that becomes almost real to me. And I love doing historical research, which is something I learned to do and love when I was researching my family’s genealogy. Although I generally don’t mind editing, at times it does get tedious. And I really don’t like being between writing projects. I love the creative process that writing involves. I hate editing lol. You're more patient than me! Who is the best character you’ve ever written, and why? I love all my characters, my favorite one is Lucy Mae Logan in Left Holding the Bag in my short story collection Stories of Hope. She’s independent and overcomes a major setback with determination and style. I wonder how much of Lucy Mae is based on you? Who’s the character who gave you nightmares? That would be Owen Holt in The Limelight, one of my works in progress. He’s very strange and he’s also an arsonist. He sounds unpleasant, what is next on your list to write/publish? I have two collections of short stories that I am revising and editing that will be published probably sometime this summer. Who encouraged you the most to write? I had two teachers who encouraged me to pursue this gift, Mrs. Dickman in fourth grade and Mrs. Bellows in eighth grade. It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to write, and once in a while, I’d take a stab at it, but didn’t really sit down and do it until after I’d retired. How nice you still remember their names, I bet they'd have been proud of you! Which author would you like to co-author a book with and why? Lenora Mattingly Weber. She wrote the “Beany Malone” books and I loved them when I was in junior high school. I think I can guess but what's your favourite genre? Romance and romantic women’s fiction, both historical and contemporary. Do you listen to music when you write? I’m one of those people who can’t stand background noise. Let's swap roles, if you could interview anyone in the world who would it be and why? It would be Maya Angelou, no question. She was such a wonderful writer. In her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, there’s a passage in which she describes getting on a Jim Crow bus in the South and having to walk down the aisle to the back of the bus. She describes how the white passengers in the front looked at her as she passed them. I could feel what it must have felt like. As I read it, I thought I’m never going to treat anyone that way. Now Jeanne, I'm going to get nosey, tell me a secret that none of your fans know! We demand to know! I’m a history junky. I love reading about and researching history. Tell me what your main protagonist and antagonist would say about you! “Gentleman” Jim Callahan, the bank robber from Left Holding the Bag in the Stories of Hope Collection: “Ms. Moore, you let Lucy Mae Logan, that little slip of a school teacher get the best of me, when Miss Logan clubbed me over the head with her purse. What kind of a rotten author is that? Miss Logan should have fallen in love with me.” Lucy Mae Logan: “I beg your pardon, Mister Callahan. Ms. Moore let me discover just how capable I am. She’s good at encouraging people to find out what they can do. Wonderful! You’ve been given the chance to have a home anywhere in the world where you can write! Where and what would you pick? Oh, I’d love to take up residence in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel or the Moana Hotel in Waikiki in a room facing the ocean. These two historic hotels were built in the early 1900s and you can’t beat the ambience of the gracious Grand Ladies of Waikiki. Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote the Tarzan books, moved to Honolulu in 1940 and took up residence at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. What is the funniest thing you ever heard and has it influenced you? When I moved to Honolulu from Los Angeles, I lived at a YWCA residence for women until I found a job and an apartment. I was on the first floor and had made friends with a woman on the second floor. One Saturday, we decided to go to a nearby piano bar to listen to a friend of hers play the piano there. Her room was on the third floor. I as in room 108 on the first floor. Just before we were supposed to leave, there was a knock on my door. I opened it and there she was. She said “You wanna wait?” I replied, “Wait for what?” This exchange went on several times while my roommate rolled on her bed in a laughing fit. Finally, my roommate said, “She said Is this room one-oh-eight. She’s being silly.” I have since acclimated to the local accents Lol, that is funny, get ready Jeanne, its the quick fire round, how quick can you go! Favourite group = My gang of retirees with whom I socialize at the shopping center food court. We haven’t been able to do that since COVID and I miss that. If you meant singing group, it’s Peter, Paul and Mary. Favourite colour = Teal Favourite food = Korean chop chae Favourite film = Any of the Muppets movies Favourite actor/actress = Rosalind Russell Favourite season = Summer – we have that all year in Hawaii. Now you are trying to make my readers jealous about having summer all year round! Finally, any words of advice? Don’t give up in your pursuit of writing. It’s a competitive business. And, It’s never too late to follow your dreams. I didn’t start writing until I’d retired. I was 67. Thank you, for taking the time to sit down and for the wonderful interview and last last strange piece of advice! To keep up to date with Jeanne please find her at, Author Website: http://jeanneamoore.com Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jeanne-moore-208b3a103 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmhonolulu Facebook: facebook.com/jeanne.moore.9480 Click here to find Love Speaks Softly to the Heart on Amazon. Click here to find Stories of Hope on Amazon. Click here to find Romance in a Flash on Amazon. Click here to find Romance on the Run on Amazon. Click here to find Aunt Zelda and the Real Santa on Amazon. Click here to visit me on my Author Page on Amazon.