Blog Ring of Power Presents: Bonnie Milani
Welcome to another Friday Blog Ring of Power Interview. Sit back, relax and check out Bonnie Milani.
BIO
Bonnie has taken what might be called the sandwich approach to writing. She started writing early, winning state-wide writing contests in grammar school, publishing an environmental fairy tale under the aegis of the NJ Board of Education in college. After earning her M.A. in Communication at Stanford, Bonnie freelanced feature articles for East Coast newspapers and regional magazines, from Mankind and Peninsula to Science Digest as well as how to articles for the late & much lamented fanzine Speculations. She stopped writing completely after marriage while building a pair of businesses with her husband. It was only with the successive deaths of each member of her family that she reclaimed her love of story-telling. Home World is the result.
Today, Bonnie lives with her husband of thirty-six years in Los Angeles. She is still a full-time benefits broker, specializing in employee benefits for entrepreneurs and micro-businesses.
Home World will launch later this month, but in the meantime, you can find Bonnie on Facebook.
Section #2: The Writing Life
BRoP: What is your writing process? Do you follow a regular routine? Do you use pen and paper or computer? Work at home or at the library/Starbucks, etc.
Bonnie: You can't produce ANYTHING, much less a novel, without a regular, disciplined routine. Especially not when you're as slow a writer as I am. I'm old enough to remember typewriters & 'over the transom' submissions & lemme tell ya, WORD is the only way to go! Like most authors, particularly new ones, I've kept the day job. That means I write in the morning, at home, before the workday starts.
BRoP: How do you balance writing with other aspects of your life?
Bonnie: Compartmentalize...Compartmentalize...Compartmentalize...
BRoP: When do you write?
Bonnie: Ideally, between 5:00 am & 8:00 am Trouble is, I rarely make it to bed before midnight, & I'm just not determined enough to haul my spreading gluteus maximus out of bed by 5:00. So it's usually 6 - 8 when I'm VERY lucky. Otherwise, my other half gets up early & hauls me off to the gym at 7:30 - at which point my writing time's done for the day. That's one of the reasons it takes me so LONG to finish anything.
BRoP: How much time per day do you spend on your writing?
Bonnie: About once a month I get 3 whole glorious hours together on a Sunday morning. Otherwise, by the time I've got both eyes open and focused...maybe an hour & a half. After that, it's the gym & then the office.
BRoP: What has been the most surprising reaction to something you’ve written?
Bonnie: I got accepted into Stanford!
BLURB
HOME WORLD: Amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Waikiki, Jezekiah Van Buren thinks he’s found a way to restore Earth – Home World to the other worlds of the human Commonwealth – to her lost glory.
Ingenious even by the standards of the genetically enhanced Great Family Van Buren, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth's ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Not only will the treaty terms make Earth rich again, it will let him escape the Ring that condemns him to be Earth's next ruler. Best of all, the treaty leaves him free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the Samuari-trained woman he loves. Everything’s set. All Jezekiah has to do is convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan's alpha warlord in marriage. Before, that is, the assassin she's put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Or the interstellar crime ring called Ho Tong succeed in raising another rebellion. Or before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason.
But Jezekiah was bred for politics and trained to rule. He’s got it all under control. Until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And suddenly these two most powerful men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.
Comments
Post a Comment