I caught up with Elena DeRosa, local writer and blog reader, last week. She has been a joy to email back and forth with. Thank you Elena for taking the time to answer these questions.

Look for a guest post from Elena on the new South County Library later this week.

Q&A

Tell me about your book and what inspired it.

Fractured Facade is my debut novel. It’s not the first book I wanted to write, but the one I had to write. My father’s mysterious death and the subsequent events inspired me to write a cautionary tale.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who has found themselves in a child/parent role reversal with a parent who has lost their spouse. The surviving spouse is often thrust into this new “single world,” an unfamiliar world where some people create facades to mask their true intentions. Sadly, loneliness can make an otherwise intelligent person do stupid things.  

My hope is to prevent people from making some of the same mistakes as the “characters” in my book have.

What publishing route did you take? Why? And where can someone buy your book?

I decided I would ePublish my book. After taking over three years to complete, I couldn’t imagine having to endure another couple of years trying to attract an agent and publishing house. I feared I would spend more time on “perfecting” the query letter than I had on writing the book! Fractured Facade is available for all eReaders. It can be purchased at Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble.com, ITunes, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, etc.

 How did you get the idea? 

 How did I get the idea? I lived it. I refer to Fractured Facade as a novel written as memoir.

What kind of research, and how much, have you done for your book?

As the turbulent times in my life unfolded, I kept a blog documenting some of the events as they happened. Many readers urged me to write a book, and eventually I did. There were too many times when I thought, “Ok, I have the ending,” only to have my hopes dashed because of another “you can’t make this stuff up!” event. My experiences became my research.

What’s your writing style? Do you sit down and write and let the plot flow on its own? Or do you create an outline?

For this particular book the words just flew out of me. It took quite a few revisions, and bleeding on the keyboard, and I credit the Kings of Leon playing constantly in the background as the reason I kept my sanity. I can’t imagine, or hope, the next one will be written the same way.

What are you doing to promote your book?

One of the hardest things about being an independent author is all promotion is left up to you. The first thing I did was come up with a tag line — “A father’s death, a daughter’s life, and a sociopath’s vendetta.” Next, I hired my daughter to produce a book trailer which is up on YouTube, as well as on my website www.elenaderosa.com. 

The website has detailed information on Fractured Facade, including direct links to eRetailers and reader reviews. Live events, newspaper articles, and blogs like this help promote, but I believe the best promotion is found through word of mouth. Nothing thrills me more than having a stranger “like,” and then post a comment on Fractured Facade’s Facebook page, that I touched them.

If I had one wish it would be that all the readers that have sent me personal messages would post a review on the site where they purchased the book. They could just copy and paste what they sent me Word of mouth recommendations and reviews are very important to this independent author, and I’d like to let those folks who have taken the time to support me know, I really do appreciate it.

What other books are you working on? 

The next book I plan on writing is a paranormal tale centering around a family that moves from New York City to Roanoke.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

I don’t know if I would give “advice” to an aspiring writer, but I would I urge them to get rid of the “aspiring” part. Just do it. Write now.