Featured Author:  Delinda McCann

Please introduce yourself. Tell us a little about the person behind the pen.

I am a social psychologist with many years of experience working with people who are poor, disabled, at-risk, and have mental health problems.  I’ve served as an advocate on state boards and been a board member for several Non-Government Organizations that serve the most vulnerable in our society.

 I am basically a country girl.  Over the years we’ve owned three horses, some goats, three sheep, many dogs and cats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, geese and the usual round of pet birds and rodents.  Currently, I own a small flower farm on Vashon Island.  I grow cut flowers and sell them at a slightly crooked farm stand that I built all by myself.

 In addition to the above interests, I am an amateur musician.  I play the piano poorly and sing with my church choir.  I mention the music because it has been one of my more lucrative hobbies.  I put myself through graduate school with money from my piano teaching.  All the heroine’s in my novels can play and sing.

2.  What made you decide to write fiction?  Were there any influencing factors, or were any of the stories based on true events.  

I’d just gotten the diagnosis for my second cancer.  I wasn’t even close to recovered from my first cancer or my stroke.  I decided reality sucked.  I was way too sick to do anything else so I started writing Lies That Bind based loosely on my experience as the first person to have a web site on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  My web site brought me into contact with other foreign governments and I learned more than I taught.  I wove that experience into a love story.  Note:  I never had an affair with a foreign head of state.  I have been married for forty-seven years so maybe I know a thing or two about sex though.

3.   How do you promote your book, and do you find that difficult or just par for the course.

Lies That Bind was picked up by a literacy program and was shipped off to remote places on the globe.  Other than the literacy program, my promotional efforts include mostly internet activities.   I have a blog.  I tweet.  I promote on Facebook.  I have a large extended family and lots of friends who buy my books.

4.  Do you remember your first review and how it made you feel?  (If it was a bad one, also tell about your good one too).

My first review was a five star and very enthusiastic.  Most people with a sense for social justice give my books five star ratings.  I remember being so thankful for those first couple reviews.  I am still extremely thankful for anybody who takes the time to write a review.  I know someday I may get a bad review and I have no idea how I will take that.

5.  Tell us about your book and if it’s a series and how the public is reacting to this book.

My first book Lies That Bind was huge—eight hundred pages, which is almost a series between two covers.  I’ve had people buy it because it was thick and others avoid it because it looks to be too long.  It did cause my readers to ask questions about my hero, Jake Jaconovich.  By this time Jake was firmly lodged in my head so he told me the story of his childhood and the events that catapulted him into the presidency of his country so I wrote M’TK Sewer Rat: End of and Empire and M’TK Sewer Rat: Birth of a Nation.  Meanwhile, Maudy asked me to tell her story.  Maudy also lives in my head.  She wanted me to write about brain damage and the grace of God.  Her story, Something About Maudy came out in July.  I’m not certain The Public has read any of my books, but the few people who’ve read them and contacted me about them love them, saying that I’ve describe a portion of their lives or the life of a loved one with a disability so accurately.  One cousin just hugged me for a long time and thanked me for my words.  I think the hug from a family member was the best reward ever.

6  Can you share any and all links that are important to you as a person and the book?  (You can relate more to a book if you know more about the author).   

Links:

All Delinda’s books are on her website. http://delindalmccann.weebly.com/index.html

7.   I’ll wrap it up with this question since “7” is a lucky numberJ.   Can you share an excerpt from your book, and I’d like to thank you so much for taking time to share your book with me. Please share as much as you’d like.

Excerpt

This is from M’TK Sewer Rat:  End of an Empire

*****

    I wondered what this old drunk could have seen that made him fear for his life.

“I figure you’s an hones man.  I heerd how your papa saved all dose people when M’TK burned.  I heerd how you got dat Fortenac.  I remember da M’TK Sewer Rat.”

  I smiled.

            “I figure I cin trust you.”

            I nodded.

            “I seen some men.  Da night da laundry caught fire, I seen dem and I heerd dem.”

            I looked around to see if anybody noticed us or could overhear us.  I didn’t ask him why he had not come forward sooner.  I knew the city.  I understood why he hadn’t said anything sooner.  I pulled out a legal pad.  I wrote the case number for the fire on the top of the page and labeled it Source: Q.  “Mr. S’PnG this is very important.  It will help me a great deal.”

            “Well, I seen dat cop.”

*** I’ve known Delinda for quite a while, we are friends and colleagues.  She is a WONDERFUL, TALENTED and KINDHEARTED woman that is an excellent writer!