"I’ve discovered forgotten communities, have met strange characters and had some very odd conversations."
Hello Everyone!
Today, I sitting down with a very dear woman, J.Arlene Culiner, author of Desert Rose. We have a wonderful conversation in store so I'm just going to get right to it. But first, let's meet J. Arlene. She really is lovely.
Thank you J. Arlene for sitting down with me. To start off this interview, tell us a little about
yourself--the real Erin behind the writer.
Thank you for
inviting me to your blog Nancy. Write about myself ? Well… it’s a bit
complicated… When very young, I set out to have a life of adventure and
discovery, not one of security and comfort – although those things can
certainly can be appealing when confronted by life’s more dangerous moments.
I’ve since crossed much of Europe on foot, traveled, by bus, train, car or
truck throughout North and Central America, Europe and the Sahara, and lived in
unique places — a Hungarian mud house, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave
dwelling, on a Dutch canal, in a lonely, very haunted stone house on the
English moors, and presently in a 400-year-old former inn in a small French
village.
My sort of lifestyle has meant staying flexible and taking up any sort
of work that presented itself: belly dancer, fortune teller, translator, model,
b-girl, story teller, radio broadcaster, actress, social critical artist,
photographer and writer.
Along the way,
I’ve discovered forgotten communities, have met strange characters and had some
very odd conversations. I cherish these experiences because they’ve kept me on
my toes, way beyond my comfort zone. Of course, I do incorporate these
experiences into my books.
So far, I’ve had five romances published and, as
Jill Culiner, two mysteries and two narrative non-fiction works, and I have
another non-fiction work looking for a publisher. I also narrate audiobooks and
I have a storytelling podcast — Life in a Small French Village — which can be
heard here: https://soundcloud.com/j-arlene-culiner
Wow! What an amazing life. J Arlene, you have taken the motto, 'living life to it's fullest' to new levels. You mentioned above you used your life experiences in your writing. How did you come to write Desert Rose? Such a cute cover.
My latest
romance, Desert Rose, is set in
Blake’s Folly, Nevada, a rundown semi-ghost town of trailers, shacks and old
cars. This quirky community with it’s strange local characters was the setting
for another of my romances — All About Charming Alice (a new version of the
book will soon be released by Fire Star Press) — and I wanted to return to
Blake’s Folly and write about Alice’s best friend, Rose Badger. To tell the
truth, Rose had been nagging me for quite some time, demanding the limelight,
and I’m glad she did. She is a delightful character: gutsy, original,
open-minded. As soon as the very appealing, honorable and sexy Jonah
Livingstone (he’s part Paiute, part Italian) walks into her shop, he’s
entranced too.
Of course, it’s
the secondary characters in Blake’s Folly that I particularly love. True
misfits, they don’t fit into neat houses and tidy gardens. Rebels — not by
choice, but by character — they’re the real thing. And they’re also nosy,
interfering and truculent.
As for the locale,
I have managed to wander into two desert communities that were very much like
Blake’s Folly. They have a special place in my heart and I wanted to share them
with romance readers who are looking for an original, out-of-the way setting.
