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My fun friend Karen Moline is a wonderful writer with a no shortage of great stories!  We we had such a long conversation (the time flew by) that I needed to break the interview up into 2 parts.  So here is part 1 today.  Come back next Friday for part 2.

One of the first things we talked about was her first novel, Lunch: A Novel of Erotic Obsession, and in the course of talking about that novel we explored a bit some of the ways writers go about getting ideas flowing and freeing themselves up to write.

She got a substantial advance for her second novel, Belladonna, (A Novel of Revenge) back in the days with publishing houses were able to do such things.  Please go to Karen’s website for more information at www.KarenMoline.com.

Topics covered in the interview:

• Hello Karen! (2:20)
• How Lunch was born (3:10)
• Stories of being an entertainment journalist; the shift from print interviews to Internet (9:11)
• From the picture wall of fame – Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, and the set of Harry Potter (17:20)
• Funny story about John Malkovich (24:36)
• Discussion about how art is created… or at least how Karen goes about it (26:36)
• Belladonna, (A Novel of Revenge) (30:50)
• Advantages of writing with pen and ink (32:12)
• How ideas for Belladonna came about (35:39)
• Dreams for inspiration, the fun of research, take a trip to the library! (39:21)
• What Karen learned at the University of Chicago (44:24)
• Back to Belladonna, traveling to a location for research (49:05)
• Writing something that makes you squirm a bit… like an orgy scene! (53:00)
• Most satisfying financial moment (58:18)
• How celebrities can change over time… Justin Bieber (1:00:18)
• Taking criticism (1:05:18)
• Fiction is to transport you out of your head… we’re all Elizabeth Bennett… and the A&E version is the best btw (1:08:46)
• A great interview with Mel Gibson with the benefit of a secret (1:15:48)

Finally, I’m moving soon from staying with my folks in East Tennessee to Austin.  My parents are selling their beautiful home.  Take a look at this cool website I made for them, www.TennesseeMountainRetreat.com.