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Elaine D. Walsh has written Atomic Summer.
1. What is your name and where do you call
home?
Elaine D Walsh and home is Florida in
the Tampa Bay area where I have lived since graduating college. Prior to that, I grew up in upstate New York
in a town called East Fishkill, which has nothing to do with killing fish. It is a Dutch name.
2. Do you have a pen name?
I waited too long to publish, so I want
everyone who reads my work to know it’s me who wrote it. My high school and college classmates who
I’ve reconnected with through the years all ask “so have you published”. They all know me as Elaine, so now when I
answer “yes”, there’s no explanation about a pen name. It’s a lot less complicated for me that way.
3. What is the name of your recent book and
if you had to sum it up in 20 words or less, what would you say?
Atomic Summer - THREE friends, TWO secrets, ONE lie, and the summer in 1953 that
changed their lives.
4. Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series?
Atomic Summer is a stand-alone work, so there won’t be a sequel or series. But I will be publishing my second novel next
summer. It is called Restoration and is written from the
point of view of a young woman whose mother abandoned her family to marry a man
on death row and the impact this had on her life.
5. What or who inspired you to start
writing? And how long have you been
writing?
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t
writing stories. I wrote Dip Dap The Weather
Machine when I was about six. Years
later, my mother asked a family friend who is an artist to illustrate it. In elementary school when I wrote stories, I
received a lot of positive reinforcement from teachers. During a parent-teacher conference, my sixth
grade teacher, Mrs. Kuam, told my parents I had a real talent for writing and
to encourage me, and that’s what they did.
6. How did you come up with the title for
your book?
The working title was “The Truth About
Lies” but it didn’t quite have the punch I was looking for. As I researched 1953, which is the year the
story is set, the word atomic was a word that kept surfacing. The first atomic bomb was dropped less than a
decade earlier, nuclear tests with atomic bombs were conducted in the desert, atomic symbols were hung on fallout shelters and the
country was anxious that the communists would send an atomic bomb our way. I coupled that word with summer because that
is when the story takes place.
7. Have you ever read a book just based on
it’s cover?
Not just on the cover. But covers are powerful. They’re first impressions and are meant to
attract readers and say “pick me up and check me out”. I have certainly picked up many books based
on the cover, read the book jacket and have read the book based on that.
8. What is your favorite film based on a
book?
Gone With The Wind. I saw the re-release of the film in the theater
when I was a young girl and read my grandmother’s copy of the book a few years
later. I am a fan of both the book and
the movie. I was just in Atlanta and visited
the house where the author Margaret Mitchell wrote this classic.
9. Do you have any hobbies that aren’t
related to reading and writing?
I love history and visiting historical
sites when I travel. I enjoy golf and
wish I had more time to work on my very mediocre game. I’m a foodie and red wine enthusiast and love
exploring new restaurants where I can enjoy both.
10. Where can readers follow you?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ElaineDWalsh
Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6423738.Elaine_D_Walsh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/elainedwalsh
Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this interview and allowing us a glimpse into your writing world!
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