Interview with Best-Selling Author Margarita Felices

Today we have the distinguished honor of interview best-selling author, Margarita Felices.  Her book Judgement of Souls has hit various best-seller lists and continues to make an impression on readers.  So thank you, Margarita, for visiting with us today. 

 1) Did you always want to be an author?  If not, what else would you have done?

I always dreamt of being a journalist.   I did a little writing at school for the school magazine and then became Editor.  But things have a way of changing as you grow up and I decided that writing stories for magazines was much better.  You can lose yourself in your own stories and as a journalist, you can’t embellish anything, it has to be the truth however boring it might sound.  It would have driven me mad not to pep the story up, so I’m glad I didn’t pursue it.

2) What is the strangest job you ever had and why?

(Smiles) I’ve worked for the BBC for 22 years. I can’t say that before that I had any strange jobs.  But I guess the strangest job I’ve had so far has been working for Torchwood.  When I began there, I had worked for BBC News for 15 years so working for drama was the strangest job ever.  You get to work in an environment where you meet characters that were made up inside someone’s head – much like being an author I guess, except these characters come to life – I’ve spoken to characters (not real people) about their situation, I’ve sat with monsters, I’ve had lunch in the TW Hub, I’ve driven fake police cars on the roads of Cardiff and I’ve been scared ****less by a colleague sitting inside a Dalek!   Is that strange enough?    My dream is to one day write a script good enough for Doctor Who or even Torchwood, if it ever came back to Cardiff. 

 
3) What is your favorite book of all time and why?

(LOL)   But there are so many, which ones to mention….  I loved the Green Mile by Stephen King, just something about the pain that the guard was suffering and the man who could cure people who were sick and they were going to execute him, even though he was innocent.  Misery, the tension of the lead character and the author confined to his bed, I was disappointed that the film changed so much.   But I love the classics, Withering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, strong willed women who can’t see what they have in front of them.  Vampire books are high on my list, Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned…   I love that they have all been made into films, although I do compare them to the books and always moan about the interpretations and the missing bits that make that book and omitted from the film… 

4) Describe your ideal hero or heroine (details please! *wink wink*)

I have several pictures on my Facebook page about my ideal characters.  I wish I could name them but they are just faces found on other sites that I associate with my characters.  Go check them out see what I mean.

5) What comes first for you: plot or character?

Plot.   (stops and thinks).   No, actually I created Rachel (my lead character) first and then the plot just wrapped itself around her.   

6) Who is, hands down, the sexiest actor of all time?

(Snigger).   That changes every week!    

 
7) Describe your writing style please.

Plotter.    I need to know what’s coming up to help me write.  I worked for BBC News for 15 years; each programme is made up of a running order so we know what’s coming up.  I’m used to working that way, so when I began to write, I adopted that.  Each page has a few lines as to what should be happening at that point.   Sometimes I get an idea for a storyline but its ages into the book, so I write it out and leave it until I catch up. 

8) Who is your favourite author and why?

It’s a toss up of Anne Rice or Stephen King.  I’ve read a lot from both, although I find Stephen King easier to read.    Stephen King gets right into the nitty gritty of the story and before you know it, you’re being knocked out of your chair and hiding under the covers!  Anne Rice tends to be more descriptive in the way she writes.  She describes everything so beautifully, so poetic. Once you get to the story, you’re transported into that world, but it does take a bit of reading before you get to it.

9) What is on the horizon for you? Any interesting news or books we should know about?

Well I’m writing the second part of the trilogy.  It’s proving a bit tricky because I need to have the timelines correct and they are passing through several events in history.  I have two stories buzzing around in my head that need to be written down.   Then I’m getting straight into Book One.   After that it’s going to be a few stories about Rachel and Daniel as archaeologists working with the Righteous…  Those are my plans at the moment, somewhere in-between all that I should set up a website and a blog….

 

 

You can find all of Margarita's books by clicking here!

And thank you, Margarita for the wonderful interview.