A question I’m frequently asked by readers of my novels is, “How much of what you write is based on your own life experiences?” The answer is, A lot. Which isn’t to say I’ve ever been to prison, swapped my newborn with another woman’s baby, or had to escape a crazed ex-husband bent on murdering me (Okay, we could argue that last point, though the “murder” attempt was more mental than physical). The best way to put it is: My fiction is informed, rather than dictated, by my life experiences.
Which is one reason I’m so excited about the re-release (in digital format) of my earlier titles. (See my website at www.eileengoudge.com for further details.) It’s like seeing my life flash before my eyes–the heavily fictionalized version. No, I never swapped my baby with another, as did Sylvie in GARDEN OF LIES, but I’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum in the sense that I’ve been both very poor and well-off at various points in my life, like the two, swapped girls, Rose and Rachel, one of whom grows up rich, the other poor. And though I may not have been the victim of attempted murder (as in THE SECOND SILENCE), in the case of my ex-husbands (yep, that’s right – plural), I may have occasionally wanted to wring the necks of said exes. (I’m sure Dorothy Parker was right when she said, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”)
In my Carson Springs trilogy, a young girl runs away from an abusive foster dad in Brooklyn and makes a new life for herself in the fictional town of Carson Springs, much of which I based on my own experiences growing up in a small town in California. I described the locale so lovingly, in fact, one reader wrote that she had her bag packed and was ready to move there. (It does exist, since I based the description on the real-life town of Ojai, CA). Book #1 of the series, STRANGER IN PARADISE, will give you an idea of what’s in store. Years later, I am still wading through the virtual poppy fields (California’s national flower) in my mind. And if you have never experienced the “pink moment” (a real phenomenon), here’s your chance.
Oh, and for those of you who’ve wondered why they haven’t heard from me in a while (an then 2 blog posts in one week!), it’s because I was in the “salt mines,” working on my upcoming title, THE REPLACEMENT WIFE (more on that later), not because I was doing time at Ryker’s Island..
