Interview with Michelle I. Brooks

Time is running out & the Dark that's been chasing Syd for many lifetimes has finally caught up with her.

Sydney Roberdeau lost her parents as a young girl. Waiting for her life to start and the freedom that will come with her eighteenth birthday, Syd spends much of her time haunting the local cemetery. It is there, stretched out among the dead, that she feels most alive, most at home. Until one rainy night when Beau, Sarah and T.J. crash her ghostly sanctuary, appearing out of nowhere, turning her already inside-out world one degree past upside down.

Syd must now revisit past lives, dressing in the bodies of her previous selves & bone dressing. Her only chance to outrun the evil breathing down her neck is to face her own worst nightmares and her strongest desires. But if she can't stay out of trouble in this life, how can she possibly fix mistakes from past lives? And just how many lives has she lived, loved and lost? What is Syd exactly, and what will she risk for the life of a man she doesn't remember, the man she spent a lifetime with, the man she loves? Everything including her very own life?

Bone Dressing, the first in a series of seven books, will carry Syd and Beau on an adventure that transcends life itself.

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1. How and why have you started to write? Was there something or someone that gave you an impulse?

Hmmm, that’s something that has developed over the span of my life. Early on I fell in love with Poe, Sheakespeare and Tolkien. Their ability to weave together the lives of people that lived only within their own imagination into a rich and captivating tapestry that I could float away on for hours at a time was, and still is, exquisitely impressive. Since then, I’ve eagerly ridden upon the magic carpets of hundreds of other authors. It would be nice to think of someone like myself being as willingly swept away within the pages of Bone Dressing.

2. Tell me something about your series, Bone Dressing.

Does the name sound a little dark? Bone Dressing. Yes, of course it does sound dark. But Bone Dressing is exactly that. Syd, the main character, is definitely not a glitter and teddy bears kind of girl. She quite simply dresses in the bones of her past lives to discover herself, to figure herself out, to find out who she is, where she’s been, and how on earth to get wherever it is she’s heading, where she needs to go in this life. Her last life.

So, Bone Dressing is a series of seven books. It’s a “there and back again” kind of story, only Syd’s “back again” takes her between lifetimes, and will ultimately deliver her to an entirely new life, a new Syd, one girl, but a collection of odd pieces of herself, pieces from lifetimes of love, learning and loss, reshaped into something magnificent, something miraculous, something uniquely, wonderfully perfectly imperfect. Something we can all strive to be.

3. While you’re writing, have you discovered a character that you were developing feelings of love for? And was there a character that gave you headaches?

The truth is that I feel an intimate connection with all the characters that live in the pages of Bone Dressing, the good and the bad. Having said that, I can only suppose this must be a common side effect for creative minds. Once you give birth to a being, whether they are two-dimensional or three really makes very little difference in the depth of your feelings about them. Perhaps the most defining points are that while the wonderful people in my life that actually breathe give infinitely better hugs and I can talk to them without anyone questioning my sanity for a single second, they are transient beings, with a beginning and an ending … grave fodder, so to speak. On the other hand, the people I create with a pen are really lousy at cuddling and back rubs, but on the upside they all have the gift of immortality.

4. How have you done your research for the series of novels?

Every way imaginable. I do loads of research online, and spend a lot of time looking through travel books, historical records and current events to develop a well-rounded sense of the sights, sounds, and smells as well as the social, cultural, and political environment of each place depicted in Bone Dressing. In addition, there are always maps of wherever Syd’s at lying around my writing area for visual reference, which I layer with Google Earth to get a better feel for a location I may not have visited before.  Of course, whenever possible, I spend time exploring the area she will be in person. However, all of my research must be done in two steps, with one level focusing on the present, and one focusing on the point in history that one of Syd’s past lives took place.

5. Is there a book that inspired your writings?

I love to lose myself between the covers of a great book, and I have many authors I absolutely adore. However, my inspiration for Bone Dressing came and continues to come from within … from a dream I had late one night about a certain girl named Syd whose loves and lives spilled through the pages of my mind, permanently imprinting my heart with their intoxicating, bittersweet essence.

6. In the end, would you like to say some words to your fans from Romania?

Actually, yes … keep reading! One of Syd’s past lives in a later book of the series will be set in Romania. Vezi tu de partea cealaltă a unui mormânt (see you on the other side of the grave)!

 

Thank you very much Ms. Brooks for the honor of having you on our blog today!