A Wager of Blood: An Interview with Author J.W. Coffey

J.W. Coffey is the author of A Wager of Blood, an enthralling tale about a game of chance gone bad.  She is also a literature examiner and critic; click here to read her column.  J.W. Coffey has an incredible talent for storytelling and her writing will keep you wanting more.  In this writer’s opinion, Coffey is most certainly one of the best!

Tell us a little bit about your most recent book.

The most recent book was a short story collection called Illusions & Reality. I have a novella included called Salt of the Earth that was a serial for a magazine.

The most recent novel is A Wager of Blood—the story of the 200 year old murders in a haunted New Hampshire inn and the friends that have to fight the very real demons of past and present to resolve those murders.

I loved A Wager of Blood!  It is definitely one of my favorite books.  Could you tell us where you got the idea for it?

The inspiration was an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, a segment on Civil War hauntings. The narrator was a woman working in what’s now an office building but was evidently a hospital during the war. She and a friend were riding the elevator to the parking garage. The doors opened and the scene in front of her was the hospital with a doctor performing some kind of operation in the foreground. Then, the doctor in the foreground looked up and she said it froze her to the core because the ghost made eye contact with her, as if he could really see her.

At that moment, someone on another floor pressed the button to call the elevator and the doors closed. They never saw it again. But the segment left me with this burning question of what would have happened if she’d actually stepped off the elevator—would the haunting have disappeared? Would she have stepped back in time? After a couple of years and quite a few re-writes, out came A Wager of Blood.

How did you get into writing?

I have been a “storyteller” all of my life. I used to lay in bed and have these long fantasies, characters and plots that would get intricate and more developed as I went along. They actually became real for me, waking dreams that were my entertainment. I seriously started writing when I was in High School.

Was it something you always did, or were you drawn to it through life experiences?

Life experiences and people make their way into the stories I write, sure. But a lot of it for me is “what if.” What if this “person” was in this situation and then this incident happened? And I watch it in my head until I’ve embellished it enough that I can commit it to paper. Or in my case, the word processor.

How do you think of your stories and characters? Or do you feel more like your stories and characters seek you out, enlisting your help to bring them to life?

It’s a bit of both for me, sort of like taking a road trip. I start out with the destination and the major stops along the way but there are going to be little side trips that come out that I find I simply must take. I start out with the names and who I think they are…and they very quickly tell me who they are if I’ve gotten it wrong.

Do you have any new projects in the works?

I am finishing up a romantic thriller called Wilde Mountain Time—Thom Mitchell, a once famous singer, just wants to find some peace on his vacation. But first, his R and R is disturbed by this redhead with an ability to push his buttons and light his fire. Added to that, someone first attacks him and then later takes shots at him. Memories begin to surface that will uncover who that someone is—someone who doesn’t want the truth to come out and is willing to kill to keep that from happening.

Once that one is finished and on its way to who-knows-where in the world, I’m going to go back to a series I started called The Brothers Cameron and finish that trilogy.

How do you get focused when its time to sit down and write?

I have my little ritual for getting myself in the groove—I have my writing space set up with the desk, computer, the lighting. I have a particular cup for hot tea or coffee that I use. I set up blocks of time that are mine for writing. I have been known to have specific music to help me or I leave the TV on, turned down low–it’s a me thing, I hate absolute silence. It sounds silly but it really does help.

Do you have any suggestions for other writers who may be experiencing writer’s block?

I don’t know how others feel about writer’s block, but for me, it’s usually because I’ve written something that doesn’t work for the character or story.

The best advice I can give when it comes to writer’s block is to put it aside for a day or two. Go play tennis, weave a throw rug, throw a clay pot. Something else entirely. Then come back and take a really hard, dispassionate look at where it stopped in its tracks. You’ll be able to look at it and say, “oh yeah, that’s where it derailed.” Then delete to that point and start up again going in a different tack. It always works for me.

Visit J.W. Coffey on her website, http://www.authorjwcoffey.com/.  You can find her novels on Amazon.com.