A Perfect 10 with Luna St. Clair

This week, Luna St. Clair is the featured author on this week’s edition of A Perfect 10. She tells us about her inspiration and work.

Please enjoy this week’s edition of A Perfect 10

If you want to check out past interviews, you can find them in the following links:

A.C. Flory, Steve Boseley, Kayla Matt, Mae Clair, Jill Sammut, Deanna Kahler, Dawn Reno Langley, John Howell, Elaine Cougler, Jan Sikes, Nancy Bell, Nick Davis, Kathleen Lopez, Susan Thatcher, Charles Yallowitz, Armand Rosamilia, Tracey Pagana, Anna Dobritt, Karen Oberlaender, Deby Fredericks, Teri Polen, Darlene Foster, Robert Rayner, C.C. Naughton, Sherry Rentshler, Linda Bradley

Also, if you are an author and you want to be part of this feature, I still have a few slots open for 2017. You can email me at don@donmassenzio.com

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Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Writing energizes me. I consider myself a Creator—filled with inspiration. In my life-time I have been a ballet dancer, painter and potter. In my tortured youth, I penned poetry with dreams of becoming a song-writer. As a costume designer, creating wardrobe looks for characters is creative and can be both energizing and exhausting. Writing The Sleeping Serpent energized me. It stretched me creatively. It was the most creative process I have ever experienced.

Do you ever write under a pseudonym? If not have you considered it? Why or why not?

I can see many reasons for writing under a pseudonym. It can be for the protection of the author as well to disguise the identity and experiences of characters. The choice is personal, and should not affect the quality of the work.

Does a big ego help or hurt writers? Why or why not?

Ego, as tied to personal identity and drives our feelings of self-worth. If an author is attached to an outcome of celebrity and wealth, then their motivation is the validation, and approval of others, and therefore it is ego driven. If writing is a compelling need driven by inspiration it does not require an inflated ego.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

I was blessed with an extraordinary editor who possesses keen insight. Without imposing herself, she coached me and encouraged me. I learned about structure, grammar, point-of-view, and how to write engaging natural dialog. She gave me self-confidence and I couldn’t have done it without her.

What does writing success look like to you? Have you achieved it?

Writing my novel, The Sleeping Serpent, was exhilarating, and cathartic. I stretched myself creatively, and learned a great deal about myself. I do not measure success by money, or by the validation of others. All my experiences that I have grown from spiritually and that have brought me wisdom are my measures of success. Writing has been one of them.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? What sources do you use?

I have always done extensive research in my work as a costume designer. So, when it came to writing my novel, The Sleeping Serpent, I dove in. I use Google and Wikipedia both as starting points. The Sleeping Serpent required research in Kundalini yoga, the Q’ero people and their spiritual practices, and the city of Buenos Aires—its restaurants, tango and food.

How do you select the names of your characters? Have you ever regretted choosing a particular name? Why?  

Sometimes names just pop into my head and sometimes I scroll down the baby names on those web sites… Something sticks and I love all my character names.

What is the hardest type of scene to write?

I had never written a sex scene before The Sleeping Serpent. I was nervous about it. I read a few of the infamous and most popular novels and found them contrived and repetitive. So, I watched videos and found my own style.

If you could have dinner with four people, living or dead, who would they be and what would you want to ask them?

Given this opportunity I am going to make it a literary dinner party. Jim Harrison is one of my favorite authors. I adore his style. My favorite of his stories is Legends of the Fall. He writes gloriously about the West and Native American characters play important roles. I would listen and learn.

Ernest Hemingway is larger than life to me. After recently re-reading The Old Man in the Sea on a short train ride, I was awestruck and silently gazed out the window wondering how he can achieve that with so few words. That would be my question. But I probably wouldn’t get to ask him because I would be enthralled with his dinner conversation.

Isak Dinesen’s memoir Out of Africa is always within touching distance from my desk. I would hope she would reminisce about Africa and certainly Hemingway and she would engage each other.

I would also invite the contemporary author, Hanya Yanagihara, who wrote the critically acclaimed novel, A Little Life. I had a major book hangover when I finished it, and there has been much discussion about her dark psychological book. I would love to know her inspiration for that story.

What platform has brought you the most success in marketing your books?

I am a new author with one book, The Sleeping Serpent, published just over a year-ago. Facebook was a big surprise. I had no idea there are hundreds of pages and groups that support Indie authors. This year I was given spotlights and interviews on dozens of Facebook pages that graciously share my promotional posts regularly. I have hosted Takeovers, and attended events and release parties. The community of bloggers, readers and authors are always willing to read for an honest review, and I have received over a hundred reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I am delighted to now be a member of Rave Reviews Book Club, where I will meet new authors and bloggers.

Luna’s Book:

 

Click on the cover image for the purchase link

Whether by free will or fate, Luna’s encounter with Nico provokes a storm that shatters her perceptions of identity, duty, morality, and self-worth. The storm didn’t blow in from the outside. She was the storm. Its turbulence within her, forcing her to confront the darkness, uncovers her secrets and her pain.

Luna Saint Claire has a loving husband and an enviable career as a Hollywood costume designer. Still, something is gnawing at her. Bored with her conventional and circumscribed existence, she feels herself becoming invisible. When she meets Nico Romero, a charismatic yoga guru, his attentions awaken her passions and desires. Dangerous, but not in a way that scares her, he makes her feel as if anything is possible. Infatuated, she becomes entangled in Nico’s life as he uses his mesmerizing sexuality to manipulate everyone around him in his pursuit of women, wealth, and celebrity.

Immensely erotic and psychologically captivating, The Sleeping Serpent is the compelling story of a woman’s obsession with a spellbinding guru and the struggle to reclaim her life. At its heart, it is a painfully beautiful exposition of unconditional love that makes us question what we truly want.

“She realized in an instant that being around him awakened her, stirring the sediment that had long ago settled at the bottom of her well. He made her feel a part of him–of something larger, and somehow more alive.”