A Cup of Conversation, Interview

On August 1st, Author Soulla Christodoulou published an interview with yours truly about Awen Rising. With Soulla's permission, I am posting her intro and the first question here. To read the remainder and the original article, please click the link to be taken to her website.

"Hello and welcome to A Cup of Conversation where I am joined by debut author Olivia J. Barre who has just released her book Awen Rising. I've got a copy of the book and can't wait to read it...it has the most beautiful cover too! In this interview Olivia reveals her writing process and her experience of letting go of her first book. She shares her plans for the rest of 2019 and how she wishes she could do more to support her fellow writing community than she already does. It's hard keeping up with it all, that's for sure! So thank you for joining us and I hope you enjoy this week's A Cup of Conversation. 

BIO

O.J. Barré hails from the lushly forested, red-clay hills near Atlanta, Georgia where this story takes place. From birth, O.J. was a force of nature. Barefoot and freckled, headstrong and gifted, she was, and is, sensitive to a fault. Books became her refuge as a young child, allowing O.J. to escape her turbulent alcoholic home on adventures to untold places and times. Her daddy’s mother was a Willoughby, making O.J. a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. Her Awen series is a love letter to that distant past. 

1. When did you start writing creatively?

I started writing creatively as a tween – mostly poetry and letters with friends out of state. In high school, an astute English teacher told me I had a gift. But it never occurred to me to pursue writing until the early 90’s when I began journaling as part of my recovery from alcoholism. With the advent of the internet, various and sundry friends told me I should be a writer, that I had a way with words, a way of putting things so that they GOT IT. Even vague, hard-to-grasp issues. 

Still, not until the beginning of the millennia did I act upon that. After moving to the California coast, I bought my first laptop and began writing a fictionalized memoir. It was both cathartic and healing, but 30 days and many words in, the Gateway’s hard drive crashed. I hired a pro to retrieve my ms, but all he could rescue was gobbledegook. From that, I learned to save hard copies of my files, and now I email them to myself on a regular basis. But losing that ms broke me in every sense of the word & I gave up writing. 

Until one day, sitting on a bench on the Ventura promenade, I saw a seagull fishing with a pelican. I found it curious, but thought nothing more until a day or so later when I watched a repeat performance. It was such an odd sight that my imagination kicked into overdrive and a children’s book was born: Frank & Ernie Find Home. I had a blast writing F & E and even queried some publishers – with good feedback – then my mother died in 2006 and threw me into a 3-year downward spiral. During that time, I wrote nothing, other than daily journaling and a tiny Squarespace blog that I need to rescue from the obscurity in which it languishes..." Click to read the remainder of the interview.

This is the first of many questions about Awen Rising and the writing thereof. Please click here to read Soulla's entire interview.

Soulla Christodoulou is the author of three women's fiction novels, with a fourth on the way. To read more about Soulla, check out her website, or find Soulla and her books on Amazon.

Thank you, Soulla. And thanks to all of YOU for reading her interview. Please leave a comment for us below. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

WE DID IT Y'ALL! I. AM. STILL. SOOOOO. EXCITED!! Thank you for having faith in me.

~ That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell, writing as  O.J. Barré

GIVEAWAY CONTEST IS COMING! To stay abreast of O.J.'s latest and be eligible for upcoming giveaways of free books, gift certificates, etc, subscribe to Muse & News, a monthly (or so) "news"letter.

O.J. Barré is the author of the Awen trilogy, a druid science fantasy set in 2042. Steeped in current, ancient, and future history twists, Book One, Awen Rising (set in Atlanta, Georgia) is scheduled to debut August 1, 2019, in both ebook and paperback. Book Two, Awen Storm, is slated for 2020. Book Three, Awen Tide, arrives in 2021.