Introducing Author Ann Carbine Best : Author Interview

Welcome to my blog, Ann. You are such an inspiration to me, and I am honoured to share you with the Important Ones today. 

For those of you who don’t know Ann, she inspires me never to give up hope of becoming published. Why? Because Ann was 71 when her first book -  In The Mirror: A Memoir of Shattered Secrets - was published. Not only that, she has gone on to write more, plus care for her daughter who was severely injured in a car accident.

First I have to ask. What was the reaction to you writing your memoir, In the Mirror, from your family? It is such a personal event in your life that I wonder if you had opposition to publishing the book.

Ann: My children didn’t want me to use their current pictures. They agreed I could use younger ones. My disabled daughter Jen heard me read early drafts out loud, but none of the others will ever read it. Too painful for them. My son said he didn’t even want to talk about the past with his dad when I asked him if he could help me remember a few things. “I’ve put it all behind me,” he said. If I wanted to publish it, fine, but he didn’t want to read it. That’s okay. But my youngest daughter, who was in the car accident with her sister Jen and works as a cosmetologist, told everyone at the salon where she works about the book; and one day she had a sort of “book signing” for me at the shop and all of her customers ended up buying it. I sold over a dozen copies there. Jen was with me, and it was quite fun.

I often think that if I could go back, I would not become a nurse but would study creative writing. If you could turn back time regarding your career, would you do anything differently?

Ann: That’s an ironic question, Glynis, because at one point in my life I thought about going into nursing. I thought it would be a good field should my first (gay) husband leave me. This was around 1974-75 and is in the memoir. As you know, nursing is very demanding, and my emotional life was chaotic at that time. Besides, I really wanted to stay in literature and creative writing, my first loves. I can remember as far back as first grade when I loved to both read and write stories. I have a crumbling copy of a school “newspaper,” two issues of it, that I put together in first grade! I wrote stories for my neighbourhood friends in the summers, and took two years of creative writing in high school. It was my one main interest and talent.

Do you have a writing routine/habit? Is there something you simply have to do before you can write? (aside from daily chores and routines).

Ann: to the last question: not really. As for a writing “habit” -- once I get into an idea, I simply write as often as I can. I can never stick to a “routine,” that is, certain hours of each day. As a full-time caregiver, this just doesn’t work.

What is the hardest part of the writing process for you and how do you overcome the problem?

Ann: I’m not good with description, so after I get the draft done with scenes and dialogue I then go back and “fill in the blanks.” Lately, I’ve been thinking about going back to screenwriting -- a few years ago I wrote two stories in this format, but I was thinking too much like a story writer. I think now I could do it. You don’t have to do fancy descriptions!

I used to love collecting teddies, and monkey ornaments. Do you collect things?

Ann: I never collected anything except books, though now that I think about it, I did collect stamps when I was a child. But now my disabled daughter and I live in such small quarters, I don’t have many print books left in my bookcases. I guess you’d say now I collect eBooks! And my daughter’s stuffed animals and wooden animals and other knick knacks inhabit the top of her dresser and her desk in our small living room. Sometimes I tell our good friends, that’s it, no more! 

What is one of your earliest childhood memories?

Ann: Christmas, when I still believed in “Santa.” I didn’t stop believing until I was 12. This was 1952 when you didn’t see Christmas blasted on the TV. Didn’t even have a TV until after that Christmas. That Christmas morning very early, I got my little sister out of bed and I felt her behind me as we crept toward the living in our small childhood house. Suddenly, I saw a huge shadow on the wall. I grabbed my sister’s hand and we flew back to bed. I was certain we had interrupted Santa Clause. I don’t remember when I found out it was my father’s shadow on the wall. He was up early emptying the ashes from the old coal stove that was our only heat back then, and then starting a fire. I was certain it was Santa Claus, because the cookies and milk we put out on the fireplace ledge were gone. Many years later when I was working on my bachelor degree in English, I wrote an essay called “My Father’s Shadow on the Wall” that won an award in a campus contest. When you get as old as I am, you have a LOT of memories to use in your writing!

Lovely memory!

If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go and why?

Ann: I’ve always wanted to go to London. To see the museums. To go to the operas. To see where Charles Dickens lived. The Victorian period in English history is so fascinating. There are so many great writers of that period in England that I would love to meet in the after life.

Ah, girl after my own heart. I write in this era, it fascinates me.

Do you have any hobbies?

Ann: I guess you can call my love of watching movies, especially British murder mysteries and old classics, a hobby. This is the most favourite thing my daughter and I love to do together. There’s not too much else SHE can do, being wheelchair bound.

I know you have many projects on the go, and that you ghost-write for friends. What is your latest personal project?

Answer: I guess I’ll try to finish the ghost writing project for my friend who has a severely disabled son. I also keep having a thought for a juvenile novel, set in the early fifties, the main character based on my childhood friend who had polio.

Do you have any new books out there for The Important Ones to enjoy?

Mostly right now I’m concentrating on promoting my memoir, In the Mirror: A Memoir of Shattered Secrets. The main theme of the memoir is my marriage to my first “gay” husband. The book was published by a wonderful new press, WiDo Publishing Company, in May of 2011 and is still riding at #1 on at least four categories on Amazon. And the print book is still selling also.

Then there’s the novella, Imprisoned: Svetlana Garetova’s Memoir, that I self-published last November (2011). It’s about my Russian friend who was my daughter’s substitute aide one week the winter of 1997. She told us her incredible story that I taped, transcribed, and dramatized. After putting the novella up on KDP for free for five days, it has been selling at the rate of one or two a day. It’s always fun to know you’re connecting with great people “out there” in cyberspace.

Where can The Important Ones find you in Cyberspace?

You can find me here.

At my blog: http://annbestblog.wordpress.com

On Twitter (occasionally): @anncarbinebest

In the Mirror and Imprisoned can be found here: Amazon

Finally, what words of wisdom do you wish to leave for us all who are yet to be published?

If you have that urge to write, you’ll keep writing -- and dreaming. There’s nothing that says you can’t keep dreaming that someday you’ll be published.  And if you can’t find a “traditional” publisher, you can self-publish. Why not? There’s nothing to lose, especially if you end up feeling satisfied, as I did, that YOU DID IT. J

Thank you for sharing with us, Ann. Good luck for the future.