All Erica Peterson wants to do is pay off the mortgage on her bridal salon when a ghost appears in the salon. The disturbance the ghost causes attracts police detective Grant Stewart. The ghost, who is wearing a Victorian-era wedding gown, has a history of violent encounters with owners of the building. She vows to stay until she has fulfilled her soul's purpose. Erica, her staff, her clientele, and Grant suffer ghostly encounters. Erica is on the verge of losing everything: the salon, Grant, and the two-year-old child who has stolen her heart, To save all, she must travel through time to prevent a tragedy taking place both in 1894 and in present time.
"With skillful writing and clean, well-edited narrative, it was a pleasure to read." -- Eglantine, Long and Short Reviews
"Carol has done an excellent job with this book. The characters are well rounded, the storyline is excellent, and the book contains just the right amount of suspense to keep you hooked. Once you get started with Eternally His, you won’t want to put it down. You’ll find yourself needing to know what happens next, and just when you find out another twist will draw you in even further." -- Trevas Walker, eBookGuru
Carol North has worked on assignment in many U.S. locations and industries as a professional writer. She finds this a great way to see the country, especially since the client pays the travel expenses. Her first romance novel, Love's Reflection, was written mostly on airplanes and in airports.
She lives in Savannah, Georgia with her Shih Tzu, Little Miss, and enjoys spending time with her four grown children and grandchildren.
An Interview with Carol North
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Carol, thank you for talking with us at TRS. Please tell us about your featured work, Eternally His.
CN: Think you for inviting me. I'm very excited about being interviewed by The Romance Studio.
Eternally His is the story of Erica Peterson, a bridal salon owner who is too busy for romance. All Erica wants to do is pay off the mortgage on her bridal salon when a ghost appears in the salon. The disturbance the ghost causes attracts police detective Grant Stewart. He's not in the mood for love either, being newly divorced and fighting for custody of his little girl.
The ghost, who is wearing a Victorian-era wedding gown, has a history of violent encounters with owners of the building. She vows to stay until she has fulfilled her soul's purpose. But no one knows what her purpose is.
Erica, her staff, her clientele, and Grant suffer ghostly encounters. Erica is on the verge of losing everything: the salon, Grant, and the two-year-old child who has stolen her heart. To save all, she must travel through time to prevent a tragedy taking place both in 1894 and in present time.
HH: A mortgage isn't the only problem your heroine is facing. She also has a ghost, a mystery, and a journey to experience. Where did you get the idea for this fascinating story?
CN: Quite some time ago, the Franklin Mint advertised a doll dressed in a Victorian wedding gown. She was beautiful with red hair, green eyes, and a tiny waist. At the time there was no purpose for me to be so taken by the Victorian bride. I wasn't writing fiction due to a heavy work schedule, but I cut out the picture anyway and put it in my "Ideas" file. As often happens for writers a story builds itself around a single element, in this case, the photograph. Though it took years before the idea surfaced again.
The rest of the intrigue came during plotting the story. I kept asking myself, "If Erica does that, what is the worst-possible situation that can beset her?" When I found the worst-possible, I wrote it. Sometimes I saved up several worst-possibles and hit her with all of them at the same time. Other times I let her think life was going in an upward spiral, then knocked her off her illusions and let her fall lower than the point from which she started.
HH: What sort of research was required for this project?
CN: While Eternally His was "cooking" in my subconscious, my life changed to accommodate writing the story
The research was done on the job. Several years after putting the photograph of the Victorian bride in my Ideas file, I returned to school to study writing. As with most college students, I didn't have time for both school and a full time job. Luckily, I found a part-time job as a bridal consultant.
Like a sponge, I absorbed the bridal salon atmosphere and stored the experience in the back of my brain so it could be accessed at the right time. I didn't begin writing the story of the Victorian bride until years later.
HH: What do you like best about Erica and how do you relate to her?
CN: Erica is a composite of the bridal salon owners and the consultants I met while working in the field. Having experienced working with these women I could cherry-pick attributes and create Erica from the best and from the not so good. Erica is kind and genuinely cares about the people in her life, perhaps too much so because she often puts aside her own needs. On the not-so-good side, Erica is somewhat greedy, which is perhaps a requisite for a bridal salon owner.
She is totally engrossed in her business. I understand that part of Eric because I am totally engrossed in writing.
HH: What's the challenge, for you as a writer, to convincingly add paranormal elements to your work?
CN: I certainly hope I've been doing it convincingly, but that's for my readers to determine.
Fiction is real life on steroids. The writer creates all characters as bigger than life. I don't feel any differently about characterizing a ghost than I do about creating a heroine. Perhaps my 30 years of studying integral yoga has blurred the edges between the mundane and the paranormal.
HH: What can you tell us about Love's Reflection?
CN: Love's Reflection is another of my stories that came out of on-the-job research. Motorola University hired me to write a training course called "Introduction to Programming Robots." I was assigned an engineer to answer my technical questions and a robot to play with. I was fascinated by the robot. It wasn't big and didn't look at all human. It was one-armed and only 18 inches tall.
While I was writing the training course I came to realize some day in the not-too-distant future we'll be creating robots that are indistinguishable from human beings. I also learned about the parts of a robot and how they work. Though not an engineer myself, I was able to imagine how the humanoid could be created.
Then I realized we will have problems and issues when we create such robots. Should robots be issued drivers licenses? Should the robot sleep in a bed or do you prop it up in a corner all night while the human is sleeping. Could a robot fall in love? Could a human fall in love with a robot?
So I wrote Alpha's story. She is every man's fantasy woman: beautiful, anatomically perfect, low-maintenance, and pure. She's a robot created by Dr. Cort Hirsch in the image of the woman who rejected him, Zoe Parker, film superstar.
Cort expects Alpha to be the "mother" of the race of dutiful service robots he plans to manufacture. Life with Alpha is not at all what Cort expected. He envisioned the sultry beauty cooking his meals and polishing his boots. Instead, she is placing orders for expensive kitchen equipment, perfumes, and clothing. And, damn it, she's smarter than he. Alpha takes Cort on quite a ride. There are times he wonders who's creating whom.
HH: What are you working on now?
CN: My next book, Miss Bisque and The Colonel, will be released in early 2010 by Red Rose Publishing. Miss Bisque's late husband, Johnny Bob Wiley, was a man with secrets so he set up his estate to prevent anyone learning of his clandestine activities. His widow must make a choice: live a hand-to-mouth existence or toughen up and take care of herself. With the help of the "Casanova of Savannah," Colonel Parker Hill, Miss Bisque discovers Johnny Bob's secrets and begins building a successful career in fine art. When Miss Bisque is accused of murder, she may need more help than even the colonel can provide.
HH: How did you get your start as a writer?
CN: I recall deciding to be a writer when I was about five years old. I also wanted to be a wife and mother. When my family responsibilities lessened, I went back to school to learn to be a writer. I was doing a lot of wishing for a job and practicing writing and editing. One day, on the commuter train from the Chicago Loop to my home in the suburbs, I had a conversation with the stranger sitting next to me. She knew the publisher of a regional, monthly magazine. He was looking for a managing editor. My new friend set up an appointment. The publisher, Phil Scoplite, hired me. That was the beginning of my 25-year career as a freelance, technical and business writer and editor.
All the while I was working as a technical and business writer, I was writing short stories. They were published both in print and online.
HH: How have things changed for you since then?
CN: I'm concentrating on fiction and occasionally take a technical writing project. This is opposite of the way I worked for the past 25 years where technical writing came first and fiction was a fill-in.
HH: What goals have you set for yourself at this point in your career?
CN: Finally I am able to write the stories that appeal to me, the stories stored at the back of my brain for years and even decades.
Holly, thank you and everyone at The Romance Studio for this opportunity.
