I've mentioned before how blessed I am by getting to know other authors. Well, let me tell you. The one chatting with me today is a peach! Liana George is a fellow Scrivenings author, and she's here to talk about her debut novel, Perfectly Arranged. Read on, because you're going to enjoy this one. Congratulations on your first book! From the moment you first got the idea to write this story, how long did it take to get here? Thanks! I first got the idea for the book in 2007-2008 while living in China. I was asked to research an address on a business card for a family friend. I never did locate the property but always wondered what was there. Thinking it would make a good story one day, I tucked it away in my writing idea notebook. Sometime in early 2017, I finally figured out how to make a book out of the idea and started writing my novel in December 2017. I know you've got two more books coming out in this series (and I'm so excited to read them and see what happens). Did you originally mean for this to be a trilogy, or did it take over and grow more than you thought it would? I’d always planned on it being a trilogy, but I never saw the story going the way it has, especially for books 2 (Perfectly Placed) and 3 (Perfectly Matched). But that’s the beauty of a story! It takes the author in the direction it wants to go sometimes, and we just have to go with the flow. When and why did you first decide to become an author? As a young girl, I loved to read and write stories. I even believed I’d be a Pulitzer Prize-winning author one day. However, fears and doubts caused me to lock that dream away for a very long time. In 2017, I found the courage I needed to revive that goal and began writing Perfectly Arranged. In 2021, nearly 40 years after I started crafting stories on the red shag carpet of my childhood home, my dream of being a published author has finally come to pass! I know you handwrite your stories before typing them. How long does it take to actually write a whole book by hand? Does this help you catch more things since you have to write it twice basically before sending it in? For some reason, creativity flows better for me when I write by hand, but like you said, it takes much longer! On average, I can handwrite one chapter (roughly 3500-4000 words) in three days and I usually write two chapters a week. At first, I would manually type my handwritten notes into Word, which would add another 3-4 hours of work to my week. Thankfully, I discovered the ReMarkable tablet which allows me to write to my heart’s content then converts my handwritten notes to typed text. It isn’t perfect but it’s a huge time-saver! I don’t usually catch things in this phase as much as I do when I review the book in chunks every few weeks. A big chunk of your novel takes place in China, based on some of your experiences from when you lived there? What were the top three things it was hardest to get used to when living in a different country? Oh, I have to pick just 3?? Hmm, well I guess I would say the biggest thing was hunting for food we were familiar with (Dr. Pepper, cereal, Mac-n-cheese, etc). I would often have to go to several small stores to find what I needed in addition to getting some of the basics from the Chinese markets. The other two were (1) the language issues – I knew some Chinese, but it was challenging to communicate with my driver, house help, and in public. Thankfully we had “handlers” who could translate for us in a jam and since it was obvious that we were foreigners people were patient and understanding with us; and (2) the sheer amount of people everywhere! No matter where you went – sidewalks, restaurants, stores – there were crowds in every direction. Eventually I acclimated but it took a while. Can you give us a sneak peek into something we can expect in the next book? I’ll give you three words – love, mystery, death And I always end with this question: Can you tell us one interesting fact about you that very few people know? I once rode a donkey up Mt. Sinai (Egypt) in the middle of the night so I could see the sunrise. Quite the experience!! Okay, that is really cool! Did you enjoy getting to know Liana more? Want to keep up with her or check out her amazing new book (seriously, I've read it and highly recommend!)? Keep scrolling. Perfectly Arranged Book One of the Hopeful Hearts Series Short on clients and money, professional organizer Nicki Mayfield is hanging up her label maker. That is until the eccentric socialite Katherine O’Connor offers Nicki one last job. Working together, the pair discovers an unusual business card among Ms. O’Connor’s family belongings that leads them on a journey to China. There the women embark on an adventure of faith and self-discovery as they uncover secrets, truths, and ultimately, God’s perfectly arranged plans Liana George is a sought-after speaker, blogger, and author. Before pursuing a career in writing, she was a professional organizer and the former owner of By George Organizing Solutions in Houston, Texas. Her debut novel, Perfectly Arranged, was inspired by one of her eccentric clients and Liana's love for China, where she lived for two and a half years. When she's not putting things in order or scribbling away, you can find her reading, traveling, or playing tennis.
Connect with Liana at: www.lianageorge.com or through any of these social media platforms: YouTube or YouTube organizing videos YouTube writer videos Amazon Author page Goodreads Author page BookBub Author page Mailing List
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This is a place for me to tell you about what I'm writing, talk about the process or where some of my ideas came from, or even have other authors come in and talk about their books.
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