INSIDE THE HEAD of Monica M. Brinkman, Author of The Turn of the Karmic Wheel

When I read a book, or when I’m thinking of reading a book, I find that I would love to know more about the author. What do they think about? Why should I care about what they have written? What insights can they give me about their process, characters, and reasons for even putting their words on paper and sharing with others? Here are some questions I have asked some of my favorite authors. I hope you enjoy their responses as much as I have.

• Are you a cat or a dog person?

Definitely, a cat person. From my earliest memory, I was able to tame the proverbial ferrel cat without getting my eyes scratched out of my face. In fact, most who know me call me the “Cat Whisperer’.

Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?

• Caught me off guard with this one as my latest book, The Turn of the Karmic Wheel, is a mixed genre containing suspense, spirituality, horror and the paranormal with a touch of romance. In this instance, I suppose I didn’t quite balance them but included them.

How long have you been writing?

• Ever since I learned the English language. Even as a small child I wrote poetry and songs. Believe it was a way to deal with my extreme shyness and family situation. We had a very dysfunctional family.

How does your book relate to your spiritual practice or other life path?

• The Turn of the Karmic Wheel embodies 100% of my spirituality as well as allowing me the freedom to express, in written form, my path to justifying an unjust world. Without giving the plot away, let’s just say that you had better re-think the acts, deeds and choices you’ve selected in your life.

What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?

• As you will find in all my books and writings, my goal is to open the readers’ mind to seek other possibilities and choices in life. I am a bit of a rebel when it comes to writing. Tell me I can’t write about it, write it in that format, or include certain types of characters and you better bet that is exactly what I am going to do. To me, it is insulting to the intelligence of the readers of the world to put them in some sort of ‘readers’ box’.

What are some day jobs that you have held? If any of them influenced your writing, share an example.

• You chose the right person for this question. I think I’ve held more jobs and variety of types of jobs than most people I have met.

A few of them have been a Singing Telegram, Radio Commercial Voices, Claims Adjuster, Operations Manager, Theatre Producer/Director and even a Window Washer. The list goes on but it would bore you to death.

How I look at jobs is that whatever job you do, do it well and of course we learn much from each position we hold. In holding a diversity of positions, I ultimately came to see that life is not fair, nor perhaps was it meant to be so. One thing for certain is that life is hilarious.

Take the Singing Telegram, for example, it more than impacted my writing, it allowed me to actually write and be free of the fear of failure or looking the fool. I found out that looking the fool is what allows you to go after your passions and conquer fear of any endeavor you wish to accomplish.

After experiencing such things as knocking on a customers door and having a stark naked

bi-sexual male with a smile spread across his face open the door...hey, you can’t write that material, it has to come from real life.

My philosophy is-Laugh at me all you want, just buy my books and enjoy them.

Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Summarize your writing process.

• What process? Only joking but I must say that I honestly just sit down and write. I’ve heard of other authors structuring their story, selecting the characters and actually having an outline before they begin the writing. That’s not me. It flows from my mind into the fingers and I just type, type, type. So, I must pick intuition on this question. My dreams bring forth fantastic stories. I hear people say that their dreams don’t make sense yet my dreams are so adventurous I could make movies out of them. Sometimes they are so real, I must remind myself it is just a dream. •What projects are you working on at the present?

That’s an easy question as I am writing the sequel to my latest novel called ‘The Wheels Final Turn’. Believe it will surprise many due to the content. I’m not giving any secrets away just yet, let’s merely say it will be full of surprises.

• What's your favorite art form (excluding writing)? Why?

Painting in the oil medium is my favorite, though I do use acrylic or water-based oils on occasion. What intrigues me about painting is the process itself. You start with what looks like dark blobs of color and by adding lights and darks; you bring the blobs to life in the form of beauty. It as if you are creating life itself, from nothing.

• What trash item did you see that inspired you to write a story?

A piece of glass that broke in such a way it held prisms. Such a simple piece turned into an object of beauty. It became a spiritual object at that moment.

I used it to write a wonderful bit of poetry and at that instant I decided I would always include a bit of poetry within each of my books.

I can’t get the poet out of my blood, as you will see in my novel. Each section has a bit of poetry before the first chapter.

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Monica M. Brinkman, is a freelance fiction writer and poet.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia, PA area, she relocated to San Jose, CA, where she co-wrote and appeared in a small musical, How Lucky Can You Get. All proceeds were donated to The Muscular Dystrophy Association. She is a lover of all arts, owned a community theatre and has performed as a singer, actress, and voice of various radio commercials, along with dabbling in oil and acrylic painting.

She now resides in the St. Louis, Missouri area, which inspired her current fiction novel, The Turn of the Karmic Wheel.

In June of 2009, she released, Into the Tunnel of Darkness, a short poetry/prose book. It has received five-star reviews and was a featured book selection for the month of February 2010 on the Manic Readers site. You may find this book on-line at Barnes & Noble. She is a current member of The Writers Center and Writers3group.com., along with various other authors related groups and donates much time to reviewing new books for various Writers sites.