This Week’s Feature Author Interview with
Devorah Fox
Hi Devorah Fox, welcome to the Indie Publishing Group website. Introduce yourself to us. Tell everyone who you are, where you’re from, what do you enjoy doing, hobbies and interests.
Thank you for the opportunity to visit your blog. I’m Devorah Fox. Originally from New York, I now live on the South Texas Gulf Coast with rescued tabby cats and a pet dragon named Inky. When not writing fiction, I continue to manage the business that my late husband and I started 30 years ago, a small publishing company publishing textbooks and training materials for commercial motor vehicle operators. Our flagship title is Bumper to Bumper, a 500-page book on operating 18-wheelers.
When did you start writing and why?
I’ve been a writer my entire life. I kept a diary or journal since childhood. Writing came so naturally and automatically that for decades I assumed that everyone could do it.
Which is your favorite book you have written and what gave you the idea for it?
I like all my books, but I have a lot of affection for Detour. It’s based on an experience that I had traveling with my then husband (now deceased). I wrote the first chapter shortly after we returned home and the story continued to simmer on a back burner of my brain. Twenty years later I determined to finish it.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I tried several titles. It wasn’t until I wrote one of the final chapters that it occurred to me that “Detour” would make an ideal title.
Who helped you with the cover? Or did your design it yourself? What was your inspiration for your cover design?
I designed the cover myself. I wanted to picture a scene suggestive of the story’s setting in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley during winter and convey that trucking was a story element. For the title treatment, I used a font similar to that of “detour” street warning signs, with a background glow in the same orange/red shade used in those signs. Having the image of the road wander off to who-knows-where was a happy accident, no pun intended.
What are some of the themes of your story?
“The Things We Do for Love,” is one theme: how hoping to please someone we care for seems to arouse our fears and insecurities, but also spurs us to be our very best. I also wanted to portray the life and work of the commercial motor vehicle operator. Truck driving is a hard job that’s critical to our economy and our daily lives. Most truckers are professional about their work, but what they do on a daily basis is not well understood, and they get little credit for it.
What’s your process when you sit down and decide to start writing a book? What is your process and do you have a system?
I do start with an idea of who is going to be in the story and where it’s going. Honest, I do. But at some point the characters take over. Like actors in a stage play, they toss the script aside and make up their own lines. It’s all I can do to try to keep up.
Who are some of your favorite characters and why?
I like Detour’s Archie Harlanson because he was modeled after my late husband. However, I continue to be intrigued by King Bewilliam, the lead character in my literary fantasy series, The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam, and by Will Mansion, the Zen Detective. Even though their stories are in different genres and set in different times and places, both King Bewilliam and Will Mansion chronicle the struggles of someone driven by circumstances to set out on an entirely new life path.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
I enjoy Michael Stephen Daigle. The Weight of Living, the third book in his Frank Nagler series, will be out soon and I can’t wait. I also am eagerly awaiting House of Diviners by Alesha Escobar.
Have you got anything you’re working on now?
Blood Guilt, my work in progress, is a police procedural. Like The Zen Detective, it combines crime investigation with the search for personal enlightenment.
If you could have any super powers what would they be?
I seriously need to clone myself, or at least be in two places at the same time.
If you could travel to any location in the world where would you go?
I don’t like to travel. Fortunately, I live in a vacation destination so if I do get some time off, I’m already in the right place.
Where do you hope to be in 5 years’ time?
Still writing!
Thanks so much for taking the time to do an author interview. Take a minute and check Devorah Fox out on the links below.
