MoA&A Interview #10: Carlene Love Flores

Hello, everyone! Welcome to July, and the Month of Artist and Author Interviews here on the website!

Today’s interview features one of the sweetest women in the romance genre: fellow Waterworld Mermaid Carlene Love Flores. Hanging out with Carlene is like getting a sugar injection from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory–and she knows a thing or two about music, which makes her a fabulous girlfriend to go see bands with.

I am honored to be hosting her today — take it away, Carlene!

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Author or Artist?
Great first question….an artist who writes love stories.

Who are your professional role models?
My moms.  I have four of them. And each one at some point in their lives was a single working woman with more than one full plate to juggle.  They continue to teach me balance between work and play.  And while I have many writing role models, this question comes while something Robyn Carr said during her talk is still fresh in my mind.  That right now, this is as hard as it gets. (Alethea, please help here if I’ve butchered Robyn Carr’s lovely statement.) I believe in that with all my heart and am thankful for the living proof from my moms.

What’s your favorite writing/sketching weather?
Nighttime weather is always preferable for me.  I feel calm under a clear nighttime sky, cold or warm, breezy or still.  I like to joke that it’s just too hard to write the intimate and tragic moments I tend to enjoy with all that vibrant happy sun shining.

Set your current playlist/musical device to “shuffle all” and hit PLAY. What’s the first song that comes up?
From my favorite playlist “Man Songs”, the song is “Bliss (I Don’t Wanna Know) by Hinder.   I heart boys singing.

If you could win any award, which would it be?
Menyon of the Month and Best Hand Kisser When Practicing For The Kissing Scene In Your Story

Would you rather have magical powers, or a spaceship?
Um, yeah, so that’s gonna be magical powers.  I’d rather free-fall from the spaceship than be locked inside.

What was your favorite book as a child?
The Monster at the End of This Book and Lambert the Sheepish Lion

What thing do you wish you could go back in time and tell your 10-year-old self?
Just because you love the boys of Menudo doesn’t mean you should have their haircut, Carlene Love Touchstone!

What’s your favorite constellation?
Oh, thank you so much for having this question!  Orion and especially his belt!  My grandma used to set out two of the long folding lounge chairs in the back yard of her house and we’d lay there in the night with her pointing him out to me.  I know I’ll always be able to find him. 😉

What’s your favorite fairy tale?
Thumbelina

What thing are you most proud of?
I think I may be blessed with luck and my ability to believe in that

The Colin Harvey Memorial Question: Name 3 things on your List of Things to Do Before You Die.
1. Dedicate a book to my dad
2. Be blessed with as many days on earth as humanly possible to see as much of my son’s life as I can
3. Make it to the beach in time [Before Carlene dies, whenever that is, she would like to visit the beach one last time. I think that’s beautiful. ~Alethea]

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Carlene Love Flores is a big fan of the stars (especially Orion), honest music (especially Depeche Mode), and her traveling family (no favorites there-she loves them all).  These things have always inspired her to think up stories and continue to do so. In 2008, she finally decided to try her hand at writing that edgy fiction she’d been imagining her whole life down. It’s been the best of journeys, already having completed three novel-length manuscripts.  In real life, she has been fortunate to work in a medical laboratory in Colorado, decorate cakes in Germany, and has even tried her hand at Little League umpiring.  Carlene feels honored to be a member of RWA, WRW, and The Waterworld Mermaids.

She currently lives in the D.C. area where she can often be found listening to live music and looking up at the sky on clear nights.  If she could touch someone’s heart with her writing the way others have done for her, she’d say truly there never lived a luckier girl.