Author Interview: A Portal in Time by Claire Fullerton

A Portal in Time
Claire Fullerton

Genre: Paranormal/Historical Romance
Publisher: Vinspire Publishing
Date of Publication: November 30, 2013
Number of pages: 192
Cover Artist: Elaina Lee/For the Muse Designs

Book Description:
When we are inexplicably drawn to love and a particular place, is it coincidence, or have we loved before?

Enigmatic and spirited Anna Lucera is gifted with an uncanny sixth-sense and is intrigued by all things mystical. When her green, cat-eyes and long, black hair capture the attention of a young lawyer named Kevin Townsend, a romance ensues which leads them to the hauntingly beautiful region of California's Carmel-By-The-Sea where Anna is intuitively drawn to the Madiera Hotel. Everything about the hotel and Carmel-By-The-Sea heightens her senses and speaks to Anna as if she had been there before.

As Anna's memory unravels the puzzle, she is drawn into a past that's eerily familiar and a life she just may have lived before.

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MRP would like to extend a very warm welcome to Claire Fullerton, author of A Portal in Time. Claire, who or what most influenced you to become a writer?

I have e a natural born appreciation for the character and nuances of people, as well as the desire to share that appreciation. Further, being raised in the South (Memphis) was like a tutorial in how to tell a story. I find Southerners incredibly engaging in their colorful, exaggerated way of talking; they aim to enthrall and entertain!

If you were to be left alone on an island, what three books would you take with you?

Pat Conroy’s “The Prince of Tides,” John Knowles “A Separate Peace,” and Lisa Carey’s “The Mermaids Singing.”

What are your most and least favorite movie genres?

I’ve never liked action-adventure: all brawn and not enough brains!  I like character intensive movies, the ones that show us humanity with all its beauty and edges.

If you could choose any man for your next book cover, who would he be?

My next novel takes place in rural Ireland, so the black-Irish looks of the actor Johnathan Rhys-Meyer would be perfect.

When you are on a deadline, what aspect of your ‘regular’ life suffers most?

I prepare for deadlines by creating space, but if anything suffers, I think it’d be my involvement with our two dogs, who are seriously demanding of my attention.

What advice would you give aspiring authors?

Have faith in your story and write the first draft as best you can. The real work comes when you review and edit your first draft, then it all gets easier as you continue to go over it and over it repeatedly. Know there is a reason you feel compelled to write; do so with the courage of conviction and enjoy the process.

What advice would you give seasoned writers?

Never forget writing is a growth process which seeks a higher level.

When reading for pleasure, do you prefer a physical or electronic book?

Definitely physical.

From the first stroke of a pen (or laptop), how long did it take you get published?

I’d been published in magazines (poetry and women’s magazines) and had my own weekly newspaper column wherein I told stories in the first person about my life in Malibu.  Many years ago, I wrote a novel that takes place in rural Ireland, but after sending queries to agents looking for representation, very little was happening! I decided to try my hand at another genre—to write a book I would love to read, so I wrote “A Portal in Time” and was lucky enough to find a publisher who understood my vision. I was offered a contract three months after I submitted the manuscript, and now that Irish novel ( having been substantially reworked!) will be out by the same publisher in March of 2015.

Did you ever feel like calling it quits?

No, I am dedicated, patient and willing to say that writing is a growth process if one stays the course.

What did you do when you got your first contract?

I learned all I could about promotions and sat down to revise my second novel.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Claire. We really enjoyed the visit. Good luck and great sales with A Portal in Time.

About the Author:
Claire Fullerton is the author of Paranormal/Historical Romance, “A Portal in Time.”  Her second novel, “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” set in Connemara, Ireland, will be published in March, 2015.  Claire is a contributor to numerous magazines as well as a multiple contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series. She is a multiple award winning essayist, a former major-market radio disc jockey, and an avid ballet dancer.  Claire hails from Memphis, Tennessee, and currently divides her time between Malibu and Carmel, California with her husband and two German shepherds!

Author Links:
Website| Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Google+ 

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Guest Blog and Spotlight: A Portal in Time by Claire Fullerton

A Portal in Time

Claire Fullerton

Genre: Paranormal/Historical Romance

Vinspire Publishing

About the Book:

It is the year 2000: Enigmatic and spirited Anna Lucera is gifted with an uncanny sixth-sense, and is intrigued by all things mystical. When her green, cat-eyes and long, black hair capture the attention of a young lawyer named Kevin Townsend, a romance ensues which leads them to the hauntingly beautiful region of California’s Carmel-By-The-Sea, where Anna is intuitively drawn to the Madiera Hotel. Everything about the hotel and Carmel-By-The-Sea heightens her senses and speaks to Anna as if she had been there before.
It is the year 1902: Young Valeria Sienna has never been in love until she meets the mesmerizingly  handsome artist, Anders Kristiansen, at an art gallery in San Francisco.  She must make Domenico Sienna, her formidable and prominent Italian father, consent to allowing Anders Kristiansen to court her, and she knows her adored sister, Francesca, along with her genteel, Italian mother, Adriana will help.
Combined, the three women will convince Domenico that the elegant Norwegian artist, Mr. Kristiansen, is worthy of Valeria in every way, even though he is not of their Italian lineage.
Rich in history, mystique and foreshadow, “A Portal in Time” is an intertwined story of two romances that are steeped in the language and social mores of two different time periods. The words and actions of the unforgettable characters fit seamlessly together, and bridge the time frames like pieces of a puzzle, creating an intriguing whole.
That which draws two people into the arms of love is often times eerily familiar, and that which resounds in the depth of our memory can sometimes spring from a portal in time. 

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MRP is delighted to welcome author and guest blogger, Claire Fullerton~

Inspiration for a novel can come from the most unusual of circumstances, and the idea for “A Portal in Time” is no exception. In the year 2000, my husband and I took a trip up the California coast to Carmel-by-the-Sea on the hauntingly beautiful Monterey Peninsula.  As it was our one year wedding anniversary, we had reservations for the weekend at Carmel's historic, La Playa Hotel-- a hotel we'd never stayed in before.  Everything about the lobby of the antiquated hotel piqued my interest, and as my husband checked us in, I let my imagination roam free, taking in every inch of the opulent lobby with its travertine floors, sand-stone fireplace, and sweeping Mediterranean tiled staircase.  I explored a particular hallway looking at architectural maps of various stages of the hotel's growth that hung beside sepia tinted photographs of people in period clothing.  By the time my husband came to find me, I had already envisioned myself living in a house of this exact constitution, wearing a dress exactly like the one I saw in one of the photographs.  Next, I started thinking of what it was like to be alive at the turn of the 19^th century, living in a house by the sea along with how it would feel to have it as the setting of my life.  I decided I would love it-- that there would be a fabulous, interesting, fully-realized life at play with myself at the center of a thriving artistic community and oh the thrill of the environment.

But it occurred to me that life is life, and things happen to people unwittingly, and the story of people’s lives tend to happen in increments of cause and effect no matter where one lives. 

My eyes kept returning to the lobby’s staircase, and I wanted to climb them to their top.  When I did, I was drawn to a wooden cathedral door at the end of a long hallway.  I stood looking down the hall thinking, “If this were my house, the master bedroom would be at the end of this hall with a bay window overlooking a garden.”  I could feel myself standing before the window as if I were looking at my garden, then I started asking, “Now why would I be here looking out the window?”

“A Portal in Time,” my paranormal/historical novel, is the explanation of an entire imagined life that brought me to that window at the top of the stairs in Carmel’s La Playa Hotel.  I decided the story would be best told in oscillating time periods in order to lend an eerie, mystical feel. I like to give my readers an experience by taking them on a journey.  I want them to see and hear and feel everything for themselves by giving them a specific reality, and in this case, the reality is “A Portal in Time.”

About the Author: 

Claire Fullerton is a two-time, award-winning essayist, a newspaper columnist and a contributing editor for numerous magazines. She hails from Memphis, Tennessee, and now divides her time between Malibu and Carmel-By-The-Sea, California with her husband, two German shepherds, and two black cats. Claire's second novel, "Dancing to an Irish Reel" will be released in 2015.

Author Links: 

Facebook | Website