Monday, January 6, 2014

Discover the world of Darlene P. Winston

Please welcome author Darlene P. Winston today as she sits down to answer my nosy questions and treat us to a teaser of her latest book, The Other Woman.


Do you have any guilty pleasures?  Buying books and reading…Thank God for E-readers, now my husband doesn’t know how bad that guilty pleasure has gotten.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Hawaii

How do you get yourself in the mood to write? I have a mental conversation with my characters, if we aren’t on the same or can’t compromise then I will not put word to paper.

Where do you find the inspirations for your stories? The people around me, I love to people watch.

Are your characters able to love or do they need to be taught? In my first novel, the heroine needed to be taught to love and it took a very patient man to teach her.

When you begin your stories, do you go with the flow, or go with an outline? I always go with the flow. I find outlines too stringent.

Is it hard coming up with titles or characters names? I find it hardest to come up with titles.

Is music a factor for you while you are writing? Do certain songs put you in the right frame of mind to write certain stories? No, music isn’t a factor while writing.

Has there been any character that started off as supporting character, but then developed into a more prominent character? Yes, Marilyn in my novel The Other Woman was to be a supporting character. She was one that I could not compromise with so I allowed her to take over.

What has been the defining moment in your career that made you think “Yes, I am now a writer!”? That would be when my readers started asking for a sequel to my first novel.


The Other Woman
Genre Mainstream/ contemporary fiction
Publisher Sweet Cravings Publishing

Krys Harriston has what every girl wants—a good job, a handsome hardworking husband, two beautiful kids and a loving home…everything that makes her happy. But there’s another woman out for revenge trying to break up her marriage, and this is one woman Krys may not be able to compete with. Her husband, Cameron, never imagined that the one person who loves him unconditionally is the very one causing his world to come crashing down around him. Does he have enough strength to fight the evil forces and save his marriage or will he allow it all to slip away?

Excerpt:

“Okay, Cameron,” she said barely above a whisper, “You deal with it your way. But you’re going to have to deal with it alone because I’m not taking this shit.”
He looked up at her. “Are you leaving?”
She looked at him and then said, “No, I’m not leaving.” She pointed at him. “You are.”
“What?”
She got up to go to the bathroom. “You heard me, I’m tired of feeling like a stranger in my own home. Get your shit and get out!” With that, she slammed the bathroom door.
Krys knew he must have been stunned at her ultimatum. Finally he followed her into the bathroom and stopped beside her as she stood brushing her teeth.
“What good will my moving out do? What about the kids?” He stepped back to lean against the door jamb.
Krys looked over at him as she leaned over the sink to rinse her mouth. If he could have read her mind, he would have heard her ask, Lord, where is my husband because this specimen standing before me sure isn’t the one I married? She reached for a towel. She wiped her mouth and continued to eye him. She stepped around him and walked out of the bathroom and got in the bed.
Cameron stood in the bathroom door. “Krys, I asked you a question.”
“Damn it, Cameron, the good it’ll do is I’ll have some peace of mind. And as for the kids, they’ll be just fine. You can come by to pick them up and spend as much time with them as you want.”
“And what will this do to them?”
“What will you staying do to or for them, Cameron? Do you think that they haven’t noticed the difference in our relationship?” She started to cry again. Damn it, the tears just keep coming, she thought. “What do you think that is doing to them?”
He moved over to her and tried to wrap his arms around her. She held up her hand to stop him. “Don’t.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“Me, too, Cameron.” At that moment she couldn’t contain the tears and all hell broke loose. “But, you know what? Sorry, doesn’t fucking help the way I’ve been feeling these past few weeks!” She wiped at the tears that continued to fall no matter how hard she willed them not to. “Sorry doesn’t excuse your actions toward me. Sorry doesn’t make me want to stay with your sorry ass after you swore to me that you’d forsake all others for me. Sorry hasn’t wrapped an arm around me at night nor has it given me an orgasm. Sorry sure as hell doesn’t make me think that you deserve my love after the way you’ve been treating me.
“Well, guess what? I’m sorry, too, Cameron, sorry that I’ve put up with your mother’s shit just to save face with you. Maybe if I’d told her ass off the very first time she looked down her nose at me we wouldn’t be in this mess. I’m just so fucking sorry to have to put your ass out, but you know what? You’ve got to go. And when you realize that your mother can only be your mother and not your lover and friend then you let me know what you’ve decided to do about this situation.” She paused long enough to draw breath into her lungs. This time she spoke more calmly, “So Cameron, I say again, get your shit and get out.”


About the Author

 DARLENE P. WINSTON is a native of Waverly, Virginia. She is an avid reader and spent much of her adolescence at the local library, where she got excited about books and the power of words. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Virginia Union University in Richmond and years later she returned to school for a master’s in Business with a concentration in Information Technology Management from Touro University International. Currently Darlene resides in Chester, Virginia with her husband, son and their dog and she has a daughter in college. Darlene loves bowling, traveling and spending time with her husband and two kids when their busy schedules permit. She works full time for a large insurance company.



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