Today’s interview is with Emly Forrest, author of The Last Resort. She shares with us her experience writing her first fiction manuscript, why her heroine would make a great best friend and her passion for RVing.

LUX ZAKARI: How did you get your start in writing, and what led you to seek publication?

EMLY FORREST: I can hardly remember a time when I didn’t write. Even as a small child, I’d create stories and plays, mostly to entertain myself. My mother claims I said my first word at nine months and was talking in complete sentences by one year. I guess I haven’t really shut up since.

Writing became more of a career after I attended the University of Denver Publishing Institute and got my first job in the publishing world. I wrote buckets of marketing stuff, articles for magazines, ad copy, you name it. Eventually, I became a freelancer for a few years. When many of the magazines I wrote for began to fold, I needed to find another way to use creative talent and make some cash. Voila, my first fiction manuscript.

LZ: Do you remember what your first story/play was about?

EF: Hmmm. Let’s see—it was over fifty years ago. Something about a squirrel, I think. Or maybe it was a cat. I was seriously interested in stories about animals in those days.

LZ: What was your experience with writing your first fiction manuscript?

EF: It was scary, exciting, transcendent and crazy all at the same time. I love the act of writing, even if I think the story is going poorly, I just keep pecking away at the keyboard because I love the creation of sentences and paragraphs. I lose track of time, myself, my husband and everything else that’s going on around me. It’s not a conscious thing–it just happens. But I love it.

LZ: Did you find it difficult?

EF: No. In fact, writing is about the only activity I’ve tried that doesn’t seem difficult to me. Oh, sure, there are days when the words just don’t flow, or I would rather go shopping for shoes than sequester myself with a computer keyboard, but mostly it seems to be pretty easy for me. Cooking, now—there’s a difficult task for me.

LZ: Is there anything important you feel your readers should know about you and your work?

EF:I’m starving. Please buy my book! Well, seriously, I’m not very interesting. But I think The Last Resort is, especially for women my age (over forty) who are redesigning their destinies. Murph, my protagonist, is the kind of girl I’d like for a best friend. I hope my readers feel the same.

LZ: What about Murph makes her the perfect best friend?

EF: She’s not catty or malicious. She’s vulnerable, yet capable of great strength. She likes to drink beer and she’s not inhibited sexually so won’t be shocked or repelled by a friend’s adventures. She’s not so interested in material things that it’s all she can think about. She likes the idea of travel. She’s kind.

LZ: How did you come up with the premise for your short novel, The Last Resort?

EF:The Last Resort began as a means for me to honor the people of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, who suffered crippling emotional and physical damage to their way of life after Hurricane Rita in 2005. I wanted a strong yet slightly emotionally damaged protagonist who could fit into this gracious, unique culture—and have some sensual fun along the way. My hope was also to illuminate—at least a little—the RVing lifestyle to those whose homes are not on wheels.

That said, I have to admit that I’m not good at planning stories. I usually start with a sort of vague, general premise, then just get writing and see where the characters take me. I’ve tried working from detailed outlines, but usually by about the third chapter I’ve veered totally off the plotted course, so what’s the point?

LZ: According to your Lyrical Press author page, you’re very interested in traveling. What has been your favorite location thus far? How does your traveling influence your writing?

EF:I’m not just interested in travel, it’s my life. Since 2002, I’ve been a full-time RVer and have been all over the country at least twice. It’s nearly impossible to name one favorite place, but if you’ve got several days, I could tell you about some of the standouts. I’m wild about western Montana, firmly entrenched in Gulf Coast Texas and Louisiana, and in love with Santa Monica and Malibu, California. The traveling I’ve done completely colors my writing, from creation of characters to infusion of local customs, food and manners of speech. I’ve also been inspired by many of the people who live in eastern Texas and southwest Louisiana. I count them among the best (and funniest) storytellers in the world.

LZ: How did you become interested in RVing?

EF: I suppose it goes back to my mom, who lived to travel and loved to take driving vacations. We always took car trips when I was young, even during those times when the money was tight. My mom found a way to make it happen. My husband added fuel to the RVing fire, I guess. He spent years on the road traveling with the circus (yes, really) so loved the nomadic life. He taught me how to live small in order to travel large.

LZ: How do you go about creating and naming your characters?

EF: I was alone a lot when I was a young child, so I invented people to play with and different personas for myself. I guess my fiction writing is really just an extension of that put to paper. Taking little bits of people I’ve met, those I’ve read about, and those I’d like to know, mashing it all together—that’s how my characters are created. Oddly enough, as I write, the characters often take on a life of their own—saying and doing things I didn’t originally intend. It’s always fun to see what they’re going to come up with next.

Naming characters is difficult for me. I’ve strong feelings about certain names and believe that a character’s moniker can evoke images for the reader. For instance, you wouldn’t normally expect someone named Gertrude to be elegantly beautiful. Yet, it can be fun to make such a character the antithesis of what their name might suggest. I also like to play around with nicknames. I had a horrid nickname as a child (which shall remain a mystery to preserve my scant dignity), so I like to give characters nicknames that I think are cool.

LZ: What projects are you working on now?

EF: I’ve several manuscripts going right now. One that tells a story of star-crossed love exclusively through the use of e-mails. One is a supernatural romance, complete with shapeshifters, and one is a novella with an Irish theme. There are probably about six or seven others rattling around in my head, but I’ve not committed any of them to paper yet. If anyone has any great ideas and no desire to create stories from them, feel free to drop me a line.

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To purchase The Last Resort from its publisher, Lyrical Press, visit www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_12&products_id=237.

For more about Emly Forrest, visit www.emlyforrest.com.