Promo Stop: Spin The Plate (With Excerpt & Author Interview)

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Today we welcome Donna Anastasi to the blog.
She was kind enough to share an excerpt of her book, Spin The Plate, as well as answer a few of our burning questions.
So let's get on with it and first take a look at the book.

Jo as a child suffered 128 episodes of abuse at the hands of her father. Now, a woman, she is powerful, enraged, unable to forget.

• Kindle Size: 332 KB
• Print Length: 234 pages
• AMAZON US

EXCERPT

Settling back into her seat, Jo glanced across the aisle and for the first time noticed a wiry man who looked youthful but not young sitting across from her. He had dark hazel eyes, olive skin, and curly hair the color of rich soil. The ridges of his sandy-toned corduroy pants were worn. His retro-Nike sneakers were white, scuffed leather with a green swish. Around his neck was a hemp string knotted every three inches with a three-inch simple wooden cross at the end. She pegged him for a graduate student because along with the Freegan appearance, he also had a copy of that day's Wall Street Journal. He probably attended Boston University or Brandeis.

With an amused look, the man searched her face. He seemed to see right through the façade, as if she wore a broad smile and he shared in the joke.

She glared at him. “What the @#$%^ is wrong with you?”

His gaze and the hint of a smile remained steady.

“Jesus loves you, you know,” he blurted.

She stared at him a little less fiercely, shaking her head slowly. She hoped he would dare to challenge her. She waited for him to question her faith, character, or morals or otherwise provoke her. She felt the blood rush to her extremities as she prepared to unleash a string of profanities that would knock the grin from his face and shock him to the core. His smile grew. He looked upward absently as if lost in a pleasant memory. Apparently he had nothing more to say.

The train groaned and settled to a halt. “Arlington” came over the loudspeaker. This was her stop.

Jesus freak, Jo thought as she exited the train.

Author Bio:

Donna Anastasi is the author of two non-fiction small animal books published by Bowtie press: The Complete Guide to Gerbil Care (2005) a popular how to breed, raise, and care for gerbils book and The Complete Guide to Chinchilla Care (2008) a chinchilla handbook promoting these exotic and intelligent creatures as companions, not coats. Spin the Plate is Anastasi's debut novel. The 2013 printing of Spin the Plate is a completely revised and expanded version of her 2010 indie-award winning novel: Living Now Book Awards (Gold Medal), Reader’s Favorite Awards (Silver Medal, Contemporary Romance), International Book Awards (Finalist, Women’s Literature), Best Book Awards (Finalist, Cross-Genre Fiction).

Donna Anastasi lives in the woods of Southern New, Hampshire with her husband, two teen-aged daughters and an ever-changing menagerie.

AND NOW A FEW WORDS WITH DONNA....

Do you write full time? If so, tell us how you manage it. If not, what is your day job? 

 No, I don’t write full time. I’m an interaction designer. I make on-line applications easy to use and improve the user experience. Design is a very interactive process requiring a lot of feedback and revision, plus a thick skin. The focus has to be on improving the end-product and making it right for your audience. These skills help in writing as well.

What is your writing process like--do you outline first or just start writing, etc.? 

 The book was originally a short story that came to me all at once. I wrote it down in about two week. Then I thought, “these characters are such interesting people, why not tell the whole story.” Writing fiction is extremely difficult. So, I had many authors, editors, and avid-readers help me to expand it to a full-length novel, which took four years.

Do you work with a writing group or mentor? Why or why not? If you do, what do you get out of it? 

My husband has had four books published and has won several playwriting awards – he helped me with the dialogue – plus several friends and relatives helped by writing down their stories which I wrote the characters into. This style of writing which I term “mosaic” results in a very realistic portrayal of events because of the details know only to those with first-hand experience.

What have you done to develop your writing craft? 

 Write and rewrite. And then rewrite again. I seek out feedback from a wide variety of people and truly see and treat honest reviews and all feedback as a gift.

What was the hardest part: writing the book, getting it published, or marketing it? Why?

Marketing, because that is the area where the author has the least control. There are so many good books in the Contemporary Fiction, Christian, and Romance categories – readers have many choices, and getting the word out has been tough, but that’s why I’m doing things like this.

Tell us about your book.

This book is not your usual bodice-ripper romance where an unnaturally gorgeous heroine meets a buff, alpha-male for hot nasty sex.

Not even close.

Jo is a survivor of a bleak and abusive childhood. She channels her pain and rage into weight training and roams the city streets at night as a powerful vigilante. While she is more than capable of defending herself against physical danger, she is defenseless against the memories of the past that torment her.

Francis is a mysterious man she meets on the subway train. He doesn’t have a regular job and is still living at home. But he is gentle, likeable, friendly, intelligent, sensitive, respectful, generous, patient, and understanding. Just what a brave, but damaged soul like Jo needs.

In this story, the average-guy hero battles to win the battered heart of the wary, edgy, less-than-perfect heroine.

“Spin the Plate is a fast-paced, edgy, darkly comic tale of resilience, romance, and redemption that breaks over you in waves. All you can do is gasp, stay afloat, and enjoy the ride.”
-- Holly Robinson, author of The Wishing Hill and Sleeping Tigers

Where can we find out more about you and buy your book?

The novel is free from Smashwords and iTunes. It is a 99 cent kindle and available in paperback from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Make sure to get the January 2013 (full length novel) version titled “Spin the Plate: A novel.

DISCLAIMER: I was not compensated.