Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

Lynne Heinzmann will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo.

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? Lynne Heinzmann

Where do you call home? North Kingstown, RI

What genre(s) do you write? Young Adult, Historical Fiction

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? 

I loved action/adventure books, especially those that involved travelling to far away lands. Those were my favorites because they gave me the chance to imagine living in different worlds and having amazing adventures. I have a vivid imagination!

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why?  

My favorite book as a child was The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I loved the swashbuckling swordfights, the cross-country adventures, and the close friendships of the four main characters. Another favorite book was The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum because the main character is a brave girl who knows how to get what she wants. Go Dorothy!

What are some of your favorite books today?

My all-time favorite book is Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I absolutely adore Scarlett O'Hara, the strong woman who always figures out how to get what she needs and never takes "no" for an answer. I also enjoy the historical elements of the book, showing Georgia before, during, and after the Civil War. I learned a lot by reading (and re-reading) this novel!

 

As far as contemporary novels, my new favorite is The Wedding People by Providence College Professor Alison Espach. The author does an amazing job of getting inside the head of the main character, Phoebe, and showing the story through her eyes. I also love that the novel is set in Newport, RI, so I recognize some of the locations mentioned. And there is a lot of humor sprinkled throughout the book. A very fun read!

What inspired you to become a writer? 

As a child, I wrote stories to take myself to wonderful, imaginary places full of fantastical beasts. I got to be creator of my own worlds. In many ways, that is still what drives me--the challenge of creating places, plots, and people that the reader will care about and find believable.

 

But Cats Don’t Talk

But Cats Don't Talk is the story of Becca O'Sullivan, a brilliant young woman with everything going for her: a promising career as a concert pianist, a loving mom, and a sweet tuxedo cat named BC. When her world is turned upside down, she is determined to succeed no matter what, which will be tough to do while dealing with an alcoholic aunt, an extremely cute new boyfriend, and her cat who has seemingly learned to speak--and has a lot to say. Becca is afraid she won't be able to hold it together long enough to make it to the end of the performance season. And even if she does, she has no idea what she's going to do after the concerts are over. Good thing BC is there to help her figure it out! 

Tell us a little about how “But Cats Don’t Talk” came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? 

Up into my twenties, I was a ballet dancer, taking classes seven days a week and performing with various regional ballet companies. Because I spent so much of my time in dance studios, I often felt "other than" when I was around my public school friends. As an author, I wanted to capture this feeling and offer encouragement to young creatives in a YA novel. Plus, I've always wanted to write a book with a talking animal in it, and cats are the number one meme on the internet. Put all of those ideas together and--Shazam!--you get But Cats Don't Talk.

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? 

In my early drafts, the main character was a tall, gawky, red-haired boy named Peter whereas in the published version, the hero is Becca, a beautiful, petite, red-haired girl. So, other than the hair color, just about everything about that character changed. While writing the book, I found out that very few piano contest winners are female and so I wanted to challenge that norm in my book. And I find that I enjoy writing more from the female perspective. Girl power!

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? 

Surprisingly, the hardest character to write was Grandpa. I really liked him and kept finding him dominating scenes or even whole chapters, even though he was supposed to be a minor player in the story. In the end, I had to kill him off and make him more or less a ghost in order to keep him from taking over the book!

 

What do you like best about being a writer? 

I love the creativity involved in creating people, places, and events from my own imagination and then figuring out the best way to present them to the reader so he will believe in them and care about what happens to them.

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  

I think it would be a blast to write a book with Mark Twain. He had such a wonderful sense of humor and such an economy with words. I think the book, entitled Twinkle Toes,  would be about a girl from a small, rural town, who dreams of being a dancer and would show the funny clashes of her normal life with her dance life, including a boyfriend who agrees to dance in a recital just so he can be with her.

 

You can follow Lynne Heinzmann here - 

Website - https://www.lynneheinzmann.com 

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/lynne.heinzmann 

 

Lynne Heinzmann is giving away a signed copy of But Cats Don't Talk and a BC Cat Stained Glass Ornament (designed and made by Lynne)

 

To enter, comment below →  If interspecies verbal communication were possible, which animal would you enjoy a conversation with? And what might you learn from such a dialogue?

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