Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Virtual Book Tour: Chosen Path by J. Whitney Williams read the #interview and enter the #giveaway



Erotic Romance
Date Published: 4/28/2017

Yumiko Itsumoto wants it all. An accomplished artist and feared attorney, she gets what she wants, all else be damned. Now she wants love, even if it means charting a new course for her life, but changing course can be dangerous.  In mere moments, she tumbles from the dizzying pinnacle of success into a bottomless abyss of murder and treachery.  Yumiko will not live happily ever after—not this time—but can she at least find a way to stay alive?

Editor's review 

Author J. Whitney Williams follows CARRIED AWAY—his surprisingly intelligent and deftly written debut—with a story that is even sexier, more thrilling and more enthralling than the first.
Again taking the reader on a trip across the world, meeting strange people in strange places via a prodigious narrator, CHOSEN PATH follows Yumi, a powerful and apparently dispassionate supporting character introduced in book one. But appearances deceive. Here, the reader is immersed in Yumi—into the very depths of her complex mind, her conflicted yet determined soul, her insatiable sex drive.
When Yumi encounters the woman who she presumes to be the fiancée of the love of her life—perhaps her only true love—she has every reason to seize the opportunity that presents itself to erase the woman from both of their lives forever. It’s no wonder Yumi is the prime suspect for the unfortunate woman’s swift and seemingly heartless murder. Unable to recall herself, Yumi assumes the worst, too. It wouldn’t be the first tragic fate to befall someone who stood in her way—or the last—and cameras don’t lie.
In CHOSEN PATH, Williams explores the very essence of what makes us human. The protagonist, a uniquely flawed yet extraordinarily likable woman of many talents and trades, demonstrates the jealousy and manipulation we see in ourselves and despise in others. At the same time, we’re drawn to Yumi. Geisha. Samurai. Assassin. Pseudo-royalty. Nothing happens to her; she creates. If we all shaped our own circumstances, our destinies, as adroitly as she, what paths would we choose and where would they lead us?


Interview

Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?

I think there may be something in it about the folly of perfection.  Yumiko is troubled, never at rest.  I created her as a foil for the protagonist in my first book.  She is a one-dimensional character, the avatar of power, the all-knowing, all-doing hero that all of us want to be.  Almost anything so pure is intrinsically unsuited to reality.  Pure power, in particular, is always doomed.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Deep down in my cold, black, little heart, I am a scientist.  I want to measure.  I want to tune and optimize.  I want to hook a thousand people up to polygraphs while they read a draft and isolate the linguistic mechanisms of emotional response, then make revisions and hook another thousand people up.  Of course, I cannot.  I suffer from a paucity of data aggravated by conflict of opinions from reader to reader.  That is art’s nature, but it isn’t mine.

How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

I have written two and a half.  My favorite is the next one.  Always.


If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?

Wow.  Casting is a skill I know nothing about.  I will say that I would have Yumiko played by an ethnically Japanese woman.  I’ve read several articles recently about the casting of white actors to play characters who are very definitely non-white.

Take for example Ghost in the Shell.  The character-name Motoko Kusanagi does not conjure in my mind an image of Scarlet Johansen’s face.  In one article, the original creator of the comic book said something to the effect that the same story can be told with any names and faces.  That’s certainly true of Ghost in the Shell.

Yumiko’s story, I think, is better told with a Japanese face.  The same morality play could be written in another setting, but this telling of it makes use of her Japanese heritage.  It’s the sea in which she swims.  Having a Japanese face on the character would help keep that heritage immediately in the audience’s minds.

When did you begin writing?

March 7, 2015

How long did it take to complete your first book?

The first draft took about three weeks.  The story had a life of its own.  Now, it takes me much longer to write because I am learning ways to improve with methodical revisions.

Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?

No, not really. There is a tremendous about of beautiful poetry and prose out in the world. All of it exhibits the amazing power of the written word. If anything, inspiring authors inspire me not to publish. Why would what I have written belong on the shelf with my favorite books? What did I contribute to literature? I have to put the classics down to be content with writing something I simply hope will be fun to read.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Dialog.  Have you ever walked away from a conversation and realized what you should have said, some profound insight or wicked insult, moments too late?  When writing, not only can you revise your conversations, but you speak both sides of them.  Sometimes a conversation between two characters becomes a slow-motion argument with yourself.  You can usually win such an argument in fine style.

Describe your latest book in 4 words.

Didn’t see it coming.

Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?

My first book, Carried Away, left several loose ends I wanted to tie up.  Yumiko’s story was only one of them, but it exploded into novel of its own.  Fiction is like a system shoved out of equilibrium.  Plot is the resolution of some struggle, the motion of a system returning to a steady state in which everyone is happy and wise.  Some of my characters remain unhappy and unwise.  They’ll have their chance.





About the Author 
A mathematician by training and computer programmer by trade, J. Whitney Williams lives and works under the X in Texas, thinking too much and speaking too little.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting

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