December 9, 2019
It’s been awhile since we’ve done this. Interview one of your characters. Introduce them to a new audience or give existing readers new insight into their motivations.
Spoiler alerts ahead! If you haven’t read The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, this interview may spoil some of the fun.
Today we’re talking with Elijah Hennessey, owner of Shifter Technologies, a tech company that specializes in providing computer software for law enforcement agencies. We agreed to meet at his office in the Orlando, FL area. When I arrived, I only had to wait a few minutes until I was escorted into his office. The first thing I noticed was his unusual eyes- they were the palest blue I’d ever seen.
The anticipated offer of coffee came quickly, which I declined in favor of water. I noticed that there were at least three cups in various spots on my host’s desk, buried between various stacks of paperwork.
Me: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Mr Hennessey.
Him: Please call me Elijah.
Me: Sure. Elijah, when I started my research for this interview, I discovered you basically don’t exist on the internet. Can you tell me about that?
Him: It’s deliberate on my part. I want potential customers to see how 
serious I am about security, and by not using every social site and app that’s out there, I set a good example.
Me: You think social sites are a security problem?
He smiled, picked up a manila file folder off the top of a stack, and passed it to me.
Him: Here’s what I found out about you. Do you still drink London Fogs with peach tea? By the way, you should change your password and have a different one for each site you visit.
Me: (Taking a drink of water to cool the heat in my cheeks.) Thanks. I’ll get that taken care of. But moving along, your software is listed as a top performer by Law Enforcement Magazine. Congratulations.
Him: Thanks. I give credit to my staff. I’ve got some real sharp people who can see a coding error a mile away and fix it before anyone else knows it exists. They get all the credit.
Me: What’s your vision for your company?
Him: It’s no secret that we’re making a big move into mobile apps for law enforcement. Police officers don’t need to carry around oversized tablets and laptops when they can do everything they need to on their phones. We just have to up the security factor by ten.
Me: Where did your obsession with security start?
Him: It was a necessity when I served in the military. When I moved into civilian life, I saw an opportunity to use my knowledge as a career.
Me: Switching topics, there’s a rumor about you and a librarian up north. Care to confirm?
Him: (grinning) What does the internet have to say about it?
Me: Nothing. I looked. She must follow the same theory about a social media presence as you do.
Him: (His grin getting bigger) Imagine that.
Me: Can you at least tell me what your “type” of women is?
Him: (Leaning back and clasping his hands behind his head) Easy. Smart ones. Ones that know how to think on their feet and come up with alternative solutions to existing problems.
A knock on the door interrupted us, and his administrative assistant stuck her head in the door. “Your next appointment is here.”
Me: Thanks for your time. I’ll send you a copy of the interview when I get it pulled together.
Him: My pleasure.
*****
Do you have any questions for Eli? If so, leave them in the comments and maybe he’ll answer. 🙂 While he waits, I’m going to go meet some new characters on the other blog hop entries.
December 9, 2019
It’s been awhile since we’ve done this. Interview one of your characters. Introduce them to a new audience or give existing readers new insight into their motivations.
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
boring. My Facebook page, my Amazon listings, this blog, and lots of blogs I’ve had guest posts on. I don’t believe there is anyone else using this name and that limits the potential for exciting finds. I got all the way to page 7 of the results before I gave up. (I did find a poem I published in a literary magazine before I started writing books. That came as a pleasant surprise.)
like market share and reader experience. I also understand that my stories don’t dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s of what “generic” reader expectations might be. My heroines are strong without needed men to save them. My mysteries don’t require murders. And, heaven forbid, my cozy mysteries have the occasional swear word.
sensual feeling of a pen slipping across a piece of paper, leaving behind the words flowing from my brain. Even a pencil will do if that’s all I can find. (I rarely have a problem finding a pen these days. The picture is a small segment of my desk.)