1. Can you start
off by telling us a little about yourself?
I
don’t really know where to begin. The first significant things that spring to
mind? I’m a working mother of one (anyone who’s had more than one has my
unending respect), I am compulsive writer, I am an unrelentingly cheerful and
bouncy optimist (irritating). I love reading, I love music, I love cooking , I
love to eat, I love my life. Oh autobiographical thingymmagig? I was born in
Mozambique (East Africa); raised in South Africa and live in Europe. I wanted
to be a writer and an archeologist; but ended up being a fashion designer/
graphic designer/illustrator/copywriter. Now I am a writer! (did I mention I
talk a lot?)
2. Give us a
brief overview of Guilty Pleasures:
Briefly:
a red-hot narcissistic compulsively healthy-living control freak - Lance
Packhard - who happens to be a bankrupt
sex-therapist (writing a book called “Sensual Secrets of a Sexual Surrogate”)
gets hired to impregnate a woman who just loves food. Millie Deafly. She’s not
interested in men, let alone someone like our hero. So in order to get close to
her, he gets himself hired as an assistant to the Chef at Guilty Pleasures - a
dinner club belonging to our heroine - and her partner, Serge. Serge used to be
a prostitute in Istanbul, a fluffer in skin-flicks in Vegas and is now a Master
Chef in London. He’s also a homosexual black dwarf with major
personality/sensitivity issues. Every night a new set of crazy guests come to
the Guilty Pleasures to pig out, and poor Lance (as his alter-ego, a geeky but
sexy Will) finds himself sucked in to a riotous world of eccentricity and
sensuality quite unlike anything he’s ever experienced. He suddenly finds
himself falling madly in love with his “subject”… and about to be outed as an
imposter! If you want to know how it ends, read the book! (It’s really funny)
Every chapter opens with “advice” from Lance’s how-not-to book, and closes with
excerpts from Millie’s diary. I had an obscene amount of fun writing this book.
I hope my readers enjoy reading it.
3. So I love music almost as much
as books. Do you think your characters or books have theme songs?
What are they??
YES!!!
I love music too! I had a struggle during editing, because I had included
references and sometimes snippets of lyrics that I had to remove? Lance is a
Neil Diamond fan, Millie is addicted to 80’s and 90’s music (Brit-pop),
Hendricks is a Goth…There is music all through my book! Crazy thrash metal stars,
pop singers, lascivious cello players, classical pianists…Serge is a blues and
jazz man (modern and classical). He digs Charles Mingus “Moanin’”. Millie’s
theme song? In my head it was “She’s a Star” by James (most of the book I could
soundtrack from James); she evolves to Springsteen’s “Secret Garden”. (Lance
goes from “Sweet Caroline” to “I’m a Creep”.)
4. Can you give
me your top 3 favorite authors that you would go screaming fan over
if introduced to?
That
is so not fair! Only three? Living or dead?
Living…George
R.R. Martin (major fan since a novel called Fevre Dream), R. Scott Bakker,
China Miéville, David Eddings, Ursula Le Guin, Julian May, Dan Simmons (that’s
more than 3 and I could give you a whole page)…Dead? Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis,
Dickens, Shakespeare, Keats, D.H. Lawrence, Anis Nin, Agatha Christie…LOVE
Agatha!
5. If you could
compare yourself to any fictional character who would that be?
Me?
In my own book or other people’s books? In mine, I think I’d be George:
stubbornly romantic in the face of opposing evidence…In other people’s books?
Maybe Viola in Twelfth Night. Or Eliza Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. I’m a
tenacious survivor. I never give up. Funny, all the characters I relate to are
defined by humour, and common sense (except George).
6. Talk us
through the cover art of your novel.
That
was a lot of fun! The Writers’ Coffee Shop attributed me a graphic designer: a
lovely enormously talented Lady called Thaigger Tigger Lillie. She asked me
what I wanted? So I said…you tell ME! Read the book, then knock yourself out,
have fun! And she did. Isn’t it fabulous? The man is just sooo yummy…
7. Where did you get the inspiration from
Lance Packhard’s character?
I
didn’t…He just showed up: shaved chest, silk thong, hyper dedicated (you might
say obsessed) with healthy food and the body-beautiful? I was horrified! I
absolutely adore a man with a deliciously hairy chest -not TOO much, Chewbacca
can stay home… Lance is so absolutely not
my type of man. Yet, somehow, he grows into a good man. He has the one innate
quality that is so very hard to find: a capacity for love, kindness,
tenderness. He listens.
8. If you were
planning your perfect aphrodisiac recipe, what would it be and why?
Let
me tell you a secret…There are no “perfect aphrodisiac recipes”! The secret is
eating with someone who awakens you in every way: your heart, your mind, your
sensuality. So the perfect aphrodisiac recipe? The main ingredient is the
guest…You can serve pizza, or baby quail stuffed with wild rice and pine-nuts
in a port-wine chocolate and orange zest sauce. The intention is what spices
the dish, tantalizes the palate and arouses desire! Serve what ever you serve
with fire in your eye and a pout promising kisses.
For a review of Guilty Pleasures by Manuela Cardiga check out the website Fresh Fiction:
http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=40856
