This Week's Reader Interview with Dorothy Beecher

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

For 28 years I worked in a small satellite office for a large cable company. On June 16th of this year our small office closed.

Instead of settling for a different job with the company that I knew I would hate, I decided now would be a great time to retire.

My husband gave me all of his support and my old company gave me a retirement party and a kindle, which started me on my ebook journey. I live in upstate New York with my wonderful husband. He is a local musician who plays keyboard in one local band and guitar in another. He also works for a local newspaper. We have 2 wonderful grown sons, who both live close by . We love to get together for pizza parties. Having a musician in the family I also spend alot of time listening to music, a few of my favorites being Medieval Baebes, Loreena McKinnett, Jethro Tull and Eric Clapton. Recently I have discovered Apocalytica, 3 classical cellist and a drummer from Finland who play metal music. Since I have retired I have been able to spend more time creating earrings and bracelets using beads.  I am lucky enough to live next door to a remodeled old church where I can go to practice yoga and we get together to record chanting music. For a little over 5 years now I have been practicing Reiki and recently became a Reiki Master Teacher.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?

As far back as I can remember I have loved reading fiction. In grade school my teacher would give us free time to read and I would get so caught up in the book I would not hear her tell the class to put their books down. My teacher would come over and tap me on the shoulder to get my attention. I tried to apologize for not hearing her but she told me never to apologize for loving to read.

When I first read this question I tried to see if I could remember the first book that I fell in love with. The first book I could remember that I loved when i read it was Heidi. Next I fell in love with the mystery of Mary Stewart books. At 13 I was introduced to 'The Hobbit' and The Lord of the Rings. After that I was hooked on science fiction and fantasy. In high school I would spend most of my free time working in the school library.

Everyone in my family are avid readers. My husband's passion is historical non-fiction especially books about the World Wars. Before my oldest was even in school, I introduced them to J.R.R. Tolkien, reading them a couple of chapters of 'The Hobbit' and then The Trilogy every night. Once we finished the last book we would start with 'The Hobbit' and go through them all again.  In turn my sons turned me onto Anne Rice and Caleb Carr.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?

I love all the books in the Outlander Series by Diane Gabaldon, 'The Hobbit' and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Anne Rice's Vampires and even James Patterson's books with Alex Cross. I loved reading Herman Hesse and did my senior term paper on him. Also I am a huge fan of books about witches and I have to say I loved reading 'A Discovery of Witches' by Deborah Harkness. Although I can find only 2 books written by him, I recommend 'The Alienist' by Caleb Carr. I also love books about witches and Suza Kates series now are on my list of favorites

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?

Fiction gives me a chance to explore places and worlds created in other people's imagination that I would never get a chance to see. I can travel to different times both past and future where I surely cannot go. I can become "involved" with characters lives and go on thier journeys and adventures with them. I love being able to become so involved in a book that I can picture exactly what Rivendell, the Elven Village in The Lord of the Rings looks like or I can actually feel afraid when reading Bilbo Baggin's adventure in Shelob's den in 'The Hobbit' or cry when Black Jack Randall tortured Jamie Fraser in 'The Outlander'. You can "safely" fall in love with the hero or heroine of your favorite books.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that really annoys you?

I admire all authors and have a great respect for them and their ability to share their thoughts and visions and put them into a story.  My pet peeve is with the movie company that takes a really great book and makes changes to the authors story. We have read great books and fallen in love with them and then gone to see the movie and wondered why parts were changed. When someone takes these stories and changes them just to "sell" more tickets, in my opinion, really does a disservice to the author who wrote the book and also to the fans of the book.

Do you write fiction yourself?

I really wish I did. Right now I have a fantastic story in my head, as I think a ot of people do. At this time unfortunately,my story just does not seem to want to be translate to the written word.

What do you think about ebooks vs. paper books?

Personally I love them both. I have always loved paper books. I, myself, cannot throw a book away.  I will give it away but I cannot put on in the trash can to get rid of it. I use to love finding $.25 treasures at garage sales. Authors I may never have normally bought but found I loved. I am now finding these treasures for my kindle. I read my kindle every night before I go to sleep. That being said I hope ebooks never replace children's books. Some of the most treasured times with my sons when they were young was spent with one son sitting on each side of me and I am reading them a book and we are looking at the pictures.

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?
'Wild Child' was the very first free book I got for my kindle (thank you Mike) and I really enjoyed reading it. My favorite, however, is 'Lust, Money and Murder' Book 1. I found Elaine to be an extremely strong woman who had gone through a lot at a very young age. She was determined to make things right for herself and her father the right way. She worked extremely hard for what she wanted and I found myself cheering her on every step of the way. It was very refreshing for me to see a young woman not take the easy way out to get revenge. I love reading mysteries and books with intrigue and a little romance thrown in for good measure.

Thanks so much for taking the time to be interviewed on my blog, Dorothy!

I want to thank you for asking me to do this readers interview. I saw your post for the free download of Wild Child and this was my first free ebook. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased 'Lust, Money & Murder' Books 1-3 and now I can't wait to find out what happens with Elaine and Nick, so please get writing Mike. I have to know what happens.

I can be emailed at dbeecher@nycap.rr.com.