Our Spotlight is on Mickey J Corrigan and her new book, What I Did For Love.

Q: When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

A: When I was in the fifth grade, Miss Quirk assigned a written report on our field trip to a dress rehearsal for a major city opera. I had nothing to say. So, instead, I wrote about two sandwiches chatting on the bus ride to the theatre. Miss Quirk thought this was very creative and she told me I should be a writer when I grew up. Her praise stuck with me. But, as a practical person, I earned degrees in the health sciences and worked in a hospital. When my boss asked me to write a weekly column for their health newsletter, it quickly became my favorite part of the job. Isolated in my office at night with a cup of lukewarm coffee, I would write and edit. I loved it. Miss Quirk's words came back to me. What if I could do this for a living, I thought.

Q: How long does it take you to write a book?

A: Nonfiction books take years. There's so much research required. Fiction takes less time. Plus, my novels are on the short side. The first draft takes me a month or two, then editing takes several more months. I bring sections to my writing group. I share the draft with my writing partner. I rewrite like mad. Finally, a draft worth submitting is ready, usually a year after I began the book. Finding a publisher can take much longer. What I Did for Love was originally accepted by a small literary press in the US that ended up going out of business. I put the manuscript on a shelf until a writer friend was published by Bloodhound Books in the UK. She loved working with them so I submitted my manuscript—and I love them too.

Q: What is your work schedule when you are in the middle of a book?

A: Get up early, meditate, make coffee. Sit down at my desk, check to see if there are any super important emails. Ignore everything else and write. Break for brunch. Write. Break for a walk. Write. When I'm starting on a new book, I can get done by the afternoon. In the middle of the book, however, there's a pressure to keep telling the story, keep the flow going, so I might be working all day. Once I'm editing the draft, I will work in the evening too. It's a lot of sitting. Between books, I try to sit less and move more.

Q: Tell us about your book.

A: What I Did for Love is the flip side of the always controversial classic novel Lolita. I wrote the book because I wondered what the reaction would be to the story if the gender roles were reversed. What if the pedophile was a woman in love with a much younger man? A boy, a student. Her student. The national news is full of stories about female teachers fired for cavorting with their young male students. It's always shocking. How could these women ever explain their behavior? I thought I would give one of these women a voice, and in keeping with Vladimir Nabokov's style, make her sarcastic, dark, romantic, and weirdly funny. What I Did for Love is the result. She's an unreliable narrator, and nuts, but her story is interesting. Hope you think so too.

Originally from Boston, Mickey J. Corrigan writes pulp fiction, literary crime, and psychological thrillers. Her stories have been called "gritty realism," "oh so compulsive" reads, and "bizarre but believable." Her novellas and novels have been released by publishers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Salt Publishing in the UK released her satirical crime novel about a school shooting in 2017. Visit at www.mickeyjcorrigan.com

LINKS:

www.mickeyjcorrigan.com
www.goodreads.com/author/show/5828647.Mickey_J_Corrigan

http://mickeyjcorrigan.tumblr.com/

What I Did For Love: a breath-taking psychological thriller

What happens when a teacher falls for her student?

After her seventeen-year-old student fails to live up to his potential in class, Cathriona O'Hale conducts a parent-teacher meeting with the boy's widowed father. He is attractive, intelligent, and exceedingly wealthy, everything an unmarried middle-aged woman would normally find appealing. But O’Hale is not your average forty-something. She's a wild card who has a crush on the man's teenage son.

As the relationship between O’Hale and the man blossoms, she finds herself juggling father and son while battling the true source of her lust and forbidden love.

So when the father proposes, O’Hale has a choice to make -

Love or crime?

And when her decision is made, the consequences might just be deadly…