Interview Nancy Damato

by

Christie Cameron

1) Congratulations on your third book with Wings! How do you feel about completing the Taylor family trilogy?

I have mixed emotions. Certainly confident the project was well done and satisfied at the completion, but sad about shedding the characters. Lately, I’m experiencing dreams with Amanda and Lily nagging me to continue their tale and suspect after the two books in progress now that I’ll be tempted to return to the Taylor banking family and bring them up to modern day.

2) What inspired you to begin a trilogy?

I love viewing relationships, especially within families, and how they can build or be destroyed by an individual’s desires. Our worlds are created by the decisions of these appetites. Sometimes what seems to be irrelevant forces, now assuredly absence during war and the unstable economy in our times, but more often jealousy, envy, the seven sins exercised by evil or ignored by temptation, break or make a relationship as easily as any monumental disasters. I’m intrigued by the psychology that makes our “ties that bind” so fragile and the failure of some to recognize how valuable and vulnerable these ties are.

3) Who are the characters in this book, and how are they related to the characters of the previous books?

Almost the entire cast of The Pawn and Belonging comes alive. The third generation of the Taylor banking family find themselves caught up in World War I and are separated geographically and seemingly idealistically by forces outside their control. Their love and loyalties to the family are severely tested. Lily, the eldest is in Belgium, James the newly recognized Duke of LaFevre is in France, and Amanda along with Taylor end up in Italy after the Count (Nick) indulges his obsession.

4) How do your characters come to you?

Josefina Taylor came first, as the young woman born with a strong will and ambition into a strict religious sect that relegated women to the role of housekeepers and breeders. We see some of that in our times now in third-world countries, but The Pawn is based on an actual cult that practiced much the same control in the last 1880’s. My grandparents belonged to such a group and I grew up during the time my grandparents and parents pulled away from the strictness, so absolute adherence controlled my early childhood and tentative steps toward less restriction influenced by teen years. Making life very indecisive. Quite a division in my close and extended family’s advice and acceptance of my behavior. Some family members still do not communicate with me.

5) Since this novel is set during WWI, across what different countries might we be following the characters?

The reader will journey from Taylorsville, Illinois where the trilogy originally began to Marseille and Nice, France; Brussels, Belgium; Palermo and Rome, Italy. They’ll travel with many of their old friends, but Separate Worlds will introduce a few new characters with conflicting evil and dangerous goals. And, of course, love provides the pull-pull we all enjoy reading about.

6) How did you approach your research into the settings?

I grew up in Illinois so that part was easy. My husband is Italian so he and his relatives provided a great deal of insight into the atmosphere there. I relied on Mayra Calvani for the Belgium accuracy and another friend for the French details. Wasn’t easy finding the specific flowers, foods, etc. that would be predominant during the identified timeline. And, researching the timeline. When you’re writing historical novels timeline is absolutely the guiding influence if you want your story to develop truth in the telling. Months of research went into discovering the actual fighting units, locales and development of armament, church propriety, etc. to make the action authentic.

7) Do you like to plot ahead, or do you prefer to let the story lead you?

The beginning and end are in my head before a single word is written. In the case of Separate Worlds, each character had to have their personal arc structured to overlap the events of the others so I did do extended outlining for book III. A brown border of wrapping paper covers three-quarters of the wall of my office covering from 1879 thru 1918. By now, I’ve lived with these people for almost ten years and know them as well as my own family, so the internal goals, personal traits and flaws are second nature and flow. But developing dialogue influenced by other countries took a great deal of work.

8) Tell us about where you work and how you work when you write.

My office is located in the center of our house. Five of us live here, and I substitute teach high school, so I sit at my computer normally from 11PM to about 4AM to write. Any business related activities take up the free daytime hours. The computer and I are not on friendly terms and I find myself repeating lots of things I thought already completed during the day and I am normally too frustrated during the day to be creative.

9) What do you take away from the writing experience?

Absolute euphoria and hunger to be younger so I might have more energy and more time to write. Also intrusion. No matter where or when, I can guarantee a character will interrupt what I’m doing to give me a piece of their mind. Only another author can appreciate the rush to find pencil and paper while you’re having a conversation with a friend and the complete inadequacy of trying to explain your rudeness to that friend. The gems of creativity seem to pop up at the most inconvenient times. But, writing had become my passion and I expect to be creating until I can no longer think passionately.

The friendships developed and business acumen learned are unbelievably rewarding. My personal growth has gone off the charts since speech making is a huge criteria for marketing the books. Shy as a warthog at the prom, I’ve gotten accustomed to standing before strangers and speaking--not at all the same as a classroom. Not to say butterflies don’t appear, but not with the accompanying hurried trip to the powder room and disabling headache of before.

10) What would you like for readers to take away from experiencing one of your books?

A new outlook at history and how it is being repeated today. Relate to the character’s victories and battles.

Josie’s 1880’s fight for a woman’s freedom to use her talents is easier today, but still a battle we face often. Taylor’s struggle to find acceptance after bearing an illegitimate child and the danger of her stalker occurs today. The three siblings’ tests of their loyalty, love, and principles which are at decided odds with their family’s expectations are problems we all engage every day. Maybe, after reading the trilogy of the Taylor family, the readers’ mistakes will weigh less and their aspirations will seem more achievable.

11) Now that the trilogy is complete, what stories do you have planned next?

I have to complete the ending of a romance about a couple who blame each other for their separation twenty-eight years earlier and are reunited by someone wanting revenge. Family, friends and businesses still sabotage their attraction to each other, but now with more deadly results. A true love story.

And, a story loosely based on the life of my father about an abandoned and ill three year old in the 1920’s who grows up and loves during the depression and World War II. About abandonment issues, and how a couple survives who are in love, loses the support of their community and faces issues identical to what couples wade through today.

12) What do you like most about working with Wings?

Everything. The initial ease of explanation of what to expect, the ever present support at whatever level needed, their availability, the friendliness of the staff and their enthusiasm to help us market our works. The personalities are always striving to offer more, and doing it cheerfully. Can’t imagine a more positive experience.