Virginia Nygard

Award winning author of Ice Man in Paradise (congratulations, Virginia), Writer/Speaker, Contributing Editor: www.agoldenplace.com, Contributor: FWA Anthology #1: From Our Family to Yours, Royal Palm Literary Award Winner 2011, 2013, Treasure Coast Writers Group Leader, Vice-President, NLAPW Vero Beach Branch.

Port St. Lucie, Florida

Latest book: Déjà Vu Dream, 2008, Fiction Publishing, Inc., ISBN 13: 978-0-9796752-8-7, 450 pages

Fiction, Mystery, Romance,

Available in digital, Kindle, and printed format at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TFETE6/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb.

In print: Beyond Déjà Vu (manuscript, 480 pages)

Harrington Quickie Interview:

             

Q:  Do you have a day-job, and if yes, what is it?

Virginia Nygard:  I have a 24-hour job: daughter, sister, wife, housekeeper, secretary to my husband’s part-time work, and, in the off moments, writer of novels, short stories, and poetry.

Q:  How much time do you spend on reading and writing, respectively?

Virginia Nygard:  I start with an hour of reading and then tackle the day’s tasks. If the muse is with me, I can write 4-6 hours at a stretch, and have done so. If she’s on break, then I’m on my own, adding to lined-up short stories, or expressing MHO in my blog: http://dialogondialogue.wordpress.com .

Q:  Do you have a library card?  Explain.

Virginia Nygard:  This former teacher and children’s librarian blushes to admit that she now has a seldom-used library card. I hunt up books in second-hand shops—some to read, others for making notations and comments in the margins. They are my textbooks. Other times, I buy used books on Amazon, and when done, donate them.

Q:  Which book did you absolutely loathe reading in high school or college?  Did you ever grow to appreciate it later?

Virginia Nygard: The rebel in me hated any required reading. I have vivid memories of picking up books after college and thinking, “Wow! So this is what it’s like to read something you really like!” But, yes, I later came to realize the value of those school assignments.

Q:  How would you react to a 12-year-old who states that he/she hates reading?

Virginia Nygard:  Take away his/her cellphone, video games, TV. Place in solitary confinement in a library. Old-fashioned library: no electronics.

Q:  Do you like playing video games?  Explain.

Virginia Nygard: Not since my four and six-year-old nephews beat me at video golf.

Q:  What’s the best advice you have ever received, and who gave it?

Virginia Nygard: “Just don’t embarrass the family.” My parents. (How’m I doing?)

Q:  What’s the top item on your bucket list?

Virginia Nygard:  Travel…when my husband retires…again.

Q:  Are you older or younger at heart than your age?

Virginia Nygard: If they carded people for their at-heart age, I’d wear my card around my neck.

Q:  What time do you usually get up in the morning, and how does your daily schedule look like?

Virginia Nygard:  I am a night person. Probably some medieval town’s night watchman in another life. Up between 8 – 8:30 a.m., breakfast and reading, followed by email responses, then on to the day’s errands, group activities, and writing. Best writing done at night without the day’s distractions.

Q:  What would you print on your favorite T-shirt (and wear it)?

Virginia Nygard: I have it: “Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel!”

Q:  Which character’s life from a classic novel would you like to live?  Explain.

Virginia Nygard:  Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  He stood firm for honesty and against the evils of racism.

Q:  What do you wear when you are the most comfortable?

Virginia Nygard: Nothing. If you’re censoring, put “jeans and T-shirt.

Q:  What is your top choice of a book you’d like to turn into a movie?

Virginia Nygard: Déjà vu Dream, my first novel. I’m being hounded into converting it to screenplay, but that feels like ‘required reading.’ Screenplay writing requires a whole new skill set.

Q:  What’s the coolest place you’ve placed an autograph besides the first page of a book?

Virginia Nygard: A friend’s cast. Not cool, but the only answer I have.

Q:  What do you blast in your car when driving (music, radio channel, other)?  Explain.

Virginia Nygard: Okay. When somebody pulls up next to me in traffic with his musical preference on full blast, I lower my window and reciprocate with NPR…or Pavarotti. (He’s got some really piercing high “C”s.)

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