Kristine Skvarna
How long have I been writing? I’ve been writing since grade school. I entered a contest when I was nine years old for the Barbie doll. The theme of the contest was “What Barbie means to me” I came in as a runner up and received a gold bracelet with a Barbie charm on it. I still have it some where. I took journalism in high school and wrote articles for the school newspaper. I didn’t write as much until later when I got interested in writing books for children and took a course in that. Later, I began writing my own romantic fiction and have been working on it since 1995. I joined RWA in 1997 and CPRW the same year.
What do you write? I write historical romantic fiction set in the mid 1850 to Civil War time period. It is regional to the southern Pennsylvania area I grew up in.
Why do you write it? I had an idea for a couple based on things my parents told me about their courtship that was a springboard to my historical novel. Also, as I wrote it, I thought it reminded me of things I had gone through in my life but set in an historical time frame. I love to read historical novels and I feel that my writing fits that period best.
Do you write listening to music? What kind? I have written this novel mostly to music. My hero is Irish and my heroine is Pennsylvania German, so I was listening to Irish instrumental music. I tend to listen to instrumental music when I write as if it has words, I tend to sing along and thus don’t write well. I was also working on another novel with a Spanish hero and I listened to a lot of Spanish guitar music to get in the mood. It helped. The music must get me in the mind set of what I am working on.
Which authors have influenced you most? I have had many authors who have inspired me from Phyllis Whitney, Nora Roberts, Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Mitchell, Susan Wiggs, Mitch Albom, Karen Rose Smith, and many others. I love authors who can make history come alive and make it feel as if you were present, like when Jim Bishop wrote “The Day Lincoln Was Shot” I read that several times in high school. I’ve read “Gone With The Wind” at least four times, I love Margaret Mitchell’s descriptive passages.
