Interview With Monique Domovitch – Author of The Scorpio Series

I am super thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Monique Domovitch, the author of The Scorpio Series. She is a very friendly and delightful person, and as you know from my reviews, I love her books!

Monique Domovitch was born the first in a family of ten children in a small town in Northern Ontario, and maintains to this day that she was not harmed by the experience.
She attended The Sacred Heart Convent, a boarding school where she learned to keep her hands folded neatly in her lap and to smile vaguely when people use profane language around her.
Her first job was as a fashion model, and she is credited with the invention of the famous pouty pose that is now used by top models everywhere.
She has turned thirty nine again this year and pledges to do it again next year.
Just like everybody else in the world, she is working on a new novel, this one, her fourth.

Goodreads Author Profile

• I see that you are the oldest of ten children! And I thought it was crazy that my mom was one of five! Was life pretty crazy growing up with nine siblings?

  My parents were devout Catholics, hence the large family, and my father was a high-school teacher, so needless to say, money was tight. But my mother made our clothes and we all had after school jobs. The love and attention our parents didn’t have the time to give us, we siblings gave to each other, and we’re all close to this day. One advantage of growing up with less money is that it forces children to use their imagination. My favorite toys back then were cardboard boxes which I turned into doll houses by cutting out pictures from the Sears catalogues and glued onto cardboard walls. I had hours of fun doing that. And books! Oh my God I loved books, reading them and then making up my own, usually only a couple of pages, but still, I learned a lot from that.

• What inspired you to start writing Scorpio Rises?

  When I turned forty I decided that unless I became serious about writing and finished a book soon, my life would be over and I would have never followed my passion. So I decided to write something that hooked me, writing it, as much as I wanted it to hook readers, reading it. By then I’d had some disappointments and heartbreaks, enough to fill a dozen books. (Obviously the names of the guilty have been changed…LOL.) All kidding aside, everything in the book is based on something that happened, but was then expanded and fictionalized until it doesn’t even resemble the events that inspired the story.

• How much of The Scorpio Series — if any — is based on your own life or experiences?

  After my divorce I felt a bit like Brigitte—the wife who had tried too hard for too long. And another part of me felt like Anne Turner. Mind you, I never behaved like her, but I sure had some nasty fantasies. I turned all my anger into this character and got my satisfaction through her. LOL. Much more fun that going out and really doing something bad.

• Who was your favourite character to write in The Scorpio Series?

  I loved them all, but mostly Brigitte and Anne Turner. The good girl and the totally bad girl, what fun I had with them.

• If your readers could only take away one message or learn one lesson from your books, what would you want that to be?

  I would say this, the line is fine between ambition and greed.

• Can you tell us anything about your next book (2013 publication), Looming Murder? The title sounds intriguing!

  I actually have two books coming out in 2013. The first will be Getting Skinny, which is a totally fun Chic-lit murder mystery, due early 2013. And the second is Looming Murder due for spring 2013.

  Blurb for Getting Skinny:

  Owning a restaurant is as crazy for Nicky Landry as an alcoholic owning a bar. But despite the fact that she has to cram herself into a body shaper like an over-stuffed cannelloni in order to look somewhat decent in a dress, life is pretty good; she’s about to throw the party of the year for her graduating doctor boyfriend, Rob, who, by the way, she’s pretty sure is going to propose.

  Well, life was good — until her boyfriend’s new girlfriend showed up at the party and, after ordering Rob to get his stuff out of her house and get lost, she finds him face-up with her $200 Chroma knife sticking right out of his cheating heart.

  As the prime suspect, Nicky is already in plenty of trouble, but thanks to her well-meaning friends, who convince her to try and clear her name on her own, her problems only multiply. She’s convinced she can solve the murder — if only she can figure out who the skinny person she’d seen Rob walking away with after the party was. Too bad he or she might find — and kill — her first.

  In the same vein as Diane Mott Davidson’s bestselling mysteries, GETTING SKINNY is a sexy debut cozy not to be missed! Tie-in low-calorie recipes are included in this delicious new read.

  Looming Murder is also a murder mystery, this one featuring amateur sleuth Della Write who wanting to escape the pressure of the big city, left her career as a business analyst in Charlotte and moved to Briar Hollow to open a weaving studio. Soon, Della stumbles upon a murder and realizes that the killer has already murdered twice, and unless she finds him soon, he’s likely to kill again.

Getting Skinny and Looming Murder definitely sound like two awesome books to look out for!

Very special thanks to Monique for participating in this interview! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my reviews of her books: Scorpio Rising (buy it on Amazon) and The Sting of the Scorpio (buy it on Amazon).