Diane: UNRAVELED is your first book in the Gale Island series (http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/Unraveled_ch1.html). In what's been described as a new-age comedy, a "repressed Millicent becomes acquainted with her quirky neighbors, discovers her husband's infidelities and contemplates an affair with a younger man while the planets Uranus and Pluto are going through an unusual configuration." Where did the idea for this story come from? Is there a particular theme you are exploring in UNRAVELED? What's in store for us in the next Gale Island book, due out in August?

Celia: My ideas for the Gale Island books come out of my experiences of living on a Gulf Island -- that is, one of the islands that lie like precious jewels between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. It may look small on the map, but Vancouver Island is as large as England!

Living on a Gulf Island is like being nowhere else. Once the ferry leaves the dock, taking away the visitors, the rest of Canada seems to go with it. Perhaps it is that relief that brings about a sort of euphoric hysteria; a powerful thought that you are less ruled by convention. You can almost taste the freedom. I have always thought that the islands are places where little people can become big. Although I believe things have changed somewhat, in the 1980's it was certainly that way, and a place where people could more or less ignore the rest of the world and drop out of the rat race.

Because of a life change, which I have written about in THE WINNOWED WOMAN (http://twilighttimesbooks.com/Winnowed_ch1.html), I left my gulf island in the early 1990's and I think it was a certain heart and homesickness that brought to fruition my ideas and characters for the Gale Island books. To a certain extent I still enjoy a fairly Bohemian lifestyle, living aboard a floating home (that is, a cedar cottage on pontoons that is moored in a marina). The atmosphere surrounding me helps to feed my ideas, because in a way, this small community of eccentric and talented people reflects island life.

There are many themes running through the Gale Island books. Chock full of weird characters and strange happenings, plots and intrigue, the underlying story in UNRAVELED is about a certain planetary configuration disrupting peoples' lives. This includes the poor, downtrodden Millicent Snood, who discovers just how deceitful her husband has been over the years. She's further dismayed when a young lawyer, Chance McColl, falls in love with her. (I used this from my own experience, and I have woven some of the challenges of such a relationship into the stories in NO MORE REGRETS AND OTHER STORIES at http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/ttbcurrent.html#NoRegrets.)

A CLEVER WIFE, which is the next Gale Island book due out in August, isn't about Millicent's relationship with her young lover, however, but focuses on her somewhat unwitting revenge on Pug, her spoiled, pompous and manipulative ex-husband. This has to happen because it's a stage in Millicent's development of becoming a new woman. She's still very fragile after such an unhappy marriage, and needs to build her self-esteem and become her own person before she steps into a full-blown relationship with Chance. (However, I don't think they'll wait that long.) In this book, Pug really gets his just desserts -- it's rather delicious actually, and quite unplanned by Millicent, who hits him where it hurts the most, which is in the pocket book. Things just seem to fall into her lap, which just goes to show that there is justice in the universe after all.

Diane: Your first published book, a historical romance titled MARY'S CHILD, was inspired by a legend of Dartmoor, a vast moorland near Devon, where you grew up in England. I understand you are writing another novel based on a different Dartmoor legend. Tell us about this book. What is it about Dartmoor that draws stories from you, even 20+ years after leaving England for Canada?

Celia: I enjoy writing about Dartmoor because it is such a part of me. I was such a moorland child, and grew up very near Jay's Grave, around which the series is written. My childhood, deficient in some aspects, was very enriched by the beauty and safety of my surroundings. 

MARY'S CHILD is the first book of three. It didn't start out that way, but circumstances in my own life, plus something that someone said to me about family habit and karma, inspired another book that has become two books because of the size. MARY'S CHILD is set in the 1800's, and is the story of Kitty, whose mother was sent to a workhouse at an early age. Through her courage, Kitty avenges her mother's death, and takes her true position in life.

At the beginning of the next book, PASTPRESENT I: AWARENESS, I write this: "Sometimes a family will keep repeating a situation generation after generation, and each time more karma is built up and there is more to undo and set into balance. If one person can break that karmic chain, not only future, but past generations will be released."

That idea brought this story into being. In the book, Anne, who is the writer of "Mary's Child," moves into an old manor house where she finds herself being drawn into the past to meet her characters, which appear to her as ghosts. What is more disturbing is that their lives seem to be running parallel to hers. Anne feels that Kitty is trying to tell her something, but can't figure out what it is. She ends up moving to Canada to live with her father, leaving behind her some dreadful events, including the adoption of her child.

In PASTPRESENT II, RESOLUTION, the time comes in Anne's life -- approximately twenty years later -- when she can no longer ignore the guilt that continues to haunt her. She returns to Devon where she discovers some startling details about the past. This reveals why Kitty was so upset, and Anne seeks to resolve the issue. 

(MARY'S CHILD is currently unavailable, and the two sequels are not yet published due to a change in publisher. Readers may bookmark my webpage at http://www.devonshirebabe.com where I will post information as soon as it becomes available.)

Diane: What do you believe your greatest strength is as a writer? What aspect of the creative process do you enjoy the most?

Celia: I simply love to write, and I'm champing at the bit right now because I made myself take the beginning of this year off, mainly because of other commitments. I also needed the rest; creative writing can be very draining. But I have missed it and can't wait to start again soon. Without it in my life I feel as if I've lost a friend. Writing helps me to cope with a less than perfect family life, and I thank God I have that comfort and place to return to.

I enjoy exploring personalities, and as I write I see my characters take on a life of their own. Yet none of them are ever mirrors of a real person. Real people would intrude on my imagination. I think perhaps my greatest strength is my imagination.

Diane: Besides writing, you also work as a Library Assistant at a public library in British Columbia, Canada, where you now live. Many ebook authors are interested in this potential market. From your vantage point, what can you share with us about ebooks and libraries? What advice would you give an author who wanted to approach a library about carrying his or her ebooks in the library's collection?

Celia: Unfortunately, in our system we don't yet have ebooks, and I sense some aversion and resistance to them from my superiors. My peers are aware that I am a writer, and yet I'd say few of them feel I'm a "proper" writer because I haven't been published in paper. This is terribly sad, but shows what conditioning, or habitual thinking, can do.

I think that one of the reasons ebooks haven't yet caught on is because of that attitude, and in my part of the world, there seems to be little promotion of them in the media, only negative comments about how uncomfortable they are to read. Sadly, in today's world, success of anything is often judged by how much money it makes, and that is dependant on how much, or which type of, publicity it gets. If the publicity doesn't hype something up, then people may not try it.

I hate to say this -- and it is a generalization -- but many people are rather sheep-like in their reading habits, and are reluctant to try something new. I see it all the time in the library where patrons borrow books that are classed as "best sellers," yet complain when they return them because they didn't like them! People are very hungry for books they like to read, but they are forced to read what is available. It will be a grand day for ebooks when they are more acceptable and can be easily read. Readers are going to get a real treat!

There is also a lot of snobbery in the arts world, and I think that's also another reason why ebooks haven't caught on. They aren't "quite the thing," and at the moment are receiving much of the same stigma as paperbacks once did.

I have been in touch with a library in this area that does carry a few ebooks, but it seems they are experiencing stumbling blocks regarding reading devices and copyright issues. I am pursuing the issue.

Diane: You currently teach information sessions on ebooks at a local adult education center. How did you become involved in this, and who typically attends these sessions? Are there misconceptions about ebooks that people bring to class? Based on feedback you've received, what appears to be the greatest difficulty ebooks face in becoming more mainstream? What solutions have been suggested for removing this obstacle?

Celia: I really began the ebook information sessions as a way to educate people about ebooks, but I have changed the focus slightly towards being epublished. This has increased the enrolment slightly because there are a lot of people out there who wish to be published, and don't really know what epublishers are, or how they operate. Students vary in age, gender and profession. Some are retired. So far all of them have only had a very vague idea of what ebooks are, and have been amazed with the amount of information I can give them.

I think there are three main problems preventing ebooks from becoming mainstream. One, as I've already mentioned, is that there isn't enough positive advertising about them. Secondly, really there are no cheap Readers on which to read them -- that is, something that resembles a book and which is affordable. People can read on their handhelds I know, but many people won't, or don't want to, do this. Many of the readers are older and are used to, and like, paper books. We also have the problem that the younger generations aren't reading as much. Many of them don't have the time, or the interest. 

People are slow in any case to change their habits, and I think the first positive move would be to have a Reader that is more book-like. Electronic ink is being developed (see http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-ink.htm) and I think perhaps once a device emerges on the market that will ease the transition from paper to an electronic reading medium, ebooks will flourish, and publishers will see their sales rise.

Then there is that little devil, stigma. The feeling that ebooks aren't quite real, aren't here to stay, or aren't very good. It seems to me they are considered in the same light as self- publishing and vanity press -- no matter that some self-published books have done extremely well. I think part of the problem is that many ebooks haven't been edited properly and people find a lot of mistakes in them. Unfortunately that gives the impression that anyone can publish anything, and that standards are low and trashy. It gives no credence to this new market. So I think it's very important for writers, editors and publishers to ensure they put out the best product they can. I know you can say that all books have errors in them these days, but that's no excuse, and nothing gives a worse impression. Besides, literacy skills are declining and I think each writer and publisher has a responsibility to keep standards high. In my mind, mistakes do matter.

Hopefully, as things develop, the publishers who don't make the effort will fall by the wayside, and only the diligent ones will survive. People may disagree with me, but I feel that only when there are some standards in the industry will we as eauthors, and epublishers, receive any respect, and in turn, reap some rewards. 

Thank you for this interview, Diane.