Interview with Kathy Holmes, author of “Letters on Balboa Island”

By admin, on February 13th, 2012

About Kathy Holmes

Born in the City of Angels, raised on Walt Disney, and inspired by the dreams of both, Kathy Holmes grew up in southern California halfway between Disneyland and the beach.

Tantalized by the tropics since Adam Troy set sail on the Kon Tiki in James A. Michener’s “Adventures in Paradise,” she traveled to tropical destinations such as Hawaii, Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Asia Pacific. Eventually, she moved to Florida where she wrote and secured representation for Real Women Wear Red. She also wrote for Walt Disney World and the Orlando Sentinel.

After living in Las Vegas for a few years, Kathy, her husband, and their three Burmese cats have moved back to Florida and are now living halfway between Walt Disney World and the beach in Central Florida.

Her latest book is Letters on Balboa Island.

Visit her on the web at www.KathyHolmes.net.

The Interview

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

The story is about choices and second guessing those choices. It’s about one woman’s opportunity for redemption. It’s the “what if” many of us think about when looking over our life and recalling “the one who got away.” Here’s the short blurb:

When Rosalie sends a Dear John letter to the one serving in the Korean War to marry the one back home, she begins a life of secrets and regrets. Years later, when letters surface on Balboa Island, she realizes she may have chosen the wrong man. So when fate gives her the chance to make a different choice, will she? Or has she lived a life of lies for too long?

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?

Actually, yes. This is the first book I started to write after I met my father for the first time. I think every kid really wishes his parents could be together—even though I grew up with a step dad I thought of as my real dad since I was a baby. I wanted to rewrite history in a fictional way. I had to give the characters a plausible reason for not being together and it had to include a reason for them to get back together. There’s some satisfaction in exploring the possibilities in a fictional setting.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

I think I’ve always been fascinated by “the one who got away” as my mother used to say. By the excitement in her voice, I think it intrigued her, too. We sometimes read stories in the paper about high school sweethearts who married other people but then reunited later in life. These stories intrigue me. But what about when the person returns from the past and you choose not to make a different choice? Because life isn’t that simple—there are complications that make the choice difficult, especially when there are consequences. So when presented with an opportunity to make a different choice, would you really? That idea stuck with me and so I wrote “Letters onBalboaIsland.”

Who is your biggest supporter?

My husband, my soulmate. He is also a writer and he is my biggest fan.

Your biggest critic?

Myself.

What are you currently working on?

I have a completed manuscript that’s ready for me to revise. It’s a little different from what I’ve done before, but then, all of my books are different from one another. REAL WOMEN WEAR RED is considered chick lit/hen lit, THE TOM JONES CLUB is a romance, LETTERS OF BALBOA ISLAND is a nontraditional historical, and my next manuscript is more of a psychological thriller.

Is there an author that inspired you to write?

Actually, three. When I read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, that pushed me into finally trying my own hand at writing. Around the same time, there were two similar books too: Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller and The Gazebo by Emily Grayson. You don’t see books like this anymore, but I was determined to write my own version, which turned out to be “Letters onBalboaIsland.”

About Letters on Balboa Island

When Rosalie Martin was seventeen, she knew two things that were true: (1) You couldn’t help but meet a man in a military uniform in southern California in the 1950s, and (2) Sooner or later, men would leave. But that didn’t stop her mother, her sister, or even herself from trying to find a man who would stay. And before she knew it, she had not only one man on her hands, but two.

When Rosalie sends a Dear John letter to the one serving in the Korean War to marry the one back home, she begins a life of secrets and regrets. Years later, when letters surface on Balboa Island, she realizes she may have chosen the wrong man. So when fate gives her the chance to make a different choice, will she? Or has she lived a life of lies for too long?

Be Sociable, Share!