Guest Interview & Contest with Author Jack Caldwell

Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, I have the pleasure of introducing you to author Jack Caldwell. His book, Pemberley Ranch, releases this month from Sourcebooks.  Let's give him a warm welcome!

1. Welcome to my blog! Can you give the readers a little background about yourself?
Thanks for inviting me.  I’m a Cajun from the swamps of Louisiana now living in the Midwest.  I have a MBA and run an economic development consulting business.  I’m married to the most wonderful woman in the world, and we have three grown sons, one in the US Army, one a college graduate, and another still in college.
       I have always had stories in my head, but I did not start writing in earnest until I discovered Jane Austen fan fiction about ten years ago.  I have written several novels.  Pemberley Ranch is the first one published.

2. What was your inspiration for Pemberley Ranch?
I’m a history buff, and in considering the themes of preconceived notions and intentional misunderstands that drive the plot of Pride and Prejudice, I considered a time and place where true understanding would be far harder to achieve.  That time period was the Reconstruction Era in the southern United States after the Civil War.
      
What people in this country and elsewhere don’t fully appreciate is that America has overcome the hate and divisiveness that existed in 1865.  If we did not, there is no way a Cajun from Louisiana would have married a woman whose parents were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  
      
In the US, this is so common we don’t think about it.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many other places in the world.
  
3. Is Pemberley Ranch going to be a series or is it considered a "stand alone" novel?
 I don’t foresee returning to Rosings, Texas, but you never know what the muse will demand.  She is a harsh mistress, after all.  But for now, I’m looking forward to my Regency novel, The Three Colonels, scheduled to be published by Sourcebooks in Spring 2012.
  
4. What does a day in the life of Jack Caldwell look like?
Boring.  Both my career and my avocation involve writing, so I spend a great deal of time in front of a keyboard.  That is, when I’m not walking one of our three dogs—two Pugs and a Doberman Pincer.  That’s a job in winter-time Minnesota.  As I’m a Cajun, I do all the cooking.  Yes, you can cook Louisiana in the frozen North—it’s all a matter of being flexible.
  
5. If you could travel back in time, what era would you travel to?
Let’s make the Crucifixion a given.  Besides that, if I had to pick one time and place, it would be America at the Turn of the Century (1895-1905).  So much change in so little time—automobiles, airplanes, electric light, medical advances.  Public libraries, indoor plumbing.  Plentiful food.  Telephones.  How did the people react to that?  What were they thinking?  Amazing stuff.
      

How about you readers? Can you come up with an era you would like to visit OTHER than Regency England? (That’s too easy.)

6. Any favorite authors or reads that you turn to over and over again?
Fiction-wise, I will re-read Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, Abigail Reynolds, Patrick O’Brian, Tom Clancy, Larry Niven, and the Shaaras (Michael and Jeff).  Every couple of years, I will re-read A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.  For non-fiction, I pick up Stephen Ambrose, William Manchester, and Sir Winston Churchill. 

Thanks for stopping by Jack! 

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CONTEST!!!

PEMBERLEY RANCH BY JACK CALDWELL – IN STORES DECEMBER 2010

When the smoke has cleared from the battlefields and the civil war has finally ended, fervent Union supporter Beth Bennet reluctantly moves with her family from their home in Meryton, Ohio, to the windswept plains of Rosings, Texas. Handsome, haughty Will Darcy, a Confederate officer back from the war, owns half the land around Rosings, and his even haughtier cousin, Cate Burroughs, owns the other half. 

In a town as small as Rosings, Beth and Will inevitably cross paths. But as Will becomes enchanted with the fiery Yankee, Beth won’t allow herself to warm to the man who represents the one thing she hates most: the army that killed her only brother. 

But when carpetbagger George Whitehead arrives in Rosings, all that Beth thought to be true is turned on its head, and the only man who can save her home is the one she swore she’d never trust… 

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Thanks to the people at
Sourcebooks, I have 2 copies  to give to 2 lucky winners!

RULES:

1. This contest is open to USA and Canada.

2. No need to be a follower, but I would love it if you would!

3. Leave a comment with an email address to contact you with if you win.

4. Contest will end on 12/18/2010

*ALSO ANSWER THIS QUESTION FROM THE AUTHOR*

How about you readers? Can you come up with an era you would like to visit OTHER than Regency England? (That’s too easy.) 

 

GOOD LUCK!!!