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Hi, Readers. Thanks for stopping by 'IN THE CHAIR. It's a beautiful day outside today
so I thought we would have our little chat in the garden. So, grab a
glass of lemonade, choose any chair and as usual take a
seat and get comfortable. Feel free to take your shoes off.
Today our
esteemed visitor is author Danielle Nicole Bienvenu.
At 25 Miss Bienvenu is a professional author (Against All Odds: The Ruby
Princess, 2004 paper back), (countless E-readers) and poet (Le Beau
Coeur- The Beautiful Heart, 2009 paper back). She wrote her debut novel,
\"Against All Odds: The Ruby Princess\", at 14 years old. She published
it at 17. She became a professional model in print and on runway at
10. Danielle became a professional actress at 12; doing commercials and
acting in a pilot series with Haley Duff and Shelley Duvall. She\'s won
many international pageants and has been dancing from an early age,
winning awards for her choreography and dancing; performing
internationally. At 18 she received her Coat of Arms from France.
Danielle began song writing at the age of 6 and writing stories at
10. She is a graduate from Lamar University with a Bachelor of Arts in
Political Science, and minors in French and Writing. Danielle is fluent
in French as well as English. She is also a seasoned missionary. She
enjoys playing guitar to her own beat, dancing in grocery store aisles
and singing whenever the urge strikes. Danielle often travels with pen
in hand.
Danielle currently resides in Texas where she teaches French. She
lives with her two dogs: Annabelle and Toby. She is also a member of
Faith Writers, an online forum for Christian writers. She is best known
for her mystery and psychological thrillers, romance novels, poetic
symbolism, and works against social injustices.
Hi, Danielle. Thanks for coming. The first question I am always curious about when chatting with an author is, is why are you a writer? When did you start
writing, and what did you write about?
I first began writing lyrics as a young kid then later short
stories when I was ten years old. I laugh when I think about it now because I
wrote silly preteen stories of a group of friends in a series and illustrated
it. There wasn't much to it. Thankfully, I grew drastically in writing.
What is the
difference in your perception between now and the time you started writing?
The experiences I've had as I grew from a preteen to now
have enlarged my scope. I've seen and experienced so much more so I'm able
to write about it. My advice is to be open to opportunities and
experiences. I write about every day people and I write about people of
privilege, from love stories to murders. Not that I've ever witnessed a
murder...
Please write a few
lines about the books you have published, and what brought you to publishing
each one of them.
"Against All Odds: The Ruby Princess"- I wrote it
when I was fourteen years old and published it at seventeen years old. I had so
much to learn and still do. It's embarrassing to admit but I'm a genealogy nerd
so when my dad and I connected our family tree and found these royal families
we came from it sparked my imagination as a kid. I thought, 'What would happen
if a normal girl could change what her ancestors couldn't?'
"Le Beau Coeur-The Beautiful Heart" is quite
honestly one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. It's so honest and
bare. I literally took the pages from my poetry and lyrics journal and
published them. My friends would tell me a poem or song really resonated with
them so I thought the best thing would be to reach out to others with it. 
"Running From My Shadow"- I'd have to say this is
probably my baby out of all my books. The main character loses the love of his
life then remarries. Years later he discovers the love of his life is actually
alive but now he can't be with her. It's filled with suspense and a surprising
twist. This book was born from me losing the person I deemed to be the love of
my life and when we found each other again we couldn't be together. 
"My Brother's Keeper" is also close to my heart.
It's about twin brothers. One is murdered and the surviving twin seeks to find
his brother's killer and avenge his brother's death. I played on the stories of
Cain and Abel and Isaac and Esau in the Bible. It's a high pace thriller.
"The Gilded Mirror"- An Austrian girl is forced to
become a maid against her will so she can return home. It brings light to
social injustices and the idea of hope.
"He's Mental, That's Why"- A girl in a small town
wants to see the world then she comes across a boy who makes her second guess
everything. He leaves but when he returns she's gone after her own dream.
I used to be a lot like the main character in high school.
"Escaping Lila"- Lila feels her death coming on
slowly and no one else seems to notice it. I took a fragment from my love life
and showed the aftermath of lost love.
"The Elopement" is loosely based on my Grandmere
and Grandpere's story. He was a poor Frenchman from Louisiana and she was a
wealthy girl with the world at her fingertips who eloped to be together. I grew
up listening to the stories of their love.
"Roberts, Dana, 21." is another psychological
thriller. Dana is a case study to everyone around her. She lost the memories of
who she is, what happened to her and with it, the very person she was seeking
when the worst thing imaginable happened to her. I played it on my own previous
memory struggles about a relationship and amped it up times a thousand.
"The Life of Virgina Wargenheimer" is a comedy I
wrote in high school for a good laugh. No one listens to the main character and
she has a dramatic sense of humor.
"Once In A Lifetime" is very loosely based on my
first love that began very much like best friends, Kate and Anderson's story,
including the separation only their ending and mine was completely different. I
wanted a character women could say "Hey, that's me. I've been there."
I wanted the reader to think about how she directs her own course.
"Taming of the Free Spirit"- Is about two young
people's transformations to become the people they will be while forced into
marrying each other. The girl is a total free spirit and her future husband
seeks to tame her.
"Changing Stripes" is a short piece against racism
and what happens when a Caucasian girl falls in love with a Hispanic boy. Their
cultures try to keep them apart and the main character cannot fathom why people
won't see her for who she is and not for the color of her skin. Racism
separates two people that are very much in love. This was another one I pulled
from my experiences. Are you noticing a pattern here?
"The Right Kind of Perfect" is another comedy
about teenage Tessa who is accused by the entire town of being a bird killer.
Beautiful covers. With your extensive library I
see you take your gift as a writer very seriously. Are you working on
another book?
"Sarah's Secret" is my latest e-book. This was a
difficult one for me to publish but I'm so glad that I did. I've had more
people generate an interest over this book than I thought possible. Sarah was
molested as a child. Rejected by her family she starts a new life, one where
she can save other children from what happened to her.
Sergeant Elijah Ryan is
caught in Iraq fighting a war he isn't sure anyone wants him to win meanwhile
he is angry with God for taking his family. I'll admit, I have a thing for
soldiers so it was easy for me to paint Elijah with words. I went through a
similar situation as Sarah when I was a child so writing this book was really
more of a therapeutic experience for me to be heard and to reach out to others.
Wow, I bet
having such a similar experience would make the telling of the story
hard, but most definitely would be filled with emotions. Sarah's Secret
sounds as if it would be a good read. Now, that you have bared your
soul, what are you writing
about now and why are you writing this book?
Oh boy. The tentative title is "What Am I?" about
two souls that knew each other intimately in heaven's holding place of unborn
souls that were later separated when they were sent to earth. Danny, the main
character never feels complete without the other soul, Jade, and has reoccurring
memories of his time before earth with her. He struggles in what would
otherwise be a comfortable life. The story takes place on Galveston Island
which is close to home. I've toyed with the idea of writing a story that takes
place there for some time.
Tell me, how do you
go about writing your books? Do the ideas just pop in your head or do you have
to plot and plan?
Honestly, majority of the ideas do just pop into my head. My
family and friends always ask me, "Where do you come up with this stuff?
How do you have time to write?" My answer is I write instead of sleeping
or eating. It's a passion really. No writer writes unless they are compelled by
a fire inside them to do so. Sometimes my work is inspired by similar events
I've experienced and twisted around to create a more intense pull to readers.
It's the "What would I want to read while curled up on my sofa?"
thought. I've always had a wild imagination.
How would you
describe your writing style?
I use a lot of symbolism and metaphors, not just in my
poetry but also in my books. I've been known to use storms to usher in someone
or something in my plots. I love storms.
Where can the
audience purchase your books?
Since I have paperback and e-books by different publishers
it's easiest to go to my official author website at: www.DanielleBienvenu.com.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Borders all have my paper back
books for sale online and Le Beau Coeur as an e-reader. My 13 e-books are at: www.smashwords.com/profile/view/daniellebienvenu
I have a habit of
talking (interviewing) to the people in my books. How do you communicate
with your characters?
No, I don't communicate with them actually. It's more of a
conversation between myself and myself. Or I think what would I do in this
situation? What would a normal person do? What would my ideal man do? Most of
what I put on a page I've thought before.
If I were to
interview one or two of the characters from your novel what do you thing he/she
would say about the role you put him/her in? Do you think they would like the
book?
I'll draw from my latest book, "Sarah's
Secret." Elijah Ryan would probably say, "Why the hell did you have
to blow my leg off and kill my family? I'm supposed to be the hero."
Elijah would like that he gets what he wants in the end but I think his war
buddies, like Mitch, might enjoy it even more.
What hobby or activity
do you enjoy other than writing?
I love anything creative. I write lyrics and record them on
my guitar. I'm still such a book worm. My mother used to tell me to put my
stack of books down on summer vacations. I love dancing in nearly any style you
can think of. Black and White photography is also a guilty pleasure of mine. I
love traveling, specifically doing mission work. I'm a foreign language and
history nerd. I like the outdoors and rough-housing with my dogs.
*Ey laughs softly* Wow, you do stay busy and I see
our time has run out so why don't we go and mingle with the guest.. But
before we sign off, I want to thank you, Danielle for taking time out of
your busy schedule to share
your life and writing experience with our visitors. Feel free to stop by
anytime so we can chat again.
Visit Danielle on Facebook
Checkout here books on Smashwords
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