Kate Benzin shares details about the creation of Sarah
Marshall in the book Dancing with Fate.
About the Book
Title Dancing with Fate
Genre Contemporary Romance
Author Kate Benzin
Book heat level (based on movie ratings)? G
Will the worst day of Sarah’s life
turn out to be her luckiest?
By all outward appearances, Sarah
Marshall is successful and happy. Only her therapist knows her inner turmoil.
She thought she had conquered her fear of abandonment until her fiancé Jamie
doesn’t show up for their wedding.
After Jamie leaves Sarah waiting at
the church, she feels that he tossed her aside just as her father did when she
was a baby. Now the only way for Sarah to
understand why men treat her this way is to find her father and ask him what
was so wrong with her that he left and never wanted to meet her.
Sarah’s search exposes lies that
shock her. Will her discoveries help her feel secure enough to recover her
sense of self and move on with a new relationship?
Introducing Sarah Marshall
This interview is designed to tell readers about your hero
or heroine.
Name: Sarah Marshall
Age: 28
Gender: female
Birthplace: Los Angeles
Profession: blogger and writing teacher
Ethnicity/Species (if not human): Caucasian
Describe his/her body build, skin tone, height and weight.
Include any unique features such as dimples, freckles, or scars: Dark curly
hair, light brown eyes, lean build from running, has a ‘girl next door’ appeal
Who is the
significant other in your character’s life?
Julian Butler
Tell us about this
character, please.
Julian is a very successful actor in Hollywood. He sometimes
finds it difficult to remember that he’s a man just like any other – that his
movie stardom doesn’t make him a better person than anyone else. When he feels
like he’s getting too far from reality, he likes to go away to a resort where
his anonymity is assured. He has dated many women, often for publicity purposes
for a new movie. He’s not the marrying kind, and he makes sure every woman
understands that they shouldn’t look for more than a casual relationship.
What is your
character’s family like?
Sarah grew up with her single mother and her grandmother.
Her grandfather died early from a heart attack, and her father left when Sarah
was just a toddler. Her mother is a workaholic and distant emotionally, but luckily
for Sarah, her grandmother is warm and caring. As a result, she is closer to
her grandmother who taught her all the things a mother normally would have.
Both Sarah’s mother and grandmother are tight-lipped about her father. They
don’t answer the questions that Sarah needs answered, but the time comes when
Sarah needs to find those answers herself.
How do others
perceive your character based upon looks, and is this assumption accurate?
Sarah looks like the ‘girl next door.’ When people see her,
they make several assumptions about her, in particular, that life is easy for
her because of her looks. This judgment, though, is completely inaccurate. Yes,
Sarah functions fairly easily on the surface. She did well at school and now
does well in her work. But inside, Sarah is in turmoil about her value as a
woman. Why would her father abandon her and never try to have a relationship
with her. What is so wrong with her that he’d never want to know her?
What inner doubt
causes your character the most difficulty?
Sarah doubts her value as a woman in relation to men. She is
confident regarding her studies, her work, her interactions with friends, but
she doubts that any man will value her in the way that a woman needs.
What past event
causes your character the most fear?
Being abandoned by her father is at the root of her fear of
abandonment. She doesn’t understand how her father could have abandoned her
when she was a very young child and never wanted to have a relationship with
her. She has worked through some of that in therapy, but her fear of
abandonment comes raging back when she is left at the altar.
How does your
character handle challenges?
Sarah handles challenges in work by facing the problem and
working out a logical solution. But when it comes to challenges in a
relationship with a man, she runs away or sublimates her own needs. She finds
it impossible to understand the problems in her relationships with men,
thinking that something is wrong with her.
About Your Writer
Why do you think your
writer chose to write about you?
Kate chose to write about me because she understands the
emotional difficulties that I faced and wanted people to realize that a
person’s life isn’t always as easy as it may seem to outsiders.
What do you wish your
writer had not told others about you?
I thought long and hard about this question. There must have
been something that I didn’t want exposed, but actually, I couldn’t find
anything that I wish Kate hadn’t told. In order for the story to be clear, she
had to tell everything.
What other character
from your book do you think your writer should write a book about, and why?
I think that Kate should write a book about Julian. His life
as a wealthy movie star isn’t as easy as many of us believe. With fame comes
many complications, especially loss of privacy. Many people think it’d be great
to have lots of adoring fans, but it becomes invasive. I think this would make
a very good book.
Why do you think your
writer loves to write?
I think that writing for Kate is very therapeutic. She has
so many characters and stories spinning around in her head that she has to get
them out into a book or she just might go crazy.
Is there anything
you’d like to say to your writer?
I’d like to thank Kate for putting my story out there so
that it can perhaps help some other people who are in the same situation that I
was in.
Buy This Book
Amazon http://amzn.to/1MqZq8E
CreateSpace http://amzn.to/1Eq60UJ
Author Bio
Kate Benzin has two major loves in her life other than writing –
travel and dogs, both of which play major roles in Kate’s stories and provide
the conditions for her heroines and heroes to learn life lessons. She is a
seasoned traveler and tour director who has
lived in Indonesia since 1982 when she took a three-month work assignment to
train Indonesians on word processing equipment. She stayed because she fell in
love with the adventurous lifestyle that living in Indonesia gave her. After working as a tour director in many countries of
the world for the past 18 years, she now spends most of her time writing in her
home/office which she shares with her Dalmatians and a whippet.
Author Social Media
Website http://katebenzin.com
Amazon Author Page http://amzn.to/1KkrZhT
Kate Benzin shares details about the creation of Sarah
