Good day Lue and thanks for accepting Bookpleasures invitation to be interviewed.

Norm

Lue, please tell our readers something about yourself and your writing experience.

Lue

I'm retired after thirty years as an administrative assistant. I live with my husband, Shannon, a retired civil engineer, in Central California with our two cats, Suma and Omar. We have four daughers, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. In 1995, we pedaled our tandem bicycle, solo, from our home to Quebec City, after which I wrote, with Shannon's technical help, an account of our adventure entitled ""Cycling Across North America."" We still keep fit walking and working out at a gym. After my retirement in 1986, I took up writing, something I had always wanted to pursue. At first I focused on non-fiction and, after some time, won state and national awards. At that point, filled with encouragement, I enrolled in a creative writing class and began writing Boomerang. That project was interrupted after one of my daughters had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I felt pulled to write about this disease from the family point of view. Some time later, my focus went back to Boomerang and I worked on this project for several years. Eventually, after a period of almost ten years, I felt it was ready for publication, only this time I chose to go to a print-on-demand publisher.

Norm

How much research did you devote to your novel Boomerang?

Lue

I conducted some research for my novel, but not extensively. I found good descriptions of Mute Swans plus some of their characteristics and traits. After considerable searching, I located just the right photo of the swans I needed for the book cover. Some legal infomation was required for Boomerang and historical information on the site of the novel -- l'ile-Aux Coudres. Lock picking basics were called for in the story, and I had to search for some psychiatric information.

Norm

Why did you set your novel in Québec and surroundings and have you ever been to Québec? If you have, for how long?

Lue

I set my novel near Quebec City on l'ile-aux-Coudres because my mother was born in Quebec City. I was born in San Francisco and raised in Berkeley, but Quebec and Montreal were home to my mother's family. My father was born in France. Many times, from a very young age through my teens, my mother took me with her to visit her family. My last time there was in 1985 when Shannon and I visited my favorite uncle -- Jean Paul Lemieux -- a well known painter in Canada. He passed away several years ago. He and his wife had a lovely home situated on a knoll on l'ile-aux-Coudres. The site of the novel is in memory of Jean Paul.

Norm

How did you go about creating your dialogue?

Lue

I was so well acquainted with my characters that the dialogue came easily.

Norm

Did anyone other than yourself help in the editing, particularly some of the French editing?

Lue

No. I had help from family and friends merely in proof reading and locating typos/grammatical errors. The French part came easily as French was my first language. The scene between Margot and her husband Claude was simply vivid memories of my mother and father dealing with each other, as an example.

Norm

When you started to write the novel, did you have a plot pretty much planned out in advance or did it take shape as you wrote?

Norm

It took shape as I wrote. However, I did have the plan of ""boomerang"" from the onset.

Norm

Why did you choose the title Boomerang?

Lue

I chose that title because that was the plan of the story. I thought ""Boomerang"" to be strong with a punch.

Norm

Are there any future projects in the works?

Lue

Nothing at the moment. Perhaps, just perhaps, I may do a sequel. Or, I may resurrect ""Mom, I have MS"" -- a book I wrote years ago but became side tracked.

To view Bookpleasures review of Boomerang click here