Featuring: Debut Novel Finding Euphoria

Wild Women Authors is pleased to welcome author C. Becker as she celebrates the release of her debut novel with The Wild Rose Press, Finding Euphoria. With Ms. Becker is Hailey Langley.

Tell us a bit about Finding Euphoria . It is a story about my life when I’m pulled back into the past from which I’m desperately trying to hide so I can save the son I gave up for adoption.

What made you choose graduate work in biochemistry and motherhood for a profession? During my early career, I worked as a secret agent for the Special Crimes Agency after I was kidnapped and assaulted. I wanted to fight crime, but that dream ended when I was responsible for killing my partner’s parents. I didn’t actually kill them, but I might as well have. Their deaths were my fault. My partner Parker was so upset I ran away to the East Coast and started college and a new life. While at school, I fell in love and married my current husband Mark. We have two beautiful children, ages 6 and 8 years. When they’re in school, I sneak in some graduate classes in biochemistry to finish my master’s degree. I love science and plan to do more research when the kids grow older. Mark says I’m a science geek.

Knowing what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being a stay-at-home mother or do something different? I wouldn’t change a thing. My parents died when I was a teenager and I want to give my kids the type of life I had. The only part of my past I regret is putting my son up for adoption and not giving him the life I gave my other children. Finding Euphoria is partially about me finding happiness in my life through all my secrets. My one wish is to see my oldest son. Now he’s in a coma fighting for his life. The doctors can’t determine the chemical structure of the street drug Euphoria he took. His adoptive father, my former partner Parker, contacted me to help save our son.

What is your biggest fear? That my husband Mark and his family will find out the truth about my past if I help Parker search for the drug.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? Sherlock Holmes. He was my hero as a kid. I read all his books. When I worked as a secret agent for the SCA, I aspired to solve mysteries and crimes like he did.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? Work hard and never give up. My papa taught me that. He came from a difficult home life. His brother Henry died when my papa was a young teenager. Papa said it was drugs, but he doesn’t talk about it much. I don’t think he ever got over losing Henry. My grandparents had health problems. Papa worked to take care of them when my grandmother was in the hospital with cancer. He instilled in me a good work ethic.

Thank you, Hailey, for taking time away from your busy schedule to chat with us. Now it's Ms. Becker's turn at bat.

Which writer or character[s], from either books or movies, [or both] have had a major impact on your writing? Robin Cook has had a major impact on my life. I started reading his medical thrillers as a teenager and couldn’t read them fast enough. I love mysteries and science. I also love the romance of Judith McNaught’s works. I’d like to think my writing is a merger of these two writers.

With regard to research, where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths, thereby changing the original concept? I began this story with the concept of exposing the crisis of the drug epidemic in the U.S. As I began writing, I added in my characters. One elderly man had Parkinson’s Disease. That led to research about dopamine. I wove the story lines together in the plot. I didn’t change my original concept, but I made it more intricately involved. I also have a character with diabetes. I enjoyed writing these diseases into the story line, and I learned a lot. At one point, I deleted sections when the writing got too technical. In another life, I’d love working in research like many of the characters do in my novel.

Tell us a bit about your publisher. How did you hear about them? My publisher is The Wild Rose Press. I read about them through an email from Writer’s Digest when the site circulated publishers accepting submissions. I researched the list of names and learned that TWRP had started a thriller line. I thought the company would be a good fit for my novel so I sent them a query letter and sample.

What influenced you to submit to them? My book has some romance and definitely has the thriller/suspense aspect so I felt TWRP was a perfect home.

How is the submission process; what is the turn-around time from date of query to date of release? I sent TWRP a query in the summer of 2017 in late June. In July, they emailed that they wanted to see the entire manuscript and notified me of the agent assigned to my case. After I made some changes, I was offered a contract in March of 2018. My book will be released on March 13, 2019 so the entire process from query to release was about 20 months.

What are you reading right now? I have three books from TWRP authors on my list. I’m part way through a paranormal and I just started a novella. I haven’t opened the third one yet in the queue.

What's next for you? I’m currently working on the second book in the Euphoria series, Losing Euphoria which takes place six years later.

To learn more about C. Becker and the stories she creates go to: https://cbeckerauthor.wixsite.com/cbeckerauthor/about

To purchase Finding Euphoria, go to:

TWRP—https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/6572-finding-euphoria.html

To learn more about C. Becker, go to:

https://twitter.com/cbeckerauthor

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