White: Author of a memoir...with a dog

Welcome to Rossandra White, author of the memoir Loveyoubye: Holding Fast, Letting Go, and Then There's the Dog, (She Writes Press, April 2014). She’s a fourth-generation South African raised in Zambia and now lives in Laguna Beach, California, where she hikes the hills and canyons with her Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Fergie and Jake. Ms. White is in the process of putting finishing touches on her YA novel, Monkey's Wedding, which is set in Zimbabwe.

What brings your writing into focus—the characters, the stories, or the love of words? Characters do it for me. If something’s not working in my story it’s usually because I haven’t connected in any meaningful way to my characters. That’s where the heart lies.  I look to them to lead me where I need to go.

What are your top three reasons for writing? These three writers put it best:

• Elie Wiesel: “I write to understand as much as to be understood.”
• Ted Hughes: “What's writing really about? It's about trying to take fuller possession of the reality of your life.”
• Dani Shapiro: “Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write.”

Is there a different genre or type of book you’d love to try and write? Oh yes! I’d love to write a story involving a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, along the lines of Must Love Dogs, or The Accidental Tourist.

What do I think people will like about your book? If you mean the above-mentioned book I have yet to write—no outline or anything yet—I’m thinking people would like it for the same reason they’ve liked my memoir, Loveyoubye: Holding Fast, Letting Go, and Then There’s the Dog.  A brief quote from a reviewer might help.  “Rossandra is such an exciting writer. She has an amazing command of the language and her emotional pitch of tragedy and triumph is sublime.”

http://rossandrawhite.com
http://twitter.com/RossandraWhite
http://www.facebook.com/RossandraWhiteauthorpage

LOVEYOUBYE -- A soul-searching story of how a journey home to South Africa empowers one woman to make a life-affirming choice when all seems lost.

The book can be purchased at the following locations: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie-Bound and Book Depository.