Those Children Are Ours by David Burnett
Release Date: 31st August 2015
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
I am so thrilled to welcome David Burnett back to the blog during his current blog tour for Those Children Are Ours. Thanks to David for agreeing to be interviewed. But, before the interview, lets find out about the book first.
Jennie Bateman screamed at her
daughters, cursed at her husband, packed a bag, and walked away. Twelve years
later, she petitions the family court for visitation with her daughters, Alexis
and Christa. Her attorney tells Jennie that,
ordinarily, she could not imagine that some type of visitation would not be
granted. But, she warns, the situation is hardly ordinary. True, Jennie suffered from a
bipolar disorder when she began to drink heavily, abandoned her family, and
moved in with another man. True, she has turned her life around: leaving her
boyfriend, returning to school, entering therapy, taking medication, finding a
job, and joining a church.But she pressed no claim for her
children when her husband divorced her, and she has made no attempt to contact
them in any way. Her daughters are now sixteen and fourteen. They live four
hundred miles away, and they have busy lives that do not include her, lives
that will be totally disrupted by the visitation that Jennie requests.
Their father is engaged to be
married to a woman who has taken the role of their mother for a decade, and
neither child wants anything to do with Jennie. Alexis remembers nothing good
about her. Christa recalls nothing at all.
Conflict ensues as soon as
Jennie’s petition is served: her former husband does not want to share his
children with the woman who deserted him; her children have no interest in
knowing the mother who abandoned them, and her father believes that she is
being timid and ought to demand full custody, not visitation.As court convenes, Jennie’s past
is dredged up− the
desertion, the men, her drinking, her mental health − and hauled before the judge. Her claim to be a
different person, now, is attacked. When the judge appears to be reluctant to
grant Jennie’s request, but seems to feel that she must, her husband’s attorney
suggests three trial visits, hoping that they will go so badly that Jennie will
come to her senses and drop her petition.
Jennie wants to be a part of her
children’s lives, but can she convince them to allow her to try?
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Do you write under your real name or
is this a pen name you use?
No pen name. I really am David
Burnett.
Where are you from?
I was born, and grew up in Columbia,
South Carolina (US). I’ve lived in Georgia and South Carolina. Last year, my
wife and I moved to Folly Beach, near Charleston. Three of my four books are set in Charleston, and I’ve always
enjoyed the Carolina beaches. I now have the opportunity to walk on the beach
almost every day and to photography the ocean, the sea birds, and the marshes
that I love.
Did you write as a child?
“Oh. Oh. See spot run.” Of course, I
was paraphrasing my reading book. I also spelled “Oh” as “Ho,”and I argued with
my father when he told me I had reversed the letters. When I was in middle
school, I wrote a short story about a veterinarian who was a burglar. People
would board their pets while they were on vacation, so he knew that they would
be out of town. Beyond that, no.
What was the first thing you ever
had published?
The
Quill and Scroll, the literary yearbook at my high school, published a poem
of mine at the end of my senior year. I honestly don’t remember the poem except
that it was about autumn leaves.
Do you have a writing routine?
Currently, I usually awaken around
seven in the morning, have coffee, and sit on the porch to write for an hour or
an hour and a half. I’ll spend another hour in the evening after my wife goes
to bed.
Do you have any writing rituals?
No.
Do you have a current work in
progress?
Two works are in progress. My
current tour is for Those Children Are
Ours, and. I’m currently working on a stand-alone sequel.The other is, I suppose, paranormal
because it involves angels. It is a love story set during the war in heaven
between the armies commanded by Lucifer and Saint Michael.
Where did the idea for your book
come from?
I wrote a blog post, once, about where story
ideas originate. In it, I quote from Second Chance
Café, where the author writes of a young woman who weaves beautiful scarves.
Each scarf is unique. How does she decide on the colors, the pattern, for a new
scarf? She describes the process in this manner:
“I don’t know how you do that,” her father said,
looking at the collection (of yarn) she held and shaking his head.
Honestly, neither did she. To this day, she could
not explain how the colors came together in her mind. How one flowed into
another as she sat at her loom. How the different strands of story became a
whole. “I just see it. I don’t know where it comes from. Any of it. It’s just
there.”
I would describe writing in the same way.
Who was the first person you gave
the book to to read?
My youngest daughter, Suzanne, has
always been the first person to read my books.
Do you have any advice for budding
authors?
Write. Write. Write.
ABOUT DAVID BURNETT
We recently
moved to our new home near Charleston, South Carolina. Three of my four books
are set in Charleston, and I’ve always enjoyed the Carolina beaches. I now have
the opportunity to walk on the beach near our home almost every day and to
photography the ocean, the sea birds, and the marshes that I love.
I love
photography, and I have photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on
the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, and a Native American powwow.
My wife and I have traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom.
During trips to Scotland, we visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the
Burnett family near Aberdeen, and Kismul Castle on Barra, the home of my McNeil
ancestors.
I went to school for
much longer than I want to admit, and I have degrees in psychology and
education. In an “earlier life” I was Director of Research for the South
Carolina Department of Education. My wife and I have two daughters and, by the
time you read this, four grandchildren.
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