1. I hear you have a dog in your debut novel, The Moon Always Rising. Tell us about the book.

I call my debut novel Moon for short, and I can’t refer to her as an “it.” She feels like a female to me.

Moon is set partly in the Scottish Highlands and mostly in the Caribbean Island of Nevis, where I’ve spent part of every year (except COVID) since 1996. It’s the story of Eleanor “Els” Gordon, a feisty and ambitious Scottish investment banker, who loses everything that matters to her through tragedy or her own willfulness. Bereft of her fiancé, beloved father, and family estate and wealth, she impulsively quits her job and flees to Nevis. After impulsively buying a derelict plantation house and its neglected garden and sinking her remaining savings into renovating them, she finds she is co-habiting with the jumbie (ghost) of the former owner, Jack Griggs.

Els and Jack strike a testy bargain: she helps him make amends with the women he most wronged in his Casanova life while he nudges her to discover why her estranged Italian mother abandoned her at two. Jack’s agenda includes matchmaking between Els and his best buddy, a local charter captain with his own tragic history and commitment issues. The story is rich in local color and characters and pursues themes of exile, second chances, finding home, redemption, and the power of forgiveness.

The Moon Always Rising buy links:

The Moon Always Rising is distributed by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook wherever books are sold.
Amazon for paperback, e-book, and audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Always-Rising-Alice-C-Early-ebook/dp/B07VFS477K
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Always-Rising-Alice-C-Early-ebook/dp/B07VFS477K/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/the-moon-always-rising/9781631526831
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/The%20Moon%20Always%20Rising
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Moon-Always-Rising-9781631526831/662302945
Apple Books for e-book and audiobook by searching the title.

 

2. Why did you add a dog to this book?

I have always been a dog lover with a soft spot for strays and rescue critters. As a writer, I know that giving a pet to a reticent, even unsympathetic character creates opportunities to humanize her for the reader by enabling her to voice her inner turmoil, thoughts, and emotions. Who doesn’t talk to their beloved pets? If she’s alone, as Els often is, she can do this without seeming crazy.

Also, I wanted Moon to be authentic to my own experience of Nevis. There, as on most Caribbean islands, feral dogs and cats abound. My dear friend and landlady on Nevis is so well known for her work in adopting or finding homes for unwanted dogs of all ages that people frequently leave boxes of unwanted newborns at her gate.

In Moon, when the charter captain and Els have a spat, his way of apologizing is to give her a female “Island dog” mongrel puppy that needs bottle feeding. Fortunately, Els isn’t put off by this, having loved the companionship of the family hunting hounds in Scotland where there was always a whelping box in the kitchen. The puppy becomes critical to the plot and contributes to Els’s newfound rootedness and courage.

 

3. Tell us about your work-in-progress?

My second novel, entitled Posthumous after its book within a book structure, is about Darius Gould and Helena Kraus, a New York literary power couple with secrets from each other and the world. When Darius’s betrayal and Helena’s death trigger the untangling of their ruses, Darius loses the power and reputation he’s worked so hard to attain. Desperately adrift and alone, he moves to the end of Long Island where he adopts Lulu, a traumatized shelter dog. Summoning what he learned as a young man about gentling thoroughbred horses, he slowly wins Lulu’s trust, and they help each other heal.

My late husband once owned and trained racehorses. It was fun weaving that experience into the story. Like Moon, this second novel is cross-genre, combining elements of literary fiction, mystery, and poetry.

 

4. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.

To date, Moon has won 11 awards:

Winner, New Fiction, 2022 Firebird Book Awards
Winner, Women’s Fiction, 2022 Firebird Book Awards
Winner, Cross-Genre, 2022 Firebird Awards
Winner, Magical Realism, 2022 Firebird Book Awards
Silver Winner, General Fiction, 2021 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards
Distinguished Favorite, Women’s Fiction, 2021 NYC Big Book Awards
Winner, Women’s Fiction, 2020 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
Winner, Cross-Genre Fiction, 2020 American Fiction Awards
Finalist, Chick Lit, 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Finalist, First Novel, 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Finalist, Paranormal, 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Because Moon is cross-genre, I struggled to find an agent and publisher because everyone wanted a book that would be easy to slot and market. When Moon won industry awards shortly after publication, I was relieved and gratified that some were for cross-genre. Despite the hangups of agents and publishers, readers seem to accept cross-genre stories easily. The initial awards meant so much to me as a newbie because they helped me throw off writer’s imposter syndrome and transition from “writer” to “author.”

I am grateful to everyone who posted a review and honored that so many have taken the time to do so. In the era of AI, here’s how Amazon AI summarizes my 100+ reviews posted there: “Customers find the story enthralling, fascinating, and spellbinding. They praise the writing quality as excellent, lyrical, and fluent. Readers also appreciate the well-developed, colorful, and modern characters. They describe the book as an unusual blend of locales and cultures.”

NOTE FROM MARCIA: Here are a few of the very impressive reviews of The Moon Always Rising:

“Early’s prose is tight and lyrical, confidently capturing her characters and their emotional landscapes… The enchanting portraits of Nevis―and of…Scotland―help make this an unexpectedly memorable beach read.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Complicated and memorable… The Moon Always Rising finds a woman remaking her life abroad and a ghost repairing old rifts.” — 4 star Foreword Clarion Review

“There are so many elements to this story; family drama, a ghost story and a subtle love story in more ways than one.”–Reedsy

“Early is a consummate writer who so stunningly draws us into the very texture of her story that we can feel the humid tropical air and interior lives of her characters… We are fortunate that [her] rich tapestry of both characters and narrative creates a much-needed refuge during these challenging times.” ―Martha’s Vineyard Times

 

5. How do you promote your books?

Simple answer: not enough. Publishing at the height of COVID meant that Moon didn’t get the launch I’d envisioned. I’ve relied on a personal approach, with as much social media outreach as I can stand. It has been huge fun for me to hand-sell Moon at conferences and festivals. I LOVE talking with book groups, either virtually or in person. I hope readers and book groups that might enjoy a page-turning story that sweeps them away to Scotland and immerses them in tropical Nevis will consider reading Moon together and share their impressions and questions with me.

 

6. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?

I love hearing from readers.

My website: https://www.aliceearly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alicecearlyauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicecearly/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19738864.Alice_C_Early
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-c-early-929716/
Amazon Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alice-C.-Early/author/B0858B13GZ?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

 

MARCIA: Thank you, Alice, for being my December interviewee! Your award-winning debut book sounds fascinating, and I look forward to reading it!

MONTHLY BLOG EBOOK CONTEST! Would you like to win a Marcia James’ ebook? Visitors to this pro-pet blog can join in the fun, comment, and/or share photos of their pets for a chance to win one of my ebooks!