Karen Booth's interview of Christopher Penman from Bring Me Back

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE character interviews.  When you read a book, you generally get a really good idea of what a character is all about.  But when the character does an interview, you get to dive into more of who they are.  Yet, the character interview gets EVEN better, when the author themselves interview the character.  When the author interviews the character, he or she doesn’t usually get away with stuff.  Ahhhhhh, you gotta love those authors!

I asked Karen Booth to do a character interview with one of the characters from Bring Me Back for me.  She was so nice and really excited to do it.  Check out what happens when Karen has a conversation with Christopher Penman.



You can read my 5 star review here.

Karen Booth’s interview with Christopher Penman

KAREN: So, Christopher, I have to tell you that just as I was sitting down to start this interview, I received a lovely email from Kim, our blog host today, telling me how much she enjoyed Bring Me Back.
 

CHRISTOPHER: Bloody brilliant.  Glad to hear it.

KAREN: Because of that, Kim was hoping I’d ask you some personal questions about the book, specifically about your relationship with Claire.  Are you up for that?
 

CHRISTOPHER: You’re probably the only person I would discuss this with other than Claire herself, but sure.  I trust you’ll be gentle.

KAREN: Always. I think people are curious about these things because Bring Me Back is written from Claire’s perspective.  It wasn’t always easy to know what was going on in that head of yours.
 

CHRISTOPHER: Perfectly understandable.  I don’t always know what’s going on in there either.  As the author, isn’t that your department?

KAREN: No.  I can attempt to understand what’s going on with you, but you don’t always show me everything.  Most of the time, I just have to interpret your actions or what you say.
 

CHRISTOPHER: Fascinating.  Truly.

KAREN: I’m glad you find the ways in which your torture me to be fascinating.  Okay, so first question.  What drew you to Claire?
 

CHRISTOPHER: There was a spark between us from the very beginning.  Even though she was quite obviously nervous to be around me, it didn’t put me off.

KAREN: Because everyone gets nervous around you?
 

CHRISTOPHER: I have been known to make people nervous, yes.  But here’s the thing, most women become quite overt with flirtation and whatnot after they’re past their initial anxiety.  Claire didn’t do that.  She certainly became more comfortable, but she was so focused on her job and more importantly, doing her job well, that she never ventured into that arena.  That surprised me.

KAREN: Anything else you saw in her from the beginning?
 

CHRISTOPHER: Oh, sure.  I could go on for hours.  I mean, she’s drop-dead gorgeous but she doesn’t know it.  Those women fascinate me, the ones who don’t see the extent of their beauty.  It can be a bit of a show coming from some women, but it’s genuine coming from Claire and I find it very endearing.  I was also keen on her determination.  She didn’t let me get away with much and I’m used to people letting me get my way.

KAREN: I assume you’re referring to the interview.
 

CHRISTOPHER: Yes, she dragged some things out of me I never intended to talk about.  I trusted her from the start, which hadn’t happened in a very long time.  My marriage to my ex-wife was built on a constant breaking of trust.  It’s hard to regain that once you’ve lost it.

KAREN: What made you start texting and calling Claire after the interview?
 

CHRISTOPHER: It was a combination of things.  First off, I really just wanted to flirt with her as much as possible.  I was on the pursuit and I wasn’t going to let her off the hook easily.  Secondly, she’s one of those people I can talk to for hours.  I sensed that from the very beginning.  I was a pretty lonely guy at that point in my life.  Having an immediate level of comfort with someone was such a welcome change.  I wanted to be immersed in it.

KAREN: Fame can be very isolating, can’t it?  I don’t think everyone understands that.
 

CHRISTOPHER: Absolutely and no one tells you how do deal with it, tell you what to do.  Could I find a big party any time I wanted to?  Sure.  But did I want that?  Bloody hell, no.  I wanted to be able to have a real conversation with someone and not worry about whether they liked me because of my fame or whether they liked me for me.

KAREN: Your marriage contributed to your loneliness, didn’t it?
 

CHRISTOPHER: Yes, it made it far worse than it needed to be.  I alienated a lot of my good friends when I was married.  They could see that my ex-wife needed help, that she was out of control, but I was so eager for everything to be okay that I lived in denial for a long time.  There are only so many times someone can try to stage an intervention.  At some point, they will have to walk away.

KAREN: There’s one exception, though.  It seems like all of that has only improved your friendship with Graham (lead singer for Banks Forest).
 

CHRISTOPHER: You know, Graham gets a lot of flack from people because he comes off as a bit of an egomaniac, but the man has a heart of gold.  He stuck by me every step of the way, even when Elise was hurting me over and over again and I didn’t want to see it.  He and I got into several arguments, but he never held any of it against me.

KAREN: So, tell me.  When did you first know that you were in love with Claire?
 

CHRISTOPHER: I felt myself falling for her from the beginning and it became much stronger when I went to visit her in North Carolina, but the exact moment happened on the airplane on the way to St. Barts.  The flight attendant mistakenly thought we were married and I was overcome with this very strong feeling of how happy that would make me.  After my divorce, I really thought I wasn’t cut out for love or a real relationship.  Claire changed all of that for me.

KAREN: Does that mean there are wedding bells in your future?
 

CHRISTOPHER: I think I have to defer to Claire on this question.  The truth is that I would ask her today if I knew with certainty that she would say yes.  No guy wants to get on bended knee only to have her say no.

KAREN: Do you really think she would say no?
 

CHRISTOPHER: Do I ever really know what Claire is going to say?  She’s not the most predictable human being on the planet, which is part of what I love about her.  We’ll have to see what happens.  I’m taking this one step at a time.  I do not want to muck this up.

KAREN: I guess everyone will just have to wait until the sequel to find out what’s next for you two then.
 

CHRISTOPHER: February, 2014, right?

KAREN: Yep.
 

CHRISTOPHER: You’d better start writing, young lady.

KAREN: You’d better get ready to spend a whole lot of time with me.
 

CHRISTOPHER: I’m ready for the ride of my life.

Are you doing a happy dance?  I am.  I’m so excited that there’s going to be a follow up to Bring Me Back.  I can’t wait to find out what happens with Christopher, Claire and Samantha.  Ughhh, February 16, 2014 is so FAR away.

Thanks Karen for taking the time to interview Chris for me.

You can purchase Bring Me Back from:

Amazon ~ Standard Edition

Amazon ~ 10th Anniversary Edition with special features

Barnes & Noble ~ Standard Edition

Barnes & Noble ~ 10th Annivesary Edition with special features