Author Spotlight: Georgianna Klippert
What was the inspriation for After Midnight?
This is perhaps redundant in the biography below, but it was the death of my father in January of 2009. I felt I needed some sort of outlet for my grief and feeling of helplessness. The writing helped me focus and channel my emotions into the story. I cannot say Raidy represents me exactly, but the loss of a parent or loved one certainly was.
Who is your favorite character in After Midnight? and Why?
I think it would have to be Cia Nonna. She loved her granddaughter and Carlos unconditionally, and eventually that included Raidy and Samuel. She was patient. Patience is a virtue we are sorely lacking today. Life itself seems to be impatient, and it feels like so many people get left behind.
She does everything at her own pace and doesn't allow anything to upset that. She is obviously wise, and has a wealth of life experience to impart. She has suffered prejudice, and misunderstanding, even being the misguided object of Samuels fear and hatred. And yet she has remained untainted by it. Even when her granddaughter is kidnapped and raped, she does not focus on the attack but rather the future and the happiness she sees her having. She's strong. She has strength of character, spirit and heart. Even after her death, she continues to support her granddaughter.
What was your favorite quote from After Midnight?
It may seem prosaic, but her father's; the one on his tombstone. "I love you every heartbeat and beyond." Love is the only thing we take with us from this life into the next. It defines our humanity, and it gives us the only hope beyond being in the presence of God that really lasts...the idea that we will see our loved ones again.
Without Giving anything away, can you share your favorite scene in the book?
I think it has to be her brief reunion with her father. When a loved one dies, I don't believe in the idea of closure. We cannot put closure on the death of someone we love, because they are always gone from our lives. We simply learn to live with their absence, and in time it becomes bearable. The only thing that can give us comfort is the idea that they are in a better place, where they are no longer sick or tired or fearful. That is why I choose that scene. ((Please feel free to delete whatever you feel gives anything away))
Any current writing projects you are willing to share with us?
As per the biography, I am working on a novel called "Elizabeth." The story of a modern day assassin. It was based on a short story I wrote after finishing After Midnight. The short story was entitled "Loneliness." I am also working on two other projects which I will work on after the completion of Elizabeth.
Author Links
Bio
Living in Southern California, I have been married to a wonderful husband and am the mother of two adult children, who are the apples of my eye of course. I have been voracious reader all of my life, enjoying a variety of genres. My love or reading came from the endless hours my own mother spent reading to my self and my brother and sister. He enthusiasm for the stories and characters, the animated way she brought them to life in her readaing set me on the road to loving good stories and imaging myself in them.
I have tried my hand at poetry when I was younger, and have written songs for church and my own pleasure. I have always been in love with books and had always dreamed of writing. After reading the first two books in Stephenie Mayer's twilight series, and having been introduced to fan fiction, I tried my hand at writing one.
It still appears on the Twilighted fan fiction site: http://www.twilighted.net/viewstory.php?sid=493
Despite the less than stellar writing technique, I was pleased with how the story turned out. It got several dozen reviews, some negative but most positive. Both the positive and negative gave me a sense of accomplishment and taught me some valuable things as well.
The reviews can be seen here: http://www.twilighted.net/reviews.php?type=ST&item=493
The most important thing I took from that experience was the confidence that I could write a full original novel.
I had been thinking about what sort of story to write for a while after the fan fiction for a year or more, when in January of 2009, after surgery and an extended recovery for lung cancer, my father died. Like Raidy in After Midnight, he was my hero and larger than life, even after succombing to the affects of Alzheimers Disease. It was the catalyst for me writing After Midnight. Finally, after family and friends urging me, I took the step to self publish the book. Since writing that first story I have written several short stories, one of which is the basis for my next novel, entitled at least for now "Elizabeth." I hope to finish this story this year, and am very excited about the project. I have two other stories that I am working on as well.
I am always a bit tenuous about biographies for myself, if that is not what you were thinking of please let me know how you would prefer it. Also if you are interested I can send you the short story I mentioned above. The links below are related to After Midnight an my author's page on FB as well as the amazon product page. Also I want to acknowledge my friend Zachary Marquez who did the illustrations for the cover of After Midnight. He is a brilliant makeup artist, but as you can see by the cover is quite talented at illustration as well.