Mama4dukes Pursued by CareMarie

* Author Name: mama4dukes
* Stories: Life Happens, So Just Roll With It

CareMarie: Tell us a little bit about yourself:
Mama4dukes: I'm a married mom of four sons in my early forties from the South Shore of Massachusetts. My kids are pretty active so afternoons and early evenings are spent chauffeuring them from one activity to the next. The town I live in is filled with image conscious stepford wives with cheating, executive husbands whose kids live in my kitchen and eat of my refrigerator in an attempt to escape from their parents. When I'm not feeding my sons and their friends, I love to read, write, travel, and cook. I'm also attempting to learn how to knit. I heard it's relaxing. Unfortunately, I keep getting frustrated and having to start over again. This has been going on for two years now without one completed item.

CareMarie: How did you get introduced into Fan Fiction?
Mama4dukes: I was searching for Midnight Sun online and ended up finding fanfiction.net instead. I started reading some of the fics and I realized that there were some quality fics posted.

CareMarie: Do you remember the first story you read?
Mama4dukes: Yes I do. It was BlondieAKARobin's Dark Side of the Moon, however the fic that got me started on my non-canon obsession was Madam Akyria's Magories. I went nuts trying to find more to read after that.

CareMarie: Is there a story behind your pen name?
Mama4dukes: I love reading historical romance novels and when I was signing up for an account on fanfiction.net, I happened to be reading a novel about a duke. Since I'm a mama of four, I thought, hmm...what if I called myself mama4dukes? That's how I ended up with my pen name.


CareMarie: What stories are you reading right now?
Mama4dukes: There are quite a few that have peaked my interest: Heavyinfinity's A Moment Changes Everything, Duskri123's Someday, KarenE.Teague's Redemption Comes When Least Expected, Zatyll's Unfathomable Bonds, and Wonderwoundedhealer's Crimson Starlight are the more serious stories. The more humorous ones that I love are Hammerhips' Whiskey and Spitfire, Stitchcat's Not All Who Wander Are Lost, VSPS's Be Careful What You Wish For, IzzyBFFAddict92's True Hearts and Truly Home, and Spirare's Nowhere Left to Run.

CareMarie: Do you have a favorite character and if so, why that character?
Mama4dukes: I can't say that I have an absolute favorite character, but I suppose it would have to be Jasper. He's so perfectly, imperfect and he has so much growing room. His intelligence and vulnerability are also attractive.

--Stories--

CareMarie: First off, tell us a little bit about your story:
Mama4dukes: Life Happens, So Just Roll With It is the only story that I have posted so far. It's a story featuring Jasper and Bella, five years following the infamous New Moon break up. Bella's a recent college graduate living in Boston with her family. Unbeknownst to her, the Cullens have been living in nearby New Hampshire and commuting to work in Boston for the past few years. She runs into the Cullen men by chance while drunk at a Boston nightclub. This encounter is the catalyst for a whirlwind romance between Jasper and Bella and is the start of the Cullens and Bella repairing their damaged relationship. All of this is done with a sense of humor because I feel that it's the best way to deal with the ups and downs of life. I should note that my characters are at times over the top, but I've characterized the story as humor for that exact reason.

CareMarie: Why did you pick the pairings that you did?
Mama4dukes: My main pairing in the story is Jasper and Bella. I picked those two particular characters because there was a lot of growing room for both characters. They both have their flaws and they both struggle to repair those flaws together in the story. I have a couple of new characters in the story as well as other non-canon pairings. Each couple are learning to live a vampire's life in a 21st century human world.

CareMarie: Do you have a favorite point of view to write in?
Mama4dukes: In this particular story, it would have to be Rosalie. She's self assured and to the point yet desperate to bond with Bella, so she has her insecure moments as well. She's, perhaps, the supporting character that has grown the most in the story.

CareMarie: Was there a part in the Twilight Saga that inspired you?
Mama4dukes: Yes, absolutely! Without a doubt, I would say that it was the part in Eclipse during which Edward disables Bella's truck so she can't visit Jacob Black because Alice told him. I found it to be so controlling and abusive. The part that upset me the most is how neither Alice nor Edward apologized for their actions and Bella pretty much just let it go. Stephanie Meyer had a great opportunity to address the issue of controlling relationships and abuse within a relationship to her teenage audience. It's unfortunate because many teenagers could read it and deduce that that type of manipulation is okay. In any case, the issue of control and boundaries is addressed a great deal in Life Happens, So Just Roll With It.

CareMarie: How did you decide to post your stories?
Mama4dukes: Each time I'd read a story, I kept thinking of ideas for my own story and started jotting those ideas down in a notebook. Eventually, I had a skeleton for a story made. I didn't post for the longest time because I was afraid of how it would be received. I don't know when or how it happened, but one day I decided to just do it and post and here we are now.

CareMarie: Have you ever changed your story outline based off of a review? If so, what was the review and what did you change?
Mama4dukes: Never! I was tempted to after I received numerous flames after one particular chapter, but in the end I decided to go with my gut feeling and stick with my story. I realized that, ultimately, I'm the one creating the characters and the story. If I kept changing the plotline for everyone, I'd end up with one big mess—without ever reaching a conclusion.

CareMarie: Do any of the characters in your story remind you of yourself?
Mama4dukes: I think there's a touch of myself in every single character in the story. I'm writing from my knowledge base so I think it's impossible not to put a smidgen of myself in each of the characters.