LOVE CHILD by Ana Torres

Tommy Hulette never asked to be born. Everyone wants to make him regret it even so. Tommy Hulette hates his ghetto Brooklyn neighborhood. He's content living with his beautiful mother, his loyal caring father, his little sister Greta. He enjoys playing stick ball with neighborhood friends then really perks up when he meets beautiful and interesting Stephanie from Starrett City. But Tommy's world is shattered forever. His mother becomes terribly unhappy and commits suicide. Things go downhill completely when his father decides he needs time to cope with the tragedy, sending Tommy and his sister to live with a brother Tommy never heard about. He promises that it will be for a short spell until he can come back for them. He doesn't and it doesn't take long for Tommy to discover how this brother hates him and has since birth. He wants to punish Tommy for events occurred long before Tommy's birth...Then it gets worse as he wants Tommy to end his life just like his mother...and to this Tommy is pushed and pushed and pushed... Pushed to the limit, and with no one to turn to, Tommy takes solace in his sister's company and letters he receives from Stephanie. Will he be able to cling to life, and not succumb like his mother?

1. What is your book about?

Love Child is the story of Tommy Hulette a boy who loves his family, but hates the poverty in the crime ridden projects they live in. However he’s content to play stickball with the neighborhood kids while watching over his sister Greta. Things really look up when he meets the lovely Stephanie Mandan who lives on the other side in the more lucrative area of Starrett City. Unfortunately for Tommy his mother sinks into depression and makes a drastic decision that changes Tommy’s and Greta’s life forever. The following series of books will continue to deal with the consequences of these decisions. Those books are Child No More and Child Scorned.

1. What inspired you to write this particular novel (series)?

It took me a few years to write this story which has become a series of books. The story itself was inspired by a couple of things. My upbringing in the projects, though we didn’t live with the kind of poverty Tommy lived in. We did live in poverty however just not as bad. It was also inspired by things I experienced in real life that were not easy to deal with, but through this fiction writing I was able to put some of these things into writing. It wasn’t the exact same situation. A lot of things are different, but overall I was inspired through those things I experienced while growing up, as I entered the adult years as well.

1. Describe your writing in three words.

Exciting, Chilling and gripping.

1. What authors inspire or influence your work?

V.C Andrews was and still is a big influence. I love her kind of fast paced, suspenseful writing. Her early books the ones written by her especially are the ones that influenced me especially the Dollanganger series which very much influenced my own Child series. I also enjoyed her Casteel series, and found it just as suspenseful. I followed her formula because I loved the way these books had hooked me. I didn’t want to put these books down from the moment I began reading them, and I wanted to write in that similar way with Love Child and the series of books that followed it with the hopes that I could hook my readers the same way. Susan E Hinton was another influence. She penned “The Outsiders” when she was only sixteen, and I first read that book when I was fourteen. That book was probably the first real book that made me want to write. Other authors that deserve special mention who have influenced me over the years have been Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Patricia Cornwell.

5. Once your character is fully developed do you set them free or do they still dance around your mind?

My character certainly dances around my mind. I’m not sure if the character of Thomas Hulette (the protagonist of the Child Series) is fully developed since he’s been in a few stories, and he’s still growing and developing for likely future stories. But when I say he dances in my mind perhaps the best way to explain that is to say that he’s never far away when I’m writing. Since his story has been told in a series of books (right now three books, and one recently new released Christmas short story) this could be one reason why this character dances in my mind. But honestly I think of him a lot even when I’m not writing. I could be listening to certain songs, and I picture him in certain scenes like for example he could be fighting with his antagonist. I see it all in my mind as if watching a movie. The music I’m listening to adds drama to the whole scene. I guess it’s safe to say that this character has become part of me, but then most characters are already a part of the author from the moment they create their character. 6 Share your biggest hurdles in the marketing process. While concentrating can be a big hurdle in the writing process for me there are many hurdles in the marketing process. Naturally marketing is important for any author, in fact one of the most important. For me the biggest hurdles there is going out and reaching out to people. I can be very shy about promoting myself. I am also shy and sometimes afraid of getting out of my comfort zone, and trying new ideas for promotion. For example if I spend days promoting my books on social media like I have with Facebook and Twitter, I may become somewhat complacent there, and not push myself to go beyond that, and step out of that comfort zone. I keep promoting there instead of trying something else even if I am stagnating with sales in that area. The thought of trying something new every day appeals to me constantly. I have ideas, but I need to overcome the hurdle of being shy, and I need to work on stepping out of my comfort zone. Every day I need to take steps to do that even if just one step at a time. It helps to have money, but if money is scarce then we have to be our own promoters. Challenging as it may be, but we can put up our own hurdles when we allow our own shyness, and unintentional complacency to get in the way of our own success.

7. Where can readers find you and your books online?

My books can be found on Amazon, but I do have a website where the links to my Amazon and social media pages are all together. The list of my books, and their descriptions are there as well. Here is the link to my website: ANA TORRES AND FACEBOOK

AMAZON 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT ANA TORRES

A.M Torres is the author of five books. The first of these books Love Child was first published in 2011 and was given a good review by Midwest Book Review who described it as "A fine and very much recommended read." Following Love Child is its sequel Child No More. Following those books are the holiday themed books J and K Christmas, and J and K Christmas 2013 which was given four stars by Readers Favorite. J and K Valentine was released earlier this year and Ana is currently working on Child Scorned and all poetry book.