Inside the Mind of a Writer by David Richards, Author of Pairs

Today's special guest is David Richards, author of the women's fiction book, Pairs.

Pairs is the story of Kayley and Adam, a single mom who makes her living writing greeting cards and a young carpenter; and Alexandra and Henry, a former stripper with dual identities and a math teacher with some unusual gender issues. The couples are connected through Henry and Adam, who are cousins, and through Kayley’s friend Helen, who is also Henry’s step-sister. As each couple builds a connection, the joint friendship turns into family. Kayley’s daughter, Terra, becomes a central focus of both relationships; she is loved and nurtured by the village that the couples create.

With the tightening of the bond between the couples, the mission for the pairs—which begins and ends with Kayley—turns to parenthood for Henry and Alexandra. The story weaves the elements of past sexual abuse, sexual dysfunction, problem pregnancies, and absolute devotion to family into a plot that draws the reader into the lives of these very unconventional characters.

Inside the Mind of a Writer by David Richards



My formula is simple, as long as writing remains a form of procrastination pulling me away from a more pressing matter to which I should be attending, then I can regale on ad infinitum. Should I actually be thwarted in my attempts to sit down and work on a project, then I am in my prolific glory. Confine me to a room of roadblocks, and I will weave you chapters.

Over this last year I found my life arranged in such a manner as to grant me great luxurious swaths of time where my writing could take centre stage. It was dreadful. This stint in my shirker purgatory was compounded by the thorny encumbrance of being relocated to the extraordinarily inspiring setting of Venice, Italy. Cruelty, thy most searing weapon is irony.

Engorged on the fat of all-the-time-in- the-world, I had little else to do with my day but to procrastinate. However, temporarily unfettered from the usual daily concerns I was left utterly abandoned by all that from which I had so diligently shrugged off in the past. Cast into the world, without concern, worry, nagging issue or deadline, I was adrift in the cold bleakness of opportunity and endless possibility.

When I sat to write, blank pages were exchanged for Internet pages, and my slow spiral downward began. It started by frequent email checks, but quickly grew to a compulsion as I opened new email accounts and then fanned out into social networks. In an ever escalating search for the bigger hit of wasting time, I descended upon the Internet like a ravenous cloud of locusts consuming celebrity gossip, dating tips and the like.

To save my writing aspirations, it was clear that I needed something else to avoid, and I needed it soon. At my darkest hour, an executive search had found me and offered a position – one that was sure to be an endless treadmill of deliverables. Thus was my salvation.

Website: www.pairsthenovel.com
Facebook: David W. Richards – Writer
Twitter: DW_Richards
Goodreads: David William Richards
Blog: http://livingrobertly.blogspot.com/

D.W. Richards is a member of the Canadian Authors Association and beyond being a novelist he is also a script-doctor and freelance writer. An excerpt from Pairs will appear in the October 2010 issue of the international literary PDF quarterly Cantarville as a standalone fiction piece. In addition to creative writing, D.W. Richards has a Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Carleton University and is a Certified General Accountant. He divides his time between Venice, Italy and Ottawa, Canada.