Today I am excited to introduce Vina St. Fran.  She is the author of the multicultural romance novel One Foot Outside The Door.

You can purchase One Foot Outside The Door at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.  You can find Vina on the web at http://www.zampublishing.com

Blurb/summary of book:

Cyndarella Worthy is a beautiful, 30-something African-American woman who owns a successful minority-advertising agency in Southfield, Michigan. About to marry Thad Mitchell, Cyn has a blast from the past in the form of her high school sweetheart and first love, Bashar Bazzi, an Iraqi gentleman who comes back with an agenda of his own for his former lover. Will she ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after, or find herself back in circulation?

  

Do you set writing goals and write them down?

My approach to writing is to set a date for me to begin a project, which I write down. I don’t give myself a deadline for completion until I am halfway through the manuscript.

  

Do you set goals for your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of your life with specific action steps and deadlines?

I have certain rituals in place to meet my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of my life. I don’t consider them to be a ritual: it’s a lifestyle.

  

What aspects of your own life are woven into your book?

I consider myself a free spirit, as many of the characters in One Foot Outside The Door are. There is also an inner strength found in the characters that I share in my own life.

  

How do you spark your creativity?

There isn’t really one formula I use to spark creativity. I’d have to say that it could be anything from a personal or local or national newsworthy event that could start the process.

  

How do you relax?

There are a couple of things here that I heavily rely on. I start each day with 15 minutes of meditation. Great wine, and music helps me relax. A couple of hours at a day spa works wonders for me as well.

  

What do you enjoy doing with friends?

I love to go shopping or spa hopping with my friends. We have a blast, but they seem to run out of energy because they aren’t as much as a fanatic as I am!

  

What quality do you most desire to develop in yourself as a person?

Patience!

  

What themes and/or issues predominate in your work?

The biggest theme or issues that you will find in my work will deal with characters of different ethnic backgrounds as well as embracing the similarities and respecting the differences. Most of us in our personal lives have friendships or relationships with people outside our racial groups, yet when you read the majority of mainstream fiction, this is underrepresented I would say for most people. This is why I think that this is so important. 

  

What is better about your life now than it was 5 years ago?

The tremendous amount of freedom that I have now and it is really empowering.

  

What was the most important lesson you learned about yourself as a person during the writing of your book?

I am not a patient person at all, but I found that I learned to be while writing One Foot Outside The Door. It was challenging, and even exhausting at times but I was able to get through it because I was able to be more flexible than I initially thought I would need to be to complete the novel.

Thanks Vina for stopping by the blog that shows you how to awaken the hero within YOU!