Interview of A TON OF GOLD Heroine

2013/May by Marji Laine 2 Comments

Crystal Moore is my guest today on Faith~Driven Fiction. Her story is in the novel, A Ton of Gold, by James R. Callan. Question for readers: Can you figure out what type of hero would work best with Crystal?   

Marji: Crystal, thank you for stopping by. I’ve tempted readers to try to figure out what type of hero would be a good match for you, so I want to help them out. What personality flaws would be a deal breaker with a man wanting to attract your attention?
Crystal:  Not being to accept me as an equal partner.  Not finding my mind as more attractive than my physical appearance.  And not viewing life as a continual learning experience.

Marji: I understand that you want a man to value your intelligence as much as his own. Interesting. What are your thoughts or expectations of marriage?
Crystal:  I want a man who is very bright, but doesn’t look down on me.  A man who is strong, but at the same time gentle.  A man with a good sense of humor, but takes me seriously.  A man who has accomplished good things, but isn’t going to sit on his laurels.  A man who is as committed to me as I will be to him.  A man who wants kids, will love them and be closely involved with them, but not to the exclusion of me. And a man that I will think is handsome, but he doesn’t give it much thought.   Is that enough?

Marji: Wow, you have a pretty clear picture in your head about him. Does your family play any role at all in your life?
Crystal: My parents were killed in a car accident when I was just seven. It was a very difficult time for me. I was angry at the world. I didn’t understand why this happened to me. My grandparents took me to raise in the middle of a forest in east Texas. Then my grandfather died. I felt like everybody was deserting me. But my grandmother is an amazing person and in the most gentle and unobtrusive way, she brought me back to a happy life. And Nana is the most important person in my life—so far.

Marji: She sounds delightful. What about your job; what do you love about it?
Crystal:  I work on research projects in the field of information retrieval.  I’ve loved this area for probably eight years.  It allows me to think about what might be possible, what nobody has done, and then go try to do it.  It’s exciting and challenging and very rewarding when you make it happen.

Marji: I like research projects, but information retrieval sounds a little complicated to me. I want to find the data at my fingertips. Where do you go when you need to relax?
Crystal:  Easy.  I go to The Park. That’s the name of Nana’s property, 320 acres of forest in east Texas. Beautiful pines, oaks and hickory trees, and a magnificent lake, all in a peaceful atmosphere. No car horns, no boom boxes.

Marji: Quiet, peaceful. Sounds like a little piece of heaven!
Crystal: I can be stressed but half an hour floating on the lake and I’m as relaxed as a cat on a sunny porch.  Just driving into The Park relaxes me.

Marji: Well I hate to take you out of the reverie, but what is your greatest regret?
Crystal:  I was within a few months of completing my Ph.D..  There was a misunderstanding with my dissertation advisor and I left graduate school. I regret not completing it.

Marji: Oh that can be frustrating.
Crystal:  After the misunderstanding and I left graduate school, I lost all self-confidence. For a year, I thought I was a failure, not capable of doing original work. Until that fateful day, I was very confident in my capabilities.  It has taken me a long time, with much support from my boss and my friend to regain my self esteem.

Marji: Well, I’m glad you’ve come back from the edge. How difficult is your author to work for?
Crystal:  Well, he surrounded me with great people, so that helped a lot. But he did want to put me in very difficult situations. He forced me to be stronger than I wanted to be, than I thought I could be. I could have been happier without that old folk tale ever coming to light, but he insisted on bringing it out.  And I certainly did not want to see Dr. Krupe again. But, he insisted on Dr. Krupe reentering my life. So, in some ways, he brought unhappiness to me.  Thank goodness he gave me some special people to help me. And when things got really tough, he held my hand. I guess I have to say he wasn’t too bad. I’m working with him again.

Marji: Oh I’m glad to know about that! We’ll be looking for your return! Here’s a little more about A Ton of Gold.

A Ton of Gold

A contemporary mystery / suspense novel

Can long forgotten, old folk tales affect the lives of people today? In A Ton of Gold, one certainly affected young, brilliant Crystal Moore.  Two people are killed, others threatened, a house burned and an office fire-bombed – all because of an old folk tale, greed and ignorance.

On top of that, the man who nearly destroyed Crystal emotionally is coming back.  This time he can destroy her career.  She’ll need all the help she can get from a former bull rider, her streetwise housemate and her feisty 76 year-old grandmother.

After a successful career in mathematics and computer science, receiving grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA, and being listed in Who’s Who in Computer Science and Two Thousand Notable Americans, James R. Callan turned to his first love—writing.  He wrote a monthly column for a national magazine for two years, and published several non-fiction books.  He now concentrates on his favorite genre, mysteries, with his fourth book released in February, 2013.