Books for Company: Author Interview + Giveaway : Dahlia Salvatore

Body Language Blurb

Carmen Andrews hasn't spoken for a year, not since she was viciously tortured by a psychopath. Forced into silence by the trauma, she finds a new life in a new town. As a dancer, she can get away with not speaking. In her head is a mess of memories, withheld frustrations, and a host of wingless dreams. When her psychologist exhausts all of her resources, she sends Carmen to a speech therapist.
Fresh out of graduate school, Jacob Weller hopes to help those suffering from mutism and other speech disorders. When he meets Carmen, he finds her attractive, but his ethics keep him from acting on his impulses. When tragedy strikes, his own sanity is challenged and his professionalism takes a hit. Believing that he has failed and with few visible changes in Carmen, he considers referring her to a new doctor.
Carmen has other thoughts on the matter, but struggles with her demons, ones that keep her mouth firmly shut and her heart desperately wanting.

Interview

Dahlia Salvatore

Please tell me a bit about the idea and story behind Body Language
So the idea came from challenging both myself as a writer and having characters that were challenged, themselves. I basically took what I believe is the equation for a good long-lasting relationship and pulled out some of the elements. Among these elements are trust and communication. Communication is one of the things that both characters struggle with in the book. They also spend a good deal of time ignoring what their instincts and core feelings tell them and that hinders them both. Their growth comes from rising from the ashes of their own tragedies and becoming new people.

Jacob almost sounds like a character too 'good to be true' in sense of the word with how caring he sounds. What sort of character is Jacob?
I'm slightly confused as to what “too good to be true” means. If you mean that at face-value from what you read about him on the back of the book that he seems like a person with very few flaws and sins, you'd have to read much further into the book to realize that he is a deeply flawed human being. Most of his sins and character flaws come out of his being selfish in the past and being careless with those who love him. And while the incentive to his treating Carmen eventually becomes a general regard for her welfare, it begins as just another job.

What sort of research did you do into understanding mutism and was it hard to write Carmen's character?
I knew from the beginning that I didn't want her to speak. This was, again, because I wanted to remove the factor of communication that is essential to a healthy relationship. I wanted their love to develop despite its absence. Mutism is one of those conditions that comes from a myriad of causes, especially elective mutism. Carmen happened to be someone who had suffered this horrible event that changed the person she was. At first she was silent so she could heal and after, she was silent because she felt set apart from the rest of the world. Most of my research pertained to how mutism was treated. What I found out was that there isn't really a set way to treat it. There are some medications out there, but each case varies and the cause for the mutism varies.

It was hard to write Carmen, because there were many times that a normal person would have said something. Actually, during the first draft writing, I actually let her slip and have a single line of dialogue. My editor came back and said, “She speaks in this part of the story. Did you mean to do that?” I realized that I let it slip, went back and changed it. So, yes, it was hard because she is unlike any other character I've ever written. Dialogue is one of those important elements in a book that make it important, so I had to imply all of Carmen's dialogue through pantomime and facial expressions. This was my first novel and, thinking back, I feel I just might have picked one of the hardest character types for my book. But her character was important and unique in that way. I mean, how many characters in books nowadays don't speak?

What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?
Gosh, that's a hard one. I would have to say that creating the really intimate scenes—as in the ones that portray some of the hardcore emotions of the respective characters—was the most fulfilling thing about writing this book. There's something about being in the characters' heads, seeing their souls exposed, and knowing (hoping really) that that will translate to the reader. I know that the characters' emotions will hit me harder than most readers, because they live in my head, but if the readers can feel a fraction of what I did while writing Jacob and Carmen's story, I will consider this book a success.

Find Dahlia

Amazon (UK/USA)

I'm a thirty-two-year-old female author living in Seattle, Washington. I'm married to the love of my life and have been for ten years. I come from Coos Bay, Oregon and moved to Seattle six years ago. I love it here and don't see us going anywhere anytime soon. I've been heavily influenced by contemporary writers like J.K. Rowling, Mary Balogh, Christina Dodd, Stephanie Laurens, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, Stephen King, and many many others. Indie authors who've influenced me (and these are just a few) are Jasinda Wilder, Michelle Hughes, Kristin Flynn, Katie Mac, Dawn Robertson, Ada Slow, Melissa Brodky, Brandelyn Harris, Brandy Dorsch, and Brandy Jellum.

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