Author Interview with Sonja Herbert

Today and tomorrow I’m featuring author Sonja Herbert on my blog. She recently released a memoir, Carnival Girl: Searching for God in the Aftermath of War (I’ll be reviewing the book tomorrow, so come back and visit again). I’ll focus on the book tomorrow, but today, here’s an interview with this extraordinary woman.

List five movies you LOVE:

The new Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, Conspiracy Theory, Somewhere in Time, Independence Day

If you were stuck in an airport with nothing else to read, would you rather have a copy of Twilight or Hunger Games?

No question, Hunger Games, even though I found Twilight well written, too. Sparkling vampires are just not my cup of tea.

Item(s) you’re willing to splurge on:

Anything electronic. I’d love to have an iPad or a Fire Kindle.

Can you tell us a funny story from your childhood?

I remember how my mother learned to drive a car. It was funny, and it’s also a chapter in my memoir!

That chapter made me really, really grateful for my washing machine. Do you have any hidden talents?

I love to knit and crochet. Don’t tell anyone, but I even have a knitting machine!

OK, we’ll keep the knitting machine a secret. Best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Write every day, even if it’s only one sentence!

When did you start writing?

At 24. I had just immigrated to the U.S. and send a real life story to a women’s magazine. Naturally, it was rejected.

What are you working on now?

A middle grade fantasy about a German boy and a Navajo boy finding the silver mine on the reservation.

How do you come up with ideas for your books?

They’re almost always something I experienced, or read.

Pick a character from one of your books and tell us about him or her:

Margot Edel, my mother. She’s not only a big presence in my memoir, Carnival Girl, but she’s also the main character in my historical novel, Walk on a Wire. Margot is half-Jewish (she’s still alive at 91 and lives in Germany), and she survived the Nazis by hiding in a circus. I was born in a circus.

You can visit Sonja online at her website, booksite, blog, or facebook page.