I'm still shamelessly recycling while I finish up a couple of projects. This is an interview that was originally posted on September
20, 2012,
on Mich's Book Reviews blog in support of my release of
"My Apple Tree." I'm providing
the link to the original posting below; I encourage you to check out her
blog for other reviews and author interviews!
Firstly, tell me a little about yourself...
I was born (obviously) in a university town in Kansas, which
is where much of my extended family still lives. After moving around a bit, my
parents and I ended up in Cleveland, Ohio. I got married soon after college and
brought my husband back with me. We now have two sons, three cats, one
mortgage, two coffee makers, and enough dust bunnies to repopulate a planet.
1) How did you start writing?
I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I
remember hiding under my bed and drawing the stories in my head since I didn’t
know the alphabet yet. In college, I majored in English literature, but every
adult around me insisted that there was no way I was going to be able to pursue
a career as a professor or writer if I wanted to eat regularly. Eventually, I
became a paralegal specializing in Intellectual Property law, but I left to
stay at home shortly after my oldest child was diagnosed with Aspergers
Syndrome, which is on the Autism spectrum. While I was still working, I
continued to write, but it wasn’t until I became a stay-at-home mom that I
dared to consider pursuing writing as a career.
2) I know you also work with [Renaissance Romance Publishing] as editor in chief, how
do you juggle this and being a freelance writer?
As with any job, there are times of frantic activity and
periods of calm between the storms. I don’t know a single working mother who
doesn’t struggle with balance to begin with, so I’ve become somewhat accustomed
to being pulled in several different directions at once. I do try to avoid
working on my own writing while in the middle of editing someone else’s
manuscript. It’s important not to let the line between editing and rewriting
get blurred. If I’m in “writing mode,” I will want to change someone else’s
writing to match mine, and that’s not what I’m there to do. I do have plenty of
support from RenRom itself – we have a wonderful team of people who are willing
to jump in and help if things need to be juggled. I also disappear for the
month of November to participate in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo,
which involves a worldwide challenge to write 50,000 words in thirty days. My
longer works in progress came out of past years’ projects, and it certainly is
my most prolific writing period. In a nutshell, if I’m not editing, I’m writing
– but I’m always doing one or the other.
3) Where did the inspiration for My Apple Tree
My Apple Tree is a
story I began several years ago, and it has evolved a lot since the original
draft, much like an old house that has had wings and extensions added to it as
the years pass. The story of young lovers torn apart is the earliest portion
and was inspired by Sinead O’Connor’s version of the Celtic ballad “I am
Stretched on Your Grave,” which appeared on her album I Do Not Want What I
Haven’t Got. It is a beautiful and haunting song, and it’s hard not to
listen to it and not see the young lovers in your mind’s eye. At first, I had
no plans to develop my story beyond that, but some other influences gradually
mixed themselves in. Hope began to emerge, and what was once a story of
heartbreak and despair became something more as the characters took on a mind
of their own and sought out love and healing. When I went to visit family last
May in Joplin, Missouri, and saw the damage from the tornado that had torn apart
that community one year earlier, the last piece fell into place. Hopefully, the
end product is an honest and faithful portrait of grief, healing, and the
importance of the life-affirming influence of love in our lives.
4) Do you have any projects in the pipeline that you can
speak about?
I have two novels currently at different stages of
completion, which is a nice way of saying that I will be monkeying with them
until someone from RenRom comes and forcibly drags the manuscripts away from
me. One is an historical romance titled The
Truth Seekers, which takes place at the turn of the century and deals with
the friendship that springs up between a society daughter and a misanthropic, cynical
gothic novelist. Because of its historical nature, working on it is a more
delicate process, so I have a hard time anticipating when I’ll feel like it is
fit for public consumption. Another novel, The
Irrepressibles, is a contemporary mystery-romance with elements of the
paranormal and comedy mixed in. It is more typical of my normal writing style,
with wise-cracking lead characters and hilarity mixed in with the more serious
feelings and dilemmas. At the moment, it’s in the stage known by professional writers
as “a hot mess,” but I hope to finish work on it sometime in 2013.
5) Will you ever incorporate your love of Doctor Who with
your writing?
Ooh, good question! Unfortunately, my answer has to be “yes
and no.” Like the hopeless fangirl I am, I already know what is involved in
writing an actual Doctor Who novel, and I’m not prepared to run that particular
gauntlet. However, I have gotten flashes of inspiration from watching the show
that exist now as random snippets and notes somewhere in the bowels of my
laptop. David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston’s portrayals of the Doctor, in
particular, are almost impossible NOT to be inspired by. In these days, it’s
supremely important to avoid even a whisper of copyright infringement, so while
I might get an idea that is triggered by a bit of one episode or another, you
won’t be seeing any time-traveling aliens from me any time soon. I would love
to write a novel that is good enough to get a film version starring David
Tennant, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that one!
6) What's your least and most favourite aspects of the
writing process?
I think my least favorite part of writing is the inner
editor. The voice in the back of my mind that constantly pushes me to find
better phrasing or improve characterizations won’t ever shut up long enough for
me to just sit and relax and write. If my muse is the angel sitting on my
shoulder, my inner editor is the devil perched on the other side. I think
that’s why I tend to do my first-draft writing late at night or early in the
morning when I’m not completely awake. When I’m totally alert, I’m
second-guessing myself too much to get anything done.
My favorite part would have to be what goes on in my mind’s
eye as I get a new idea. I love seeing a scene play out unexpectedly in my
head. It’s by far the best part of being a creative person – that vivid
imagination that lets you really see the world you’re trying to recreate for
your audience. It’s like magic.
7) What's your advice to prospective writers?
One piece of advice that I got and didn’t want is “Don’t
quit your day job.” It’s not the idyllic life that we might imagine, surrounded
by leather, grandfather clocks, and old books as we craft exquisite prose,
unmolested by bill collectors, piles of dirty laundry, and children who for
some unknown reason expect us to feed them on a fairly regular basis. We must
all live in the real world at least some of the time, and there are many
writers out there working in jobs they hate while they throw their hearts into
their craft during free hours. The good news is that you need those experiences
for your stories anyway. You can’t write about the human experience if you’re
living in a bubble.
Another piece of advice – and this really should be the most
important – is that just because you love to write doesn’t mean you are
naturally flawless. Learn about your art. READ STYLE BOOKS. Annie
Dillard and Stephen King are two authors whose writing guides are particularly
useful. Get a common English usage guide to answer your grammatical questions.
Don’t wait for someone like me to take your baby away and cover it in red pen.
Put the care and time into each manuscript that reflects your interest in
telling the best possible story to your readers. The images live inside you
–you must learn how to unlock them. As with any other creative endeavor like
painting or music, writing is a craft that must be nurtured and honed and
constantly improved. You’ll get a lot of advice you don’t want to hear, but you
need to listen anyway.
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