A Lot of Work, Just For...

As you know, I was solicited for a "feature" in a literary magazine that has no readers, and upon careful consideration I decided to go for it. You can read about it here. To reiterate, this is costing me $0.00, and I just want content for my author site, for which this forthcoming online blurb fits the bill. (Comments under the Writer Beware article state it'll take about 4 weeks to show up online.)

Well, the magazine wants an awful lot of attachments for its seemingly won't-be-read feature. First the Q&A, then a short bio, then a long bio, then a list of relevant social media and other links, then a book cover image, and finally an author image. (Weirdly, it never asked me for the link to my book--damn!)

There was a 900-word limit on the Q&A, and mine came out to 900 words exactly. What are the odds? (That also includes the questions themselves.) And it's not as if I severely edited, or even lightly edited my responses. Apparently I'm just awesome.

I found the questions to be dull, but I certainly did my best to answer them. I'm sure they use a boilerplate, with maybe one individualized question thrown into the mix. And like all good book marketers do, I made sure to mention Running From Herself a few times (just like I never fail to link to it in my posts). 

Because you, like everyone else, will never read the online version, I'm including the Q&A here. 

 

What was the initial spark or idea that led you to start writing your current novel?

I always start my stories with a protagonist who’s facing a crossroads. With Running From Herself, Leah is a local band singer who’s been trying to break into the big time for more than a decade, but now her hopes have finally faded. When her band breaks up, she’s actually relieved to be tucking that dream away. I am an indie songwriter and singer, but I strangely never wrote a main character who was involved with music. When Leah gets her unexpected break, I knew that I wanted her to confront both the harsh realities of the music business and the joys of creativity. Writing her story allowed me to explore how those two sides interact and often clash. 

How do you choose or develop the settings in your stories, and what role do they play in shaping your characters?

I am from the Upper Midwest, so I write what I know. I love setting my stories in small towns, which often become a character in themselves. I’m fond of the quirky folks who inhabit those towns and how they’ll accept a newcomer, often becoming her found family.

As someone who composes songs as well as stories, how does your musical background influence your fiction writing?

There are so many differences between songwriting and fiction writing. With a song, the writer needs to touch the listener using very few words, which obviously doesn’t work when writing a novel. But writing songs did teach me discipline and the importance of getting to the heart of the matter. And speaking of heart, songs are pure emotion, which fits my genre perfectly. I’m pretty good at portraying heartbreak and loneliness.

You describe yourself as a “pantser” or discovery writer — how do you manage plot coherence while writing with less planning?

To be honest, if I planned out my stories before I started writing them, I wouldn’t write at all. The fun for me is in finding out what happens next. That’s led me down some very strange roads, like my main character in Shadow Song literally stumbling across her boss’s dead body in the woods. Plot coherence has never been a problem for me. I simply advance to whatever the most logical (in my mind) next step should be.

When a character surprises you in the writing process, how do you respond — do you let them lead the story, or steer them back to your original vision?

Oh, I definitely let them lead the story. My main characters all share the impulsivity gene, which causes them to not necessarily act in their own best interests, but I’m sometimes amazed at how they seem to find their way out of the messes they’ve created for themselves.

What kind of research (emotional, historical, technical) do you do to ground your narratives in realism?

I’ve researched some very odd things. Writers joke that if the authorities examined their online search history, they’d probably come under intense scrutiny. For my various plots, I’ve researched arson and rigor mortis, as well as more lighthearted topics, such as how to do various remodeling tasks, which I needed to learn about for Inn Dreams. I’ve also gone down the rabbit hole of researching early ferris wheels, and the most tedious of all, pylon signs (tall signs that tower over the landscape), which weren’t even a big plot point, but I needed to write about them with at least a hint of authority. I think I’d be great at some kind of “useless trivia” game.

How do you balance tension and pacing with the quieter, introspective moments in your novels?

Generally, it’s within those quiet, introspective moments that something happens to jar my main character out of her introspection. My genre lends itself to self-reflection to a point, but a good story needs things to happen.

Which of your characters (past or present) is closest to your own voice or experience, and in what ways do you distance yourself from them?

All my characters are part of me, at least in terms of worldview, but as it relates to life experience, I would have to say Leah in Running From Herself. She even writes songs, albeit with some help from me.

What has been the most rewarding feedback or reaction from readers about your work, and has it ever shifted how you approach writing?

An author is told to never read reviews, but that temptation is hard to resist. I definitely learn more from critiques than from pats on the back. With a couple of my novellas, readers were hoping for a more in-depth story, and I took that to heart, deliberately adding more “meat” to subsequent plots. Ironically, that led to writing Running From Herself, which is the longest work I’ve written to date, and no one has complained that it’s lacking in depth! 

For other authors who wish to write with authenticity and emotional depth, especially in women’s fiction or character-driven stories, what advice would you give them about finding their voice and sustaining creativity?

I don’t know that one can teach others how to find their voice. The more one writes, the more that voice reveals itself. A writer’s voice is unique, or should be. Learn from good writers, but don’t copy them! Voice is what makes reading such a lovely experience.

 

Honestly, I was half asleep when I did these, but I did have a deadline, so I dashed off my answers, gathered my flurry of attachments, and shot it off to the rep.

Now I just need to remember to check back in about a month.