Cynthia Harrison's Blog, page 60

Terry Tyler

I discovered British author Terry Tyler on Twitter, where we struck up a conversation about writing. She’s got several very funny but also heartwarming contemporary novels for sale on Kindle, and so far, I’ve read three of them.

Here’s a mini-review of Dream On, the first Tyler novel I read. Full Circle is the sequel; I loved revisiting these characters. The Other Side blew my mind. It has a brilliant high concept. Terry’s novels are set in small English villages and sometimes her characters make it all the way to London. A common thread is music. Many of her characters are musicians. These novels are as addictive as any I’ve ever read. I wondered “How’d she do that?” and so I asked. Here are her replies:

You have five novels out on Amazon  exclusively, right? Are they only in Kindle format or do you also have paper versions? Why did you choose to go this route with your work?

 My books are only in Kindle format.  This is because I haven’t got round to sorting out getting them done in paperback yet, though I am not sure that I will; I don’t really fancy doing the book signings that people seem to have to do to sell them; and it appears that you have to sell them so expensively to even get your money back.  Having said that, for vanity reasons if nothing else I would dearly love to see them in print form!

How long did you look for a publisher (if you did) before going indie? How does the term “indie” strike you? What are the perks of being an indie author?

 I found an agent who liked the way I wrote back in 1999, but I wasn’t prepared to change the plot of a book to make it fit in with what she thought she could sell to a publisher; I don’t know if that was silly of me or not.  When I started writing again after a 10 year break I sent a synopsis and sample of my new effort,You Wish, to an agent.  She liked it, and asked to read the whole thing, but when she had done so felt, again, that she couldn’t sell the whole story to a traditional publishing house.  I sent sample and synopsis to about 3 other agents with no luck, then just left it.  Then, about 9 months later, someone told me about Amazon KDP, so I thought I would give that a go.  The term ‘indie’?  It’s not one I use, and I don’t think of myself as “an indie author”.  I’m just a writer, and I’m independently published because no traditional publishing house has offered me a book deal, that’s all – I don’t feel it necessary to wear the badge ‘indie’.  The perks?  I suppose if you compare it with the self-published authors who go with a publishing company, it means that I get to choose my own pricing, for instance.  I’d hate not to have complete control over what I do.

One thing I love about your books is the voice. Your books are set in England, where you live, and the characters sound like it. When a New York publisher buys a Brit author, they take out all the Britishisms and put in American slang. That ruins it    for me. Your vernacular, your particular voice, is part of what draws me  to your stories. Does that come naturally to you? From reading your blog  & books it seems you come with a built-in sense of humor and the pages just flow. It seems effortless. Bet it’s not. Comments?

Thank you!  It’s such a compliment to be told that – I couldn’t wish for a greater one.  The dialogue and everything does come naturally, as do the nuances of any language to someone for whom it’s their mother tongue.  I wouldn’t say that it’s effortless, because I put a lot of work into making sentences and phrases tighter, or more amusing.  But I’ve always written stuff that makes people laugh, down to and including my Facebook status updates, so perhaps I am a ‘natural writer’ to some extent.  My books would be ludicrous if translated into American slang – they wouldn’t work at all because, as you say, they are very English!

How long did it take to write The Other Side? It covers a span of several years and it reads like someone is writing in-the-moment. So how did you do that? I was thinking as I read, I wonder if she wrote each part      when she was that age, or in that year? Did you?

 The Other Side took me 5 or 6 months to write, from December 2011 to May 2012.

It covers the period from 1987 to 2012 – 25 years.  I’m glad it works well in each different ‘moment’ – I suppose it does so simply because I’ve been all those ages!  I’d written a similar book in 1999, but I started The Other Side from scratch, using only some of the ideas I’d written in the previous one.

Was the structure of The Other Side a departure for you? It’s quite unusual and very cool. Tell me where the idea came from and how you did it. We have to avoid spoilers because the twist is so great. I even hate to say “twist” because then readers will be looking for it.

Years ago I read a book by Elizabeth Jane Howard that went backwards and it fascinated me, because I loved reading about the character in one situation, then going back to find out what brought her to that point in her life.  I’ve wanted to do something similar ever since.  I always make lists of timelines for the events in my stories when I am writing them, but I had to do much more so with this one, as you can imagine – and I made a few ghastly errors along the way!  Avoiding spoilers, I’ll just say that I’ve always been interested in the way the tiny threads and seemingly unimportant decisions take us to particular stages in our lives – and how easily everything can change.  I love books with complicated twists in them – Nobody’s Fault has a huge one, and You Wish has one on the last page!  The only one of my books which is just a straightforward story with no twists is Dream On – I’m overloading my brain trying to make my new one, working title Head First and currently at 20K words, contain a couple of good ones!

Your characters are so varied. How do you write about all the various people, who are all so different from one  another? Do you keep a list of character traits as you write or do those individuals just speak to you in their own way as you write?

I’m so glad the characters come alive for you!  I don’t write character plans or keep lists of their traits.  I think if I did they’d be cardboard; i.e., I don’t go, oh, better make Robert say this now, because I’ve just looked at my list and reminded myself that he’s supposed to be insecure.  I wouldn’t say that ‘they speak to me’ because that would sound pretentious; I don’t know, really; I just visualise them, and then I write about them!  Oh dear, I’m not really telling you very much, am I?!   I do think about them, when I’m doing other things, so I suppose that’s how I develop them in my head.

Let’s talk revision. How many drafts  do you write? Do you have anyone to edit? Do you belong to a critique group? About how long does it take you to write a book, start to finish?

I write about 6 drafts per book.  I couldn’t bear to have anyone edit anything of mine – perhaps just as well I’m NOT traditionally published!  I don’t belong to a critique group and never have done – I’m not much of a one for groups and I’m fairly confident about how I write anyway.  I’d prefer to listen to the opinion of the reading public; I think I can tell if something isn’t working during the editing process.  Obviously I’ve made mistakes, but I hope these will be less and less as I go on.  My sister is my only ‘beta reader’.  Takes me about 6 months to write a book.  You Wish was published in November 2011; I wrote it in 2010.  By the time I published it I had nearly finished Nobody’s Fault, which was published in January 2012.  The Other Side, which was the 3rd one, was published in May 2012.

How do you market your work? Or do you  not bother? Any tricks or ideas? (I dislike marketing and don’t do very  well at it, myself).

 Marketing – Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, book blogs.  I spend a lot of time on it.  I liked and used social networking sites before I published on Amazon anyway, so the ‘marketing’ of my books is only an extension of that – except that I don’t bore all my Facebook friends with posts about my books, and keep it for my author page only.  Tricks or ideas?  Loads, far too many for an interview such as this!  In a nutshell, remember that marketing is about communication.  And it takes time and work, lots of it.  You don’t build up an ‘online presence’ overnight, or by thinking ‘oh God, I suppose I’d better post something on my Facebook page’ once a week.

What is your writing background? Did  you go to University? Do you have a creative writing degree or did you ever take workshops or classes? Did you write non-fiction before you  started writing fiction?

 I don’t have a writing background.  I didn’t go to university because I was much too rebellious to knuckle down to anything like that in my late teens.  I’ve never attended a workshop or class.  Or written non-fiction.  I used to be really good at English at school, though, ha ha!  I wrote some short stories in my 20s, but they were pretty crap.  Aside from the stuff I’ve always done to amuse my friends, I’ve written nothing else until I wondered, in 1993, if I could write a novel.  Then I wrote one.  And another, and another, and…  then I stopped for 10 years, started again in 2010.

Why do you write?

 Because I enjoy it!

Thanks for wanting to interview me, Cynthia – I hope my answers are of some interest to you and your readers, though I am acutely aware of not having very much to tell you!!  I don’t have lots of complicated creative processes – I just write stuff! 

  Just the opposite, I learned a lot! Cheers, Terry

All Is Vanity

I had an idea. I wanted to take my e-novel to the next level and make a print version. My mom always gives cash as birthday gifts, and she is generous. I said “Mom, you’re my publisher.” She said “Oh, I would give you money for both things.” Yes, she is generous to her family, but I said no, it would be my gift to myself just to have that book in a print edition.

My writing pals, Tom, Bob, and Vernie, and I sometimes get into discussions about the difference between self-publishing and vanity presses. It is a fine line, but basically a vanity press will print up a book without edits and send you a thousand copies which no bookstore or library wants and so they stay in boxes in the basement unless you sell them out of your trunk. Vanity press (in these days of self-publishing and indie novelists) is the way of the lazy writer with a lot of cash and not much ambition.

Indie novelists, writers who use their own skills or Create Space or freelancers, are different in that they care about their product and strive to make it the best possible book. They distribute, they market, they network. Such a fine, fine, line. But it makes all the difference. If you have a book that nobody has read except you, and you publish it, chances are nobody else is ever gonna read it. Indie writers embrace craft, critique, cover artists, editors, and other professionals to help polish their work and make the best book possible.

But as I said to my mom “this is just for me” and that’s vanity. One of the definitions of vanity in my Shorter Oxford (isn’t it vain of me to tell you what dictionary I use?) is “desire for admiration.” I think that applies to all people, all the time,  everywhere. Who does not want to be liked? Whatever creative thing we do, if we do it for free, then it’s all vanity and that’s okay. Blogging for ten years is vanity. Teaching is vanity. Calling oneself an artist is vanity. Tweeting is vanity. Publishing any book through any venue is vanity. So too is exhibiting art. Everything is vanity if you think about it. Putting on make up. Combing your hair! Vanity!!

This bit of  a rant has a point, which is the lines in publishing are very blurry right now. If you indie publish a great book that gives joy to others, that is a very different degree of vanity than if you type up your handwritten diary from when you were 16, which you wrote instead of paying attention in English class, and then have it printed at great expense, that’s another level of vanity altogether.

A Writer & Her Secrets

Long time ago a writing teacher told me the best way to unlock a character is to ask three questions: What’s your secret? What’s your real secret? What’s your real secret? With each answer you go a little deeper. This is the way into the heart of your characters, the way to make them show up breathing on the page.

Another thing, just discovered today, ask yourself, your writer self, Where are you reluctant to go with this story? What do you plan to gloss over as you write this? What secrets are you keeping from your characters? I have been asking myself these questions for weeks. This book of my heart is going to break my heart. And it should. I want it to. So, I’m going there. I’m putting things on the page that I never planned to bring to light. Important things. Shameful, hurtful, awful things.

And that’s good. Today was the break-through in terms of finding a way to develop a character and enhance the theme of my WIP.

Maybe some of you know that I was once a divorced mom of two little boys. Most of my good friends are not writers, and they don’t read my blog (just guessing here, I know a few of you do!) but what my good friends will tell you is that I carried so much guilt for so long after my divorce. For years, I spoke of almost nothing else when I got together with them. And while the frequency tapered off, I was never fully able to forgive myself for splitting up my family.

When I did it, I was a stupid 26 year old who had no idea she was breaking her little boys’ hearts. I told myself it would be fine, we’d have joint custody, we were modern, blended, cool. Ha. That was not my experience. Not cool. Not blended. Not healed. We went through all the motions: sightings at recitals, graduations, weddings. We were polite. But we did not heal; I did not heal.

I wanted to write about the struggles of blending families and how nobody should ever kid themselves that divorce is “for the best” or “fine in this day and age.” I’ve been married to Al, my current husband, for 28 years. I was married to my children’s father for 7. One reason I stayed married to Al was because I was not going to put my children through another divorce. I wanted to walk away so many times in those early days. But I didn’t. And now I’m so glad I stayed. Mature love is a sweet gift.

I’ve wondered, and gone through it aloud with friends, since I stayed with Al, should I have stayed with my children’s dad? Were we just having a rough patch? We saw three counselors and waited two years to finally split. I tried. He did too. It just wasn’t right. Not for us. But this idea that I should have rode out the tough times continued to haunt me and my friends continued to listen to me beat myself up about the divorce until this year, when I finally got it. It’s like being in an airplane when the masks fall down. You put your own air mask on before your child’s. I was saving myself and since then have been trying to save the boys.  Who turned out pretty great, btw.

So how to write about this without exploiting anyone? Obviously, the ex had to be completely different from my real ex. The kids needed to be different, too. As well as the hero and heroine. Where I was stuck was with the ex. Everybody else came to the table ready to tell this story. But the ex was recalcitrant. He was stubborn. He refused to move on the page. He wasn’t true. And I don’t mean true in the sense of “really happened” but true for this story.

I knew I was blocked because I respect my ex-husband so very much. I didn’t want to make him a bad guy, which would be your obvious choice in a romance. I just thought that road was too easy and a little bit mean. Today, the ex finally spoke to me, in his own words, telling his own story. This is the day I have been waiting for without really knowing what the search was about. I’d been keeping secrets about my character, even from myself. Glad he finally got me to pick up the pen so he could have a go at giving me all his angels and demons.

Sometimes, it’s not about the characters and their secrets. Sometimes it’s about the writer and her secrets.

Everything Changes

Had to update my status, as we say on Facebook. After a two day pity party, I’m writing again. And no sugar today. Yet.

Recently received my publishing contract for Blue Heaven. Same publisher, different contract. Not many changes, but the ones I noted were important enough for me to do some negotiating. I’m happy with the way things went and sent the new signed contract in today. Which means, I will be getting edits soon.

I love working with editors. Almost everything they suggest makes my books better and my characters stronger. I’m even starting to think a little bit like an editor. That’s good. The less editing my editor has to do, the better writer I am becoming.

There’s another big change in my life these days: after 27 years in the same house, my husband and I are moving. We’re going from a house to a condo. We’re going from no basement tri-level, to split ranch with a basement. (But also with a first floor laundry.) We’re going from a well-used and much loved home to a brand new (even a little bit bigger) place that we can button up with confidence and leave for extended travel.

My plan is to keep writing through the move. I’ve got a deadline and the clock starts ticking soon.

Huge Meltdown, No Writing

This past weekend, I went to the store and bought cookies, chocolate bars, ice cream, and fudge sauce. Monday, and it is all gone. Huge meltdown, no writing. Why? A friend, or a former friend, because I can’t take this anymore, accused me of being an malicious liar. She’d done this once before, also in a public place, after what I felt were benign comments. I apologized on the spot, but that didn’t make a dent in her hate-filled tirade.

Both times I was taken by surprise and chagrined, not just because I put my foot in it, (I said true things but not things she wanted to hear) but also because I felt like I was being publicly shamed. As my beloved Housewives of Beverly Hills say: “Shame on you!” The look on her face said she had no respect for me. I felt like Gregory Samsa after his transformation into a cockroach.

Words have so much power. The world can shift with just a few ill-chosen ones. I was not being bitchy, rude, sly, or hurtful. I had no idea I’d said anything wrong. What she came back at me with was so disturbing I felt like leaving the table and going home. We’ve been friends for a long time, maybe ten or fifteen years and it’s only this year she’s started picking on me. Little things mostly but two big blow ups as well. Both with other people present, both in public places. So people could see her shaming me.

I don’t understand is why I ate all the sugar in Macomb County and was not able to write. Wait. Emotional eating, I get that.  But emotional writer’s block? I guess it exists. Who knew? Not me! Never happened before. When I get angry at my husband I write page after page. It spurs me on. So, what gives and how to stop it before I don’t fit into my clothes anymore and cease writing forever?

There is only one way. Step back from the toxic relationship. Way back.

Twitter Inspiration

Found out about National Romance Novel Writing Month, aka NaRoNoWriMo, a little late but decided to jump in anyway. Need all the inspiration I can get for Luke and Chloe, the star-crossed lovers in my WIP. Plus, they’re on Twitter @naronowrimo so I can check in. Got 300 more hard-won words today, and that’s all good. I revised 45 pages as well.

Traditionally, NaNoWriMo is “all new words” but that’s not what I need and I don’t think NaRoNoWriMo cares that I’m in revision mode. For me, that means going through, page by page, and adding to the story, upping the conflict and hotness factor. When I say hotness factor, I’m not talking 50 Shades of anything–I’m talking about the initial attraction between two people who are perfect for each other.

That’s priority one for me. I want the romance to shoot the moon. And when I wrote the first draft, I didn’t take it far enough. (Thank you to my critique group: Vernie Dale, Tom Phillips, and Bob Baker!) The other thing I need to do is flesh out a skimpy subplot that absolutely plays into the main theme of the story and is tightly entwined. In the first draft, that got very short shrift. My writing pals sat in my dining room a week or two ago and helped me brainstorm where the book needed filling out.

Because for me, it’s always about filling in the parts I skip over. Every writer has her weak spot, and that’s mine. What that means in practical terms is the first draft will be short, lots of it will be internal monologue (telling where it should be showing) instead of action, dialogue and conflict. So I need to use what I have but carefully cut the “sitting and thinking” and fill in the right stuff. The best stuff: Action. Dialogue. Conflict.

Revising, I also look at language and try to add color and humor. Cut those cliches right out of my book! One way to do that is to switch the cliche up with a new edge. Thank you Twitter for leading me yet again into inspiration! If you’d like to follow me, I’m @CynthiaHarriso1. I always follow back real people who are not scary:)

Book of My Heart

Having a super difficult time with putting my butt in the writing chair. General busy-ness. Birthday. Friends. Fun. Social media. Lee Child. Selling house. Looking at new places. Cleaning like crazy. A busy life is one part of why I have not written in the past week or so. The other part of it is my story.

This novel I am working on is “The One” — the book of my heart, as the romance writers say. And that makes it a joy but also very tough. I am writing about a personal truth with fictional characters. I need to make one character (the ex husband) so far from the real person, (the one he used to be; I don’t know him at all now) and it’s giving me fits.

It’s really hard to take someone you respect and love and make them into a creep. But I have to do it. For the story. It’s the only thing that works. This guy is a minor character in the novel but he is a major pain. I’ve got to fill him out more. I thought I could get away with a quick sketch, you know how some writers can do that with just a few words and you’ve got the whole picture? I’m not able to do that with this guy. I tried. It didn’t work. He’s too complex.

It’s easy to avoid people when they are on the page and not in your face. Put the book in a drawer. Clean another closet. Go out to lunch (again.) But that’s not what I really want. What I really want is this book finished before I go back to school. And that means I need to work on it. I have taken notes, I have ruminated, I think I have an answer to my dilemma. Now, I must execute it. It’s time. If not now, then when?

I have been saying if I get this book published, I’ll die happy. I will have fulfilled my life’s purpose to the extent that I understand it. So, if I don’t finish it, if I give up now, I will be forever pissed at myself. I will die mad at my own lazy ass. Which at the moment is in the chair, so I might as well click over to Word and get busy.

 

 

 

 

Give Me Everything You Have

For awhile now I’ve known I need to go back and finish out my teaching career if I want to receive my pension. I gave myself time to write all the books in my head, and I resolved to start teaching full time again for just the semester or two it will take to make my 10 years. I’ve been teaching, off and on, for 20 years, but most of it was part time, and that was my choice. I’ve been able to write and teach and it’s been a perfect combo for me. Most of the time.

I’ve had issues with students over the years, but nothing as serious as what James Lasdun encountered when he met a talented creative writing student he calls Nasreen. His memoir of being stalked by her over many years is every professor’s worst nightmare. And yet he mustered the creative spark to tell the deeply instructive tale.

My life is typical of many writing lives: teach part time for money, write part time for a lot less money. Lasdun set himself up in the same way, but on a much bigger scale than I’ve ever achieved. He’s taught at Princeton and other high brow institutions; his books are brought out by a New York publisher. I teach at a community college and have an e-Publisher. Lasdun’s life is big, mine is smallish. And, after reading all he’s been through, I like it that way.

Lasdun has a wife and children. He did a good job keeping his family safe and mostly out of Nasreen’s destructive path, but he took so many hits, I’m amazed he even wanted to write about it. And so grateful he did. I’ve heard for years about the harm people do on Amazon review pages. It hasn’t happened to me, but then I might have the lowest number of reviews ever. Nasreen did more than write bad reviews about Lasdun. She accused him of stealing her work, wrote to his publishers, and even sent out emails supposedly from him. She was an internet terror. And there was almost nothing anyone, not the police, not the FBI, could (or would) do.

This is a horror story. But it is also true and teachers of creative writing everywhere should read it today. When I decided to go back to finish out my teaching career, before I read Lasdun’s book, I decided I’d like a new direction. I have asked my dean for courses that teach the students who need to learn the basics of grammar and sentences and three paragraph essays. After reading Lasdun’s harrowing nightmare, I’m really glad I made that decision.

 

 

Why We Write

I’ve just read five stories from the new book Why We Write edited by Meredith Maran. Maran got 20 top selling authors to spill the beans on why they write and how their process works. It is always fun to read these types of books, because no matter how famous, no matter how rich, these writers all say the same things. “It’s hard.” They all have despair and fear their writing chops will desert them as they begin a new manuscript. Yes, they are just like us, except with more money, respect, and time to write. But they had to earn those perks. They didn’t always have money, respect, or time. And they do not take it for granted.

One of the things that makes me want to smack a writer is when they say “I can’t do anything else.” Well, if you had to, come on, be real, you could. Let’s say you have a kid and need to feed it. You’ll go work at Walmart and do just fine at the job (maybe not so well with the pay.) What they mean, I think, is “I don’t want to do anything else and thank stars I get to do this and nothing else.”

The most surprising thing I’ve learned so far is how accepting of e-Publishing they are. I’ve read five accounts and at least four if not all of them said “Hey, if you want to publish, go do it yourself.” Easier said than done but that’s another post.

 

 

Monster Moon

Today the full moon has an added bit of madness to the usual lunations. Susan Milller calls this “The Monster Moon” (she’s tweeting about it via #MonsterMoon) and I am very glad I was prepared for it. Yesterday was a great day for me. My birthday, showered with love and feel-good emotions. Got a great email from my editor, am reading a terrific book, heard from my sons and the rest of my beloved family, my husband and I are in sync. And that last one, well, it’s a miracle. We are moving out of the house we’ve lived in for 25 years, and we seem to be on the same page as we look for new homes. We are so often NOT on the same page or even reading the same book, so this is a welcome change of the status quo.

Today, not so much. Woke up to an insensitive email from a friend that sent me straight into a funk. But because of the Monster Moon, I was ready for it and deleted the sharp email I was ready to shoot back. Had I taken that step, and sent the email, our friendship would have been compromised. Instead, I wrote to an understanding and sympathetic friend, and it felt good just to get the heavy off my chest. If that’s all the Monster Moon throws at me today, I can handle it.

Full moons always bring things to completion and so I am thinking about this friendship and if it has run its course. I am thinking of ways to bow out gracefully or find other means of taking several steps back. For me, if a friendship is going to work, it needs to go both ways. This one is not doing that and it bothers me. There would be much fall out if I stepped back a few paces. Other friends I dearly love would be hurt and anxious. I’m not sure what to do or how to do it, but one thing I know for sure, I should not do it during the Monster Moon!

On top of that issue, I also feel general pressure. I have not had time to write for several days in a row and that bothers me, but I made plans with a friend for lunch today, plans with another friend for lunch Friday, and I am just wanting to crawl into my writer cave and work. If you find things in your life have reached a rolling boil today, blame it on the moon. And move forward with caution. Don’t say or do anything that you might regret later.