Rebecca Ross's Blog, page 79

Do you ever feel discouraged when writing? Because that’s how I sometimes feel when I work on a book–like I don’t have the skills to write properly or the story won’t go anywhere!

Yes. I have felt discouraged many, many times when writing. I’ve had it steal my productivity and fuel my self-doubts. Whenever I feel this creeping up on me, I always take a step back to remind myself why I’m writing. I’m writing because I love it and enjoy it. And that always helps to recenter me. But also–I could have an amazing writing day followed by a crappy writing day. So I have to also keep that in mind when I feel discouraged. Because today you might just be having a harder day of writing, but tomorrow you will break through the ice.

Sometimes, I feel as if I can measure my life by the mountains....

Sometimes, I feel as if I can measure my life by the mountains. Nearly every autumn when I was a girl, right around my birthday in October, my family would rent a cabin near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Every season, my sisters and I like to get together and make...

Every season, my sisters and I like to get together and make flower crowns. It has become one of my favorite traditions, and it also makes me feel like a faerie for a day.

How do you get your hair to look so voluminous and amazing?

I have really thick, coarse hair. I remember a few years ago, I was getting highlights done, and my poor hairdresser told me (somewhat exasperated), “You have enough hair for three people.”

As a teen, I had no idea how to style my hair. It always looked terrible. Frizzy and long and half wavy, half straight. I would cut short, typically to my shoulders, thinking that might help me manage it better, and it looked even worse. So I learned that length was a good thing for me, to help weigh my hair down, and that a curling iron was my best friend.

I do a couple of things to help keep my hair as healthy as possible. I no longer color or highlight it. I wash it every 3-4 days. I try to let it air dry as much as I can. I never flat iron it anymore, but curl it with my favorite wand ever, The Beachwaver Pro. I nourish the ends with Argon oil. I actually don’t use expensive hair products: I like Dove a lot, and even Garnier Fructis. I also spray it with conditioner when it’s damp.

But honestly? That Beachwaver Pro really upped my hair game :) It’s like my secret weapon.

Have you read “After the Fear” by Roseanne Rivers? I read it a few years ago and recently thought about it when making a list of my favorite books–which, of course, contains TQR! :) if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it!!

I have not read that, but I will definitely check it out! Thank you for the recommendation. I’m always on the hunt for good books :D

How did you choose the name for your novel? Do authors generally choose the name themself or do their publishers or editors do it for them?

So this is an interesting question. I can’t answer for other books and titles, but here’s how TQR got named:

When I first drafted my book, it was titled IMPASSIONED. I was happy with that title, but when I sold it to my publisher, they asked me if I was open to other titles. I was, and I gave my editor a long list of possible new titles. She looked it over with her editorial director, and they picked two titles that they really loved from my list. My editor then asked me which of the two I preferred. So I picked out of the two options, and that was DAUGHTER OF PASSION AND STONE. 

It seemed all was good, but then my sales team said that this was too much like other titles out there (which it definitely was, and this is an important factor that comes into play when titling new books). We needed to go back to the drawing board.

So I gave my editor another list of title ideas. Now, I really am not that great at titles, so I was getting to that point where I could not think of anything new. I literally sat my husband down one night with a pen and paper and said to him, “Help me think of a title for this book!!” ;)

One of the titles I provided was THE RISING NIGHT. The sales team loved the word RISING, so they decided to pitch a title back to me. It was THE QUEEN’S RISING.

And I was like, YES. That is perfect. 

And that is how my book got titled. It was a true team effort :)

How do you know when a story idea is “the one”?

When a story keeps me up at night. When I can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about the characters.

That’s when I know I’m onto something good.