Ellyn Oaksmith's Blog

Looking 4 Great New Romantic Reads? Say Hello to Christa Allan!

​1) First of all, tell us a bit about your new (or latest) book. How was it inspired?
 
 Being jilted at the altar is not a new idea in novels, but I thought…what if the groom intended to be there all along, but something unexpected happened. So, if there’s an accident, well, that’s understandable. But, what if the accident didn’t happen as the groom was headed to the church? That would be curious, right? I honestly don’t remember when or how the idea of a baby gift popped in, but when it did I was grateful to the writing gods!
2) What is your writing routine like? Where do you write?
 
Routine??? Ack. You’d think after seven novels, I might have developed one, right? Well, not so much. And I’m not proud of that…AT ALL. So, for now, it’s mostly wake up, have coffee and breakfast and sit my butt in the chair. I have an office, but since my husband’s been retired, well, it’s marginally quiet. I probably need to move myself upstairs because between the husband and the dog, the distractions abound.
 
3) What are you favorite things about writing and least favorite things?
 
When that zone happens, where the celestial choir sings and the muse envelopes you in her arms and you write as if your fingers are on fire---that’s the sweet spot.
 
Otherwise, when what I write sounds like BLAHBLAHBLAH, clunky and dumb, and I’m ready to bash myself over the head with my laptop, and wonder why the hell I’m torturing myself, and do I know how many books are published a year, and how many other writers are blowing out the New York Times bestseller list while I’m slogging away…well, that’s the sour spot.
 
4) When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
 
In my bio, I tell people that I couldn’t draw, sing, play an instrument, paint, play sports, or make sculptures out of pipe cleaners, used car parts and kitchen appliances. I tried writing about all those frustrations. For years, I simply journaled. Then, my husband gave me a laptop years ago and the excuse gig was up…
 
5) How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both?
 
I shop at the ideas store, and I have idea elves on payroll.  At least that’s what my kids think. Mostly my ideas are a combination of  real life, things I read and outrageous imaginings.
 
6) Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it?
 
Yes, and it’s engaged in mortal combat with me right now. Every time  I think it’s finally waved the white flag, damn if it doesn’t sneak up behind me and blow me the hell out of my chair.
 
 
7) Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go. 
 
Okay, if I must…today I would say Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was my first encounter with an author who is the master of magical realism. His writing enchanted me. One of my all-time favorite and compelling and lovely quotes from that novel is :
 
“…human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

​Since she couldn’t sing, paint, dance, play sports or the piano, Christa Allan decided she’d become a writer. She’s the author of five women’s fiction titles, one historical novel, and one rom-com novella. Her latest novel, Since You’ve Been Gone , has been an Amazon best seller. Christa grew up in New Orleans and lived there until a year ago when she and her husband moved to Houston to be closer to her five children. 
Ellyn Oaksmith writes contemporary romantic fiction about smart women going places. Join my book club for updates!

Looking 4 Great New Romantic Reads? Say Hello to Christa Allen!

​1) First of all, tell us a bit about your new (or latest) book. How was it inspired?
 
 Being jilted at the altar is not a new idea in novels, but I thought…what if the groom intended to be there all along, but something unexpected happened. So, if there’s an accident, well, that’s understandable. But, what if the accident didn’t happen as the groom was headed to the church? That would be curious, right? I honestly don’t remember when or how the idea of a baby gift popped in, but when it did I was grateful to the writing gods!
2) What is your writing routine like? Where do you write?
 
Routine??? Ack. You’d think after seven novels, I might have developed one, right? Well, not so much. And I’m not proud of that…AT ALL. So, for now, it’s mostly wake up, have coffee and breakfast and sit my butt in the chair. I have an office, but since my husband’s been retired, well, it’s marginally quiet. I probably need to move myself upstairs because between the husband and the dog, the distractions abound.
 
3) What are you favorite things about writing and least favorite things?
 
When that zone happens, where the celestial choir sings and the muse envelopes you in her arms and you write as if your fingers are on fire---that’s the sweet spot.
 
Otherwise, when what I write sounds like BLAHBLAHBLAH, clunky and dumb, and I’m ready to bash myself over the head with my laptop, and wonder why the hell I’m torturing myself, and do I know how many books are published a year, and how many other writers are blowing out the New York Times bestseller list while I’m slogging away…well, that’s the sour spot.
 
4) When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
 
In my bio, I tell people that I couldn’t draw, sing, play an instrument, paint, play sports, or make sculptures out of pipe cleaners, used car parts and kitchen appliances. I tried writing about all those frustrations. For years, I simply journaled. Then, my husband gave me a laptop years ago and the excuse gig was up…
 
5) How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both?
 
I shop at the ideas store, and I have idea elves on payroll.  At least that’s what my kids think. Mostly my ideas are a combination of  real life, things I read and outrageous imaginings.
 
6) Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it?
 
Yes, and it’s engaged in mortal combat with me right now. Every time  I think it’s finally waved the white flag, damn if it doesn’t sneak up behind me and blow me the hell out of my chair.
 
 
7) Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go. 
 
Okay, if I must…today I would say Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was my first encounter with an author who is the master of magical realism. His writing enchanted me. One of my all-time favorite and compelling and lovely quotes from that novel is :
 
“…human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

​Since she couldn’t sing, paint, dance, play sports or the piano, Christa Allan decided she’d become a writer. She’s the author of five women’s fiction titles, one historical novel, and one rom-com novella. Her latest novel, Since You’ve Been Gone , has been an Amazon best seller. Christa grew up in New Orleans and lived there until a year ago when she and her husband moved to Houston to be closer to her five children. 
Ellyn Oaksmith writes contemporary romantic fiction about smart women going places. Join my book club for updates!

7 Odd Questions Author Interview Series: Who Wrote Sleeping with Ward Cleaver?

Click on Jenny's pic to visit her author website.
I love hosting authors. I imagine having them all over for drinks in author heaven where we're all on the New York Times bestseller list, deadlines are magically met, our children raise themselves and laundry just isn't a thing. In reality I'm just going to hit post and happily introduce you to a super funny, talented writer named Jenny Gardiner. Everything you need is on her website, so click on her photo to check out her books. 

1) First of all, tell us a bit about your new (or latest) book. How was it inspired?
I sort of diverted from women’s fiction and chick lit, which was where I had originally focused my writing when I first started writing novels, and I’ve been writing rom/com series for the past couple of years. I’m working on my third series now—my first was the popular royal rom/com It’s Reigning Men series. I then did a spin-off of that called The Royal Romeos. This latest series is called Falling for Mr. Wrong and the next book in the series is Falling for  Mr. No Way in Hell ;-). We’ve all had THAT guy in our lives, right? My first series was set in a fictional royal principality in Europe, and the spinoff series was set in Italy (one of my favorite countries). For this one I decided to set it in a fictional town in North Carolina’s Outer Banks—I’ve always loved the beach and was ready for a completely different setting. I took it to the extreme, ish, this time, as my heroine has a job swimming as a mermaid in a kitschy roadside bar. I’d read an article about a place like that in Montana or something and it was so intriguing to me that I decided to put my character to work in a mermaid tail. It gave me some fun scenarios to work with. Unbeknownst to her she starts to fall for a guy who ends up inheriting the place and plans to sell it off to a developer to line his pockets and plunk down a bunch of ugly condos. Mayhem ensues ;-). 

2) What is your writing routine like? Where do you write?
I’m the most routine-less writer going. It has been not such a great habit at times over the years. Long ago when I wrote my first couple of books, I’d just write whenever, wherever, and it worked. But I’ve gotten more distractible over the years and my better at procrastinating, it seems. I kinda know John Grisham a little bit (we took an Italian class one time) and he had the sage advice to put your butt in your chair each day and write and at the time I sort of dismissed that as “well, that works for you…” but it is true, I know now. You just have to put the gun to your temple and do that! I kind of fell into the black hole of marketing and publicity years ago in the early days of social media, and that was the kiss of damned death for me, writing-wise. 
I could find so very many excuses to not write—"oh, but I’m doing marketing!” The publishing industry was super churned up shortly after my first novel was released, and I had to make some hard decisions—whether to stick with traditional publishing or go indie. I just could not see a good enough reason to stay with trad houses—I saw NY houses as large ocean liners stuck in a harbor, unable to negotiate a good turn to get out into open waters, and doing it on my own returned control to me, which was very appealing. But…when you have a team of folks at a big publishing house waiting for your output, well then you get it done. I found myself failing miserably in producing content for a while until I just had to reconnoiter. I set up a publishing plan, a schedule, and booked an editor for an entire year, meaning I had to again be accountable to someone other than me to get things done. If my book wasn’t written by the day I told her I’d get it to her, well, I’d have to pay her regardless, plus I’d lose an editor. 
This has been a good system for me but I am a seat-of-the-pants writer, which means I do not outline, I do not have these great big wipe boards with plots and subplots and characters all fleshed out so that I just need to plug in a few words and the book is done. I just write as the spirit moves me—crazy, right? And sometimes the spirit is sort of sluggish. But I’m super deadline-driven, always have been (I was THAT girl writing my 10-page term paper at 5 am when it was due at 8 am), so the closer I get to the deadlines I’ve imposed, the more the spirit seems to kick me in the ass. Which is great! That said, I thus write in very intense spurts and have literally written a 40,000 word book in about five days time (I don’t recommend it). And what then happens is my  brain is super fried, so it takes me a while to collect my thoughts and focus on the next book. 
I literally do not remember plots, characters, anything, as soon as the book is done. sometimes I can’t even remember their names when I’m writing them—crazy, too!. But I’m writing 7 books a year so that’s kind of the fallout from it. So I guess that is a really long answer to my schedule is deadline-driven. The closer to deadline the more I am sweating bullets and writing copy, but then my brain needs a breather before I start writing again, so it becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. And curse that darned Facebook because when i’m stuck writing, I go over there and waste time and brainpower. Also when I’m doing research on a book I can go into some serious rabbitholes that distract me from writing the book.


3) What are you favorite things about writing and least favorite things?
I love the creative process. I adore just coming up with shit, you know? I mean sometimes I’ll go back in edits and read what I’ve written and think “wait—I wrote THAT?” (other times I think that with less marvel, however). It’s really fun to create worlds and nutty situations and I love to play with words so that appeals to me a lot. 
Hands-down my least favorite thing is marketing/publicity. I just hate hate hate it and it’s such a necessary evil in this business, especially now. 
I guess I’d also love to write just to write and not because I need to continue bringing in a steady income but the flip of that is I’d rather do this to bring in an income than a lot of other things, so I’m lucky I have that option. But it gets stressful worrying about that steady income side of things because publishing these days changes so constantly that it is perpetually shifting sands beneath our feet and you can never count on sales remaining at a steady level. And alas, Amazon is always changing things so that it becomes harder and harder for authors books to be discovered and for readers to stick with you.

4) When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
I remember reading some book in like 7th grade in English class and for some reason it dawned on me I could do that. I think it was Steinbeck’s The Pearl—not that I’m comparing myself to Steinbeck haha—and it was really kind of an aha moment. Somewhere way in the back of my head I just always thought I would do that some day. To be perfectly honest I’m quite brain-dead when it comes to math, so my career options were limited, so I pursued journalism early on, working on the high school paper and getting sort of jazzed up when I landed a few pretty cool interviews. I always loved that bit of it, too, taking a chance and aiming high to try to land an interview that people would want to read, versus some dumb article about the science fair or whatever. I studied journalism in college, had aspirations to be a TV news reporter and did that while in college but finally realized I was going to be stuck working in some hellhole little town in the middle of nowhere covering sewer commission meetings for god knows how long and I just couldn’t do it. I *did* get an offer of a job as a producer working nights and weekends for a TV station in West Palm Beach, FL but the pay was $9,000/year. So basically I would have been living in a refrigerator box beneath a bridge span in Florida while I produced segments done by the reporters I wanted to be, so I just decided ix-nay on at-they. In some ways I always kind of regretted not giving that a go but seriously, how could i have lived in such an expensive city on $9K/year? In hindsight I might have been able to use that as a springboard to other things but hard to know—generally the union shops (and that was one) never allowed you to go outside of your job description, so I would not easily have switched from production to reporting. Ahhh well. Instead my former boss at the tv station had gone to work on Capitol Hill in DC for a congressman as a publicist so he put me in touch with some folks who put me in touch with members of congress looking for publicists and I ended up working as an assistant press secretary, then a deputy press secretary then acting press secretary for a US Senator who was  big media whore, so it was an interesting albeit high-stress job. The irony is that I got paid I think $11K/year to live in a major metropolitan area (and while I didn’t live in a box, my dresser was a bunch of boxes stacked with  my belongings in it, and my roomie and i took a sofa that had been left out on the street corner for the trash because we couldn’t afford furniture. Ugh. But it was a bit ironic that I basically was doing a similar job for equally rotten pay and dismally-long hours. Go figure! 
I left that job after my soul was sucked dry for several years, and then worked as a photographer doing event photography in DC for  while, then had kids. The sum total of my writing career was penning a Christmas letter every year, which I took great liberties with and made it pretty smart-ass and then my husband would put his foot down that we couldn’t send that out and he’d edit in all the platitudes that I totally didn’t want to put in it. I mean Christmas letters can be dreadful (I remember one we got the woman bitched for 2 pages about her husband going hunting all the time and leaving her alone with the kids) but no one wants the hap-hap-happy crap either, you know? It’s just too obnoxious! So I liked to keep ‘em laughing. I had 3 kids and was in the fog of motherhood for a few years and then I emerged from it and picked up a magazine—basically 1 paragraph into People and I’d be passed out cold at night. But then I was getting through magazines and threw caution to the wind so I read a book. And when I read it I kept thinking “I can do this!” And finally I just felt like maybe I’d lived enough life that I could actually do it and have something useful to say.

5) How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both?
Oh I’m a masterful eavesdropper at coffee shops, for instance. I love pulling things from that, and often I’ll read about something and just sort of like the snag in a sweater I tug at it a little and pull the thread and it follows along and next think you know I have some material I can work with. 
My first novel, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver, came about purely because of the title. I was with some friends drinking wine and we were discussing someone’s sort of stern taskmaster of a husband and I said being with him would be like sleeping with Ward Cleaver, and I like the sound of that, so I decided to write a coming-of-middle-age story about a woman who married Mr. Right and woke up eventually to realize he’d turned into Mr. Always Right. 
6) Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it?
I always have a book i’m working on but nothing particularly solidified enough to make it compelling. My next in the series I just started writing—Falling for Mr. Sometimes (I think I’ve got 2 pages, so not much) and all I’ve got so far is  January at the gym and this woman goes to park in the parking lot (which is of course packed in January, duh) and some jerk guy has parked his shiny huge SUV perfectly straddling two parking spaces to keep his doors from being dinked, and, well, suffice it to say they have words, she hates his guts, they end up being inextricably linked together afterwards to their great dismay, and, well, mayhem ensues ;-). On 2nd though he should’ve been Mr. No Way in Hell but too late!

​7) Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go. 
I really still do love Sleeping with ward Cleaver. It just struck a chord with moms everywhere and I love that it tapped into a zeitgeist. And I think the protagonist, Claire Doolittle is such a funny smartass but she’s really hurting inside and she needs to get her act together so I enjoyed helping her do that!

thanks for having me visit! Author

​​Ellyn Oaksmith is the USA Today bestselling author of four books including the Kindle bestseller Chasing Nirvana. She lives in Seattle with her family. ​ Luckily, she's waterproof.

Zombies & Downton Abbey: 7 Odd Questions for Lauren Baratz-Logsted

My guest today is the wonderfully talented and diverse Lauren Baratz-Logsted whose author inspiration came to her in much the same way as mine did: from a teacher at a very tender age. What I love about Lauren is the fabulous concepts of her books. From Zombies to genies to the least popular astronaut headed to the moon in 1969, Lauren's ideas immediately sparked my interest. I don't know about you but I'll definitely be spending time this spring with a pack of zombies in England.
​
1) First of all, tell us a bit about your new (or latest) book. How was it inspired?
ZOMBIE ABBEY was inspired by my love for Downton Abbey. I thought, 'There should be a book that takes place in a similar world but with zombies thrown in, and it should be called - wait for it! - ZOMBIE ABBEY.' Well, once I think a thing, I have to write the thing.

2) What is your writing routine like? Where do you write?
I drive my daughter to the bus stop and then I start writing. When it's time to pick my daughter up from school, I stop writing. In between, I might check in on politics or General Hospital. I write in my basement cave. It has no stimulation, meaning no windows, but it does have a TV.

3) What are you favorite things about writing and least favorite things?
Favorites: the actual writing! I love the opportunity of taking the idea that before was only in my head and turning it into a story on the page. And oh, the power - getting to choose who finds love, who lives and dies, and how. I know some writers hate revisions but I love the opportunity to make something - hopefully! - better. Finally, and this may sound vain, the fan mail, particularly for children's books. I've received thousands of letters from kids (and their parents, grandparents, teachers and librarians) about The Sisters 8 series for young readers, which I created with my family, and some of those letters are incredibly moving. Really, I love it all, except for...
Least favorites: The heartbreak of publishing. We're all so much more connected than we were when I first started out, which is wonderful, but it also exponentially raises the number of people, on any given day, who may be going through tough times in one way or another. This business is not for the faint of heart and there are far too many opportunities for discouragement. On the plus side? Yesterday, was a great day for the friends in my writing circle.  

4) When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
When I was 12 years old, my English teacher liked one of my stories so much, he had me read it to the class three days running. That was the first time I thought, 'Hmm...maybe some people will be interested in what I have to say...'

5) How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both?
Honestly, my ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes, it can be a case like with ZOMBIE ABBEY, where I'm originally inspired by something that already exists but think, 'Now, what would happen if I set off this bomb in that world?' Other times, it could be something that's happened to me that inspires it. For example, my first published book was the adult novel The Thin Pink Line. I was pregnant, after years of thinking I'd never be so lucky, and suffering all sorts of complications. Someone else might write a novel directly mirroring that experience, and that could certainly make for a good story, but I thought, 'Why not write a dark novel about a sociopath who fakes being pregnant for nine months?' See, that's how my sick little mind works.

6) Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it?
At the moment, I'm so busy promoting the books I have coming out this year, I'm not working on a new novel, but that'll change soon. In the meantime, here are the books coming out in 2018:

- ZOMBIE ABBEY - which you know about, of course! - on April 3

- the paperback edition in June of I LOVE YOU, MICHAEL COLLINS, a children's novel about a 10-year-old girl who conducts a one-sided correspondence in the summer of '69 with the least-famous astronaut heading to the moon on Apollo 11

- the adult novel THE OTHER BROTHER in August told from the point of view of the sister-in-law to the lead singer of The Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band in the World.

- I also have another YA novel coming out, I DREAM OF JOHNNIE, a comedic romance about a teenage girl who finds a genie on the beach, but I don't have a date for that one yet

7) Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

PRE-ORDER the book:
AMAZON: http://amzn.to/2CKgbc2
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34921591-zombie-abbey   Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of over 30 books for adults, teens and children. She wouldn't mind spending her life in period costume but she'd freeze like a deer in the headights in her Vionnet if she ever encountered a zombie. Read more about her at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com or follow her on Twitter @LaurenBaratzL

Cover Reveal: Messing With Matilda

 I'm thrilled to host the Canadian writer Cat Lavoie, a wonderful chick lit author. If you don't know Cat's work, be prepared to be charmed. Cat delivers funny, smart and entertaining reads. Messing with Matilda proves she's at the top of her game. So grab a copy in pre-order  and don't worry, you can thank me later.

About MESSING WITH MATILDA
As a professional organizer in New York City, Matilda Hart wages war against chaos and clutter on a daily basis for her clients—and she vows to never let it invade her own well-ordered world. 
​But when her boyfriend decides to deviate from the path she’s been planning for them, Matilda's perfectly structured life begins to crumble. She reluctantly finds herself back in the tiny hometown she fled a lifetime ago—determined to lay low and avoid running into anyone she used to know. So why is she reconnecting with her former best friend and putting up with the bridezilla antics of Amber, her high school nemesis?

When Matilda is tasked with keeping the bride-to-be’s heartbroken ex away from the ceremony, she discovers she has history with the man who’s trying to sabotage the wedding. Matilda quickly realizes that teaming up with cute and quirky—but hopelessly devoted—Silas Flynn could be mutually beneficial. He needs help wooing the woman he considers the love of his life and Matilda can't pass up the chance to finally get back at the meanest of the mean girls by assisting Silas in his attempts to disrupt her wedding.

Will everything go according to plan for this mismatched pair? Or will working so closely together make uptight Matilda and laid-back Silas lose sight of their common goal?

One thing's for sure—things are about to get messy.


Meet Cat Lavoie

Cat Lavoie is a chick lit writer from Montreal, Canada.
She loves writing fun and quirky romantic comedies and is the author of BREAKING THE RULES, ZOEY & THE MOMENT OF ZEN, PERI IN PROGRESS and MESSING WITH MATILDA.
A fan of all things feline, Cat loves cats and hopes to someday have a house full of them in order to officially become a crazy cat lady. (But one or two cats will do for now.)
If she isn't reading or writing, Cat enjoys listening to podcasts (mostly comedy and true crime) and watching way too much TV. She fell in love with London many years ago and hopes to go back one day. Cat is currently at work on her next novel.
Sign up for the CatChats email newsletter to be among the first to know when MESSING WITH MATILDA is available! http://bit.ly/CatMailingList
To connect with Cat and find out more about her books, visit CatLavoie.com and follow @CatLavoieBooks on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  
Where to find Cat
Website: http://www.catlavoie.com/
CatChats Newsletter: http://bit.ly/CatChatsNewsletter
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CatLavoieBooks
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CatLavoieBooks
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/CatLavoieBooks 
Ellyn Oaksmith is the USA Today bestselling author of four books including the Kindle bestseller Chasing Nirvana. She lives in Seattle with her family. ​ Luckily, she's waterproof.
​​

Love & Laughter: 7 Odd Questions with Author Meredith Schorr

I am thrilled to host Meredith Schorr as the second author in my Author Interview Series. Meredith writes charming, funny, whip smart chick lit books that you'll want to tuck into your beach bag or more seasonally, curl up with in front of the fire.  

First of all, tell us a bit about your new book. How was it inspired?  Bridal Girl is the third book in my Blogger Girl series. The series was initially inspired by all the book bloggers I met while promoting my first and second novels. I thought it would be fun to turn the spotlight off the author and onto the blogger. A popular book blogger can make or break your sales and I wondered what it would be like to have that kind of power. What if you were asked to review a book written by someone you knew personally and kind of hated? I continued the series because readers fell in love with the story and the characters (and so did I)…

What is your writing routine like? Where do you write? 
Because I have a full-time job, I have to make time to write when I’m not at work. As often as possible, I write during my lunch hour. I spend the first half hour eating while I read on my Kindle, but the second half is work. It’s usually a very rough draft of words I’ll edit/re-write when I get home and have more time. If I don’t have plans after work, I go straight home and write from about 6-8. And, finally, I write on weekends.

What are your favorite things about writing and least favorite things? 
There are so many things I love about writing. For me, the act of writing is the ultimate stress release and escape from my own life. I love when an idea comes to me at the weirdest moments, like during spin class, on my walk to work, or in the middle of the night. Seeing a scene play out in my head and then nailing it on the page is magical. I also love the editing process and taking what’s already on the page and making it stronger. Editing is also my least favorite thing because it scares me. Plot issues are like puzzles, and I’m always afraid I won’t be able to solve them. I also hate how quickly my mood shifts from thinking I’m brilliant to wondering why the hell anyone would ever pay to read my stories. 
 
When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
 I’ve always had a crazy imagination and liked to create stories in my head when I was a child. I didn’t put them on paper, but I would dream up alternate realities on long road trips with my family or when I couldn’t fall asleep. Then at around age thirty, I discovered my passion for writing. It started with children’s stories and segued into blogging about my personal life. One day, on my way to work, I was daydreaming about a relationship that had ended and imagining “what could have been.” I decided then and there that if my mind was going to dream up stories, why not let others read them? I started my first novel later that day and my life was forever changed.

How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both? 
The answer is a little of both. My first novel was inspired by a relationship that went bad. It started out as a “what if” story and, while entirely made up, many of the characters are at least loosely based on “real people.” My second novel was born out of my frustrations with dating in New York City. My fourth novel was inspired by my desire to tell a story of a “young” woman who, like me at the time, was approaching the big 4.0. and never been married. The rest of my books were entirely dreamed up in my imagination. Lately, I’ve been more aware of the business side of writing and, while I don’t follow trends in the hopes of writing the next (INSERT TITLE OF BESTSELLING NOVEL HERE), I do try to come up with storylines I think will appeal to my target audience and be marketable.
 
Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it? 
I am working on a romantic comedy novel about two estranged high school sweethearts who are forced to work together ten years later. I’m hesitant to provide more details because I’m less than 100 pages in. I will say that it’s more romance-centric than any of my other books, but equally humorous.
 
Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go. 
 Oh gosh, this is hard. I absolutely cannot choose a single book as my favorite, but I will tell you my favorite chicklit novel of all times is Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. I loved, loved, LOVED that book.
 Buy links (click on word)
Amazon   
Barnes and Noble
Kobo 
iBooks
Where to find Meredith on social media:
 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MeredithSchorrAuthor/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MeredithSchorr
Website: www.meredithschorr.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meredithschorr/
​ ​A born-and-bred New Yorker, Meredith Schorr discovered her passion for writing when she began to enjoy drafting work-related emails way more than she was probably supposed to. After trying her hand penning children’s stories and blogging her personal experiences, Meredith found her calling writing romantic comedy and humorous women’s fiction. She secures much inspiration from her day job as a hardworking trademark paralegal and her still-single (but looking) status. Meredith is a loyal New York Yankees fan, an avid runner, and an unashamed television addict. To learn more, visit her at www.meredithschorr.com. ​Ellyn Oaksmith is the USA Today bestselling author of four books including the Kindle bestseller Chasing Nirvana. She lives in Seattle with her family. ​ Luckily, she's waterproof.

Mental Illness and Fiction: 7 Odd Questions with Author Barbara Claypole White

Click cover to purchase or read more! I am so excited to kick off my weekly interview series for 2018 with the very talented Barbara Claypole White, whom I've known since we were both part of the now defunct Girlfriend's Book Club Blog. Barbara writes hopeful family drama and along with writing bestselling novels is one of the founding members of the Reader's Coffeehouse Group on Facebook. Her new novel, The Promise Between Us is getting rave reviews and should definitely be on your radar if not your bedside table. Leave a comment below or email me at EllynOaksmith@gmail.com to be in the running to win a paperback copy of Barbara's fabulous new release, The Promise Between Us.
 
First of all, tell us a bit about your new book. How was it inspired?
THE PROMISE BETWEEN US is the story of good people trapped in bad decisions made after my heroine misinterpreted postpartum OCD as psychosis … and ran away to protect her family.
 
OCD frames my world as a mother. My gifted poet-writer-musician son has battled this chronic illness for most of his life, and my first hero, James Nealy, came from my darkest fear: What if, when my young son grew up, no one could see beyond his anxious behavior and obsessive thoughts to love him for the incredible person he is? Since creating James, I’ve wanted to delve deeper into the impact of OCD on relationships, but it was an incident within the OCD community that finally propelled me to action.
 
A teacher had posted in one of our private—supposedly confidential—online support groups about her battles with intrusive, unwanted, repetitive, obsessive, horrific thoughts of harming children. (Harm OCD is a name often given to postpartum OCD, which tends to manifest as disturbing images of hurting your baby.) Her comments were leaked to her employer, and she was fired. It was a terrible reminder to me of how much OCD is still misunderstood, and why many people continue to suffer in silence and shame. OCD is an anxiety disorder that creates irrational fear in the absence of true threat. You know the fear is irrational—you would never hurt your baby—but the crippling anxiety you experience as a result of the relentless what-if of OCD is real. OCD demands constant management, like diabetes. The difference, of course, is that no one cracks jokes about insulin shots.
 
Shortly after news leaked of this woman’s situation, my agent requested story ideas for novel five. I showed my son some outlines I’d cobbled together, and he ripped apart everything except one sentence. It was the premise for THE PROMISE BETWEEN US: Can you be a good mother if you abandon your baby? I put that together with postpartum OCD, and my publisher loved it. Bingo!
 
What is your writing routine like? Where do you write?
I’m a morning writer, seven days a week, and I write in a small bedroom I claimed as an office years ago. It still has a bed, which I’ve turned into an extremely useful table.
 
Every weekday, my alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. Sometimes I lie in the dark for a few minutes and think about the scene I’m going to work on, but after grabbing coffee and getting washed, I’m at my desk by 6:30 a.m. The first thing I do is boot up my computer and manually turn off the Internet. The next two hours, while the house and phone are quiet, is my favorite time of the day and my most productive. Then I stop to get breakfast, check email, and do a flyby on Facebook before turning the Internet back off. I write until lunchtime, when I shower and chat to my son before he leaves for his day job (the afternoon/evening shift at our local, indie bookstore). In the afternoons I write or research, and I push the business of being an author into the evenings. I don’t set my alarm on the weekends, but I still write for a few hours first thing. If anything messes with my morning routine, I turn nasty. (I’m already huffing and puffing about tomorrow’s 9:00 a.m. dentist appointment.)
 
Of course, this is the ideal routine in the ideal universe. As part of the sandwich generation, my life is full of the unexpected. Thankfully, I learned to write as a mom-on-the-go. Provided I have a fully charged iPod and my laptop, I can even write anywhere—even on the plane home from my bi-annual trips across the pond to see my mother.
 
What are your favorite things about writing and least favorite things?
Easy answer! My favorite thing is rewriting. I love the editing process, because each new draft takes me down another layer into the emotional lives of my characters and the heart of the story. My least favorite thing is a first draft, followed closely by the second draft. I don’t hit my groove until the third draft. I know, I know, in my next life I will write clean.
 
When did you know that you wanted to write? Was it an "aha" moment or something that slowly dawned on you?
I’ve always wanted to write. At five years old, I dreamed of being the next Beatrix Potter; by twelve, I had a romantic notion of being a modern-day Bronte sister (without the alcoholic, drug-addicted brother), but creative writing wasn’t encouraged in my traditional education. As a teenager, I set my sights on fashion journalism, which doesn’t explain why I went off to university in York, England and studied Medieval history. After graduating, I became a publicist in the London fashion industry and got my writing fix by composing—and yes, endlessly rewriting—press releases. Then I married my American professor, moved to the Midwest, and started my first novel. It would take twenty-three years and a better story to snag a pub. deal, but during that time I learned persistence and gratitude for my husband’s unflinching support.
 
How do you come up with your ideas? Are they real life inspirations, dreamed up or perhaps a little bit of both?
My stories evolve from pieces of my life and strong instinct—anything that gets my writer senses tingling. I found a major component of THE PROMISE BETWEEN US—that my heroine is a metal artist—while admiring a piece of metal art at the hairdresser’s. And the opening chapter of THE PERFECT SON came from a weird personal experience. I was flying home from a conference in Ireland when a man collapsed three rows in front of me. All the passengers were rubbernecking, but I was the only one making notes. Bad, bad Barbara.
 
The key for fleshing out my plots, however, is the one-on-one interview. I reach out to people who are living the experiences I want to write about and ask them to share their stories. My research and the first draft seem to have a symbiotic relationship, and gradually I create the story’s frame.
 
Do you have another book you're working on now and if so can you tell us a little bit about it?
Why, yes, I do. It’s about addiction, cyber bullying, and the idea that we learn more from failure than from success. Here’s the pitch: A reformed addict, on an impossible mission to earn her mother’s forgiveness, discovers that her long history of failure has the power to save lives, including her own.
 
Someone asked me this and I hated the specificity but then found it was interesting. One book. You can pick one single book as your favorite. Go
No hesitation: JANE EYRE. It’s been my favorite novel since I was twelve.

​Bestselling author Barbara Claypole White creates hopeful family drama with a healthy dose of mental illness. Originally from England, she writes and gardens in the forests of North Carolina, where she lives with her beloved OCD family. Her novels include The Unfinished Garden, The In-Between Hour, The Perfect Son, andEchoes of Family.  Her new release, The Promise Between Us, shines a light on postpartum OCD. She is also an OCD Advocate for the A2A Alliance, a nonprofit group that promotes advocacy over adversity. To connect with Barbara, please visit www.barbaraclaypolewhite.com, or follow her on Facebook. She’s always on Facebook.

January 25th, 2018

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How a Book Trailer makes an author feel like the Village Idiot.

The modern writer is supposed to use every means available to sell a book. Which includes the very peculiar invention of a book trailer. A movie about a book. Essentially a commercial that tells a story aimed at selling a story. Very meta. And to this writer a little weird. Honestly, it's a bit of  slap in the face to have something so elegantly portray what took me 300 pages to say in 90 seconds. If Shakespeare was right and "Brevity is the soul of wit," doesn't that make me the village idiot?
Watch the trailer and get back to me on that one.
​Ellyn Oaksmith is the USA Today bestselling author of four books including the Kindle bestseller Chasing Nirvana. She lives in Seattle with her family. ​ Luckily, she's waterproof.

Limited Edition Short Story Collection Giveaway!

Happy post Thanksgiving day. In the blur of launching Chasing Nirvana I decided to hit up some of my most talented author buddies and make the holidays a little merrier. Baby it's Cold Outside includes shorts stories and novellas from seven authors from Australia, USA and Canada riffing on romance, adventure and more holiday mishaps than a drunken elf. I hope you win one. And if you don't, if you sign up for my readers group, you'll receive my contribution, Out Cold.  It was inspired by a concussion I received last winter from that terribly dangerous thing: feeding my dog. (I stood up too fast, there was a sharp tile corner. Apparently at your temple, your brain is basically protected by Saran Wrap.) With concussion protocol, (and one hugely dilated pupil that freaked out my doc,) I wrote the whole damn thing long hand (no screens.) Much of the story takes place in a hospital. 'Cause, well, that's my life. Happy Holidays. No matter what you celebrate, or don't celebrate, may this time of year be bright and filled with joy. a Rafflecopter giveaway Ellyn Oaksmith is the USA Today bestselling author of four books including the Kindle bestseller Chasing Nirvana. She lives in Seattle with her family. ​ Luckily, she's waterproof.