Amy Sue Nathan's Blog: Women's Fiction Writers, page 37
July 30, 2013
Tap Dancing Authors, Anyone? A Guest Post By Author Peggy Payne
Being an author isn’t just about writing books anymore, is it? Read how critically acclaimed author Peggy Payne has embraced this crazy part of being an author.
Please welcome Peggy Payne to Women’s Fiction Authors!
Amy xo
Tap-Dancing Authors, Anyone?
by Peggy Payne
Where does one go to acquire the skills that the successful author now seems to need: ragtime piano, snake handling, banjo picking, or Indian classical dance? This is a serious question for writers, because such abilities seem ever more important for promoting “the product.” With my third novel, Cobalt Blue, now out, I need to know.
Our schools have not prepared us to stand out at a book store or book fair. The famed University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop? I studied their website in vain: not even a weekend workshop on juggling or talking in funny voices. I did no better at Columbia or Bennington. Writing, writing, writing: that’s what they have to offer.
Learning to write is, of course, important for the would-be writer. But those who want to go the distance need more. They need an extra talent: an entertaining bit of theater that can be presented before an audience, that can draw happy crowds into a bookstore.
I was mid-career before I realized my limitations. I have no other talent. Well, I can draw/paint a little, or at least I think I could learn how. But what good is that? Would I stand before the assembled and hold up my latest still life? My most recent “work” is a fairly creditable watermelon. Imagine the audience’s excitement.
So many talented writers. Just in my part of North Carolina, authors have won hearts with songs, snakes, guitars and banjos, baked goods, and acting out their prose while changing from hat to hat.
An entire talent show was once organized in the nearby town of Cary, consisting of writers doing tricks other than writing. I longed to take part. In my capacity as a freelance editor, I was working at that time with a musician who was writing a memoir. I asked her, “Do you think I could learn to play ‘Telstar’ on the drums in six weeks?” I’d never played drums. She gave me a long penetrating gaze, this nearly-ninety-year-old, and said, “Are you a very relaxed person?” There ended my dream of playing the great 60s hit by the Tornados.
My office partner at the time, another tediously single-minded writer, said, “Why don’t you do some Indian classical dance?” Her logic: my most recent novel then was titled Sister India and set in the very home town of Ravi Shankar. The fact that the book had been chosen a New York Times Notable Book of the Year did not relieve me of show biz responsibilities.
“I don’t know how,” I said in shocked tones.
“Nobody will know,” she said. I continued to stare at her as she went back to work. The following day she admitted to a pattern of egging people on to do daring things and then when they set off to do them saying in genuine horror, “You’re not!”
I attended the talent show. It was splendid. One of the highlights was a singing trio made up of Maya Angelou, Jessica Mitford, and Shana Alexander. They were especially memorable on “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” I believe it was a cane that Ms. Mitford used for rapping the floor in time to the lyrics, “Bang bang.” You can hear her singing this Beatles’ song solo on Youtube in something like a rusty nasal bass. So standards aren’t so terribly high. Maybe I could have faked the Indian classical dance after all.
I did take clogging lessons once at the Y. Two of the steps stuck with me. But the proper literary moment never arose. One middle-aged flatlander woman clogging alone in a bookstore would be a spectacle, a laughingstock.
I was raised to be a well-rounded person, took tap dancing and then five months of piano. Learned one song on the ukulele: “Tom Dooley,” notable line: “hang down your head and cry.” As a teenager, I sold clothes in my parents’ store. I can swim, do crunches and minor household repairs. I can give little talks: once when one of my brothers was running for statewide office, I was all set to go speak on his behalf at what I thought was a county Democratic meeting. At nearly the last minute, I learned that the group gathering was the North Carolina poultry producers. I came up with a bad chicken joke in no time flat. But among writers, talking doesn’t count; it wouldn’t make one stand out.
My current office partner Carrie Knowles is handing out home-made cookies at readings because a character in her novel bakes. Cookies and attractive souvenir recipes. I don’t cook at all. (Once I had the discouraging task of following a writer who’d given a cooking demonstration.)
As I write this, my husband arrives, tosses me a fresh copy of the local alternative weekly. My horoscope is pertinent: “Don’t assume you already know how to captivate the imagination…. Be willing to think thoughts …(that) you have rarely if ever entertained.”
Perhaps I could learn to read stars, tell fortunes, or deliver to audience members messages from spirits who conveniently are also attending my reading.
But I have a new novel out and no time to cultivate such arts. The strategy I have settled on is a dress. Since the title of my new book is Cobalt Blue, I have found the most cobalt-blue dress in the continental U.S. I discovered it in a thrift shop in San Diego: a very brief side-slit one-shouldered body stocking entirely covered in blue sequins. Never mind that I’m 64 years old; the Beatles had a song for that too. From China, I ordered a floor-length hooded cobalt blue cloak.
Carrie, the baking novelist, and I have teamed up to do some readings together. We each have written a novel in which a woman goes off the rails and stays there for most of the story. We’re calling ourselves the Crazy Ladies Book Tour. I’m wearing the dress; she’s bringing the cookies. And at one stop, I put out a bowl of cobalt blue punch, looked like toilet bowl cleaner but tasted surprisingly good. Maybe I’ll become the bartending novelist, or the party-planning novelist. Whatever it takes for a little literary attention. We all need to make the most of our talents.
(Adapted from a piece first appearing in Publishers Weekly.)
Peggy Payne is author of critically acclaimed novels, Sister India and Revelation. These, as well as her nonfiction books, focus on some aspect of people living in their own vivid, characteristic ways. Each of her stories, is powered by strong currents of spirituality and ventures onto unsettled territory. Her work has appeared in magazines including, Family Circle, Cosmo, and More, as well as most major American newspapers. She is married to psychologist, Bob Dick(www.drbobdick.com), and lives near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Peggy is touring this spring and summer with novelist Carrie Knowles, author of newly released Lillian’s Garden, on what the two are calling The Crazy Ladies Book Tour.
Find out more about Cobalt Blue by clicking here.
Find out more about Peggy Payne by clicking here.
July 24, 2013
Guest Post: Author Jennifer Cody Epstein Reflects On Mothering, Writing, And Moving Forward
Today, author Jennifer Cody Epstein shares with us her personal evolution as a mother, and an author. It’s something I related to right away even though we’re at different stages in parenting. Even if you’re not a parent, Jennifer deftly explores how change as we become more comfortable with who we are and what we’re doing in life—and how looking back is often the best way to illuminate the path forward.
Please welcome Jennifer Cody Epstein to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Reflecting On Mothering, Writing, And Moving Forward
March feels like the darkest month ever, and my life a hallucinogenic combination of brilliance and utter blackness. I am so tired that I can’t walk straight; that I forget where I’ve gone and what I’ve gone there to do…When the girls fall into their nightly rounds of sleep roulette—waking approximately every two to three hours, waking each other and us (exiled, for now, to the lumpy, short couch in the overwhelmingly loud living room, where the cat mewls and scats around all night) up, I find myself too exhausted and too depressed to even cry. I lie there in a miserable cocoon of self pity; hating life, hating our house, hating the cat, of course loathing myself.
I was also at that time trying desperately to finish a draft of my first novel, The Painter from Shanghai, which I’d started at graduate school. Lucky enough to have secured an agent and the support of my husband Michael (a gifted filmmaker, he is also one of my central readers) I was aiming to have the book finished in time for the former to take it to the Frankfurt Book Fair. But as the entries reminded me, I wasn’t finding it much easier than motherhood:
Before bedtime we went over Michael’s notes on my chapter (the re-re-re-re-rewrite of 24 and 25) and, while more positive than the last reviews (which were basically: “Throw it away, start over”) they were predictably blunt and brutal. My compulsive flashbacking and addiction to research are getting in the way; I’ve lost the momentum and the priorities of the story. He made the apt comparison of the way that I get overwhelmed by the day’s minute chores and end up doing three things at once–like trying to get out the door, crying and making pasta at 8 a.m. for the baby’s lunch, when all I really need to do is get out the door. But still—it hurts that I’ve taken five fucking months (more or less) to write even this miserable bit; since I got my agent in September! And while Frankfurt remains comfortably far-ish, I know it’s actually coming towards me at warp speed. The way Hannah’s first b-day did. The way Katie’s astonishing metamorphosis did, from Hannah-like babydom to someone who picks her own, hip little outfits and says things like “Quite probably it’s better if we watch Teletubbies now, Mommy.”
Reading these weepily-written confessions made me think about the oft-made comparison between writing novels and pregnancies. Having done each twice at this point, it’s a metaphor I’ve always supported, since it really strikes me as being pretty apt. But it also made me ponder the broader parallel to be made between being a parent and the writing life itself—something that at that moment eight years ago, in my numbed and overwhelmed state, I clearly didn’t have the capacity to consider. For while it’s true that some of motherhood’s bleakest points corresponded with my darkest moments as a new writer, on the maternal side, at least, they were also interspersed with moments of sheer joy and wonder—and a surprising prescience that one day I would look back and actually miss them. For instance, as Katie “graduated” from preschool:
There’s this sense of precious childhood vaporizing even as we watch. Next year will be so different—a new school, a longer day. Homework. More independence, both socially and physically. There won’t be that womb-like closeness that we’ve still shared these past two years; this knowledge that when I come pick her up we’ll still have most of the day left together, and she’ll come racing out to hug me, because I am, after all, her world (or most of it). I feel like 5 will slip to 8 will slip to 12 so very quickly. And while I know I’ll love all those stages (well, 12 may be tough) it pains me—really pains me, in a dull and crushing way that feels like a lead sack pressing down on my chest—that these lovely, safe, small years with her are now behind us.
As I discover these entries, Katie has indeed turned twelve, and at present is independent enough to be at sleepaway camp for two weeks. My career has also matured: The Painter from Shanghai was published in 2008 (ultimately, in 16 different languages) and my second novel, The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, came out this past March. For me, being an author has changed in much the same way as being a mother has. It is still hard as hell sometimes; there are still mornings when for no real reason I just burst into tears. But twelve years in—and with the unspeakable bonus of a regular sleeping pattern–I have also found both a kind of confidence and a fairly dependable rhythm. What once seemed daunting to the point of despondence now seems more simply like a lot more hard work—but work that I now know, in the end, that I can do. I also have more faith in the outcome: my daughters are beautiful, smart, kind and funny, and my books have sold decently and been well-reviewed. In other words, having gotten this far in both aspects of my life, I feel like maybe, just maybe, things are finally working out.
That said, there are still times when I miss the extreme peaks and valleys of the early days; when getting a full night’s sleep felt like a reward of Midas-like proportions and finishing a chapter felt like conquering a mountain. I adore being a mom to two pre-teens as much as I did to infants and toddlers. But there is something about the exhausted euphoria of those distant-seeming years I’ll admit to missing a little. Or, as I called it in one of my entries, Ending notes:
Hannah’s face in the morning, so fresh and happy and pink and smooth. She has the most open, grounded smile of any baby I’ve seen. Delicious. Katie on Saturday, wandering FAO Shwartz together after ballet and ice-cream sundaes for lunch; equally awed and enchanted by the lushly dressed Barbies and Madame Alexanders. A little friend. A clown. A partner in childish indulgences; sweet, fleeting crimes.
You can find out more about Jennifer’s books by clicking here.
July 22, 2013
Why Sara DiVello Chose To Write Non-Fiction And Teach Yoga
No! Wait! The blogosphere did not stop spinning! Today on WFW I’m thrilled to have Sara DiVello talk about why she chose non-fiction over fiction. In my case, I always knew I’d write, be a writer, author, editor. But I always assumed I’d work in the world of non-fiction. After all that was my background and until 2007, that’s all I’d ever done, except for childhood or school-mandated short stories. Then everything changed. And who am I kidding, blogging and essay writing keep me steeped in creative non-fiction, as well as fiction. Just one of the reasons Sara’s story was so interesting to me. Plus, I’ve always wanted to try yoga (except I get dizzy when I’m upside down).
Please welcome Sara DiVello to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Why I Chose to Write Non-Fiction And Teach Yoga
by Sara DiVello
I always knew I wanted to write. And without really thinking about it, I just assumed I would write fiction—women-focused fiction to be precise. That’s what I loved to read. That’s what I most identified with. It was a no-brainer.
But at some indefinable moment, I realized I had a lot of…how shall I say, too-freaking-crazy-to-make-up stories because apparently I possess a crazy-magnet. By which I mean that any unusual, off-beat, or down-right crazy folks in my vicinity will almost always come sit next to me, talk to me, or otherwise seek me out—and, unfortunately, sometimes offer me employment. As a result, I had, over the course of years, accumulated some really-funny-yet-true stories of corporate hijinks while I was working in the fast-paced world of high finance: female bosses that made half-million dollar salaries but got staggeringly drunk and puked at client presentations, male bosses who yelled at me for openly telling the truth at internal meetings (apparently itself a crime in the corporate world), and male colleagues who had their million-dollar bonuses docked, but still remained employed, even after sending emails detailing their sexual fantasies (apparently involving a horse), not to mention a gentleman who referred to himself in the third person as “The Meat.”
Then there were the yoga people I encountered after I enrolled in yoga-teacher training as an escape from my career. I quickly discovered the yogis were just as crazy, but in slightly different ways. They took “yoga names” and often swore off showering and shaving, but talked regularly and enthusiastically about their inner essence as they vigorously massaged various body parts and munched on raw, cruciferous vegetables.
Four years ago, I sat down to start writing a novel, but I realized I had to tell this story first—not only because of the entertaining parts, but also because the main themes felt like something that people could relate to—feeling stuck in a career but powerless to do anything about it, or unsure of what else to do, or really scared of the unknown or dramatic change.
I wanted to talk about career and identity and grapple with questions like, What am I doing with my life? Am I doing what I feel in my bones I am meant to do—what I really, really want to do? Or am I doing what I’m doing because it’s expected of me and I’m good at it? My career transition, as told through “OM,” naturally provided the framework to talk about these questions, as well as other topics I’m passionate about such as how women interact and treat one another in the workplace. I found the incongruity of the strength and loyalty of female friendships in the personal realm contrasted with the snarky undercutting and backstabbing that I saw and experienced in the corporate world fascinating.
It was then that I wondered if maybe, sometimes, the story doesn’t choose its teller. I guess I won’t know until I try to write a second book (fiction next time!). But that’s how I found myself writing a memoir that I never intended to write.
The Scary but Comforting Factor of Non-Fiction
The scariest part of writing a memoir is the inherent additional levels of vulnerability. It seems terrifying enough to put yourself out there as an author of fiction, presenting your hard work to the world for judgment, review, and critique. But putting your hard work out there when the story is also a true one about you, and your career, your marriage, and your life feels even more intimidating.
Was I terrified? Yes, absolutely. But at the same time, I remember how comforted I’ve been when other authors have admitted their vulnerabilities, fears, weaknesses, insecurities, or less-than-perfect lives. Not because we glory in others’ struggles or hardships or rejections, but because it’s good to know (for sure—not just internal conjecture) that you’re not alone and, in fact, that you’re in excellent company. It’s comforting. It’s validating. You think, “Oh, thank goodness!” and then maybe you even get a little teary from the sheer relief of knowing that you’re not the only one. And then you have some chocolate or wine (or both!) and suddenly everything’s a whole lot better.
I find that the weight of living up to expectations and holding up appearances—both professionally and personally—is not only exhausting, but also ultimately alienating and lonely.
Women’s Fiction Writers is my favorite blog. I love to “meet” all these amazing writers. I love the positive energy and support (which I learned in the corporate world is directly attributable to leadership—Amy, take a bow), and I love hearing about each person’s path to publication. When an author shares—generously and openly—about her struggles, rejections, or messy house, I instantly feel a kinship with her. I appreciate her bravery and I want to celebrate her success with every bit as much happiness and support as if it were my own. I bet a lot of you feel the same.
As I see it, reading—and writing—memoirs is the same premise. I’m sharing my struggles as well as a lot of awesomely awkward hilarity, and if reading about my path to finding a fulfilling career and some degree of inner peace helps someone else on her journey, lets her know I had bad bosses and colleagues too, or maybe just brings her a few really good belly laughs along the way, then I am a very happy writer.
OK, I’m also a yoga teacher. So you’re probably expecting some sort of yoga ninja secrets…and, well, I aim to please!
Here are my best yoga moves for the Weary/Stressed Writer:
The jaw, neck, and shoulders are the first places in your body to hold and accumulate stress. When you’re stressed, you clench the jaw and tense up in the neck-shoulder-upper back area, which I’ve affectionately name the “tri-plex of stress-holding doom.” Here are two simple yoga tools you can use to help unclench, release, and relax the tri-plex. If you’re in a public setting and can’t do something flagrantly yoga-letic, try utilizing the “fire point”: Press the tip of your tongue to the little mound right behind your top two front teeth. You’ll feel your jaw and neck relax, your whole face melt, and your shoulders drop and release.
If you CAN do something more obvious, start with the Fire Point and then give modified Eagle Pose a try: Extend your arms in front of you, elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, at shoulder-height. If this is enough of a stretch for the shoulders/upper back, stay here. If you need more of s stretch, drop the left elbow below the right and twine the forearms, pressing the back of the palms together (or, flexibility permitting, the fingers of your left hand pressed into your right palm). The key to releasing the upper back muscles is to keep the elbows lifted–equal height to the shoulders–and the shoulders as relaxed and low as possible. Take a few deep breaths and switch sides.
And if these moves aren’t enough, you can always come to my class!
Sara DiVello worked in PR and marketing for thirteen years before realizing she preferred yoga mats and bare feet to cubicles and high heels. A graduate of Arcadia University, Sara teaches yoga and lives in Boston with her husband and their eleven-pound rescue mutt, Peluda. Learn more at www.saradivello.com or connect on social media:
FB: http://www.facebook.com/saradivelloOM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaraDiVello
Sara DiVello’s debut memoir, Where in the OM Am I? One Woman’s Journey from the Corporate World to the Yoga Mat (June 2013) has been selected by Shape Magazine as one of the 12 books to bring to the beach this summer and by Working Mother Magazine as one of the eight memoirs to read this year.
“OM” chronicles Sara’s transition from working in financial services to teaching yoga and all the crazy/weird/hilarious characters in both worlds. For an inside look at the book, check out Sara’s brand-new book trailer:
July 18, 2013
Author Mia March Edits As She Writes, Loves Women’s Fiction, And Celebrates Her Kinship With Authors
All I have to say today is ME TOO. I love interviewing women’s fiction authors, reading author guest posts, and internalizing their answers, rolling their thoughts around in my head and then sharing it all with you. When it comes to Mia March, all I do is nod my head. I’m glad Mia feels a kinship with authors (which she explains below) because I certainly feel a connection with her thoughts on books, writers, and writing.
And now, Mia not only celebrates not only her connection to other authors, but the launch of FINDING COLIN FIRTH.
Please welcome Mia March back to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Author Mia March Edits As She Writes, Loves Women’s Fiction, And Celebrates Her Kinship With Authors
Amy: Hi Mia! I’m sensing a theme! A fun and wonderful theme of taking something pop-culture and using it to explore more “real” fictional lives of characters in your books—The Meryl Streep Movie Club and now in Finding Colin Firth. Am I way off base? And what about an actor like Colin Firth made him the right catalyst for your book?
Mia: Every time I see a movie with someone, a friend, relative, or my eleven year old son, none of us has the same opinion of the film. I remember being so moved by Eat Pray Love, for example, but my friend (like a lot of people), thought it was schmaltzy self-indulgence. I remember thinking: did we watch the same movie? I realized that having gone through a recent divorce, I identified with the main character and was riveted by her journey, emotional and otherwise, but my friend couldn’t stand her or the film! I find that so interesting; that two people can see the same movie and feel so differently; one person can be so energized by themes played out while another can find them so dull.
In The Meryl Streep Movie Club, I loved the idea of having a fractured family of women sit down to watch Meryl Streep (my favorite actress since I was a teenager) films, knowing that each woman would feel differently about the films and that the ensuing discussions would reveal things about each of them—to themselves and one another. Finding Colin Firth is less about watching and discussing Colin Firth’s films as it is about the idea and ideal of Colin Firth and how that affects the characters—and an entire town. I’ve been swooning over Colin Firth since 1995 when I first saw the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. That miniseries, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, Fever Pitch, Then She Found Me . . . those are some of the films that immediately come to mind when I think about Colin Firth as ultimate British gentleman, a romantic ideal (well, maybe not Fever Pitch so much!). I wondered what would happen if Colin Firth was coming to my small Maine town to film a movie, what effect that would have on three very different women. One of my main characters, a journalist hoping to get an interview with him, but who finds herself drawn to a much more local and personal story about the other two main characters, came fully formed into mind. And a novel was born. (This was the long answer! The short answer is: I love movies, love being transported to another time and place, and I absolutely love Colin Firth.)
Amy: When and where did the idea for this story hit you? Were you watching a movie? (Okay, no more movie questions, promise!)
Mia: I was watching The King’s Speech (for which Colin Firth won the Oscar for Best Actor), and I remember thinking: God, he is so good at what he does. He’s riveting. And when I got home, I sat down at my desk and started writing a brief synopsis, just a sketch of the story I envisioned. Colin Firth is coming to a small Maine town to film a movie . . . how will this affect the characters. Who are they? What are their stories? And I wrote and wrote and wrote . . .
Amy: As an author, how do you approach writing a novel? Meaning, what comes first, the characters or the plot? The beginning or the ending? And how do you set out to write it? Lots of notes or a wing and a prayer?
Mia: In the case of The Meryl Streep Movie Club and Finding Colin Firth, the concept came first: a fractured family of women watching and discussing movies—the favorite actress of their dying family matriarch. And Colin Firth coming to town—what does the actor mean to a twenty-two year old who just learned she was adopted at birth. What does he mean to her thirty-eight-year-old birth mother who’s been holding out for a man like Colin Firth (when the Colin Firth she knows is an actor on screen?) What does he mean to a twenty-nine year old journalist with a big secret and a career to save? I started there and then the characters and secondary characters began fleshing out in my mind. I thought a lot about them before I actually started to write. I don’t take notes so much as I think and write in my head. While walking the dog, doing dishes, and especially in the wee hours of the morning right before I wake up. I’m a morning person and get up around 5 to start writing when my mind—and all that sleep-writing—is fresh.
Amy: As a debut author working on my next novel, a big concern was that my characters in novel 2 were reincarnations of the characters in novel 1. I’ve been assured they’re not, which was a big relief. What insecurities do you have (if any) when starting a new book? How do you tackle them? What questions did you ask yourself when you were writing and revising “Colin?” And to add onto this question—can you tell us what you’re working on now?
Mia: My biggest insecurity is that all the writing I do in my head will never transcribe onto the page (or laptop screen, I should say). I’m so tough on myself, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, and I don’t write first drafts. I revise and revise and revise as I go. I can’t start chapter two until chapter one makes emotional sense to me, until I can feel the characters. Only then can I move on. I hate that this is my process!
As for what I’m working on now: At this early stage, I can only tell you it has nothing to do with movies . . . and a lot to do with food.
Amy: How do you respond to the notion that your books fall under the umbrella of women’s fiction?
Mia: I’ll be very honest here: I love women’s fiction. I write it and I read it. I know women’s fiction when I see it, and I know when I don’t. Yes, it’s a marketing label, but women’s fiction is not just about “books by women about women, novels that explore the female experience.” I think women’s fiction has a particular feel, a particular scope and style. Women’s fiction can be very funny and very serious and everything in between, but I do think it’s a genre, and just because a novel is about a woman and her journey and experience doesn’t make it “women’s fiction.” I know the label bothers some writers, but because I particularly love women’s fiction, the label has never bothered me.
Amy: What’s your best advice for aspiring authors (or even debut authors, eh hem) of women’s fiction?
Mia: Read, read, and read some more. Read the hot book of the season (even if it doesn’t interest you) to try to understand why it’s so hot. Read books like yours, books not like yours. Read for pleasure, for style, for answers. One thing I love about being an author is that whenever I’m reading, I always feel a sense of camaraderie with the author; we both write. I always feel such kinship!
Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Amy!
[image error]Mia March lives on the southern coast of Maine with her son and their sweet beagle. Her debut novel, The Meryl Streep Movie Club, was a USA TODAY Hot Summer Read pick, and her new novel, Finding Colin Firth, is one of Good Housekeeping magazine’s Best Summer Beach Reads. She’s hard at work on her next novel.
July 17, 2013
Seven Lessons From My Debut Book Tour
Two months ago when THE GLASS WIVES was published, I started my career as a published author by celebrating with friends. It wasn’t until two weeks later that I did my first event. It’s counterintuitive at times, to realize that I spent years writing a book alone, chatting with writers and authors online, and now, part of taking my career to the next level meant standing up in front of real live people and talking. I was nervous but excited by the prospect of doing it. I’m not shy, nor am I an introvert. But this meant being fully responsible for the experience of the audience. Yes, people are responsible for their own happiness—but book events almost transfer the author into the role of entertainer.
Don’t let that deter you or scare you. The things I learned on what I loosely describe as my “book tour” which consisted of eight events in the Chicago area, ran the gamut. I spoke to a high school creative writing class, a crowd of two, a crowd of fifty, and I participated in a group reading, and a panel at the Printer’s Row Lit Fest. My one “out of town” event was in my own hometown of Philadelphia, where I knew, or knew of, all seventy people in the audience. I was related to some and had known others since elementary school. I had not seen many of them in thirty years. Or more.
And while these lessons were based on my experiences over the past two months, and your mileage may vary, I’m thinking that the debut author experience is a somewhat universal one. I’ve also been told that every book feels like a debut, so I’m going to make sure to read this list in 2015 when my next book comes out! (More on that soon!)
Amy xo
SEVEN LESSONS FROM MY DEBUT BOOK TOUR
1. People are not there to see you fail.
This was kind of a revelation for me. Not that I ever thought I’d have hecklers, but the acknowledgment that everyone was there because they wanted to be, with an expectation that they would walk away pleased, kind of freed me from feeling pressure. I’m not sure why. Just remember, the people in the audience are in your corner, whether you know them or not. Unless you have a nemesis who attends book events, of course. But really, look around. People are smiling. (So smile back!)
2. Don’t feel compelled to read.
What I mean by this is—read your audience. If it’s filled with people who’ve read your book, you might be able to refer back to certain scenes when you talk. If your audience is mostly people who’ve not read your book, or there’s a mixture, read a bit, talk a bit, then read again. I’ve been to readings where I’ve thought “I can read it myself, talk to me.” And there are times I was riveted by an author’s audible rendition of her own work. Know your strengths. We’re all storytellers so remember to tell a story.
3. Leave plenty of time for questions.
People are curious by nature, and if your book talk touches on different topics, you’ll spark the audience members’ imaginations. And moxie.
4. Serve snacks.
Even if you go home with most of them, it emits a generous and welcoming vibe. And fully bellies make for happy listeners. Will some people just come for the cookies? You bet. Maybe next time they’ll come for the cookies and the book!
5. This is a celebration. Don’t forget it.
It’s easy to let nerves get the best of you sometimes. Remember this is a celebration of a book and its author. Go out before or after. Toast with friends and family. Don’t shy away from letting it be all about you this once.
6. Every event and sale is worthwhile.
I drove an hour and a half to a book store and there were two readers in attendance. I’d been alerted by many author friends that this happens. But if you add in my daughter, her friend, and two booksellers, there were six people in the audience. I sat in a chair, talked about my book, read a bit, and talked some more. Then the readers and booksellers asked questions. Books were sold. Then I spent an hour talking to the booksellers about books and publishing. I knew it was a worthwhile trip, even if we did get lost on the way home. And just the other day I was invited back to speak to this store’s in-house book club. Why? Because the book sellers read and talked about my book. And probably because they could tell I was happy to be there even if we didn’t fill the room.
Two! These are the two! There were four people behind them. My daughter deftly took this photo to hide the fact that there were so few in attendance, but I’m coming clean!
A crowd of seventy from my point of view!
7. And my most important lesson of all? The one I can’t deny any longer no matter how hard I try? (And I do, believe me!)
I talk with my hands.
July 15, 2013
Author Travis Erwin Traveled A Twisted Road To Women’s Fiction
I’m pretty sure that Travis Erwin is my favorite bacon-and-beef-loving author. And that’s a lot coming from me, an accidental vegetarian for the past four months! I don’t care that Travis doesn’t do lettuce…but I do care that he is a kind and generous author friend who is an unconventional women’s fiction author. I’ve known Travis for years. We met (I think) via author Erica Orloff’s blog where we were both her blog groupies readers and fans. Travis even found a copy of THE GLASS WIVES on one of his travels and posted a picture and read it on the road. I bet he didn’t even hide the book cover! He’s just that kind of a guy. Plus, he’s 6’5″, who’s going to say something?
Please welcome, my friend, Travis Erwin, to Women’s Fiction Writers—and hang on—it’s quite a ride!
Amy xo
My Twisted Road To Women’s Fiction
by Travis Erwin
Twisted Roads. That’s the title of my new Women’s Fiction novel. Not the name I originally chose. But in hindsight, the perfect title for the book, as well as my publishing journey.
I began the original manuscript for Twisted Roads back in 2000 while taking a writing class taught by RWA Hall of Famer, Jodi Thomas. I was a new father and truthfully was just fulfilling an assignment when I completed the first 50 pages or so. But Jodi urged me complete the book and submit it. I finished the manuscript that same year, and in doing so went from being an avid writer with a few story ideas in my head, to being a full-fledged writing addict.
Now I still had no idea I was writing Women’s Fiction. Neither did Jody for that matter. She struggled to describe my work and in my mind I was simply telling a story about people trying to get along in this crazy game we call life. Jodi sent my book to a friend. I recall the woman’s comments well. “It has romantic elements as well as a literary feel without reading like literary. He captures the emotions well and I love his voice, but I’m afraid this cross genre stuff is hard to sell.”
I’m not sure who that friend was. Somebody in the business, but I was so new at that point, specific names did not mean much. I don’t think the term Women’s Fiction was as popular then as now either. And let’s face it. At 6’5 nearly 300 pounds, me and my bearded face and decided Texas twang do not immediately conjure thoughts of Women’s Fiction.
The first time that label was applied to this book or my work was at a writing conference in 2001. I submitted a sample for critique. An anonymous sample that was selected by a New York Editor for me to read aloud for a workshop critique. I read all of two lines before that editor stopped me cold, looked me up and down, and said, “I can’t believe YOU wrote this.”
She went on to explain she would have bet her life a woman wrote the piece. I took that as a huge compliment, especially when the editor asked me to submit the complete manuscript. I worked with that editor for over a year revising and honing, but ultimately her bosses said no.
I was devastated. I thought I was there. I thought my very first book was going to be bought and printed by a big New York House. I thought I had arrived. I thought I was the second coming of Nicholas Sparks.
I thought wrong.
But I didn’t take my defeat and limp away into the night. No I went back to writing the next story. I thought, Heck if I was that close with my first just think how easy it will be to sell the next one now that I’ve learned so much.
Yeah.
No one cared about that next book. And I do mean NO ONE.
I’d won some contest with that first book, but I couldn’t get a honorable mention or a even a partial request from the dozens of agents I queried. No one cared.
Okay I said. Bad premise. I’ll write the next one.
Lots of near misses with agents and a few good comments from contests but again no one was all that interested. By now I was five or six years into this journey and was still wearing that … It’s just a matter of time label in my circle of writing friends and mentors that were long since published.
I believed them. Maybe a bit too much. I routinely heard, “You have a great voice,” and I hung my hat on that compliment. I ignored the, “You need tighter plots, richer characters.” I let myself believe I had potential and that was enough. I thought … If I knock on enough doors … send enough queries … attend enough conferences … drink rum with enough editors and agents … my time will come.
Yeah, and now you know why we Texans have the reputation for being full of shit.
I got lazy. Cocky. And just plain stupid.
I of course didn’t realize this right away. No I went to another conference. Actually a week long workshop out in Arizona. I had my eye on this particular agent and I’d just finished my fourth Women’s Fiction manuscript. I read some to her. She liked it. Requested the full. Called me on the phone once twice, three times to talk about other ideas I’d written, where I saw my writing future, and ways to improve the manuscript I’d submitted to her. Well that’s what the first two conversations were about.
Her third call was to tell me she was going to decline representation. She was very kind, and when she told me it was with regret she was doing so, I could tell she was genuine.
Nevertheless, I was devastated. I wanted to give up. I would have given up except I’m pretty dang stubborn. I had to prove my doubters wrong. But my give a hoot was broken. I started blogging as my writing outlet. I told whatever crazy story filled me head in whatever way I wanted. Forget the writing rules. I was telling a story damn it, not writing a book.
Funny thing is I learned a lot about writing by blogging. I learned how to hook readers to keep them reading more. If I didn’t, they simply clicked away and went elsewhere for their online entertainment.
wrote some good stuff I’m proud of that was a direct spin off of my blog. I published some of it, including a humorous novella called Plundered Booty, and my coming-of-age memoir The Feedstore Chronicles but I didn’t feel satisfied. I wanted to tell stories from the heart. Not romance stories per say, but stories of life. Women’s Fiction.
So after Feedstore was published I sent my publisher the half a dozen novels I’d written as well as a few others I’d started but not finished. They read through them and chose that long ago written tale. The one I began this journey with and it was them that chose the name TWISTED ROADS based on a line at the tail end of the book.
But the crooked path does not end there. My editor at TAG of course wanted a few edits. I scrapped an entire character and replaced them with a bigger, better, enriched character. In doing so the book came alive in ways it never had. I knew then those near misses were for a reason. The book was finally after thirteen years what it should be.
I missed my first deadline though, so the book got moved from a Christmas 2012 release to the summer 2013. The e-book hit May 1st as planned but formatting issues due pushed back the print release until June 1st. Then for whatever reason my book got stuck in a black hole between the publisher, printer, and distributor. Twisted Roads finally found its way into the world as a printed book in late June after a thirteen year, winding journey of near misses and close calls.
Like my character says in the book … “Twisted roads are the only ones worth driving.”
I’m a native Texan and despite the ever-present gale force winds here in The Panhandle, I can’t imagine living anyplace else. Long before I figured out that I wanted to be writer, I was an avid reader. I write lots of different things but mostly humor and Women’s fiction. Yes, I know it’s a little weird for a six-foot-five, two-hundred, and too-many-pounds man to write “girly stuff” but what can I do. I have to write the stories that fill my head. I’m obligated to be the voice for the characters that speak to me, because they’re not going to shut up either way, and at least on paper I can act like they exist for a reason. Otherwise, I’m just a guy with multiple personalities.
You can find out more at http://traviserwin.blogspot.com/.
Click here for Twisted Roads on Amazon!
July 10, 2013
Debut Author Kelly Harms Talks About Having A Home, Doing It All (Or Not), And Selling Fried Clams
Do you know Kelly Harms? You should! I’ve spend the past year getting to know Kelly as one of the 2013 Debutantes on the Debutante Ball blog (where we’re celebrating her launch this week)! Kelly is a mom and author who used to spend her time as an editor and agent! So she’s done it all! And now she has written a charming debut novel that touches on something we all hold dear, the idea—and the reality—of home.
Please welcome Kelly Harms to Women’s Fiction Writers today!
Amy xo
Debut Author Kelly Harms Talks About Having A Home, Doing It All (Or Not), And Selling Fried Clams
Amy: Kelly, we have to stop meeting like this! 
Congratulations on the launch of your debut novel THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS OF SHIPWRECK LANE. The title blows me away every time I hear it, read it, or type it. Was it a struggle to come up with such a perfect title or did it just hit you one day?
Kelly: Thank you, Amy! I wish I could tell you where that title came from. My brain locked in on it and since then I’ve tried, uselessly, to change it to something shorter. I mean, it is so stinking long. Still, it feels right to me. I have a huge file of alternate titles on my computer but I’m so glad I didn’t need them because this is the one the book chose for itself. Thank you to my lovely publishing team at Thomas Dunne and Waxman Leavell for letting that fly.
Amy: Would you share the premise of the book? And then, once we know the premise, what’s beyond that—what’s the takeaway (or what would you like it to be)?
Kelly: The book is about home. In the book, two women with the same first and last name both become convinced they’ve won a dream home giveaway from one of those big cable networks. They give them away once a year, and someone’s got to win, right? I’ve personally spent years of my life thinking I’m going win one of those houses if I can just fill out the entry forms enough times, so I come by this fantasy honestly. But when you strip away the daydream, what do we want when we think of home? People who love us? A safe place of our own? A family? That’s what my book is about. Also, it’s about a frozen duck.
Amy: What’s your favorite part of the novel, or maybe your favorite character?
Kelly: There’s a lady in the book who sells fried clams and eschews vegetables. She has a two page cameo. If they make a movie of the book, that’s who I’m going to ask to play, Stan Lee-style.
Amy: As an author and a working mom, I’ll ask you a question you probably ask yourself. How do you find time to do it all?
Kelly: I don’t, but thank you for thinking that I do! I rely on my son getting amazing care from his preschool, because despite every moronic fantasy I had going into parenthood, I cannot write a novel while my sweet cherub quietly entertains himself on a black and white puzzle mat and feed him peeled organic kiwi and kale sandwiches between my florid sentences. Instead I count on paid help whenever I can scrape two coins together and the rest of the time I let things go. I say this, I talk about my great childcare providers and my messy house and my sometimes bleary days because I want other women to know: I don’t do it all. Anyone who claims to is stealing her preteen’s Ativan.
Amy: How would you define women’s fiction, and does the label bother you?
Kelly: I’ve said in other spots that women’s fiction is a label that makes sense to me, because I came to it by way of the industry. It bothers me not at all. I’m a woman, and don’t feel that there’s anything out there I can’t read if I want to, or write. (Except, maybe, Star Trek slash fiction, and that has nothing to do with my private bits.) And women love to read; in fact, there are many reports that tell you that we love to read more than men do. Now, from time to time I do hear this label used as an insult. It’s usually preceded by a “just,” spoken or implied. That reveals to me much more about the speaker (or writer as is the case in some media outlets) than the book. To them I say, “phooey.”
Amy: Share your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction.
Kelly: You don’t have to be a die hard Amy Nathan fan like I am to know how much good advice is on this website already for writers. How can I dare to add to it?
So, let’s leave the sage advice for my second book. Or my forty-second. Here’s my not-so sage advice: when in doubt, end the chapter mid-scene.
Kelly Harms is the author of The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane. She worked with New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, Edgar, RITA, and Agatha award winners, and Indie Next List Picks in her time as an editor at a division of HarperCollins and later as an agent at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her adorable and sometimes imperious toddler Griffin.
July 4, 2013
Author Holly Robinson’s Passion Shines Through On The Page—And In Life!
What’s better than meeting an author-friend (for the first time) for pancakes on her pub day? NOTHING! Author Holly Robinson was nice enough to meet me while she and her husband and one of their kids were en route to a family celebration in Wisconsin! Since we email often and had recently spoken on the phone, we just picked up where we left off.
What you’ll learn about Holly below is that she is an endless source of energy and inspiration. I don’t think she ever stops. She’s a working freelance writer, ghost writer and book doctor in addition to being a novelist who just sold her second novel to Penguin! She’s also a wife and mom to FIVE kids. The great thing is that Holly is incredibly generous with her knowledge, and her enthusiasm is contagious!
Please welcome Holly Robinson to Women’s Fiction Writers! And now, pass the syrup!
Amy xo
Author Holly Robinson’s Passion Shines Through On The Page—And In Life!
Amy: Yay Holly! You’re finally here! I feel like I’ve been waiting forever! Congratulations on the launch of THE WISHING HILL! Can you give readers a quick overview of its premise?
Holly: Amy, I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to be here! Thank you so much for inviting me to stop by. I’ve been following WFW for ages, and I’m so inspired by the other authors I’ve seen interviewed here.
THE WISHING HILL is told from two points of view—Juliet, an artist living in Mexico whose husband has just left her, and Claire, an older woman who lives next door to Juliet’s childhood home in Massachusetts. When Juliet is called home to help care for her mother, Desiree, a flamboyant actress, Juliet goes reluctantly. She and her self-absorbed mother have always clashed. Plus, nobody back home knows about her divorce—or the fact that she’s pregnant and her ex-husband is not the father.
Juliet intends to get her mother back on her feet and return to Mexico fast, but nothing goes as planned. Instead she is drawn into a long-running feud between her mother and Claire, her mom’s reclusive neighbor. Little does she know that these relationships hold the key to shocking secrets about her family and herself that have been hiding in plain sight. There is romance in the novel for both Juliet and Claire, but the central plot really revolves around love, trust, betrayal and how to forgive and accept the people you love after they’ve hurt you.
Whoa. As I write this I’m thinking it all sounds very dark and Dickensian, but it’s also a very comic novel in places—like when Claire is being pursued by an ardent suitor who’s over 70 but has the energy and sense of humor of a teenaged boy.
Amy: THE WISHING HILL is not your first book, but it is your first traditionally published novel. Can you tell us how that came about?
Holly: It was a complete accident! I have made a living as a freelance journalist, essayist and celebrity ghost writer for over twenty years. In that time, I also wrote five novels. I have a wonderful agent who tried very hard to sell them all. Finally, when he couldn’t sell my fiction even after I’d published a well-reviewed memoir, The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter, with Random House, I got so frustrated that I decided to go the self publishing route. Two weeks after I’d put my novel SLEEPING TIGERS up as a paperback and ebook myself, my agent sold THE WISHING HILL to New American Library/Penguin. I literally had to get off the chair I was sitting on and lie down on the floor with the phone pressed to my ear when he told me the news. Penguin recently bought my new novel, BEACH PLUM ISLAND, which will be published in April 2014.
I have to say that I’m thrilled to be published traditionally, because I love my editor—she’s the smartest woman I know, and she pushes me to raise my writing to new heights. It’s also fantastic to have the marketing and publicity wheels of a traditional publisher turning on my behalf. However, self publishing is a lot of fun and gives you complete control over the process of putting your book into the hands of readers. The Indie publishing world is full of supportive people, and you can definitely find readers that way–especially if you write romance, mysteries, or other genres where books typically belong to a series. Self publishing also teaches you more about the business of marketing and social media than you could learn in an entire MBA program! Every writer should consider self publishing at least one book to learn what it takes to put yourself—and your book—out in the public eye.
Amy: Recently there has been a lot of talk about book covers, especially book covers for women’s fiction. Is the cover of THE WISHING HILL literal, metaphorical, or a little of both?
Holly: There is definitely a difference in the kinds of covers chosen for literary fiction, science fiction, women’s fiction, mysteries, etc., but why shouldn’t there be? People really do judge books by their covers. Even though I sometimes read on an e-reader, I still am attracted to certain covers because they’re interesting, beautiful, funny or appealing in some other way. I think of book covers as art with a message. For THE WISHING HILL, the cover is both literal and metaphorical. There is an actual scene where Juliet, as a child, goes to a hill covered in dandelions with both Desiree and Claire, and she calls it “the wishing hill” because it’s “a hill covered in wishes.” (That was the original title, but the editor decided it was too long.) It’s a metaphorical cover, too, in the sense that it gives that image we all have in our minds of wishing, as children, for lots of different things—many of which are impossible to have, but we fantasize about having them anyway. In this novel, Juliet, Desiree, and Claire all fervently wish for “perfect” families, which we all know is one of those impossible wishes shared by every one of us.
Amy: I know you’ve been fortunate to go on some writing retreats. When you’re not able to do that, what’s your writing/real life/ day like?
Holly: I literally write all day and often at night, too, because I make my living as a freelance writer. I have a lot of deadlines every week for articles, book chapters and marketing brochures, but I try to reserve early morning, at least two hours a day, for writing fiction (or making notes and researching a book, which is what I’m doing now.) I’m lucky that my children are all older now—the youngest is in high school—so that I can think unfractured thoughts during daylight hours. With five kids, that definitely didn’t used to happen!
Amy: For THE WISHING HILL, did you start with a story, a character, or a problem? Meaning, what lead you—or pushed you—to write this particular story?
Holly: The main idea for THE WISHING HILL came from my grandmother’s story. She was the oldest of five children, and when her own mother ran away with a much younger lover, leaving her children behind with their father, the family splintered. I can’t say more, or you’ll guess one of the key secrets in the book! But I’m always interested in the tensions underlying mother-daughter relationships, so that inspired a good part of THE WISHING HILL. Beyond that, I knew I wanted to write about living in Mexico, a place I lived and worked for a while, and this gave me a chance to contrast that vivid, colorful setting with New England, where I live now. I also wanted to write about women who were trying to make it as artists—Juliet is a painter, and her mother is an actress—so I was able to do that here. I think it’s important to create characters who are living their passions, because too few people are doing that in real life.
Amy: What’s your definition of women’s fiction, and does the label bother you?
Holly: I think of women’s fiction as any fiction featuring women as main characters who have complicated inner lives and complex relationships, where the focus is on how those women are going to resolve (or at least survive) the conflicts in their lives. I have heard (and seen here) how bothered some writers are by the label, like the wonderful Caroline Leavitt, but I’m not. I actually think “women’s fiction” is a useful term in the publishing business when it comes to selling books. Having been self published, I’m a pragmatist, in that I realize how difficult—and how important—it is to be able to put your book in at least one main “category” where readers can easily recognize it as something they’d like to try. Think of it as a grocery store aisle: If you’re shopping for cereal, you’re not going to look in the pet foods aisle, right?
Amy: Share your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction.
Holly: Write stories that you would love to read, and your passion will shine through on the page.
Holly Robinson is an award-winning journalist whose work appears regularly in national venues such as Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Huffington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, More, Open Salon, and Parents. She also works as a ghost writer on celebrity memoirs, education texts, and health books. Her first book, The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter: A Memoir, was named a Target Breakout Book. Her first novel, Sleeping Tigers, was named a 2011 Book of the Year Finalist byForeWord Reviews and was more recently listed as a Semifinalist 2012 Best Indie Book by Kindle Book Review. She holds a B.A. in biology from Clark University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She lives north of Boston with her husband and their five children.
July 2, 2013
Author Lori Nelson Spielman Advises Writers That Stepping Away Is As Important As Stepping It Up
Author Lori Nelson Spielman is a very dear in-real-life friend of mine. And believe it or not, we met because of this blog! Since then we’ve found that we have even more in common than writing and publishing (and that’s special in its own right). Lucky us!
BUT, if I didn’t also think her debut novel, THE LIFE LIST was awesome, I wouldn’t say so. I read an early copy of the book, handed to me by Lori herself the second we met at the beach in Michigan (first time, perfect weather—second time, snow in April). Right away, I was mesmerized by Lori’s writing, and the story itself. It takes the main character through twists and turns of a very real and unexpected life. The best kind, if you ask me. While it starts off seeming like the main character is about to lead a charmed life (and then there wouldn’t be a novel, would there?) the exact opposite is true. There are very heady issues in this book. Real problems for the characters, real emotions. Much is not what it seems. And I loved that about the book. I enjoy the twists that go my way and the ones that don’t. And I love an ending that leaves me hopeful.
And I’m hopeful that you’ll enjoy THE LIFE LIST as much as I did.
Please welcome my dear friend, Lori Nelson Spielman, to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Author Lori Nelson Spielman Advises Writers That Stepping Away Is As Important As Stepping It Up
Amy: Lori! This is so exciting for me to have you on Women’s Fiction Writers. Of course I wish we were sitting near the beach with wine and I was asking you these questions, but for now, the blog will have to suffice. (And it does make it easier to share with everyone else!)
Would you give us a quick overview of your debut novel, THE LIFE LIST?
Lori: First of all, thank you so much for hosting me on your blog, Amy. I’m a huge fan of Women’s Fiction Writers, and a huge fan of yours as well.
Okay, now on to the question. The Life List tells the story of a young woman who embarks on a year-long journey of self-discovery after her mother passes away and leaves her an inheritance with one big stipulation — in order to receive it she must complete the items on the “life list” of goals she made for herself when she was 14.
Amy: I found that THE LIFE LIST taps into not only the main character’s, Brett’s, childhood dreams and aspirations, but our own. What this says to me is that we probably know ourselves better than we think, and get caught up in life, and forget. What’s one thing you wish Brett would have done differently so that she didn’t lose track of so much that she had to rediscover? (If this question makes no sense, ignore it. I know what I mean but am not sure I conveyed it well!)
Lori: I know exactly what you mean, Amy! I think it boils down to confidence, or more accurately, Brett’s loss of confidence. As girls, we’re fearless. We imagine we can do anything, become anything, and most certainly deserve every good thing life has to offer. Somewhere along the road, many of us lose this youthful confidence. We begin to wonder whether we’re good enough, or smart enough, or pretty enough to reach those lofty childhood dreams. Too often we settle for less than we deserve, whether it’s in our careers, our relationships, or our dreams. In short, Brett’s failure to believe in her own worth kept her from realizing her dreams, the same way it does for many of us women.
Amy: I’m sure you’ve been asked this a million times. Well, make it a million and one. Do you have a Life List for the future now? I’m more of a day-at-a-time gal, and really don’t, but I certainly see the value in it.
Lori: I’m glad you used the term life list, Amy. People often refer to my book as being about someone’s bucket list, but I think there’s a real distinction between the two terms. To me, a life list as a blueprint of how you want to craft your life—things you determine are important on your way up, so to speak. Have a close family. Live on a lake. Have a fulfilling career. A bucket list, on the other hand, are those things you aspire to do on your way down, before you die, things that can be checked off in an instant. Skydive. Visit the Grand Canyon. Tour Machu Picchu. So, to answer your question, I do have a life list, though today it’s shorter and more specific—more like a bucket list. Does this mean I’m on my way down?! Yikes!
Amy: Oh! I love the distinction between a life list and a bucket list. I am always drawing lines between similar words and terms and picking them apart. This time you did it for me! (I can always count on you!) So, now onto some writing talk. When you’re writing do you outline, or just wing it (some would call that pantsing, or writing by the seat of your pants)?
Lori: I’m pantser with suspenders. I don’t just wing it, but I don’t have a detailed outline, either. When I get an idea for a story, I let it incubate for a few days. It usually bends and twists into something different than what I’d first imagined. I watch the story unfold visually, much like a film. I envision many of the scenes and I know the ending, but I don’t necessarily write a detailed outline. Instead, I write madly and badly—yes, I allow myself to write a horrible first draft. In places where I need to do research, I simply make two X’s and continue, knowing I’ll go back to it later and fill in those gaps. Lucky for me, I enjoy the rewriting stage, which is where the bulk of the work occurs.
Amy: I know you’re working on something new—you don’t have to share any details, but how is it coming along? Is the process different this time than when you wrote THE LIFE LIST?
Lori: Yes, you and I have talked about this. It feels completely different this time, knowing my agent and my editor will read it. They’re looking for a book very similar in tone to The Life List, and I feel an enormous amount of pressure, hoping to please them. I do have a story idea that we’re all excited about, and once life settles down a bit, I’m anxious to get started on it.
Amy: How would you define women’s fiction, and does the label bother you?
Lori: I define women’s fiction as stories that are written primarily for women. Perhaps the label should offend me, but it doesn’t. With The Life List, there’s no question my target audience is women. I’m happy to own that. I do, however, have a problem when other authors get slapped with the label simply because they are female, despite their novel’s cross-gender appeal.
Your question made me think of this story. My friend’s son, an avid hiker, read Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. He found it “too emo”. Apparently, the parts of the book my girlfriend and I found most compelling—the emotional scenes—were the very ones he disliked. There’s no doubt we women share our feelings more than men, something a study at Stanford found creates more serotonin, resulting in a general feeling of well-being. The researcher went on to say spending time with girlfriends is just as important as going to the gym. So, to extrapolate a bit, I’ll hypothesize that reading women’s fiction just might add years to your life. How’s that for an endorsement?
Amy: Share your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction.
Lori: Of course I’d advise the standard–read and persevere, take classes and attend workshops. But I’m going to throw a curve ball here and suggest knowing when to give up is equally important. Please don’t misinterpret: I’m not suggesting anyone give up writing. I’m talking about setting aside that project that hasn’t garnered a single request for pages after a hundred queries, a piece of work that no longer feels fresh. My dear friend has spent five years querying agents to no avail, yet she refuses to start a new project. Like a woman convinced the man who broke her heart is The One, she’s left paralyzed by her devotion. I know as well as anyone, it’s excruciating to let go of a project you’ve poured your heart and soul into, but sometimes we must. If I hadn’t set aside the novel I’d written thirteen years ago and started another, and then another, I’d still be a frustrated aspiring writer, collecting rejection letters. As Kenny Rogers once sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em.”
A former speech pathologist and guidance counselor, Lori Nelson Spielman currently works as a homebound teacher for inner-city students. Her debut novel, THE LIFE LIST, has sold in 16 countries and Fox 2000 has purchased the film option. Lori and her husband live in Michigan.
July 1, 2013
Brenda Janowitz’s Third Novel Was Worth The Wait—For Her, And For Readers
I’m thrilled today to have Brenda Janowitz on Women’s Fiction Writers. Brenda and I share an editor—Brenda Copeland at St. Martin’s Press. I was lucky to read an early copy of Brenda J.’s latest novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, and I read it in a weekend. The setting, the characters, and the heartfelt story was just what I needed to take me away those cold winter mornings! Now it’s summer and it’s your turn! Below you’ll read about Brenda’s publishing journey…and just how much it meant to her to write and publish this book!
Please welcome Brenda Janowitz to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Brenda Janowitz’s Third Novel Was Worth The Wait—For Her, And For Readers
I
t’s here! It’s finally here!! My publication day, that is. My third novel officially hits bookshelves (and virtual bookshelves!) today.
You’d think I wouldn’t be quite so excited about my novel coming out today. After all, it’s not my first time having a novel come out. My first novel was published in 2007, and then my second novel was published shortly thereafter in 2008.
But you may have noticed that it’s now five years later….
You see, life has a way of intervening where plans are concerned, and since my second novel came out, a lot has happened. I mean a lot. I got married, moved out to the suburbs, and had two children.
But it was always there—that urge to write. We writers are a strange breed. We have to write. It’s not really a choice. I was complaining about some personal problems I was having to an old friend of mine (you know that sort of friend you’ve known since you were 18 years old?) and she listened and then asked: have you been writing? And I had to admit it to myself and to her—I had not. I told her so, and she looked back at me, no judgments, and simply nodded her head.
Writers need to write.
So, I got back to it. And I completed RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE just as I became pregnant with my second son. RECIPE says so much about me, so much about my life and how it’s changed, and I just hope that readers will respond to it.
RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is about three generations of women with a culture all their own. When Hannah finds herself spending the summer with her glamorous grandmother, a widow six times over, at her sprawling beach-front Hamptons estate, she learns that there’s more than one recipe for happiness.
A story of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is a quirky story about correcting the mistakes from your past and trying to create a future for yourself.
The book was inspired by my own grandmothers, two of the most glamorous women I’ve even known. Neither was a widow six times over, but both of my grandmothers were very elegant ladies. When I think of my childhood memories, I’m not likely to picture them in aprons baking cookies. I picture them in evening gowns.
So, tell me about your grandmothers. Or your best memory of a family member. Or someone who inspires you.
I’m the author of SCOT ON THE ROCKS and JACK WITH A TWIST. My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, will be published by St. Martin’s on July 2, 2013. My work’s also appeared in the New York Post and Publisher’s Weekly. You can find me on Facebook or on Twitter at @BrendaJanowitz.
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