On the blogs: Interviewed by Hannah McKinnon!

I'm in the "limelight" today on author Hannah McKinnon's blog. Thanks Hannah for interesting questions!
Read on or check the link:
http://www.hannahmckinnonwriter.com/a...
This week's Limelight guest is author Christina Hoag.
Hi Christina and welcome to the blog. Let’s start by you telling us about yourself …

Hi Hannah, and thanks for hosting me!

I am a journalist and novelist. When I was six years old, I won a prize for writing interesting stories and that’s basically what I’ve been doing ever since. I became a newspaper reporter so I could write. During my career, I worked for the Miami Herald and Associated Press, among other places. The highlight was reporting from 14 countries around Latin America and the Caribbean for major media including Time, Business Week, Financial Times, the Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. Now I do corporate communications writing and write novels.

And, of course, we’d love to hear about the books you’ve written. Tell us about those.

I have two novels published by small presses last year: Girl on the Brink, a YA romantic thriller, and Skin of Tattoos, a noir thriller.

Girl on the Brink is about a 17-year-old girl, Chloe, who gets involved with the wrong guy at an especially vulnerable time in her life, as her parents are splitting up. At first, she thinks Kieran’s the one. He sweeps her off her feet, to use an old cliché, and she experiences an incredible connection with him. Slowly, however, he reveals a very dark side of his character – he’s manipulative, abusive, violent, possessive. Chloe wants to help him, but despite what he says, Kieran’s not that keen on being helped. He pulls a huge move to harm her, and Chloe must use all her smarts, strength and courage to defeat him.
Skin of Tattoos is set in the gang underworld of Los Angeles, and the main character, Mags, is a gang member. We meet him as he comes out of prison wanting to go straight and never return “behind the wall.” To do that, he has to get away from his gang, which has undergone some changes since he’s been locked up, namely his rival Rico, who set him up on the charge that got him imprisoned, is now the leader and isn’t about to let Mags leave the gang. It’s a story of revenge and rivalry, but there are also other layers such as a coming-of-age theme as Mags heals his fractured relationship with his family, and there’s a romantic subplot, as well.
How different is writing for adults from writing for YA from writing non-fiction? How do you handle these different genres?

Nonfiction is probably the easiest because the story comprises facts. It’s all laid out for you. The challenge comes in organizing those facts into a narrative, sub-topics and so on. Writing for YA is, for me anyway, the hardest because you have the most constraints. Your protag is a teenager so you have to take into account the restrictions on a teenager’s life: parental control and school, plus their limited self-awareness and knowledge at that age, and use limited sex and profanity. Adult fiction, which is my preferred genre, is a wide open field!
You also co-authored a book. What was that experience like?

I co-authored Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence (Turner Publishing, 2014), a book on “gang intervention.” Basically I was the writer. I interviewed my co-author, noted gang interventionist Aquil Basheer, at length about his life and his program to train former gang members as community peacekeepers who disrupt the retaliatory cycle of gang violence. I also interviewed many former gang members, cops, psychologists and others who work in this field. It was a fascinating project, and I’m proud to say that the book is being used as a text in several university courses.
Are you traditionally or self-published? How did you go about getting published?

I’m traditionally published by small publishers, but I got both deals myself. I’ve had two literary agents for Skin of Tattoos but neither was able to sell it or wanted Girl on the Brink. I kept rewriting both and submitting to publishers who accepted unagented submissions. It took a long time and many, many rejections but I kept polishing and submitting until I found homes for both. I’m happy to say both books have been well received so I’m glad I didn’t give up. There are many ways to launch a literary career.



You’re a volunteer creative writing mentor with WriteGirl.org. Can you share how this works?

WriteGirl is an organization in Los Angeles that works to promote writing by teen girls and help them get into college. Last year I led weekly writing workshops with at-risk girls at an alternative high school; this year I’m a mentor at monthly workshops (each month is a different writing genre) in which the mentors are paired with girls for the day to help and guide them in writing exercises. It’s a great program that really builds self-confidence and validation in girls from all types of backgrounds. I really wish I had had something like this when I was in high school.



Can you tell us about your writing process? Any particular methods or quirks you can share?

I’m a morning writer. I get up early, have my coffee and check the news and sit down and write until I feel my brain turning squishy, usually early afternoon. Then I get some exercise and try to do some marketing work. I use an outline. Although I rarely stick to it, I still like having it as a guidepost to the next plot steps. It’s also good to have some type of ending in sight when you start although it can change. I find writing is a very fluid process. It’s often surprising where the story ends up.



What’s the most surprising thing you learned about yourself when you started writing creatively?

I’m always amazed at what I come up with and how I write myself out of plot impasses. I may be uncertain of where I’m going with a particular thread or I may get just plain stuck, but a way out always comes to me. It might be in the middle of the night or as soon as I get up from the computer or while I’m writing, but an answer always pops up. I’ve learned to trust my creative process and not fret about getting stuck.

Can you share your Top-5 tips for aspiring writers?

1. I don’t write myself out every day. I leave something – the very next scene, usually - so when I come back the next day I know what to do. I just pick up and keep going. If you write yourself out, then you end up wasting a lot of time wondering what comes next and trying to get back into the rhythm of the story.

2. If someone says something in your piece doesn’t work, it’s only one person’s opinion. But if two people make the same observation, you need to pay attention to what they’re saying. More often than not, it’s something that needs fixing.

3. Develop a thick skin. It takes courage to write and show your work to the world for judgment, but remember that not everyone is going to like your work, and that’s okay. You have to learn to let criticism roll off you. The nastiest rejection I ever got was from the editor of a literary journal who scornfully said of my experimental fiction submission, “Why would anyone even read this?” I kept submitting it and got the piece and another like it published in other journals.

4. If there’s someone in your life who does not support you creatively, either get rid of them out or distance yourself from them as much as possible. Be ruthless because your art is worth it. I’ve broken up with boyfriends because they were not supportive or had no interest in my writing. In my mind, you can’t be with a writer if you’re not interested in what they write because their writing is part of their self-expression.

5. This may be the most important tip of all: Believe in yourself. Believe that you have something worthwhile to say. Believe in your talent. Believe that you will succeed and that the rocky road is part of any artist’s journey.



Will you tell us about your latest project(s)?

I’ve got a romantic suspense novel called “Heat in the Tropics” releasing next fall from Melange Books under the pseudonym C.A. Elliott. It’s a romance between a reporter and a homicide detective set in a sweltering Miami summer. Under my own name, I’m currently working on a thriller set in South America called “Jungle.”

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

My next biggest passion is travel and sightseeing. I’ve travelled all over the world, the more remote the place the better! On a more daily basis, I love going for walks either in the outdoors or around art galleries and museums. Since writing is so sedentary, I need to get off my rump!

And finally, where can we learn more about you and your work.

The most complete place is my website www.christinahoag.com I also welcome people to follow my exploits on:
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Instagram