The Wench and the Tart at the Beer Bar (Epic)

Across the Beer Bar with Hart Johnson [image error]
Hey woman! Good to see ya!  What shall we start with?
A beer?  Something strong and dark, eh? (is there something about people liking beer like their men?) Ok...right now I think you would LOVE either my Big House Brown (a delicious, coffee brown lager). Michigan's Epic Fail this past week notwithstanding...OR the 38 Redemption Black Pilsner.
Q:  How in the hell did you get here? That is to say, you have one of the most fun and widely followed blogs about writing out there.  What did you do to get it to that point?
See... by nature I'm sort of an exhibitionist, so all the 'let it all hang out' of blogging REALLY appeals to me. I started with this idea I ought to be all professional, but when I looked around at some of the great blogs, I couldn't help but think THAT is a front on which I can't compete. I was a noob. I wasn't going to give better writing advice, or find more events, or any OTHER serious writing thing. What I excel at is being a NUT. I can play with the best of them.
So I decided to run with it. The OTHER thing I did, very aggressively for a while, was find a couple bloggers I admired (most notably, Elizabeth Spann Craig)--I followed a ton of blogs she followed, commenting every time I read. I was as slutty as possible, trying to just build a presence. This community is so amazingly supportive, they responded VERY kindly.
And I confess before THAT, even, I begged my friends. I've been writing online since about 2005 (*whispers* fan fiction... I know it's not highly respected, but it was GREAT schooling in plotting). And my followers from THERE over 4 years were not just readers, they were friends. A bunch of them were willing to follow, so before I even thought about 'public', I had about 40 followers... just helped me not feel so scared.And all you fine folks who follow EITHER the Beer Wench OR Liz can thank Hart for that.  She sayeth: Go Forth and Blog.  And so I did.
Q:  Tell us about your experience so far with your agent?  Worth it?
I love the agent thing. I think GETTING one can be very hard, and I think NEEDING one is genre specific—you, for instance, my friend, are in a genre I suspect it's not necessary. Your genre has publishers willing to be approached directly and willing to work with you to improve something, whereas mystery is still a genre that is huge-house dominated, and publishers won't look at cold submissions. I also write YA, and it is the same thing. My Cozy mystery contract though, was achieved because the editor approached the agent with an idea and asked if she had a writer up to the project—write for hire, if you will. That is even LESS possible without the agent connection.
Oddly, with romance, there are calls for submissions from editors to write directly to themes—I have a good friend who has bypassed the agent thing by just responding to those and she's done really well. 
The only reason I find this dichotomy surprising, is they are the two sort of stereotypical 'genre fiction' favored children, so you'd think they'd work the same.
Oh, right... the question... I love the process. My YA contract is probably more typical than the Cozy one, and Amy Tipton is a superstar. She's pushed me to rethink a few points so I lose some stereotypes. She's pushed me to fit the more expected genre profile so the book is easier to sell. And she's pushed me to do some things that increase the tension. I feel like in every case it's improved the story, and I feel like only a fraction of the points had been spotted by the 'non-professional' readers I'd had.
I still shudder at the thought of crafting query letters to agents however, one of my editors has suggested I do just that.  My books are somewhat of a genre bender in that I incorporate sexy stuff, for certain (many times smoking hot) and a bunch of the standard romance requirements (Alpha Males for example) but tend to write more complex characters with sometimes annoying flaws that I think make readers connect more deeply with them. I don't do fantasy.  My people are real.  But again...shivers with dread at the thought....
Q:  What the heck is a Cozy Mystery?
Oh, you know, the light funny murders... teehee.  Seriously. These are for readers who love to solve the mystery along with the sleuth, but who don't want any gore or graphic violence. Think of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books—that is 'case 1' for Cozy mystery. It is an amateur sleuth (so you don't need to be schooled in police work or forensics), the victim is disliked and sometimes obvious from the start...
Did you ever go to slumber parties and tell ghost stories and there was a subset unwilling to be THAT scared... they needed it all watered down?  In a way, that is this... it is the puzzle of mystery, without the distasteful stuff.
What I love about it is the characters are fun and funny, often quirky. The plots can be a little 'soapish'--it is like playing to me. I have a really good time writing them. And I've learned a TON about plotting, because mystery has certain pieces that have to be there, and they have to flow in a sort of evenly paced way—and that construction and pacing is really applicable to all writing.

Q:  I heard you have a brewery story on your horizon.  How's that going?  What is your experience in the brewing world?
I wrote the first one during BuNoWriMo (just like NaNoWriMo, but much smaller—my writing group hosts it every June) and I am currently typing the end of it. (I tend to write long-hand and had two deadlines recently, so I hadn't done the typing on this yet).
I LOVE Microbreweries. I left advertising in 1991 with sights on grad school and worked for McMenamin's a chain in Oregon for six and a half years (yes, it took me that long to get through grad school). I learned a ton about micros and brewing (even spent a day with a brewer, as I wondered if I might want to be 'the woman brewer'--I couldn't justify it, as the pay was the same, but tip-free). But I love the creativity, individuality... and I LOVE a good craft beer. I tend to like the English varieties—heavier, hoppier, as opposed to the German.
But I thought writing a series with a female brewery owner in Portland would tap an 'almost cozy' (I call it Sassy, but I made that up) market that would have interested people from the cozy readership, but also from people a little less timid. My heroine is a divorced, forty-something woman, a refugee from software marketing prior to the Nasdaq dive—what was that 2002?  She has a teen son who she only has in the summer and lives in a flat over her brewery in Portland's Old Town. So there is a ton of Portland flavor, a fair bit of brewery and beer detail (including a very hot brewer who is her best friend, but the sexual tension between them is palpable)
It was really fun to write. I wrote first person, which I don't usually do, but I think for amateur sleuth mystery it works really well. When I can clean it up, I plan to offer it to my Cozy editor, as Berkley Prime Crime does some darker mystery as well. Probably though, it will be winter before I really can do that. [image error]  Fun!  I have something that involves a little sabotage/inter-brewery intrigue and of course smoking hot sex with a dash of angst thrown in:  Cheeky Blonde was an 18 month writing/critiquing and revision project that I LOVE.  It currently languishes in various Big Name AE inboxes  (makes notes about writing query letters for an agent...)


Q:  what is your favorite style of beer for each season?
Keep in mind I ALWAYS like strong. It is just how I roll. And sweet is annoying.  Erm... that might apply to my taste in men, too, even though I know better.
Winter: An oatmeal stout if I am only having one, though I LOVE dark Christmas ales. Full Sail in Oregon has a Wassail that is sublime. I also love Pyramid's Snowcap.You will love my Winter Lager coming out in bottles Winter Solstice....spicy, hot and perfect.
Spring: Probably this would be IPA season. It is a 'good times are coming' ale—I love the bitter and it has a little body to it. Were it available, besides in the Northwest, McMenamin's Hammerhead is PERFECT here. It is a heavy bodied, bitter red.Hop Heads UNITE!!! (do you like the Gulo Gulo?  My IPL?)
Summer:  An ESB, I think. I can go lighter bodied, but the lighter the body, the more hops I need. My favorite again, is from Pyramid—Ballard Bitter. I go for the wheats myself of my favorite Boston Brew:  Noble Pils since I've discovered the distinct and subtle orgasmic bliss of a perfect Czech Pils...
Fall:  I can get playful here... maybe a nut brown. I am really excited about Wolverine's Pumpkin one that is coming... Ginger. Clove. I love a spiced ale and fall seems the perfect time for it. The Curcurbita Smiles is gonna rock out for certain!
Q:  Where do you see yourself this time next year, writing-wise?
Well I KNOW I will have released my first Cozy—that is scheduled for June—It is called The Azalea Assault and will be under my pen name, Alyse Carlson. I don't know the spacing, but I may be prepping for the release of the second (Begonia Bribe) and HOPEFULLY, I will have sold Kahlotus Disposal Site—my agent just got back my second round of revisions, and I really hope she will like it enough that it will be polished to sell by January.
I have two books to write by December 31—the 3rd Cozy and a YA idea that's been fermenting since February called Medium Wrong (that Amy loves, nice to have the okay before I even start). I suspect the only real difference between then and now is I will need to figure out how the promotion fits in my timeframe, as I also work full time. I hope I can still write 3-4 books a year, but I may have to shake it up a bit. Promotion is the necessary evil, even for those of you agented ones, trust me!But you have such an amazing platform already with your huge blog following, shouldn't be too hard.

Q:  Who are your go-to authors? Those folks you might even by a hardback from?
Understand I live in poverty... I think JK Rowling is my only ACTUAL exception to hardback prices, and I think she is how I learned to 'finish a story' so that's okay by me. But I have a few more favorites:
Tom Robbins:  Nobody is as bendy as Tom.Peter Straub: I wish I had the imagination for horror. I LOVE his stuff.And then I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 19th century men. I hate to be sexist, but 19th century women were writing about domestic and marital stuff, which I just can't care about. The men though, Hugo, Dumas, Tolstoy... were writing larger than life amazing tales.I like Ayn Rand, not because I agree with her, but because she stimulates my brain.On mystery, I really like Elizabeth George.

Q:  What's our nightcap?
An Irascible Mink, obviously!  It's my favorite of your beers!Funny really.  It is "Insolent" our mink but he's been called Irascible, Indolent and downright Improper by many.  It's a killer, isn't it?  This last batch especially with the CTZ hop blend...sublime perfection.
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Thank you so much for hosting me, Liz! I love this writing/beer space we share!Me too Hart! Thanks to you for all your advice, your reading time (hope you can get to The Tap Room soon!) and for letting me blah blah blah all over the Watery Tart blog!cheersLiz