Interview with Three-Time Golden Heart Finalist Kay Hudson

Kay HudsonI’m nosy, so when the opportunity to interrogate, interview three-time Golden Heart Finalist Kay Hudson, came up, I jumped at it. She writes paranormal, one of the genres I’m least familiar with, and I had questions. Lots of ‘em. Thankfully, because she is a rock star, she tolerated my nosiness.


 


But first, here’s the blurb for Jinn & Tonic, her Lucky 13 Golden Heart Finalist manuscript.


 Mix two lonely mortals, two meddlesome jinn, and a collection of classic Errol Flynn adventure films, and you have the ingredients of Jinn & Tonic.
Susan Sheridan may have her doubts about Bock, the jinn who pops out of her antique tonic bottle, but she loves the vividly real dream worlds he builds after watching her favorite movies. Then she discovers that the hero of her dreams, dashing pirate captain Rob Flynn, is also a mortal dreamer, as real as she is.


Rob wants to meet in the waking world, but Susan resists. It’s bad enough that he’s a lawyer and she’s on parole. It’s even worse that she tied him to a bed and had her way with him–in a dream they both remember!


As their adventures carry them through the pirate world of Captain Blood, the saloons of Dodge City, and Robin Hood’s Nottingham Castle, can Susan and Rob risk their hearts to find love–and their mortal lives to defeat the evil jinn whose ambitions would separate them forever?


1. You write paranormal on the lighter side of the spectrum. What draws you to the genre and your style of writing? Have you ever thought about changing your style to fit the trends?

I’ve always written humor, even when it hasn’t been totally appropriate. I’m probably one of the few people who can say she made people chuckle over environmental impact statements written for the US Corps of Engineers, an organization not known for comedy. The impulse is just too strong to resist.


Of course, not everyone finds humor in the same material or style, so I feel extremely lucky that five Golden Heart judges appreciated mine. As for following the trend toward dark and edgy paranormal, I wouldn’t be good at it, and I wouldn’t enjoy it, so I don’t try.


2. Speaking of trends, the romance genre is all about trends. A few years ago, it was all about paranormals, then small town contemporaries, then erotic romance hit the mainstream, now New Adult is all the rage. How do you view the paranormal market? Where does it stand?


I really don’t know what to think about market trends, in paranormal or any other sub-genre. Years ago a presenter at a local writers’ group, an author successful with her own work as well as work-for-hire projects, told us that she always had several manuscripts and many ideas waiting to come back into fashion. I have several friends who have done quite well with light paranormal series, so I know there’s a market out there. It’s just not as strong as the market for dark paranormal—at least for now.


3. What is your dream scenario for your career? What is your game plan? Are you holding out for a Big 5 contract? Are you looking for an agent or planning to pitch directly to the editors at the RWA conference? Have you considered self publishing?


I have appointments set up with an editor and an agent at the conference, and I’ll be happy to talk to anyone who’ll hold still long enough. I would rather write than handle the business end of things, so my ideal plan would be to work with an agent. And although I have and enjoy an e-reader, I still prefer paper books and hope to see my name on one (or more) sooner or later.


As for self-publishing, who hasn’t considered it? I have friends who are doing well that way—but they’re working at it full time. I’m working at a day job full time. I don’t think I will seriously look at self-publishing until I cut back my work to about half time in a few months, and until I have at least three related books to put out. Then I’ll see what looks right for me.


4. Tell us about your GH finaling manuscript. How many times have you entered it in the GH? What did you change, if anything that made the difference this year?


The opening of Jinn & Tonic sat in the back of my mind for a long time, but that was all I had, just a vision of a handsome, naked, eight-inch-tall man lounging on a bed. When a group of friends started a “one hundred words, one hundred days” challenge several years ago, I started from there, and wrote (long-hand in spiral notebooks) every day for 400+ days until I finished—and then took several more months to transcribe and edit it.


I then entered it in the Golden Heart at least four times (might have been five)—I’m nothing if not persistent. (Of course, there’s also that well-known definition of insanity: repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different result!)


In 2011, I finaled with an American historical romantic comedy (another extremely soft market) called Paper Hearts, and in 2012 with my second jinn story, Bathtub Jinn (see, I can’t even do things in order). I couldn’t resist entering again last fall, so I did some line editing on Jinn & Tonic—I really couldn’t tell you what I changed—and sent it in one more time.


5. As you mentioned, you’re a three-time finalist, which makes you amazing, by the way. What writing advice would you give an unpublished writer who dreams of finaling in the GH?


I don’t know about amazing, but I’m definitely amazed by it all. As for advice, I’d just have to say keep at it. Read books (novels of many genres, craft books, non-fiction, everything), take classes, enter contests. Write. We’re so lucky in the romance genre to have RWA and the chapters, workshops, contests, and above all friends that come with it.


6. Anything else you want us to know?


Just that I hope to see all my Golden Heart sisters in Atlanta. I wasn’t planning to go until I got the GH call. Now I’m looking forward to seeing so many old and new friends in person.


Thanks, Kay, for joining us today. Anyone else want to pick Kay’s brain for wisdom?

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Published on June 20, 2013 22:02
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