#AuthorInterview: Carol Mason
Read on for an interview with THE SHADOW BETWEEN US author Carol Mason! When did you know writing was for you? In high school. I…
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Author Interview: Colette Freedman
CLP is happy to welcome The Consequences author Colette Freedman today! Read on for Samantha’s interview with her… When did you know writing was for you?…
Author Interview: Lu Ann Cahn
Thanks to I Dare Me author Lu Ann Cahn for answering some of my questions today! And be sure to check out her book – on sale…
Author Interview: Rebekah Ruth
When did you know writing was for you?
I’ve always been a lover of stories. One of my favorite childhood memories is when my mom would tuck me in at night and make up a story on the spot. Sometimes, she asked me to fill in the details and we always ended up with a grand adventure. That love of story stayed with me and caused me to be a voracious fiction reader. But I love fiction so much that I was actually afraid to try my hand at it, in case I bombed. It took pushing past that fear to write my first book. I honestly wasn’t sure if writing was for me until I finished that first book. Now, I’m hooked!
How would you describe your books?
Currently, my favorite thing to write is a love story with chops. A story that speaks to people in some way, that helps us understand ourselves, those around us or God a little better. But it’s tied up in a really pretty package (the love story) that keeps us interested. That’s what my first book, Where the Pink Houses, is. And the second in that series is the same kind of story but with different themes and characters. In this one, they travel to Africa, which is a place that’s very close to my heart. I’m excited to tell some of the story of the people there.
Why was Where the Pink Houses Are, a book you wanted to write?
I wanted to tell a story about people who are flawed and make mistakes (because we all are and do) but who learn to be more real about who they are. Shame thrives in secrecy and I think so many people are walking around wounded because they are afraid to open up to anyone about what their struggles are. Where the Pink Houses Are is a story about taking the messiness of life and turning it into something beautiful.
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
Finding time! I’m convinced if I could lock myself into a cabin somewhere I could write a book start to finish. I don’t usually struggle with writers block. It’s more like a struggle with life getting in the way of writing. “Really? You want dinner again? I just fed you yesterday!”
I have four kids and a husband who works from 1pm-12am. So, I am the sole getter-upper, lunch-maker, taxi-driver, sports-attender, dinner-maker, most of the time. But as my kids are a little older now (the youngest is 9) I’m finding it easier to schedule solid blocks of time for writing each week. But they still insist on being fed several times a day. The nerve.
What are your favorite genres to read?
I love Fantasy (Tolkien, CS Lewis, etc.). Getting lost in a different world is a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon. I also love Historical Fiction/Romance and Modern Romance/ChickLit. What can I say…I’m a sucker for a good romance.
What do you want readers to take away from your story?
I want people to know that no one has made too many mistakes or is too far gone that they can’t find forgiveness, healing and a new way of life. So much of our personal stories are unwritten yet and regardless of what the written chapters look like, we can decide what each chapter holds from this day forward.
How important do you think social media is for authors these days?
I think social media is not only important but I think it’s a wonderful asset to authors. Have you ever finished a book and thought, “I wonder why the author wrote it that way.” Or, “I wish I could ask the author about ____.”
Well, years ago, there was no real way for readers and authors to connect. But with social media, the world is a much smaller place and connections happen every day. Technology, in general, has made my job better. I attend a number of book clubs every year as a guest author, but I can only travel so far and still be mom and wife. So, I have been able to Skype book clubs around the world. I would never have had the opportunity to chat with readers in Great Britain or Nebraska or anywhere else outside my area, without the advances in technology.
Most importantly, I love it that my readers can contact me on Facebook or on my blog and I can answer their questions or even get their feedback for future stories.
What would be your advice to aspiring writers?
It probably sounds cliché, but write, write, write! The more you do it the better you will become. And don’t just write in your journal. Join a writer’s group and get other people reading and critiquing your work. It’s scary, and sometimes painful, to have someone else edit what you’ve labored over, but there is extreme value in collaboration…seeing things through someone else’s eyes.
Also, read, read, read. I do not have a degree in literature. I am not a trained writer. But I have been reading fiction for so long that I believe that was my most important writing teacher. I know what works and what doesn’t because I’ve been immersed in fiction for as long as I can remember.
So the fact that I could write a novel that ended up being listed on Kirkus Indie’s Best of 2012 List as one of the top five in the Romance/Chick Lit category, without having any official training as a writer…I can only attribute to some good instincts and lots of reading.
(A couple other questions that you can use if you wish…)
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
By far, my favorite thing and the thing that surprised me most, is when the characters take on a life of their own. I am not an outline kind of girl. I just don’t think that way. I liken my writing process to getting driving directions online. I can put in my destination and a couple stops along the way, but I still have multiple options of which routes to take. When I write a story, I know some of the points I want to stop at along the way. And I hopefully have a good idea of the end point. But so many times, I’ve sat down to write a scene one way and the characters say or do things that I don’t expect and I end up adjusting my “course” as a result. I love that.
What is the best advice you’ve received on writing fiction?
I had the idea for my story for years but never knew how to start. Then I heard a successful writer say that she always writes her favorite scene first. That unlocked it for me. I started with a scene where my two lead characters meet and went backward and forward from there…finishing the first draft in just a few months.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve heard from readers?
Truly, all feedback is appreciated. But my favorite thing to hear is, “I couldn’t put it down.” My favorite stories are ones that keep me saying, “Just one more chapter…” so to hear that my book has that effect on someone is the ultimate compliment. (And when they say that in an Amazon review, it’s that much sweeter!)
A few links that I’d love to have available to your readers:
My blog- Rebekah Ruth Rambles www.rebekahruthbooks.com
Kirkus’ Starred Review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rebekah-ruth/where-pink-houses-are/
Amazon Kindle Edition of Where the Pink Houses Are (many reviews are available there): http://www.amazon.com/Where-Pink-Houses-Are-ebook/dp/B006K8XPYO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
Author Interview: Miranda Dickinson
Thank to Miranda Dickinson for taking the time to answer some questions for CLP today! When did you know writing was for you? I wanted…
Author Interview with Addison Westlake
I am interviewing Facebook Jeanie author Addison Westlake! When did you know writing was for you? Around nine or ten years old I started keeping…
Author Interview: Kate Hewitt
Thanks to Kate Hewitt for letting us interview her! Be sure to check out her novel This Fragile Life as well! When did you know…
Interview with Meredith O’Brien
— When did you know writing was for you?
I’ve been writing since I was a young girl. When I wasn’t crafting little stories, I was pretending to be a reporter. I would read newspaper stories out loud with my neighbor and we’d record ourselves on cassette tapes.
In high school, I was on the school newspaper staff, took creative writing and entered short stories in school contests.
Writing has always been a passion.
— How would you describe your books?
My first book, A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum, is a collection of humor/parenting columns. (It’s available in paperback and Kindle.) The columns are warts-and-all comedic (sometimes sentimental) riffs on the insanity that occurred in my house when my three children — including a set of twins — were very young and I was attempting to work from home.
I was also a co-author of The Center for Public Integrity’s 1996 book The Buying of the President, which contains profiles of the 1996 presidential candidates and their major campaign donors. It was the product of a year of investigative reporting.
— Why was Mortified a book you wanted to write? Why did you decide to start blogging?
I first started reading personal blogs in earnest in 2004. I became fascinated with the format and wrote a feature story about the people, specifically women, who wrote them. In March 2005, I joined their ranks and started writing a parenting blog, The Boston Mommy Blog, for the Boston Herald’s web site. (I worked as a reporter for the Herald before my twins were born.) I loved the ability to instantly share my work with other harried parents and to hear their stories as well. Since then, I’ve blogged about parenting for a number of sites, contributed to several TV review blogs and blogged about pop culture, media and politics.
However as my children got older, they didn’t like the fact that I was writing about them on parenting blogs. Not at all. In fact, they asked me to stop using their names and eventually asked me to refrain from blogging about most things that happened in our house. I completely understand their request and largely stopped writing about them, even though some of the material would’ve made for some great columns.
Although I have scaled back on blogging about my children as they’ve grown, other bloggers haven’t made the same choices. Some folks keep writing — sometimes quite vividly — about their kids’ experiences with adolescence and puberty. Additionally, some bloggers do not seem as if they keep certain parts of their private lives off-limits. They write their unvarnished opinions about intimate aspects of their lives, as well as the lives of those they love, in a way I never could. Their reveals certainly make for compelling reading, but I often find myself wondering whether there is every any fallout from their oversharing. By writing Mortified, I got the chance to imagine what it would be like to share everything online. It’s not for me.
— What are your thoughts on blogs and how people can do like the character in your book – overshare?
I honestly don’t think that the majority of people overshare do so with ill-intent. People are oftentimes just looking to vent and aren’t necessarily assessing the long-term implications of the material they’re sharing online.
In the case of the main character in this book, Maggie Kelly, she’s very unhappy with her life and doesn’t have a good outlet for her intense dissatisfaction. She creates a blog, which she thinks is anonymous, and treats it like an online diary when, in all honesty, she shouldn’t. No one should. Maggie thinks that the angry and ugly feelings that are churning inside of her which she shares online will never be connected to her because she doesn’t list her last name or her hometown. She turns out to be very, very wrong about that. In real life, we’ve seen countless stories of people who’ve created “anonymous” blogs who wound up getting fired or otherwise humiliated when their blogging identity was revealed.
If there’s one message that I hope people get from this book, it’s that the internet is not a private place.
— What are some of the worst moments of oversharing you have seen online?
I’ve seen parents write about very private moments with their children — whom they name — about things like periods and body development. I’ve read online accounts where in-laws and/or exes are maligned.
— What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
I have a difficult time determining when my material is ready for someone else to read it. I could edit forever and probably still tinker with word choices here and there. At some point, you just have to let go.
— What are your favorite genres to read?
I’m all over the map on this, very eclectic. I go from reading novels by Jennifer Weiner, Jodi Picoult, Ann Hood and Tom Perrotta, to humor by David Sedaris and Dave Barry, along with various works of nonfiction. Over the past year, I’ve also been re-reading some of the classics.
— What do you want readers to take away from your story?
The meta-story is that we all have a tale or two about being mortified by someone close to us. We’ve all been there. It’s not a good place to be. However in the modern era of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, it’s frightfully easy to mortify people we love online, for the whole world to see. It’s one thing to make an embarrassing remark about a spouse at a party, it’s another to make it online where it’s Google-able.
— How important do you think social media is for authors these days?
Authors should know how to use it to promote their work, to engage with other folks (readers and writers alike) and to give kudos to fellow writers. Social media knowledge these days is as necessary as having access to the internet.
— What would be your advice to aspiring writers?
Try, as best as you can, to develop a very thick skin. (I’m still working on that.) Then, fearlessly, go for it.
Interview with Cara Lockwood
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I knew from as far back as I can remember, probably since I first started reading. I loved books (then and now!). There’s nothing quite like getting lost in a good book.
Q: What are the greatest perks of being a full time writer?
No cubicles! No annoying coworkers sitting next to you. No nagging bosses staring over your shoulder (Instead you’ve got an editor that’s a few hundred miles away). It’s just you and your little blinking cursor on the screen.
Q: On the other hand, what can be the hardest part about being a full time writer?
Well, it’s just you and your little blinking cursor on the screen! Sometimes it gets a little lonely. Although, I have to admit, I still don’t miss those annoying coworkers or the cubicles.
Q: Where do you find inspiration for your books?
Everywhere! Friends, family, my (so-called) life, television, movies, other books.
Q: Are any of the characters you write about based off of you or people you know?
Absolutely – most of them are. I think the best characters are grounded in people you know.
Q: Do you find anything difficult about writing both adult and young adult novels?
Well, they’re very different in some ways, but in the big picture ways, they are the same. Both audiences want compelling characters and interesting plots. The bigger challenge about writing young adult fiction is that I have to dig deeper to remember what it was like to be an adolescent.
Q: Has there ever been an odd time or peculiar place that you have had a great idea for a book or character?
I nearly always come up with my very best ideas just when I’m lying down about to go to sleep. I think it’s because it’s the only moment of quiet I have in my day. I’ve got two kids under the age of three, so my house is very, very loud. I keep a pen and paper near my bed just for scribbling ideas down. Otherwise, I’ll go to sleep and forget them.
Q: I just finished reading I Did (But I Wouldn’t Now) and it is mostly set in London. Have you traveled to London, or how did you get the idea to set the novel there?
I have been to London twice. I love that city. I’m a bit of an anglophile (I’m addicted to BBC America) and the idea of setting it mostly in London was just a kind of fantasy for me. I would have loved to live there. Plus, it gave me the excuse to subscribe to Hello! Magazine (the British equivalent of People) for a whole year under the guise of “research.”
Q: You wrote an anthology, This Is Chick Lit. What made you want to write this?
There has been so much negativity about Chick Lit, which I just think is ridiculous. That particular anthology was edited by fellow author Lauren Baratz-Logsted as a reaction to a short-story collection called “This is NOT Chick Lit” by a group of writers who were very negative about the Chick Lit label, mainly because of what critics have said about it. I think people should be able to read what they want, whether that’s sci-fi, romance, mysteries, chick lit, literary fiction, without someone else trying to belittle them for it. I love literary fiction, but I also love young adult fiction and mysteries and chick lit – so does that make me shallow? I think when people get on a high horse about what should or shouldn’t be “literary” it ultimately just sounds snobbish.
Q: What is your favorite chick lit book and/or author?
My anglophile roots are going to show here. I am a huge fan of Jane Green (my favorite is one of her classics “Mr. Maybe”) and yes I still love her work even though I think she now lives in Connecticut. My other all-time favorite is Marian Keyes (another classic –“ Watermelon.” It was after reading this book that I was inspired to write “I Do (But I Don’t)”). I would talk about newer books, but now I have so many chick lit author friends who are all so equally fabulous, that if I started listing them, I think I might not be able to stop.
Q: What would be your advice to aspiring authors?
I say just read everything you can get your hands on. Even reading bad novels can teach you something about writing.
Q: What would be or is your favorite place to travel?
Since I’m an anglophile, I’d say England. But a close second is Hawaii. It’s truly one of the most beautiful places.
Q: And finally, when you are not writing, how do you enjoy your free time?
I wish I had free time! My toddlers keep me pretty busy. But, when I’m not writing or chasing after them, you can find me playing tennis, watching “Glee” or reading new books on my Kindle. I am completely addicted to that thing. Best invention ever!
Click Here to Visit Cara’s Website
