Guest Author Interviews
November 2001
Book Giveaway: Healer's Daughter
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Wendy Jensen
SinC-IC: Did you intend to become an author, or did you have other goals when you were younger? When did you begin to write?
LG: I've always loved reading, I would read anything. Mystery, romance, science fiction, encyclopedias, cereal boxes. The first story I remember writing was science fiction. I must have been nine or ten. Exeros II was about grotesque aliens with huge mandibles and voracious appetites whose planet was being consumed by twin suns. They invaded Earth with the intention of enslaving the human population. The aliens were broadcasting their progress back to their home planet, describing the extraordinary sized plant and animal life of this strange, new planet. Only at the end of the story, when the aliens happen upon a family picnic and are destroyed by bug spray, did I reveal the fact that the invaders were ants.
I wanted to be a painter, a ballet dancer, a singer and a zoo vet and a beauty operator. I never thought about being a writer, I guess because I never knew any, I just always wrote. I remember practicing writing my ABC's with a stick in the dirt. I think I kept diaries from the time I learned to write. In fact they were more fiction than truth and I got into some pretty serious trouble once over some completely exaggerated entries concerning a fictitious lover named Lance Van Husen. I think I was about 12 or so.
SinC-IC: What do you read now and are there any authors in particular that have influenced your writing?
LG:Let's just say that I read a lot. I've always loved the Southern voice of writers like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. I love Eudora Welty and as for more modern authors, I like Nora Roberts and Larry McMurtry just to name a couple and I think Stephen King is the greatest.
SinC-IC: Could you describe some of the details of writing: How many hours a day do you devote to writing? Do you write a draft on paper or at a keyboard (typewriter or computer)? Do you have a favorite location or time of day (or night) for writing? How do you avoid distractions?
LG:I write at a computer, I use a laptop, and I usually write every day when I'm working on a novel. I always try to spend time with my husband but sometimes I have to keep going if I can’t find a stopping point. He's very understanding. I often work at night, sometimes all night, because it's quiet and I can work for a longer stretch of time. Sometimes I work 12 to 14 hours at a time. I call it focused, my husband calls it obsessed. It's taken some time to train my family and friends to my non-schedule but they're pretty used to my strange hours now.
When I begin a new project I usually start out thinking it through. I go around in a sort of fog for a week or so just visualizing characters and saying to myself what if this and what if that. Next I work up a rough outline and write short bios for each character. Then I block out the story and write a first draft. I usually rewrite each chapter about three times (sometimes more) but only after completing the entire manuscript. Healer's Daughter is my first novel to be published and I have one more (Prince Of Texas) due out early 2002 and another (Missing Alyssa) about halfway finished. I also have an anthology that I'm working on.
As for location, even though I do have a real desk with real files, etc., I usually write sitting in a recliner with the laptop in my lap. That's why they named it LAP-TOP, right??? And distractions? I don't have any. If I can't be disturbed I have the drapes closed -- even the neighborhood children know what that means and won’t knock unless there is blood involved. I have no problem turning the ringer off the phone and letting the machine take messages. I have a pager that only four people have the number for and they all know the rule. Any interruption must involve bloodshed.
SinC-IC: Do you ever get to meet your readers? Do you interact with them electronically through e-mail or other online forums?
LG: Yes, I do. I really enjoy going to book signings and conventions. The readers are wonderful and it's great to hear their comments about different characters. Just finishing a book is the most wonderful thing and a reader that appreciates your writing is like the icing on the cake. No, it's even better. More like homemade whipped cream and strawberries on top of the cake!
I receive e-mail at LaNelle@sinc-ic.org and I have a web page too. www.lanelle.com. I have a monthly contest at my website--you'll have to check it out.
SinC-IC: Do you use the internet? Do you belong to any newsgroups or mailing lists? Do you ever visit chat rooms or forums? Do you use the internet for research, communication, games?
LG: I was on CompuServe way back when mostly medical and scientific professionals used it. Then Prodigy came along! What a great time writers had when that first started! At last, a way to communicate with other writers without having to leave the desk!
As for newsgroups and mailing lists—yes, I belong to several. As an animal rights advocate I like to keep up with the news in that sector and I also belong to a couple of online writer’s groups. One of my favorites is Painted Rock research group. Whenever a writer has a research problem—like what brand name of eye shadow was popular in 1963, or, do king snakes hiss -- they post a query and everyone that has an answer or opinion sends a reply. Very helpful and entertaining too if you can check in a couple of times during the day (or night). A lot of night-writers there too.
If it wasn't for e-mail I'd have family members thinking I was dead and yes, I do a lot of research online. I still go to the library but now I know exactly what I want when I get there. I also shop online and send gifts and flowers. I love ebay and I really, really try to limit my visits to once a week. I'm working on my family genealogy so I do a lot of that online AND -- when I'm through writing for the day (or night) sometimes I'll run over to Mplayer and play a quick game of suicide spades. Computers are great! Sure beats a stick in the dirt, doesn't it?
SinC-IC: iUniverse is a "Print on Demand" publisher, right? Can you tell me why you chose the POD route and have you been satisfied with the results? Would you recommend a POD publisher to other authors?
LG: Healer's Daughter was my first novel. I sent it around for almost two years and collected the best rejections in my writer's group. While trying to sell it I was able to finish two others!
Editors always tell you, "Write the book in your heart!" So I did. Then romance editors told me, "Hey, this is very interesting and it's extremely well written but it has, uh . . . incest in it! And the protagonist is an artist and artists are very dull and the hero has always been in love with the heroine and that's never done in romance! Plus it has a little too much mystery to be considered a romance and this is your first novel and it's just not possible to go mainstream with your first book." And the mystery editors told me, "Hey, this is very interesting and it's extremely well written but it has, uh . . . incest in it! And the protagionist is an artist and artists are very dull and the hero has always been in love with the heroine and that's never done in mystery! Plus it has a little too much romance to be considered a mystery and this is your first novel and it's just not possible to go mainstream with your first book."
So, I had a choice? I submitted Healer's Daughter to Writer's Showcase, an imprint of iUniverse and was accepted. I was even able to submit my own cover art (which was also accepted) and had typestyle approval! The only glitch was one of my own making which was handled with much care and I ended up with a beautiful product which has an ISBN number and can be ordered online through iUniverse, through online book dealers or any other book dealer worldwide. AND Healer's Daughter will be available forever not for just the few months it would have been with a traditional publisher.
Now for the downside. I have to do all my own marketing and publicity. Major bookstores are very reluctant to put my book on their shelves because with a POD title there are no 'buy-backs' on remainders. Sometimes you can get around this by visiting the bookstore and offering to buy back remainders yourself. And if there are any, you'll get them at a reduced price and can sell them at your own many book signings which you will set up yourself.
POD published titles are not recognized by some writer's groups such as RWA therefore your book will not be eligible for their awards. Perhaps they think it takes less effort to write a POD book so therefore you couldn't possibly be considered a serious writer?
There are a hundred of pros and just as many cons.
Personally I think POD is the future. I will continue to publish via POD. I don't think I'll ever submit another manuscript traditionally. I just don’t want to waste the time. Even now big name authors are reprinting their out of print titles in POD. What will happen when those same big names decide to double their royalties with POD titles? Will they decide to choose their own covers and hire publicity themselves? What will happen
when traditional publishers lose some of those big names, will they have more slots for new authors? It's an interesting time to be writing that's for sure!
December 2001
Book Giveaway: Veiled Threats
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Judy Kinnaman
SinC-IC: How did you start writing?
DW: I've always been a writer, starting with show-offy little papers in grade school. And everything that ever happens to me gets turned into funny anecdotes for my friends; it's a good way to process the not-so-funny events that life sometimes dishes out. My father's quite a story teller, so I guess it's genetic.
I started writing fiction in a more serious way some years ago, when I took an evening class in writing science fiction. I ended up having several stories published, and meeting some wonderful people.
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
DW: Because I love to read them. I think of a mystery novel as a spider's web of relationships among the characters. Murder snaps one thread, sending tremors throughout the web; the solution of the mystery both mends the web and tugs it into a new pattern. And of course there's all the fun and suspense along the way.
SinC-IC: Briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for VEILED THREATS:
DW: The inspiration came when my best friend and I planned both our weddings in the same year. We had a blast, and it got me thinking about all the fun, festivity, and possible foul play that could come together at a wedding. A while later I took a class in mystery writing and the instructor startled me by going around the room asking "What's your mystery about?" Off the top of my head I blurted out, "It's about a wedding planner and a kidnapped bride." And that was that.
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write VEILED THREATS?
DW: Not as long as it took to sell it! I worked on it, off and on, for about three years, but it took considerably longer than that to find a publisher. My agent, Jim Frenkel, was perseverance personified.
SinC-IC: What was the best writing advice you’ve received?
DW: Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. Very little writing gets accomplished in other positions.
SinC-IC: What's the worst?
DW: Anything that begins "All writers should do such-and-such." Writing is one of the most bizarrely individual activities I can think of, and one-size-fits-all advice makes as much sense for writing as it would for sex.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
DW: With utter agony. Given my druthers, I stay up all night writing, then go brain-dead for days, then repeat the process. It's the perfect way for me personally to write short stories, but it's a hideous way to meet a deadline. Right now I have a deadline for the second Carnegie Kincaid book, so I try to roll out of bed and turn on the computer before I'm awake enough to procrastinate. This sometimes works.
SinC-IC: How do you handle writer’s block?
DW: The usual way. Tears, hysteria, despair.
SinC-IC: What's the one thing you couldn't do without in order to write?
DW: My husband Steve, who's also a writer. He listens sympathetically to the hysteria and then asks, "So are you going to do any writing today?" The answer varies, but it's an excellent question.
SinC-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
DW: Mostly I savage it myself, then Steve reassures me that it's not utter trash. And I have a writer friend, Diane Hall-Harris, who's been a prince about brainstorming ideas and cheering me on.
SinC-IC: What's the best book you've read about writing and why?
DW: Annie Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD, not strictly as a writing manual, but as a book about how you're probably not really as crazy as you think you are. I love it that she says, "Getting published will not heal you, but writing might."
SinC-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
DW: Just hang in there. As I once heard a veteran author say (and I wish I could remember his name), "You don't do it for the money, or the fame, or the respect, because writing might not get you any of that. You write because it's too good to miss."
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
DW: Writing is so solitary, that I'm grateful for connections like Sisters in Crime. Thank you!
Barbara W. Klaser
January 2002
Book Giveaway: Shadows Fall
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Wendy Jensen
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
BK: I've always loved puzzles; I have a compelling need for justice, a lifelong interest in why people do what they do, and a deep love of the craft of writing. I've written in other genres as well, and intend to in the future, but I'll continue to write and read the mystery.
SinC-IC: What is unique about your main character, or setting?
BK: Shadows Fall is a mystery with lots of psychological suspense and romance. The setting is Wilder County, California, the small, fictitious jurisdiction of Sheriff Les Kendall, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. An eccentric ancestor of Beth Gray's made his fortune during the Gold Rush and built a huge house in the style of an old English manor on his mountain forest property, which includes Shadow Lake. Named Wilder Mountain Lodge, it was operated as a hunting and fishing resort by his descendants; and Beth's father groomed her to inherit it, but it's been closed since his death. The Lodge feels haunted, and it is, not by ghosts but by repressed memories of a childhood trauma that creep into Beth's present life. She's not only dealing with having been wrongly convicted of murder. There's a presence of terror hidden among her troubled hometown and family, and haunting her in her claustrophobia and nightmares. Beth's love relationship also evolves in an unusual way, involving a separation of many years.
Beth has an eidetic memory. Her mother's a retired English teacher who taught her to love literature. As a girl Beth cherished the poetry of William Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, Robert Frost, and others. She can recite, word for word, all those poems she read years ago. Beth is an accomplished artist. She can draw and paint in exacting detail scenes she recalls from a few days to several years after they occur. When she returns to Wilder, Beth uses this ability to help solve the crime for which she was wrongly imprisoned.
SinC-IC: What authors do you like to read?
BK: You've hit on my reason for living. The first writer that comes to mind when I’m asked this is Mary Stewart. I read most of her books as a teenager and young adult, and I still go back and reread them when I feel a need to visit an old friend. She fixed her settings in my mind so securely that I feel as if I’ve visited them.
Some favorite mystery writers are Elizabeth George, Mary Higgins Clark, Tony Hillerman, Dianne Day, Sharan Newman, Elizabeth Peters, Dick Francis, and Gerry Boyle; but I feel as though I've only scratched the surface of the mystery genre, and I'm always discovering new favorites. For non- mystery fiction, I'd choose Gail Tsukiyama, who wrote The Language of Threads. Maeve Binchy is another favorite, with The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake and Evening Class, and sci-fi writers Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and Anne MacCaffrey. Some older favorites are the novels of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen.
William Wordsworth tops my list for poetry, a special love of mine. He was a painter with words. One favorite poem is Emily Brontë's The Prisoner, which was misinterpreted as a suicide note in Shadows Fall. Beth Gray found solace in poetry, during her imprisonment, and I used it along with her artwork to illustrate Beth's eidetic memory. Some of my favorite poets are songwriters like Don McClean (Vincent, Winter Wood), John Denver (Spirit), Cat Stevens (Oh, Very Young), and Bob Dylan (Forever Young).
For non-fiction I turn to great, inspiring books on writing, such as Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life. I'm currently reading and working through the exercises in Writing the Mystery by G. Miki Hayden. Other non-fiction reading is usually focused on self-help or spirituality (Thich Nhat Hanh is a favorite), and books about cooking and needle arts, especially knitting books by Barbara G. Walker, Elizabeth Zimmerman, and her daughter Meg Swanson.
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write Shadows Fall ?
BK: The actual writing and revisions took five years; but the idea for Shadows Fall had percolated in my mind for more than twenty years before that. It evolved out of a dream I had when I was seventeen, of a woman swimming across a mountain lake to escape a sniper. That scene is incorporated into Shadows Fall. I worked on little snippets of the story over the years, but I didn't begin serious work on it until January of 1995, when I made a New Year's resolution to finally complete Beth Gray's story. I completed the rough draft, but then it required extensive revisions and lots of cutting to get it into what I felt was a publishable form. I did one final revision for the Edgestone Books eBook edition just released.
SinC-IC: I see that Shadows Fall is out of print in paperback. Why is that?
BK: The trade paperback edition of Shadows Fall was published by iUniverse, Inc., in October 2000. I originally went with iUniverse rather than Xlibris, after failing to find an agent for Shadows Fall, because at that time I thought iUniverse intended to publish both print-on-demand (POD) trade paperbacks, and eBooks. The decisions I made at that time are elaborated in my essay titled, Why I Chose POD, which can be found on my website, at www.barbarawklaser.com/misc/WHYPOD.html.
I terminated my contract with iUniverse in a letter dated December 19, 2000, because their eBook plans hadn't panned out and I thought I'd found a new publisher who would bring Shadows Fall out as an eBook as well as a trade paperback. I needed to make the iUniverse rights non-exclusive in order for the other publisher to be able to pick up Shadows Fall. Since iUniverse had exclusive electronic as well as paper rights, the only way for me to release the eBook rights was to terminate my contract. According to the contract I was under, iUniverse could retain non-exclusive publishing rights for one year after I terminated the contract. iUniverse informed me, after my termination letter, that they would continue to publish Shadows Fall non-exclusively as a POD trade paperback through March 19, 2002. Meanwhile I decided not to go with the other publisher. Several weeks after my termination letter, iUniverse revised their contract and offered for all their existing authors to sign the new contract, which allowed for the author to retain eBook rights. I chose not to do this, since my contract had already become non-exclusive. Even later, iUniverse sent notices to all their authors offering to distribute our books as eBooks if we signed a new contract and paid another $99 for the eBook set-up. I also chose not to do this. I had already decided that I wouldn't enter into another exclusive contract with a publisher of that type. I wanted my work to be available to a traditional publisher should I find one.
Edgestone Books published Shadows Fall as an eBook in late 2001. We made some decisions to market the eBook in early 2002, which would've included the choice for readers to purchase either the iUniverse trade paperback, or the Edgestone Books eBook edition. I checked the links on my website one day in early December, and discovered that Shadows Fall was no longer listed at iUniverse. I inquired about this and was told that iUniverse had "decided not to take full advantage of the one-year option for non-exclusive sale of Shadows Fall."
This was disappointing, because of the marketing plans I'd committed to, but it had been my intention when I first sent the termination letter, and if there's one thing I've learned about the publishing world it's that the writer must be flexible and ready for any turn of events. So we're continuing with our marketing plans for the eBook.
SinC-IC: Do you have at least one family member who is supportive of your writing endeavors?
BK: My parents raised me to love books, and they nurtured my dream of writing novels, with the added practical infusion of some good old work ethics. My mother still follows my writing career and they both encourage me.
My husband, Ken, has been tremendously helpful. He pushed me to finish my first novel manuscript, soon after we married eighteen years ago. He bought my first computer, as a birthday gift, and has kept me supplied with progressively more advanced computers ever since. This past birthday he bought me a laptop, which I love. It frees me to be more mobile with my writing. He helps me with editing, with marketing and promotion, and he set up my website. I couldn't ask for a more enthusiastic partner in this writing adventure.
SinC-IC: Do you make a living off your writing?
BK: My fiction writing? No. Not even close! But I have at least begun to earn some income from it, and that encourages me, as do the positive reader feedback and reviews. I made my living as a technical writer and editor for well over a decade, so I have been able to support myself as a writer, albeit not as a novelist. Now I manage an office that distributes technical manuals.
SinC-IC: What do you like most about being a writer?
BK: I like the freedom writing gives me, to explore my dreams and fantasies, to paint on paper the visions I come up with in my mind. The satisfaction, when I know I've written something fresh and unique; the characters, the settings, the adventure. There's always something new right around the corner, and it very often comes from inside me. That amazes me, it's a mystery I'll never quite understand, and I'll never tire of the feeling of satisfaction I derive from it. I get depressed when I'm not writing.
SinC-IC: What do you like least about being a writer?
BK: There's a lot of hard work, and I don't feel that I have nearly enough time for my writing. This feeling comes not so much from the writing as from all the things that get in the way of it, the demanding day job and everything else that intrudes on writing time. It also takes a lot of time away from my family. My mom has a serious illness, and I feel a great need to be with her more right now, which the job doesn't allow, so the writing is forced to. It's what you give up, in order to free up that writing time, that gets to me. I haven't taken a real vacation in nearly fifteen years, and I'm ready for one!
I'm a reserved, shy person, who's uncomfortable being in the limelight or tooting my own horn. Consequently, promotion is a big dilemma for me.
SinC-IC: How much time per day or week do you spend writing?
BK: While writing the rough draft of Shadows Fall, I had longer evenings as well as weekends to work on it, and I used every minute of them for writing. While holding a fulltime job as a technical writer I sometimes crammed 40 or more hours of fiction writing time into my week, including weekends. I don't have children, otherwise I never could've done that.
My current job is a lot more demanding, and I'm older now, with less energy reserves. I live farther from work, with a three-hour-a-day commute. I find that most of my writing happens on weekends, vacations and holidays. I usually can make time on the weekends for 10 to 20 hours of work, but the writing isn't all there is to do with that time, now. There's marketing, promotion, making online contacts. It's much more difficult now to make time to just write.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself to do your writing?
BK: When I'm in a flow it's not discipline; it's an obsession. At other times I'm easily distracted. That's where the laptop helps. I can take it wherever I want, to get the quiet I need to sit and think things through. When I'm stuck I either do a little writing in longhand to loosen up my thoughts, or I do housework. Now, I hate housework, so that usually shakes me into a creative state right away. Soon I can think of nothing but getting back into the story and as far away from dust rags or dirty dishes as possible.
SinC-IC: Do you hear your fictional characters talk to you in your mind?
BK: Yes, though they aren't talking to me, but to each other. They ignore me, except when I try to edit them. Even then, they mostly tend to ignore me (smile). I think this is the conscious mind's way of perceiving what's going on deeper inside. I've been observing people all my life, figuring out why they do what they do. I'm more of a listener than a talker. Perhaps this has transformed into an instinctive ability to bring characters to life in my mind. My unconscious mind makes leaps that translate into characters appearing to take on a life and will of their own. Often I've found that when my characters seem out of my control, it's a good idea to give them rein for a while and see where they're headed. They lead me into ideas I wasn't aware I had. There really is a higher intelligence at work here—mine—the part of my brain I don't use except when in creative mode. The creative process works by loosening the controls we usually impose on our thoughts, freeing the unconscious. When I allow this, I often find the characters circle back eventually to where we were headed before, but with something new added that weaves itself with surprising fittingness into the story. Then I have to go back and edit out the garbage that happened on the way to this epiphany.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
BK: Yes. Thank you very much for thinking of me and giving me this opportunity to be the January Guest Author. It came as a pleasant New Year's surprise.
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