Category: Creative Writing

TS.  I have been reading Barbara Delinsky for decades!  Good, rich stories about believable and appealing people.  Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, what better time to promote her stellar book, UPLIFT!

Now for the Interview I have been waiting years for: 

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?  Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

A. I have an office over our garage, with windows front and back and four skylights. This makes it bright and sets it apart from the rest of the house.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

A. I have no rituals. My desk may or may not be neat, depending on where I am in my book, and I may have tea or a soda or water nearby, depending on my mood. I actually like to vary things when it comes to my writing space and habits. Keeps me fresh.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

A. Growing up, I was no reader. I much preferred playing outside to reading inside. Going through high school and college, I read few books that weren’t required for school. It was only when my children were young and I needed an escape from full-time motherhood that I began to really read.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

A. I am usually working at my computer by six in the morning, Monday through Friday. Creativity? Some days it’s there, some days not, but I work nonetheless. If what I produce one day is bad, I either edit it the next or ditch it. I do believe that inspiration is 90% perspiration.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

A. Limit your time at the computer. Two hours a day are better than none. Keep at those two hours, day after day, and you’ll eventually have something to show.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

A. No. I don’t ‘get lost.’ I cut my teeth as a writer when I had three young sons at home. I stole writing time when they were napping and, eventually, at school. Given that they were my first priority, ‘getting lost’ was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ?

A. Bloomingdale’s. I tell myself that if I produce something worthwhile at my computer in the morning, I can run to the mall that afternoon.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. I was thirty-four and starting to look for part-time work when I noticed a piece in the morning paper about women who wrote category novels. They made it sound easy and very do-able while raising a family, so I decided to give it a shot.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I spent two months reading the kind of novel I wanted to write, wrote my own in three weeks, sent it to various publishing houses, and got a bid for it six weeks later. I was lucky. I happened to deliver the right manuscript to the right editor at the right time. If I were to do it over again, I might not be as lucky.

Don’t Miss it!  Part 2 of this fascinating writer’s life coming on October 9th.      

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    Barbara Delinsky and Elizabeth Hoyt will be my October authors.

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