Tag: best selling authors

Coming Tuesday! My Interview with author, Sherryl Woods

Author, Sherryl Woods
Author, Sherryl Woods

After decades of enjoying Sherryl’s writing, Pinch me!...I’m interviewing her.  Don’t miss this coming week (Tues. and Thurs.) and my two part chat with this prolific author.

About Sherryl Woods:   With her roots firmly planted in the South, Sherryl Woods has written many of her more than 100 books in that distinctive setting, whether her home state of Virginia, her adopted state, Florida, or her much-adored South Carolina. She’s also especially partial to small towns wherever they may be. In Amazing Gracie, as in her later Trinity Harbor series, Woods creates a fictional version of the town where she spends summers on the shores of the Potomac River. “This town just lends itself to fascinating characters and a charming locale,” she says.

A member of Novelists Inc., Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America, Sherryl divides her time between her childhood summer home overlooking the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Virginia, and her oceanfront home with its lighthouse view, in Key Biscayne, Florida. “Wherever I am, if there’s no water in sight, I get a little antsy,” she says.…

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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!      Dean Koontz just granted me an interview and will be featured here this spring!

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Being a Serious Writer is Lonely Work!

writersIt struck me this morning (and other mornings) that writing is a lonely job.  There’s nobody patting you on the back after you’ve written an exceptional chapter or verse, or sentence.  You can’t count the people who love you because they love you and will always tell you, “It’s Great!”
If you look back to my interviews with other authors you’ll see that they too, no matter how famous, are sitting in their space trying to write the next brilliant thing….just them and their tablet or computer or notebook, their faithful dog or bird or cat at their side, ALONE!  It’s a daunting experience and hard work.  What if you’re not good enough?  What if no one wants to read your stuff?  What if someone laughs?
Continue reading “Being a Serious Writer is Lonely Work!”

Interview with Janet Evanovich, best selling author

Janet2011Bio1My interview with Janet had to be short and sweet….she is so busy writing she could only answer a few of my questions!  A good place to be, we’ll all agree.  And, hey, I’ll take what I can get!  Thanks Janet! 

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

A. My office is upstairs and has a beautiful view of the water. It’s just my bird, Ida, my dog, Ollie, the computer and me.

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 keep my work space pretty neat. I head upstairs with my cup of coffee at about 6 a.m. every morning and get to work.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative? Continue reading “Interview with Janet Evanovich, best selling author”

My Interview with mystery writer, Andrew Grant (Part 2)

Andrew
Art by Lichtenstein

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

A. For the book I just finished writing it was a bizarre combination of Roy Lichtenstein and Pat Benatar. Lichtenstein’s paintings ended up playing a major role in the book, but sadly Benatar’s music remained trapped on my iPod.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. When I quit my job in June 2006.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I finished the manuscript in June 2007, found an agent in December 2007, was offered a contract in February 2008, and my first book was published in May 2009.

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. The ability to create characters that readers care about as much – or more – as they do about real people.

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like? Continue reading “My Interview with mystery writer, Andrew Grant (Part 2)”

Part 2 …My Interview with Andrew Grant

#2Adrew.writing.AGDon’t Miss part 2 when I sit down again with best selling author, Andrew Grant this Tuesday, February 11th.

Excerpt:

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?

A. For me, it breaks down into three phases: Percolating, where all the thoughts and ideas and “what ifs” that have built up in my head since finishing the last book coalesce and grow until they’re strong enough to carry a whole story; Writing, where I get the first draft of the book down on paper; and revising……. tune in this coming TUESDAY!

 

An Interview with Author, Andrew Grant

andrew_09newAndrew is a slick, clever mystery writer with tight interesting plots.  I ‘met’ him through his writer/wife, Tasha Alexander.  Can’t wait for his newest release coming out in the fall of 2014.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? 

A. Whenever possible I write in what was originally the maid’s room in our apartment in Chicago (there was no sign of the maid when we moved in, so I figured someone may as well use it…) but due to the amount of traveling I have to do, I often find myself working on planes or in airport lounges, or any other place where I won’t get either wet or arrested!

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)

A. I’m an obsessively tidy person, so I guess that tendency extends itself to my work space. Other than tidiness, all I need to get started in the morning is a giant pot of coffee. Followed by several more giant pots of coffee as the day (and sometimes, the night) progresses.
Continue reading “An Interview with Author, Andrew Grant”

Ready to Find that Ideal Narrator for your Audio-book??

earChoose a narrator for your audio books….sounds easy doesn’t it?  I’d like to share my hit and miss experience and some tips about finding those perfect narrators for your audio books.  The good news is that now that I’ve learned a few things I have two wonderful reliable ‘voices’ for the production of my books.   The miss (when I didn’t know what I was doing and was new to the audio book world)  was the situation where I found my first narrator wasn’t willing to collaborate and work with me. She said that she was hired and paid to narrate the book that I sent, nothing more.  Sigh!

You will find, as I did, that your book ‘sounds‘ far different than the written word on the page and how it sounds in your head.  You, the author, will need a narrator that will allow you to make changes.  You might remember my interview with my childrens’ book narrator and gifted opera singer, Carin Gilfrey.  Now I thought it would be interesting for my readers to get to know, Daniel Dorse,  the voice of Sergeant Detective Jack O’Roarke.  (The World of Murder Series). Continue reading “Ready to Find that Ideal Narrator for your Audio-book??”

Interviewing Best Selling Authors…looking back!

authors, writing, writers, interviewsThis is my one year anniversary of interviewing best selling authors and I’m amazed at the success of it!!  Authors have been so generous with their writing process and their time.  The interviews are on-going and currently we are booked through April, 2014.  It’s always a thrill for me when busy, well-known authors are so generous with their answers that I must break it up into ‘parts’. Continue reading “Interviewing Best Selling Authors…looking back!”

‘What does No Book to Finished book Look Like? Part 3 with Raymond Benson, Author

My Interview with best-selling author, Raymond Benson (part 3).  It’s always a thrill for me when busy, well-known authors are so generous with their answers that I must serialize the interview.  Don’t miss Part 1 or 2.

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like? 

Raymond at the keyboard
Raymond at the keyboard

A. There is no set in stone process that writers should follow except the process they fashion themselves—the process that works for them. As I said (see Part 2), I happen to outline, it’s part of my process. I know writers who don’t outline, and that’s part of their processes. Everyone is different. That said, you do have to develop a process, and it must be a productive one, for the most important thing about writing a finished book is to indeed finish it.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters ?

A. My books tend to be plot-driven—I think of the storyline before I cast it with characters. They develop with the story, usually. This hasn’t always been the case. With The Black Stiletto, the character came first. My literary manager and I were having lunch one day, and he advised me to create something women would like, since the vast majority of book-buyers were women. I facetiously suggested creating a female superhero, and we laughed for a minute. And then he said, “You know, that’s not a bad idea.” At the same time, I already had a story brewing in my mind about a grown man who discovers some dark secret about his dying mother (who has Alzheimer’s). I didn’t know what that secret was yet. Continue reading “‘What does No Book to Finished book Look Like? Part 3 with Raymond Benson, Author”

A Chat with Raymond Benson, Author (part 2)

Raymond at the Spy Museum
Raymond at the Spy Museum

TS. ‘This photo speaks loudly about the rewards of overcoming procrastination, doesn’t it??’

Part 2 of 3 ** My Interview with Raymond Benson

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

A. If you don’t have a real deadline from an employer, then make one for yourself. Just tell yourself, “I’m going to finish this by the holidays,” or whatever, and stick to it. It takes discipline, and you might have to work at it, but hey, being a writer is, after all, a job.

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

A. Never, because I take care of all the instances of getting lost during the Outline phase. I’m a firm believer in outlining a novel prior to writing it. I know many writers don’t, and that works for them, but for me, I find it to be an invaluable tool. I spend a month or two on it, and it’s in that document I work out the plot, the twists and turns, the red herrings, and I structure the story into a dramatic piece, the entirety of which I can look at with a bird’s-eye view. It’s like doing a prose storyboard for the novel. Believe me, it’s easier to throw out a few paragraphs of an outline when you don’t like the way the story is going, than it is to throw out two or three chapters. So I do all of my hair-pulling and angst-spouting during the Outline phase, which then makes the longer, more tedious phase of Writing much easier. Continue reading “A Chat with Raymond Benson, Author (part 2)”