Cathy Lamb Archives - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

‘Give them a rocky past, harsh problems,debilitating grief and sunny joy’. Part 3 of our chat with author Cathy Lamb

Part 3 of my Interview with author, Cathy Lamb

I first discovered this author when I was looking for something new to read; Henry’s Sisters is still a favorite of mine. Cathy quickly became one of my top ten authors. TS
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Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

A. I start sketching them out in my journal. I first figure out what they do professionally. I then put family and friends around them. The family and friends are not the easiest people, although some are there for humorous purposes only.

I give them a rocky past, harsh problems and difficult challenges, debilitating grief and sunny joy. They get quirks, talents, and a lot of flaws, too. All this can be discovered as the draft is written and each edit is applied. I don’t know everything about my characters when I start writing that first draft. I let them live and breathe. I watch them. I write down what they’re saying, how they’re saying it. What makes them cry or throw things. What makes them fall in love. What has hurt them the most and how they’ve contributed to their own issues. It’s like watching a movie in my own head.

Q. What inspires your story/stories ?

A. Everything. Julia’s Chocolates came to life when I had an image in my head of a woman throwing her wedding dress up into a dead, gnarled tree on a deserted, dusty street. The Last Time I Was Me was inspired when I imagined a woman using an Exacto knife to open up her cheating boyfriend’s condom and slipping peanut oil into the condom using an eye dropper. She sealed it back up with a hot glue gun. The boyfriend is allergic to nuts. So is my husband. I was mad at him that night and a whole story came to me, laying in bed, two in the morning, and I thought of that condom and his allergies.

Such A Pretty Face was inspired when I wrote an article for Oregon Health Sciences University about bariatric surgery for obese people. What a journey that was for them. A Different Kind of Normal was inspired by my interest in people’s ancestral lines. If You Could See What I See was inspired by colorful lingerie, tree houses, blood, and a family owned business.

When I’m writing books, something I see during the day, part of a conversation, a person…all of those things can end up in my book that night, although I’ll twist and curl and turn them inside out to suit the story.

Q. When is your next book coming out? (or) What are you working on?

A. If You Could See What I See is out August 1, 2013. Here’s the first chapter:

Black.
That’s what he was wearing when it happened. I never wear black anymore. He ended up wearing red, too.
That’s what killed my soul. The red.
He haunts me. He stalks me.
For over a year, I have tried to outrun him.
It hasn’t worked.
My name is Meggie.

I live in a tree house.

I am working on my next book, which is untitled for the moment, but due in December. Argh. December? Really?

Q. Do you want to write in another genre?

A. I would love to write screenplays. I would love to learn how to write a play. When I have time, I’ll learn how to do that. I think people should always try new things and meet new people, so it’s on the list! I do write short stories for anthologies and I love the short story format. Short. Sweet. Tight storyline. Easy to edit. Done.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

A. I go to book groups all the time. Sometimes I visit in person, often we visit using Skype. Email me at CathyLamb@frontier.com if you’d like me to join your group for the evening. I’m happy to come.

Thank you for having me on your blog!

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Click here to read Part I and Part II

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview with one once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Raymond Benson is January’s author. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my On the Home page, you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

A Weirdly Wonderful Storyteller….(Part 2) an Interview with Cathy Lamb

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

This is a job. People imagine writers are off on palm tree studded islands writing, or in tree houses, or at their darling cottage at the beach, no distractions except their pinging imagination. This is a false image. Almost all the writers I know have children, responsibilities, people who need them. Some have day jobs. You simply must get your work done as others do in every other profession on the planet.

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

A. Don’t procrastinate. Sit your butt down and write and quit dallying around. Do you want to publish or not? Seriously. Ask yourself that question. It’s a good one.

I can procrastinate, too. I’m quite talented at it. But for me, if I don’t meet my goals, I don’t let myself go to bed at night. I have very, very late nights sometimes. Getting books written is about dedication, focus and hard work. Not romantic. Not always fun. You may be in pajamas most of the day. You may not wash your hair when you should. But you do buck up and write. It is what it is.

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

A. I can get lost in my story, my characters, for hours. I’ll sit down upstairs, lean against the wall, my computer propped on my lap, and the next thing I know it’s three in the morning and the characters have taken me places I didn’t know we were going and done things that would get a normal person arrested.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment (i.e. specific creative inspirations)?

A. I don’t have a muse. Can I get one somewhere? Are they on sale?

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. When I was sixteen. Truly. That was when I decided I had to be a writer. There was no other goal, professionally, for me. I couldn’t be anything else. I wrote for the school newspaper, I wrote my first romance at age nineteen at the University of Oregon as a freshman. (It was rejected.) I taught fourth grade from the time I was twenty – two to twenty nine. I became a teacher specifically so I would have time at night and during summers to write.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I sold my first book in 2005. My road to publishing took a while. I went to college, then grad school, taught school, got married, had three kids, was a freelance writer for years for The Oregonian writing about homes, décor, people, events, fashion…the usual curvy road. When my kids were little I wrote late at night, too. It was the only time I had. I lived off about five to six hours of sleep a night for sixteen years.

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. A writer is great when they’re able to reach the reader through characters and wrench deep emotions out of them.

If you missed Part I, click here. Return to read Part 3 of this interview August 29th

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

To receive my posts sign up for my On the right side you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Don’t Miss Part II of my interview with author, Cathy Lamb

being different, outcasts, love, scorn, achievement — A captivating story about a young boy who teaches us what ‘normal’ really means

COMING TUESDAY! Part II of my Interview with best selling author, Cathy Lamb

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

To read Part I click here

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

To receive my posts sign up for my On the right side you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

‘General Noggin and I Really want to play Basketball, Boss Mom!’ An Interview with author, Cathy Lamb

best sellers, books, fiction, Cathy Lamb — Photo by Marv Bondarowicz

An Interview with best-selling author, Cathy Lamb (Part 1 of 3)

CL: ‘ I became a teacher because I wanted to become a writer. It was difficult for me to become proper and conservative but I threw out my red cowboy boots and persevered. I had no choice. I had to eat and health insurance is expensive. I loved teaching, but I also loved the nights and summers where I could write and try to build a career filled with creativity and my strange imagination.

I met my husband on a blind date. A mutual friend who was an undercover vice cop busting drug dealers set us up. My husband jokes he was being arrested at the time. That is not true. Do not believe him. His sense of humor is treacherous. It was love at third sight. We’ve now been married a long time. I drink too many mochas. I love chocolate. I run. I walk. I love to read. I often cry when I’m writing my books, and I laugh, too. I love walking through the waves at the beach and I believe that daydreaming makes you a better person so I do it a lot.’

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

A. I write everywhere. Upstairs on my bed looking out the window at my maple trees, on my couch staring at my petunias and an

interviews, writing, best selling authors — the Deschutes River. my husband fly fishes. I journal.

occasional hummingbird, and at Starbucks. I write best late at night. Ten o’clock to two o’clock in the morning. It’s quiet. My kids are in bed. My brain stops buzzing. I can dive straight into my imagination and hang out there for awhile like a crazy lady.

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 look at email and then I feed my small, but mostly healthy addiction to the New York Times. I get ticked off at what I’m reading sometimes and sit back and think what I would do if I was president and which politicians I would immediately get rid of. It entertains me.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer?)

A. Pretty journals. One journal to five journals per book for writing ideas, characters, plots, and working through all sorts of literary problems. I write the story, however, on my computer. I write straight through, 2000 words a day, 10,000 a week, for the first draft. I edit every book eight times before it even goes to my editor. I edit it another four times after that. Yes, twelve edits. I want to bang my own head through the keyboard just thinking about it…

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

A. Waiting to “feel creative,” for me, is like waiting for the moon to drop on my head. Or for my flying Porsche to arrive. People who only write when they feel creative rarely get published. I make myself get creative. I give myself goals every day, every week and I meet the goals.

Don’t Miss Part 2 and 3 of this Interview on August 27th and 28th.

A REVIEW of “If You Could See What I See” Click here

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Cathy Lamb, Raymond Benson, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Raymond Benson is January’s author. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page. Enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

‘If You Could See What I See’…by Cathy Lamb * A Review

Five out of 5 quills A Review of Cathy Lamb’s new release, ‘If You Could See What I See’

Every time I read one of Cathy’s amazing stories I think to myself, “this is the best one yet!” And I’ve read them all! Once again Cathy has out done herself with her characters and her story line. I understand from my upcoming INTERVIEW with her, featured here August 22nd, (and runs in three parts) that this author fills journals full of story treatments, characters, and plots before she begins to write her novels. In my opinion it certainly ‘shows’ and we, the readers, benefit from this meticulous work.

Her latest offering ‘If You Could See What I See’ is about a family of women who own and run a lingerie company. Set in current times with a failed economy they struggle to find a way to keep the doors open and their employees working. The grandma, the mother and the three sisters are wonderful, unique in their own way, and quirky to say the least. The teenagers, that make up the fourth generation of this wacky family, lend a charming and fresh angle to an already wonderful novel.
Be ready to cry, laugh, sigh, and feel outrage.

A real page turner, you won’t be able to put it down!

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Don’t miss my Interview with Cathy Lamb August 22, ,27, and 29.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name:: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Karen Robards, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Walter Mosley, Loretta Chase, Nora Roberts, Raymond Benson and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Receive my posts in an email. Sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

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