fiction Archives - Page 9 of 12 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Interview with author, Susan Elia MacNeal (part 3)

(continued) The conclusion of this fascinating interview with Susan………..

Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of the Maggie Hope mystery series, including her debut novel, “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” and newly released “Princess Elizabeth’s Spy”. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and child.

Q. Where/when did you first discover your character, Maggie Hope?

SM. I knew I wanted to write about a young woman who becomes a secretary for Winston Churchill. The name Margaret, or Maggie, was a tribute to my writing mentor Judith Merkle Riley and the heroine of her first book, Margaret in A Vision of Light. Margaret was also a popular name for baby girls in the early 20th century, so it worked for someone in her early twenties in 1940. I discovered her last name, Hope, by looking through a list of famous Britons—and there was Bob Hope. It was perfect.

Maggie’s personality is very much inspired by the late Judith Merkle Riley. She was definitely a woman ahead of her time – brilliant and working in economics, a male-dominated field, in the 60s and 70s. She was also a painter, spoke Russian, played the piano and danced the tango. Honestly, I think she worked as a spy at one point, but she would never talk about it! But there’s a lot of Judith in Maggie, especially her humor.

Q. What inspired the mysteries and why Winston Churchill and WWII?

SM. You know, it was somewhat random—I happened to be in London and a British friend of mine said, “You might want to visit the Cabinet War Rooms—World War II didn’t start with Pearl Harbor, you know.” So, I really just went as a tourist. It’s an amazing museum, though, in the actual bomb proof bunker where Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet and staff planned the war. I was absolutely mesmerized and there was a moment—a brief moment, outside the typists’ room—where I swore I could hear the typewriters, smell the cigarette smoke, feel the tension. It lasted a mere moment, but it changed my life completely. I knew I had to write about the war rooms.

Q. You’re so young for an interest in WWII (I was a little girl) Is your interest based at all on family stories; perhaps an American grandfather in the war or English branch on the family tree?

SM. Both my paternal father and grandfather served in the war, but, really, it was that trip to the Cabinet War Rooms that was the catalyst. Jacqueline Winspear calls these experiences “moments of grace.” I’m just glad it wasn’t schizophrenia!

Q. Have you? Or do you want to write in another genre`?

SM. Right now I’m completely dedicated to telling the story of Maggie Hope and her friends, wherever it may lead. But recently, when I was in Scotland doing research, I had this sudden urge to leave New York and move to one of the sparsely inhabited western islands. I asked my husband, “So, if I’m able to sell a memoir about a crazy New York City family who leaves it all for rural Scotland, would you be willing to move for a year?” He seemed game. You never know…

I’ll close by saying, thank you so much for your interest in the Maggie Hope books!

http://www.susaneliamacneal.com/
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Gilbert, 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! Mark Childress is my April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author.
July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal (part 2)

Part II ** An Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal (Part I * March 5th)

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

A. I do love a good cup of coffee, I must admit—milk, no sugar. No rituals, but if I get anxious about starting, I’ll often just open the document and run spell check—that way, I usually get over any stress. Occasionally, I’ll put on NPR or some sort of talk radio in the background for company. And generally I have a cat or two nearby.

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

A. I like writing directly into the computer, and I particularly love my laptop. Sometimes I’ll do notes or outlining on a yellow legal pad with a pen or pencil (but mostly because we have yellow legal pads around at home, not because of any ritual!).

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

A. I like to write first thing in the morning. I think that time in between dreaming and full waking is really good for fiction. So I usually write early in the morning and then do editing and reply to emails and whatnot in the afternoon. That is, until 3 p.m. — then I’m back in the mommy role.

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

A. Yes, and it’s the most amazing experience in the world when that happens! Usually I find it a hard state to achieve when first starting a novel, because I don’t know my characters and settings as well. But later on, usually when I’m more than a hundred pages in or so, it’s really fun to “get lost” with my characters. That’s the absolute best part of being a writer.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. I’ve always loved writing, but I first started taking myself a bit more seriously when I was an editor at Dance Magazine, and then became a staff writer as well. I did a lot of pieces for the magazine and also for the web site. It was at Dance Magazine that I started to think of myself as a professional, and I thank then-editor Richard Philp for taking a chance on me and then giving me so much freedom to pursue and write stories.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. Well, when Dance Magazine moved to San Francisco, I, with the rest of the New York staff, lost my job. I’d just gotten married, so I had health insurance. So, that was when I decided to freelance. I did a lot of magazine pieces and editing, and wrote two non-fiction books – one about weddings and one about cocktails. But I was always working on fiction.

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

A. Hmm, well, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary took more than ten years, and each subsequent book has taken about two years. (Random House held Mr. Churchill’s Secretary until Princess Elizabeth’s Spy was pretty far along, so they could publish them back-to-back.) I guess it takes me a few months to immerse myself in research, then a few months to write a beginning, then additional time to realize I hate the beginning and delete it—then back to the drawing board to rewrite.

About nine months later, my editor, the amazing and patient Kate Miciak gets it, and she takes a pass through and gives me an editorial letter. I work on it some more, and it goes back to Kate, who either okays it or sends it back to me, which takes a few months. Then it goes through a six-month period where it goes through a number of passes of copy-editing, then an Advanced Readers Edition, and then, finally, the finished book.

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Part III of this fascinating interview will post on March 12th. Don’t miss it!! http://www.susaneliamacneal.com/
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen, Mark Childress, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, 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!
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Interview with Author, Susan Elia MacNeal

Do other writers find themselves at 4 in the afternoon, still in their pajamas, lost in their writing ? Hopefully it only happens at home and not at the corner coffee shop…

My readers are enjoying hearing about other authors‘ writing processes. I created a Question & Answer-type Interview and then began contacting some of my favorite authors to ask them to participate. It turns out that not only do these other writers want to share their writing life with us, but they are equally interested in the stories from other authors.

In this three-part post, my interview is with Susan Elia MacNeal. I am especially honored as Susan and her publicist have asked me to review her next book, “His Majesty’s Hope”, to be released in May of this year. Please sit back and enjoy a chat with Susan……..

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

A. I work in my beautiful library, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, overstuffed velvet sofas, a fireplace, two cats, and a handsome young manservant to fetch me tea and coffee. Okay, that’s not true. But I do have two cats. I live in New York, and space is definitely at a premium. Before our son was born, my husband and I used our guest bedroom as an office. After it became a kid’s room, I started working at the kitchen table, or sometimes cross-legged on the living room sofa.

I joined the New York Writers Room in the West Village for a while and had many happy days there with a view of the Empire State building, but I’m not currently working there. (My son has asthma, and I like being closer to his school in case of emergencies.) I also love a little café near us—best coffee in the world, plus big tables full of other writers. I also like to work at our local public library, which is one of the old Carnegie libraries.

I’ve also written at a lot of friends’ homes, while they’ve been on vacation – some of them famous. So, parts of my books have been written at actor/writer John Hodgman’s apartment (I also looked after their cat), composer Kristin Andersen Lopez and Robert Lopez’s apartment (yes, of course I picked up his Tony award for Avenue Q and pretended to make an acceptance speech), and Ron Lieber and Jodi Kantor’s apartment. (They’re both journalists for the New York Times, and Jodi’s the author of The Obamas.)

I’ve also written with Josh Axelrad, the author of Repeat Until Rich, which was fun, because we’d break for bourbon at six p.m. But he was always saying, “I’m afraid you’re listening to me not typing and thinking I’m lazy!” I tried to tell him I have too many of my own issues to even thinking about listening to his typing or not typing!

The most amazing place I’ve ever written was just recently at Arisaig House, which is a former manor house, now a bed and breakfast, on the west coast of Scotland. It was also used as an SOE spy training camp during World War II. I was talking to a lot of people alive and living in the area during that period of time, and doing research, but I also wrote in a beautiful room with oriental rugs, a crackling fire, a view of the grounds and shoreline, and three big napping golden labs. Heaven!

But I’ve also written on trains planes and waiting rooms. Basically, I’ve learned to write anywhere and everywhere.

http://www.susaneliamacneal.com/

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Join us to read part two of this wonderful interview (March 7th.) with best-seller author Susan Elia MacNeal .
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Anne Purser, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Robert McCammon, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Sue Grafton, Jeffrey Deaver, Rhys Bowen, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, 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!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

So how Do You Avoid Ending up in the Slush Pile?

In part one of this expose’ (Blog February 26th) I talked about insider facts of the publishing houses.

Now for the solution:

Five years ago if you had decided that whatever it took, your book must be shared with the world you were looking at a $15,000 to $30,000 investment in printing, storage, and marketing. Then it was up to you to schlep your books from city to city, state to state because there was no one else to do it. And most times because this would be a gargantuan task, your books would, for the most part, expire in a storage unit somewhere.

As an example, I wrote a stage play (documentary) back in 1996. I tried everything to get “Cook County Justice” published. IT WAS IMPORTANT! The true story of a man, at age seventeen, falsely accused of murder and sent to prison for life. When I began the story/script he had been in prison 45+ years. A model inmate, and even with the sentence of life with possibility of parole as part of the deal, they would not let him go.

Admittedly there are things wrong with my script….starting with a cast of fourteen men. Where are you going to be able to cast fourteen men in a play. My fellow directors and producers are silently laughing at me right now. But, surprisingly it has been produced a few times to rave reviews.

So this play has languished for twelve years until self-publishing and ‘print on demand’ came in to being. (more about that later ).

Another story that had to be told was of the women who lead normal lives; married, employed and raising children. Until that day when their oh-so-normal husbands take a wrong turn. It might be a disagreement over a football game at the local sports bar that turns deadly. Or driving a family member to the corner store for a pack of cigarettes. Or wrong time, wrong place where there are drugs present. It happens to decent men every day.

I was compelled to write about these women. Many years ago I wrote a full length play about this; women who find their lives torn apart when their husbands are sent to prison. For those of you who don’t know the restrictions of play writing: the writer must crammed the story into 100 pages; have one or two set changes, and a manageable sized cast. Over the years people had begged me to tell the rest of their stories; a novel would have none of these time or place restraints.

And that is how “Women Outside the Walls” was created. No traditional publishing house would touch it and those that would accept an unsolicited submission immediately plopped it in their ‘slush pile’. I have a three-inch thick folder of ‘rejection‘ letters to prove it.

Not so many years ago the term ‘self-published’ was a dirty word. They were called ‘vanity books’; published by the author because they weren’t good enough for a real publisher to accept.

That has all changed! ‘Self-publishing’ has become so respectable that the publishing houses are actually considering offering an independent publishing option within their companies.

With most Self-Publishing Platforms you are also given DISTRIBUTION. This, of course, is almost as important as your book being published. My books and scripts are on amazon.com around the world. They are sold at Barnes & Noble and on all the on-line sites selling books.

My books are in local book stores and my friends at Drama Book Shop in New York carry most of my scripts.
This has been such a successful solution for me that I no longer pursue a traditional publisher for my books and scripts.
PS. Hey! What about a literary agent, Trish? Can’t they get you published? The answer is ‘yes’. But for 16 years I have tried to get an agent to represent me. If you’re not published, no agent, if you don’t have an agent, no publisher. I got off that merry-go-round. …..I’m just saying…
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. The NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen,Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, Jeffrey Deaver 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!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

My Creative Self has ADD!

Here I sit, once again, in my night T-shirt……….. and it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

It was just fifteen minutes ago (six hours ago) that I sat down to read and respond to email while my morning tea brewed.

As I was replying to my mail, a new author interview response came in and I couldn’t wait to read it and prepare it for my blog. It was from Jo-Ann Mapson and was so rich with details about her writing life that I couldn’t wait to put it on the blog’s calendar for this month. (February)

I am also in the middle of editing a new short play, “A Dime Bag of Weed“. As I mentioned before I write things in my head for several days, then slam it down on paper, (in my case, computer screen), and then I begin editing. It’s been the toughest one (of the 25) to write because I didn’t want the story line to become a cliché. I had to find a way to approach it from a teen’s prospective and not mine; ‘Parents against drugs’….’adults know better’…lecture, lecture, blah, blah, blah. A sure-fire turn off for teenagers.

I’m also editing (once again) my second children’s book for the AUDIO market place. Every time I go through the editing process, a better book pops out the other side.

An idea for a murder mystery bubbles up and I push it away…..’Go away, wait a bit, I’ve got enough to do….‘ but it is insistent!

And then I began to write this posting in my head …….and then thought of a few more authors I want to contact to ask them for an interview….see? bona fide ADD.

Is this cerebral chaos a bad thing?…I don’t think so…it seems to work for me. I wanted to tell you just how crazed my writing life can be so that any pressure you might be feeling will ease. There is no right or wrong way to how we work when we are writing. The most important thing is to keep writing, every day if you can, even if you think what you are writing is not important; it just might be someday. I think even now, in the early days of my interviews with other authors, that fact is shining through.

…….so guess I’d better go shower, eat something, play with the dogs, (a tennis ball is calling) and turn off my brain for awhile. HA! Fat chance of that!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. The NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Walter Mosley, Natasha Solomons, Nora Roberts, Jeffrey Deaver 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!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

The Writer’s Corner..Interview with author Jo-Ann Mapson (part 3)

Part III ** Interview with Jo-Ann Mapson** This has been a terrific interview with Jo-Ann. She has generously shared her writing world with us and she always inspires me to be a better writer.

Q. Have you? Or do you want to write in another genre`?

A. I write some nonfiction, essays, and have been tinkering with a kind of memoir for decades. Occasionally I am moved to write a poem, such as one for my agent, when her beloved dog died, but I’m not very good at it because I don’t practice the habit.

Something that I find compelling these days is the issue of writing and aging. I’m not sure if anyone has written about this yet. John Updike died, Philip Roth retired, Rosamund Pilcher died, Evan Connell died, and it becomes a kind of reckoning; your name will be on that list sooner rather than later. Somehow it makes the act of writing seem more important, to get things right, to write something of substance rather than fluff, or “phoning it in,” as they say nowadays. At the same time, I sense myself detaching from it a tiny bit, but it isn’t frightening, it feels natural. Like a part of aging. You cannot beat Father Time.

Here’s another thing: Every writer I know started out as a reader, and still reads. That’s what drew us to the habit in the first place. So when a new writer shows up on the scene and is so uncommonly great, why should there be jealousy or disgruntlement? It’s all being deposited in the great body of literature. This year I reread several books that I recall making me want to write, just to see if they held up. I was so thrilled to discover that they did! Mary Stewart, Rumer Godden, Henry James, even Danielle Steel’s first romance. I was delighted to discover that sense of timelessness that came with the reading.

I also read some new writers I really like: Tana French, who wrote Faithful Place and Broken Harbor, just plain WOW, that woman is brilliant, and I hope I live a long time so I can read all her books because she is just getting started. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, those are a few writers I am keeping my eye on.

I recently hired Carolyn Turgeon to teach in the MFA Program in Writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage where I am core fiction faculty. She is an unassuming genius who takes fairy tales and wrenches them into strange and wonderful parables of women’s issues. She reinvents the core stories, which is what writing is, taking the old and telling it new. I’m all for new writers succeeding, pushing the boundaries of the form, and pushing me eventually out of a job. I absolutely love to work with budding writers. It is so satisfying to watch them succeed. I am standing there teary on the sidelines saying, “You go, Girl!” What a joy to be even a sliver of a part of that.

I am so blessed. I have a wonderful writing life, but there was much gritty scrambling to arrive where I am, and I know there’s more ahead. And I think that is the way it ought to be, earned rather than given, never taken for granted, so that when success happens, you realize the importance of it and relish your hard work coming to fruition.

http://www.joannmapson.com/

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. the NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Maya Angelou, 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!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog“. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

The Writer’s Corner… Interview with author Jo-Ann Mapson (part 2)

Part II ** Interview with Jo-Ann Mapson

Q. ‘What does the process look like…?’(continued)

A. Editing on the computer screen is entirely different than one the page. I realize that maybe due to the relative newness of computers. I wrote my first (unpublished) novel on a typewriter. It can take me a year or two to finish a book, but strangely I am writing much faster now that I am older. No reason to count the hours and the earnings, it’s never going to be profitable in all ways.

In other ways it probably looks like an older woman who is sitting on her butt, typing at the desk, frowning at the screen while the floor could really use some sweeping and dogs are racing through the house alerting the world that a bird has flown by or some such shattering news. I go what my husband calls “inward,” and everything else falls away. Once I came directly from the shower wrapped in a towel to write something important down, and hours later, there I was, starkers. Skype, you know? I am clothed these days.

The strangest part is that click of a computer key that sends it to my editor. It’s such a small thing compared to the year of work. This massive effort reduced to an electronic ping! When my editorial letter arrives, it begins to feel a little more real, on it’s way to becoming a book. I love rewriting. Just thank God for it every single day, because that is where good writing pokes its head up. Receiving cover art is another favorite stage for me. I love to see how professional people who cherish images the way I love words come up with the visual equivalent of my story.

It’s truly intoxicating seeing the transformation. I’ve been extremely lucky with my covers, haven’t I? When galley proofs arrive, I just am giddy with the thought that “that thing is done!” Yet I am generally in the middle of another book, so that moment is fleeting.

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

A. They come to me in brief images initially. I can’t quite see their faces, but I know their feelings. I see them in a place—say, in a Western bar, plain wrap rehab, sleeping under the stars, walking a greyhound, dying, arguing, crying, wherever—and I write toward that image because I absolutely, empirically have to know how they got there and what they are going to do next.

Q. What inspired your stories ?

A. I think I am most intrigued with the question: How do people go on after something tragic or life-changing occurs? I should confess, my husband is the one who actually told me this, quite recently. Had you asked me last year, I wouldn’t have been able to answer. He said, “Your life is that story, of how to go on, so it’s natural to me that you would write about that notion endlessly.” Stephen Dobyns has the most amazing poem called “How to Like It,” in the collection Cemetery Nights that for me is a perfect explanation for why anyone writes……..

Join us to read the final part III of this riveting interview with best-seller author Jo-Ann Mapson.
http://www.joannmapson.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Anne Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Rhys Bowen, Robert McCammon, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, 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!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog“. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

The Writer’s Corner… an Interview with author Jo-Ann Mapson (part 1)

Do other writers sometimes find themselves at 4 in the afternoon still in their pajamas, writing furiously? Do all of their #2 pencils have to be sharpened before they can begin?

I thought my readers might enjoy hearing about other authors‘ writing processes. So I created a Question & Answer-type Interview. The response has been wonderful and I can’t wait to share it with you.

In this three-part post, my second interview is with best-selling author, Jo-Ann Mapson. She is one of my favorites and I always wait with bated breath until her next book comes out. Her characters, (men, women, dogs, horses), are vivid and believable and they often return in a new book. Jo-Ann takes them down the same roads we have all traveled….love, loss, grief, death, friendship; stumbling along through life, gathering what wisdom we can.
I hope that you enjoy her insights, humor and thoughts…….

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

A. I have an office in the smallest bedroom of our house. My desk is small. Objects that inspire me surround me. A felted greyhound statue, my cowboy boots, a photo of my great aunt, this wonderful print “The Land of Make Believe” that is a kind of map of childhood stories hangs above my desk. A writer needs to be able to write anywhere, though. Those kinds of constraints such as special places, complete silences, bingo tchochkees, can cripple, so I find it best to force myself to write anywhere.

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

A. Oh, my gosh, waiting for creativity to visit would never get a page, let alone a book written. I work everyday, mid-morning to dinnertime. This timetable is subject to change, but not the number of hours. I’m not sure why. Some books, like The Wilder Sisters, get written in special circumstances; that particular California summer was so hot that I wrote lying down in bed with my laptop, shades drawn, fan running.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write?

A. No rituals other than a cool drink and fan blowing. I usually warm up to writing by answering a few emails. Pre-Internet, I liked to start my writing day by writing a letter to a friend. I miss that. I worry what will happen to history if letter writing goes away forever. It’s such a revealing art.

Q. What is your mode of writing?

A. I write on an iMac. Arthritis (and probably lack of use!) limits how much writing by hand I can do. I have strange handwriting, half-cursive, half-print, very hard even for me to read. Writing on the computer makes things so much easier for me. What works for you is the way to go.

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

A. The “zone,” that wonderful, addictive, “I am but a vessel” kind of feeling only comes when it wishes, doggone it, but I always write in pursuit of it. It’s writer cocaine.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. From the moment I could hold a pencil, I was reporting on things, writing to understand things that happened, and in my head, whole stories were forming. All writing is serious.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. Thirty plus years, with the occasional poem, short story published here and there in a journal, or newspaper. Really, for most writers, you’ve got to live a little life in order to have anything worthwhile to write about. You can’t fake the kinds of issues it takes to write a book that compels a reader. Take for instance grief. Or the highest moment of happiness you can imagine. Or something as small as a minor injustice that doesn’t sit right with you gathers weight, momentum. If you want to say anything of worth about those topics, you either have to have experienced them, pursued them, or watched them happen to someone else.

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

A. I suppose it looks like a messy, disorganized pile of research books, empty coffee cups, talismans, doodles, distractions at the start. Strangely, because writing is so ephemeral these days, it’s kind of invisible. It lives in “The Cloud,” or Carbonite, rarely in concrete pages until it’s fashioned into a book. I print out to edit by hand because I need to have that concrete format………

Biography Jo-Ann Mapson lives and writes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her husband and three Italian greyhounds. Her 11 novels can best be described as slightly Southwestern in setting, character-oriented in execution, and edgy with humor that sometimes goes awry. Among her favorite things are dogs, Old Gringo cowboy boots, reading, making jam, green chile, and laughter with friends and family. Her second novel, Blue Rodeo, was made into a CBS television movie starring Kris Kristofferson. Several of her books have been bestsellers. Many of her books have been Indie bound and Booksense picks. She won the American Library Association’s RUSA award for Solomon’s Oak, and has been honored with awards for research and creativity at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where she is core fiction faculty in the low residency MFA Program that she created with her colleagues. Forthcoming from Bloomsbury is Owen’s Daughter, which features some of her characters from Blue Rodeo as well as the family in Finding Casey (2012). She is currently at work on a new novel.

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Part II will be featured in the February 7th blog and Part III February 12th . Don’t miss this fascinating look into a best-selling author’s writing life.

http://www.joannmapson.com/

To go to other interviews: click here

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Don’t miss an Interview with Jo-Ann Mapson Tuesday

Next Tuesday the second in my series of Interviews will be with Jo-Ann Mapson. I thought my readers might enjoy hearing about other authors’ writing processes. So I created a Question & Answer-type Interview and then began contacting some of my favorite authors to ask them to take part.

In this three-part blog, we will chat with best-selling author, Jo-Ann Mapson. She is one of my favorites and I always wait with bated breath until her next book comes out. Her characters, (men, women, dogs, horses), are vivid and believable and they often return in one of her new books.

I hope that you enjoy her insights, humor and really great stories….

In the coming months: Authors, Susan Elia MacNeal, Rhys Bowen, Walter Mosley, Tasha Alexander, and many more will share their writing life with us!

What does it look like? From ‘no book’ to ‘finished book’?

Recently a fellow writer and friend asked me this question: “What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?” In the new series, “The Writer’s Corner” it seems to be each featured author’s favorite question. Having also completed 16 novels I’d like to add my two cents:

I used my play script (by the same name) as my book outline/treatment. As the scenario was so current (because it was a play), I found that flashbacks were a great way to flesh out each woman’s story and it served me well.

It took me a year and four months to write and edit it. That equals 72,000 words.

I did not have a deadline and it probably would have really helped. I was my own deadline setter and that didn’t work out so well. On the other hand, I think having a publisher breathing down my neck would have stifled my creative flow. When life got in the way I wouldn’t work on it for weeks but then I would get inspired and work on it for days, weeks, non-stop, sometimes 10-14 hours a day. So I guess it all evened out. Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write for a few days… although I preach that you should write something every day. But if you hit a dry spell, you’ll make up for it with better, more relaxed creative writing.

Because I inherently ‘rush’, I found that I had to watch-dog myself and be careful not to leave out important roads of the story. I was in early proofing of the final product of my novel and realized (in a countless re-read) that I had never described my female negotiator’s physical appearance. (Yikes!). Again, (if the writer tends to rush) go back and re-read your work to see where you need to flesh out a chapter or a character.

I am not structured at all. I write a new project in my head for days, weeks and then when my brain is about to burst I begin putting it down on paper (computer). I also write out of sequence and I think that’s okay. My novel’s last chapter was completed months before the middle was written.

Some writers have actually written whole books while blogging; they found it less daunting by writing in segments. At the end they had a book and then they published. If you need a deadline the days that you commit to writing a blog would serve. For me this wouldn’t work; I would feel too exposed having my rough draft out there for the world to see as I am a writer who slams it down the first time around and then edit, edit, delete, edit. Did I mention that the lettering is worn off my ‘delete’ key?

Frequently I will begin a story that has inspired me, not knowing much about the subject. It has sometimes stopped me dead in my tracks while I researched (example: hostage negotiations or building a cabin in the 1920’s). I had 8 pages of a new play about Winston Churchill written and had to stop to do research. I find that it can be done while I am writing and that is what I prefer. It’s more fun and keeps me interested. I don’t think I would do well having my research all done before I put my story down. I find that the research itself inspires my story line.

And then there is that unseen, unheard phenomenon where, with any luck, the characters take over and you become the typist. . This has happened to me time and again, and while I resisted at first (being a control-freak) I now embrace and welcome it. In Women Outside the Walls my character Alma, at sixteen, is abandoned by her promiscuous mother. Alma is befriended by the ex-girl friend of the man Alma had a teen crush on. They end up being room mates. I could never have dreamed that one up; but my characters got together and decided that this was what they would to do.

I don’t think that there is a right or wrong way to go through the process. Each writer should be unique in how they work. Instead of thinking of it as a project/deadline ‘thing’; think of it as a work of art, created just for you and by you. Where possible, let the characters lead you. They will never steer you wrong!

well, there you have it…the process such as it is and how it works for me.

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