A Writer's Diary

Honeymoon Husband follows the adventures of the recently 100% single Hannah, who won a honeymoon for two in Maui that finally convinces her long-time fiancé to tie the knot. Almost. Halfway to Hawaii, he bails and she ends up embarking on the free honeymoon alone. Hannah doesn’t stay isolated long. There’s an event promoter with terrible timing who hounds Hannah for an interview and photo session, and a handsome astronomer named Jeremy who has stars in his eyes for the sky, and for Hannah. Hannah’s an honest woman who longs to come clean about her situation, but the magic of the island weaves a spell that renders her incapable of untangling her messy, and very often hilarious, love life. Honeymoon Husband is the second romantic comedy Shirley Marks has published for Avalon. Geek to Chic, which I reviewd on this website, is her first. Both contain Shirley’s stregths: warm characters who find themselves in sticky situations and often use sly humor as the escape route of choice.

Cindy: When we met at the Cherry party in Reno, you were still unpubbed, right? We both were part of the throng of hopefuls.

Shirley: Sure . . . start off with a hard question. I had to look up what year the Reno RWA Conference was. . . July 2005. At that time I was still an unpublished RWA PRO member. Little did I know that four short months later I’d get THE CALL!

C: Honeymoon Husband is your second published book. Working on #3?

S: #3, Miss Quinn’s Quandary, an Avalon Historical Romance, is set in England 1810. Its release date is February 24, 2008. I’m very pleased to say that Miss Quinn’s Quandary has been reviewed by Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Avalon has another Regency novel under consideration. We’ll see if it becomes book #4.

C: Where can readers buy your books?

S: Avalon Books mainly publishes for the library market and they are not found on the bookshelves of Borders or Barnes and Noble. However, you can order them from any brick and mortar store or on the internet at: www.Amazon.com or www.BarnesandNoble.com

C: How did you find your publisher?

S: Avalon was looking for Romantic Comedy novels at the end of 2004. That’s what I write! So I sent them Geek to Chic. They asked for revisions, which I made, and I resubmitted. Many months later they called and bought the book!

C: How do you overcome plot obstacles, in particular, how difficult is it for you to think of fresh ways to keep your two fated-to-be-together characters apart?

S: I work hard not to repeat the same scenes, events, or dialogue from book to book. The other thing I think about is how humorous the book or scene is overall since comedy is so subjective. What I strive for is cute. I want to make the reader smile.

C: You do! I also think you do a really good job with twisting and surprising plot points–every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, you switched things up. Made me laugh and I believed how Hannah could have found herself in such a situation. I loved the astronomy stuff. Also, I loved the Maui setting. That’s where I honeymooned. You got the details just right!

S: You are so kind! I’m glad you liked the book. Honeymoon Husband was really fun to write. I’d hope I’d got the Maui details right because I’ve been going to Maui for years. I spend many evenings staring at the stars and know =exactly= which constellations are out during that time of year. This year there was even a comet! I could not have planned that. It was the Holmes comet, not Jeremy’s, but the dh and I checked it out on the clear nights–it was by the constellation Perseus. I have, however, never been to the Keck Observatory.

C: Do you have an agent?

S: I don’t have an agent yet but I am searching for one.

C: What about author websites? How important do you think they are?

S: My website went LIVE at the end of July this year. I finally decided that after selling three books I really should have one. I think that it’s vital that a writer have something available for their readers. It’s fun to learn a little about an author when you enjoy his/her work. AND-I believe you need to make a commitment to change and update the site. I’ve got a reading log where I list the current books I’m reading. I’ve also done a Mini-Maui Blog for the two weeks I spent in Maui. That was a one time thing-at the end of those two weeks it was deleted.

C: How much personal info are you comfortable with having on the website?

S: I try to keep my website focused on books, writer-ly, and reader-ly interests and away from anything personal. I suppose I might be a little paranoid. Perhaps I’ll feel more at ease when I get used to being in cyberspace.

C: Are you still in RWA? How long member? How has it helped you?

S: I’ve been in Romance Writers’ of America since 1992, please don’t make me do the math. They have been an invaluable source-and I would recommend them to ANY writer. They educate their members about the writing craft, structure, and industry. Writing is such a solitary endeavor. Attending the local chapter monthly meetings and talking to other writers is about the only way I feel I’m not alone in my little writing world.

C: How do you like publishing for the library market? Do you know the J.K. Rowling story? The first Harry Potter was printed in a small number for the library market-making those first editions quite rare.

S: I didn’t know that Harry Potter was printed for the library market . . . I’d LOVE to follow in J.K. Rowling’s footsteps. I’m a BIG Harry Potter fan. There was a woman at one of my book talks who wasn’t impressed that I had published a novel. She was amazed that I had a book shelved in the library. “Not all books go in the library,” she said. Until that moment I hadn’t really thought about that. It’s daunting to think that my books might be there for years to come!

C: Does your writing keep improving with each book? Does it get easier?

S: I’d like to believe my writing is getting better. I really don’t think of myself as a writer as much as a storyteller. I come up with an idea then populate that world with characters that will tell that story.

C: How much help are Avalon editors? Do you always agree on changes? If you don’t, who wins?

S: First off . . . I LOVE my editor-Faith Black. Second . . . my favorite part of the idea-to-book process is the editor revision process. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I get a letter from my editor who has read the whole book and gives her line-by-line critique. It’s up to me to change what doesn’t work for her. I think it’s the energy of the collaboration that excites me. I have to admit that every suggestion the editor makes has been right. It is my story but I always trust that she knows what’s best. And thirdly, did I mention that I LOVE my editor?

C: The Avalon romances I’ve read don’t have sex scenes. I love sweet romances and don’t care if I never read another sex scene. They are so difficult to write well. Have you ever been tempted to write one?

S: I’ve never wanted to write one. However . . . there were times I’ve considered having one in a book. The sex scene would need to be in the book for plot purposes. I’ve always managed to work around it.

C: Do you work on other types of writing besides romance novels?

S: I also write mysteries. I’ve written a humorous, paranormal mystery where a chef is followed around by three ghosts. I also have a female construction worker series. I’m getting ready to start book two after I finish my current serial killer Romantic Suspense book. The mysteries usually have a romance element in them but they’re too long and probably a bit too graphic for Avalon. I’ll need to find another publisher for them.

C: Do you belong to a writing group?

S: I attend a critique group once a week. The members who’ve been there the longest, not our oldest members, have been together for almost 10 years. What I like about our members is that we all have different strengths. One picks up on writing logistics, another on motivations, another who hears word and idea repetitions, and we definitely have one who’s the Grammar Police. I’ve heard the warnings about critique groups, especially if they’ve been together for a long time. Mine is more a “reality check” than anything else.

C: Who is your first reader?

S: My critique group sees the first drafts in chunks. When the book is complete I send it over to my dh. He’s murder on commas.

C: How long have you been writing?

S:I started writing right after I had kids. They just started college this year, by the way. During the day when I supervised them as they played, my mind would go off and start spinning tales. It didn’t matter what the subject, I’d make up all sorts of scenarios, about anything-conversations I’d overheard on the playground, to news items, to gossip from my dh’s coworkers and our friends. No one around me was/is safe!

C: How long does it take you to write an Avalon romance?

S: Avalon publishes 50,000-60,000 word books. It takes about 6 months to write one. I do have my longer length mysteries to keep me busy the rest of the time.

C: What’s your wildest writing dream?

S: My wildest dream would be that everyone loves my stories as much as I do. I don’t really want to be as popular as Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. I would like some moderate success. That would be really cool! I’d love to hear my readers say, “Shirley’s books always have a good story!”

C: Thanks, Shirley. And by the way, your books always tell a great story!

Becky Reed, author of Crumbs, and successful self-published author.

First, before I give you Becky’s story, a little background about various publishing options for aspiring authors.

Professional publishers and agents don’t ask for money up front. Once they sell your book, agents receive 15% of the total book advance and the same percentage of any royalties. Publishers receive substantially more. Bookstores also get their piece, and by the end, after the advance, if any royalties accrue, an author receives a small portion of the $24.95 price of the novel.

Vanity presses charge a lot of money and deliver little except boxes of books to your door. They give no editorial advice and what you type on your computer screen is what you see in print. Misspellings and all.

You can self-publish, finding a printer yourself and doing all the other work that comes with that. And it’s a lot of work. I know. I self-published my book.

The option Becky Reed chose was to go the ePress and POD (print-on-demand) route. Publishers sometimes offer good value for your money. Although stores can order your book (that’s the POD part), you won’t see your book in any brick-and-mortar outlets, as e-Books = internet. Your customers must buy from the online publisher or Amazon.com.

Still, this is a reasonably inexpensive way to get your book published. Becky Reed’s compelling, gritty memoir about overcoming compulsive emotional overeating, Crumbs, debuted through a self-publishing partnership with Amazon’s BookSurge.

Books like Dan Poyneter’s Self-Publishing Manual are good sources of information about self-publishing, as are websites like Moira Allen’s Writing World and Lulu. Becky tells me “Lulu also has forums where people with questions can get answers.”

Becky liked BookSurge’s way of getting the books out to the public. “Amazon.com owns them, they are easy to work with, and have a good name in the publishing industry. Agents and traditional publishers respect them, which is important in case your book gets picked up down the road by a big name publisher. My books are available via many online outlets: Amazon, Borders, Alibris, Target, Walmart, and Baker & Taylor.”

Start up costs, varying publishing packages, and other mystifying options all carry different price tags. Since she “already had experience with formatting, editing and graphic design” Becky chose BookSurge’s $99 package. That price includes “an ISBN, a color cover, black and white interior, as well as other little perks.”

Becky adds that “BookSurge also has a Talent Acquisition Program, which is a list that goes out to all the big name publishers. For more money, they will format, edit, create a cover, and do everything a traditional publishing house offers, including some marketing.”

I once reviewed eBooks, and while there were some exceptions, most of them were terrible, with standards well below what you’d see in a traditionally published novel. I asked Becky about that. ”Self-published books have a bad rap in the publishing industry, mainly because of the poor quality of the writing. An author can read and re-read, revise and revise again, but will always miss something that could have been changed to improve the work. It’s good to have a new set of eyes examine your work, not only for typos, but to offer a fresh perspective one might not have seen before.” 

For a writer considering self-publishing, Becky recommends reading Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book by Tom and Marilyn Ross.

Ron Geraci’s writing career started in Allentown, Pennsylvania when he was hired as staff writer for “Men’s Health.” After years of toil, a chance conversation about a date gone wrong with a mentor at the magazine landed Geraci a regular dating column. Fast forward another couple of years when Geraci gets an offer to move to New York City for much better pay as an editor for “AARP The Magazine.” Meanwhile, he continued to file his popular dating column with “Men’s Health” every month. Then AARP closed New York offices, and with a transfer in the works, Geraci decided to stay in NYC and write a book based on his dating adventures.

The Bachelor Chronicles is a humorous look at the world of dating seen through the eyes of a writer who just happens to be a guy. In his memoir, Geraci makes a case for single guys being more than just hound dogs who want sex without strings in between rounds of beer and basketball on the tube.

Several memorable women parade through the pages, including Mimi, who liked to walk around the apartment at date’s end naked while admonishing Geraci that it wasn’t quite time for dessert yet, and Amy, who kept dating him even though he wrote about their relationship when she’d expressly asked him to keep her out of his column.
The story that made me believe men are just as vulnerable as women when it comes to the dating wars belongs to Nicole, the girl Geraci can’t get over, despite her kind intention to “just be friends.”

Recently, I spoke to Ron about his writing life, touched on in The Bachelor Chronicles. His generous and expansive comments take me, and I hope readers, closer to understanding the maze that is magazine freelancing.

Cindy: When did writing The Bachelor Chronicles occur to you?

R: Generating material for the column at “Men’s Health,” as well as the very act of doing that kind of tell-all monthly dispatch, created a lot of funny and unusual circumstances in my life. I had probably written about one dozen columns when I realized that the story of an average guy being thrown into those kinds of experiences would make an interesting story. I also began to do several media interviews about what men think about dating, romance and marriage, and the questions were very stereotypical and myopic–either very frat-boyish or the kind of things women distill for other women in women’s magazines. While they’re not invalid, men have far more complex perspectives and motivations than they’re given credit for, and there was nobody giving that side of it. So I thought a book about writing the dating column could expose some of that while also being entertaining.

C: How difficult was it to turn a series of columns into a book? How long did it take? What were the major pains?

R: The writing itself took about 8 months. The book doesn’t recycle the columns. I personally hate it when a writer cobbles together a book out of old stuff. It makes me think of flashback episodes of sitcoms in which the characters sit around and say Remember the time we?? The book is about my life during the years I wrote the column, and the period just after that. The major pains? Revealing stuff that I knew would be excruciatingly embarrassing to myself and other people.

C: Since the book’s been published, have any of the dates contacted you? (Like Amy?) Or did your publisher get the dates to sign releases? What advice do you have to offer people who write about their own life but includes interactions with other people who may not be so happy to be written about?

R: With the exception of Mimi, all of the women I dated somewhat seriously during that period have contacted me, and about 35 of the 150 or so women I went on one to five dates with have emerged with an email or a phone call. Amy is married now, but she was in touch. Since I told the truth, for better or worse–and mostly worse–none have contradicted anything I revealed in the book. Quite a few were at my book party, actually. The number who are married with children now, just a few years later, staggered me. That I was the last one before The One for several women? I don?t know what to make of that.

No releases were necessary as all names were changed.

As for my advice to people writing about past interactions with others…well, with the exception of the next door neighbor who cheated on her husband, nothing I wrote in the book could really directly cause the divorce, job termination or death of another person, and in those cases where it could, enough details above and beyond the name were changed to make the person unrecognizable. I have no legal advice to offer here. My only personal advice would be, if you’re going to do it all, tell the full truth and don’t do it halfway. There are enough crappy books that either lie or tap-dance around harsh things that could backfire on the writer. Don’t add to that rag mountain. Your book might still be crappy, but at least it’ll be one that’s honest and doesn’t hold anything back. You can beg your parents not to read it if they’re still living.

C: Yes, I loved that you offered a special “friends and family” version of the book free of charge. You’re a very funny guy. So–Have you gotten over Nicole yet? Have you met The One?

R: Nicole’s married with children and happy. We email perhaps once or twice a year. Any stray thoughts I have about her these days are more in the sisterly category, I’m surprised to find. It’s a really a residual respect for the intensity of feelings that once existed, rather than any current feelings in their own right. As for The One, in the past five years I have met several women I could be happy with, but the timing was wrong. Only in the last year or so have I really begun to seriously consider marrying. The next woman I feel strongly for may very well be The One due to that factor solely, as it is for many people. Just like the soulmate nonsense, I believe the myth of The One is more damaging to people than helpful. Individual humans just aren’t that unique.

C: Besides balding, how does a thirty-something man write about the 50+ segment of the population for “AARP The Magazine”?

R: I try to only write things that I find interesting. If I’m interested in a topic, the info I highlight and the way its meted out will tend to also be interesting to a reader, regardless of whether that reader is 20 or 80. The issues that interest people are identical; only small details change. A story about balding isn’t about your hair falling out; it’s about an uncontrollable change being thrust on you and how you react to it. A story on saving for retirement isn’t about a portfolio mix; it’s about dealing with the timeless urge to blow the wad.

C: In your capacity as editor, did you use many new writers? Any tips on breaking into “AARP”?

R: I used relatively few new writers, because the kind of dense service reporting and packaging I usually assign often requires a break-in period with new writers, so you tend to stick with those who like to do it and are good at it. That said, I often solicited suggestions for new writers from colleagues (and vice versa) when all of my regulars were on assignments. Usually that kind of request is pretty specific, such as Do you know a writer who’s experienced with prescription drug stories?

Breaking into “AARP The Magazine” is the same as breaking in at any magazine: read a year’s worth of issues, find out who edits the sections you’re interested in writing for, and send ideas directly to that editor. Pitching an idea that you “think the readers would be interested in” is a sure sign that you haven’t read several issues of the magazine closely. You’re pitching the editors, not the readers–and in reading “AARP The Magazine” you’ll see that they cover some topics in nearly exactly the same manner as do magazines geared to people in their 20s and 30s. Pitch the ‘Navigator’ shorts section first. And be humble; because you had a 4,000 word article in “Forbes” doesn’t mean the editors will automatically trust you to do a 800-word piece on alternative minimum tax the way they need it done. Magazines are different.

C: Your guidelines for becoming a magazine writer (on page 78 of The Bachelor Chronicles) are hilarious but true. I want to paraphrase a couple of them and get additional dirt. Write for free for as long as necessary is your first suggestion. Does “as long as necessary” mean until someone offers to pay for your writing?

R: As long as necessary means until you figure out that this kind of work is either your bag or not. Getting paid is secondary to that. If you want to break into magazine writing, two primary things need to happen: You need to get your stuff in front of editors and they need to have a reason to look at it. That can take a while, as it’s a business and editors prefer to recurrently work with writers that they know can deliver. Start with small items; that’s where the greatest need is. Now, if you’re getting your stuff in front of editors, and they’re looking at it, and they’re continually saying “This doesn’t work” at some point you have to realize you’re not cut out for this line of work.

Note here that I’m talking about reporting and writing service copy, not creative writing. People always ask, Is it tough to make a living writing for magazines? The honest answer to that is, “Only if you really should be doing something else.”

C: The second suggestion, to exactly duplicate target magazine’s style, voice, and content, seems too absolute. Do any magazines admire creative flair in a freelancer?

R: Do they admire it in a freelancer that they know, and one whom they’re asking to do a piece specifically for that person’s creative flair? Yes. But most magazines have a specific and formulaic way of doing specific types of stories, and editors only stray from those templates for reasons that will outweigh the headaches of doing so. Again, I’m talking about service copy and reported pieces here. Top editors spend a great deal of time–a great deal–hammering ill fitting but useable stories into the house formula. If you’ve written 20 stories for a magazine that fit its house style and formula, by all means suggest something different and justify why the editor should devote his time and energy to it when he knows the editor in chief’s first objection will be “This isn’t a [name of magazine] story.”

If you have never written for that magazine, however, the odds of you suggesting a one-off story idea that’s so superior in either subject or execution that it warrants taking it far outside the house formula to do it—and yet the ideas still works for the magazine–is very, very slim. The bottom line is, don’t suggest doing something radically different until you’re good enough to replicate exactly what a magazine does, and you know what that takes. They’ve developed these formulas for reasons.

C: Your suggestion to start small with news-based items because they’re often killed and need filling every month seems to be written in code. I’m going to take a stab at breaking it. Tell me when I’m wrong.

“Small” = 100 words or fewer
“News-based” = factual and current
“Killed” = thrown away
“Filling” = Editors look for these to fill space.

Correct any of my erroneous assumptions and, if you would, give a specific small news-based suggestion from a real magazine, like “AARP.”

R: All correct. Small can go up to 500 words in some pubs, though it’s smarter to stick to under 300. Look in the ‘Navigator’ section of “AARP The Magazine or ‘Malegrams’ in “Men’s Health.” Or the front section in just about any magazine.

C: Do women write for “Men’s Health”?

R: Yes, many women.

C: I know you hold seminars about how to travel the online dating maze. What other kind of freelancing have you been doing since finishing the book?

R: Various articles and editing projects for several magazines, like “Glamour,” “Redbook,” “Men’s Health,” and the like. I helped WeightWatchers.com start a men’s site and a Discovery Health show target content for men.

C: Is another book in the works? Can you talk about it?

R: I’m working on a book about the exploitation of singles as a consumer group.

C: What do you prefer writing, books or shorter magazine pieces?

R: On the whole, books offer more impact for the time you spend writing.

C: Do you have a secret (or not so secret) desire to write fiction?

R: None.

C: Thanks, Ron. Any final words?

R: You’ll have great success in magazine writing if you’re willing to dig, give the editor exactly what he or she is looking for, and always anticipate the questions “What’s new or different about this, and why is that important?” Only a certain percentage of people who want to write for magazines are interested or willing to do all three, however. It’s not always their fault, as many colleges don’t emphasize these aspects in their magazine writing curriculums. A good quote I read many years back is “Don’t mistake a love of reading for a desire for writing.” Or restated more accurately for magazine writing, if you enjoy riding the train, that doesn’t mean you’d necessarily enjoy laying the track and digging the tunnel. This is the crux of what I meant in making sure you’re able to duplicate what a magazine does as far as style, voice and content and making sure that you’re interested in doing that before approaching a magazine to write for it.

Many new (and not so new) writers approach editors with an idea, saying how much they love their particular magazine. Often an editor will want to reply, This idea could work for us if you’d get the 14 peer-reviewed research studies and six interviews we’d need to make it work, which is obvious from looking at any past piece in our magazine, but none of your clips shows that you’ve done any reporting work remotely similar to this. Of course, it’s just easier to reply, Thanks for your note, it’s not for us, and continue using the relatively few writers you depend on. Becoming one of those writers is the big thing, if magazine writing is something you’re looking at as a career and not a hobby.

Several years ago, I bought a novel titled The Answer Is Yes. I didn’t recognize the author’s name, but the cover copy sold me immediately. I read the book once, then twice, and just yesterday, a third time. What’s different today is that I not only recognize Sara Lewis’s name, but I’ve read all her books and even taken a writing class with her.

Sara has published six books-a short story collection and five novels-before she made a decision that would change the course of her life and career. (I’ll let Sara tell you about that in a minute!) Her writing career is quite impressive for a woman who seriously studied acting before getting a degree in psychology and then, finally, at age 29, started to write. Her first short story was published in “The New Yorker.” Many of the stories in her first book, Trying to Smile: And Other Stories, were initially published in women’s magazines and literary journals.

Sara’s work mixes humor, free-floating spirituality, and tenderly flawed characters. Her voice is of this minute, smart with heart and conscience. It’s not that Sara’s characters do no wrong, it’s that they make mistakes with an acute awareness that they need to find a better way to live.

I’ve been trying to figure out which of Sara’s books is my favorite. I’ve read each of them mulitple times, and I still can’t decide. The Best of Good tells the story of musician Tom Good’s slow awakening from years of depressed isolation. Tom begins to wake up when he learns that ten years ago, he may have fathered a child. Watching Tom reconnect to the human race is like watching a baby learn to walk. There are spills along the way, but his determination and courage eventually lead to success. “Watching” may seem like a strange word to use in reference to reading a novel, but Sara’s voice is hypnotically visual, almost cinematic.

The Best of Good is Sara’s latest novel, and a great place to begin her back list, unless you’re a writer, in which case you might want to start with Second Draft of My Life. Charlotte Dearborn is a mid-list writer stuck with smallish sales and a disillusioned agent. Finally fed up with her unstable income, Charlotte decides to change careers, reasoning that anything, even teaching elementary school, must be easier, at least emotionally, than what she’s doing. The steady paycheck, and an attractive male teacher, are other lures.

Charlotte’s journey goes soul deep, but also has its lighter moments. Charlotte’s interactions with her young students are often as hilarious as they are poignant. But as an artist confronting an indifferent audience, she painfully realizes that the joy of writing has evaporated. It’s time to move on. Except, of course, it’s not that simple. Writing is a part of who Charlotte is, and the muse won’t let her go without a fight. She has to find a new way to be with her art.

Sara’s own story is remarkably similar. After six books of fiction, she failed to find a publisher for her seventh novel. So she took a soul journey and started something else. Like Charlotte, Sara became a teacher. But fortunately for writers, she’s not teaching six year olds. I recently completed my first session in her brilliant Intuitive Writing School, and recommend it to any writer at any stage of her artistic development.

Since taking Sara’s class, my writing has opened up in surprising ways. I wrote a paranormal short story–something I’d never imagined I would do, but was so much fun! I also sent two story pitches to Oprah–before Sara’s class I would have been too intimidated. And then there’s my non-fiction book proposal. Pre-Sara, I dismissed the ms. as “just a textbook” and planned to publish it myself. At Sara’s suggestion, I’m sending it to publishers–and just this week Writer’s Digest Books asked to see the proposal.

But enough about me. What can Sara’s school do for you? I asked her that and a lot of other writerly type questions. Here’s what she said.

Cindy: How long does it take you to write a book?

Sara: If only it were so simple! Just X number of days, weeks, months, and you’re done! Ha! No such luck! The shortest length of time was 9 months; the longest was 2 ½ years. It really depends on the book. Like most things about my writing, I don’t get to decided; the book does.

C:What’s your writing schedule like?

S: I usually do most of my new writing in the morning. I get up early (between 4 and 5). Most of my work happens before noon.

C: What other things in a writer’s life should happen for the optimum writing experience?

S: Speaking for myself, I believe I need daily exercise for a lot of reasons, the primary ones having to do with the writing itself. I get a lot of good ideas while exercising. It also helps to build and maintain the stamina I need for writing, which is pretty physically demanding sometimes! I feel that daily meditation helps a lot, as well as experiencing other art forms, such as film, music, painting, etc.

C: How’s teaching?

S: Teaching has been a big, happy surprise to me. I am learning so much and gaining so many side benefits! I have wonderful students, who are all doing different kinds of interesting projects.

C: Can writing be taught?

S: I’m sure it can. Material for a traditional writing class–the mechanics of writing–is not part of my curriculum, however. What I’m teaching is not so much how to write good sentences, exposition, characters,and plots, but how to get out of your own way and let the writing happen. I’m focusing on how to listen to and believe in your own inner voice, your intuition. I’m finding that for many people, writing has become a miserable chore filled with worry and self-doubt. My purpose in Intuitive Writing is to help writers to let go of the anxiety and rediscover the magic of letting their own writing bubble out of them without their intellectual judgment and interference.

C: What’s the difference between teaching real and virtual classes?

S: The advantage that immediately comes to mind is that anyone with Internet access anywhere in the world can join the class. Some of my students would not be able to participate in a face-to-face class, because they are too far from towns where classes are offered. Another advantage, from my perspective anyway, is that the interaction seems less invasive. Writers need to have the space to develop their own idiosyncratic projects. Distance learning allows them that space while giving them support at the same time. While I try to have a light touch with the interaction, I also connect with the students daily. I want them to feel that they can be alone to write, but that they don’t have to be lonely! In a traditional class, interaction is usually less frequent. Paradoxically, I feel that the connection between my students and me, even though it’s through email and phone calls, is more intimate. Maybe because we’re not face-to-face, they seem immediately open to sharing their writing issues. There’s very little pretense to get through.

C: What are the tools students should expect to use in your writing school?

S: I use what I call the 20-Minute Write-Away, daily timed writing sessions, using pen and notebook, to help writers generate material quickly as well as to get in touch with their intuition. I also have quite a few exercises to help writers develop their projects.

C: If you don’t teach craft, what do you teach?

S: I would not say that I don’t teach craft. I feel that I teach parts of the craft that are often overlooked in traditional writing classes. I teach empowerment, optimism, and joy. I feel these are essential basic equipment for writers. As a writer, your ideas and abilities are unlimited, and I want you to be in touch with that as soon and as often as possible. We writers have received so many strong, negative messages, telling us that our work may not be original enough, that writing itself is a self-indulgent pursuit, that only a few really special people have access to the rewards of writing, and all kinds of other limiting beliefs. Some of us can no longer write a word without trying to assess and grade our output according to some unattainable standard. That’s all nonsense!

I want to show people who have the urge to write not only that they should write what their hearts tell them to but that they must write it. In addition, I want them to have the experience of the words coming quickly and easily from deep within them and to have the profound pleasure of surprising themselves with the wonderful, quirky things they have to say. And I want them to understand that there is a perfect place for their writing to be gratefully received by an appreciative audience and to be generously rewarded.

C: Can a writer learn to be funny, or is humor genetic?

S: I think a writer can learn to allow herself to be funny. Like many of the skills involved in writing, chances are this ability is already there, fully developed, if you want it, you just have to be willing to let it out.

C: Why do you call your writing program “intuitive”?

S: My approach emphasizes allowing the work to take shape as you write it and de-emphasizes planning and outlining. In this way, we’re trusting our inner guidance to show create our projects and keeping out intellect out of it as much as possible. I’ve found in my own work that there’s a strong connection between intuition and writing. Often my plot and characters seem to take off in a direction I haven’t expected. Sometimes things I’ve written about in a novel later happen in my life. To me, these surprises are among the most exciting, gratifying parts of the writing experience.

C: Do students want you to read their manuscripts?

S: Sometimes, but more often, they’re relieved that they don’t have to show me anything! So many of us have been over-criticized to the point that anticipation of others’ responses has created anxiety and blocks.

C: What’s your policy about that?

S: My policy, and I did not know how unconventional this was when I started, is that students need to develop their projects without interference. I don’t read their work. I encourage them in their writing on a daily basis through emails and phone calls. I help them set up their schedules and develop daily writing habits. But I don’t read and give feedback on what they’re writing. They really don’t need me for this. Students coming to my class already have the skills they need to write exactly what they want to write. What they may need is encouragement, structure, daily practice, and companionship.

C: And what’s the philosophy behind it?

S: The philosophy is simply that writing needs to develop considerably before it’s ready for an audience. When you first start a project, you really don’t know yet where it’s going. Early reaction can seriously damage or derail a project. The way most writing classes are set up is that the student receives feedback at every step in the process. Write a paragraph, see what people think. Write a chapter, get a reaction from the class. While writing classes are designed to give students needed structure, support, and accountability, the feedback aspect of most classes can make students deaf to their own inner guidance. Writers can become dependent on others’ reactions and shape their work to fit what they think this audience wants. Often they become so worried about what the feedback will be that they stop writing entirely. What I’m trying to show students is that if you give the work time to develop (I recommend taking a piece through three full drafts) before getting a response, you’ll end up with a piece that is much closer to your soul goals than you would otherwise. Your writing will be stronger when and have a clearer voice and purpose. Meanwhile, working in this way, you are training yourself to feel what works in your own writing, which is an essential skill. And I believe that this method may even prevent or heal some of the blocks that come from worrying about a teacher’s or group’s response to your work.

C: How has your acting education and your psychology degree helped you as a writer?

S: I use my acting skills every time I write fiction by playing all the characters I write! I think the psychology has helped by giving me deeper insight into the way people think. With fiction, it’s all about being able to empathize with the characters and to create thought patterns different from your own. Both acting and psychology help with that.

C: How many years did you spend writing fiction before you took on this non-fiction project?

S: I wrote mainly fiction for 23 years before I started Intuitive Writing.

C: Were you always writing or planning a novel or did you take time off between books? How long do you need to “refill the well”?

S: I was always writing.

C: What has this vacation from fiction done for you?

S: Vacation is certainly not the term I would use! Developing Intuitive writing has been a very intense journey in many directions at once. I’m turning inward to understand how I do what I do, and at the same time, I’m listening to what other writers say and trying to get it all down in the form of useful lessons. My expectation is that I’ll return to fiction more grounded and conscious of the way my own creative process works.

C: Your bio says “Drama school killed my acting career.” Explain how you think that happened.

S: Overemphasis on criticism that I discussed earlier with regard to writing classes was very much a part of acting school. It took away my natural fearlessness and put self-consciousness there instead. I’ve since noticed that a lot of artists who go to school to train a native talent end up doing something else. In my case, I think that my creativity survived; I just found a different way to express it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

C: Why the switch to non-fiction and teaching?

S: I wrote a novel that I thought was to be the first in a series of five about a California family. Unfortunately, no one bought it. I decided that the universe was telling me to switch directions and do something else. But I had no idea what! I felt that if my intuition were stronger, I would be able to figure this out. So I took some workshops on intuition and read a lot of books about it.

Gradually, it came to me through my daily writing that I should offer help to other writers in the same way a mentor had once offered help to me. As I started writing a how-to book on writing, I discovered that the purpose of my intuition studies was to show people how to let the work come to you from a deep inner place and not from some external concept of what you “should” be writing or what you think will sell. This is the way I have always written, but it was the first time that I’d thought to call it “intuitive.”

C: What’s the status on those connected family sagas?

S: I’m not sure what will happen with them. I have an idea for a second book, but I really don’t know where it will take me. Stay tuned!

C: Who were the authors of the books you loved as a child?

S: This is a very astute question that no one has ever asked me before. Now that I think about it, I realize how much the books I loved growing up influenced my writing. I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series by Betty MacDonald, illustrated by Hilary Knight, the Mary Poppins series by P.L. Travers, and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These were all books my mother read aloud to us. I also enjoyed the series about The Melendy Family by Elizabeth Enright. I adored a book I got from Scholastic book orders in sixth grade called The Funny Guy by Grace Allen Hogarth. I still have it, and it I read it right now, it would still make me cry.

C: Where in the process is your creative writing book? Have you finished a final draft?

S: I’ve finished several drafts, and I have a lot of ideas for additional products for Intuitive Writers.

Can’t wait to see everything, Sara.

Deanna Carlyle grew up in Santa Barbara, California and now lives and writes in Germany. Her short story “Dead Men Don’t Eat Quiche”–from the new anthology This is Chick Lit–is cutting edge, contemporary fun.

Fun: Protagonist Becca’s deadpan humor perfectly illuminates the story’s comical characters, especially Becca’s parents, who have come to visit her in Paris as “Dead Men Don’t Eat Quiche” opens.

Contemporary: Chick lit is the quintessential contemporary genre, and Carlyle’s twists: the European setting, the mystery plot, give this story a fresh, ultra-hip feel.

Cutting Edge: Paris is a great backdrop for this particular story, as the nuances of this mystery play on certain French mannerisms.

Cindy: Deanna, I first read your work in the trade magazine Romance Writer’s Report. Now that you’ve found success in book form and producers are requesting your scripts, are you still freelancing articles? And if so, where and on what topics?

Deanna: I’m amazed at how many multipublished authors continue to write for publishing magazines despite their busy schedules. I plan to do the same as soon as I come up for air (not that I’m so very multipublished).

Nowadays I’m exploring how blogs may be able to fill that void for me. I recently started a blog about European film producers linking to online interviews with them. Once I’ve filled the archives somewhat, I’d like to start conducting the interviews myself as a way to meet producers in Europe. There’s no established agenting scene over here for screenwriters and novelists (I’m in Germany). Writers have to do the agenting themselves. It’s a real pain, but on the other hand, it’s also an eduation.

C: I remember going to your chick lit loop and asking your advice about breaking in to writing articles. You were very generous. Would you say publishing journalism is a good way to get your foot in the door of publishing?

D: Absolutely. Publishing journalism is a great way to make contact with women’s fiction editors and agents. Plus, you get paid for your industry education. I’m the type of person who avoids researching anything non-creative unless I have to. Writing about publishing was a way to force myself to get online, call people, and see how the industry works.

Being a freelancer is also a great way to learn about how editors think. It was a revelation to me that most magazine editors prefer to generate article ideas and assign them. On the other hand, I’ve learned that they will buy off a pitch if the story is about uncharted areas that readers are burning to know more about.

For example, the first article I pitched and sold to the Romance Writers Report was about chick lit because at that time the genre was brand new and a bit of a threat for the romance establishment. After that piece, I decided to pitch an article about plotting software because I’d read somewhere that new technology unsettles people, and that anything that unsettles people, yet might also help them survive, creates burning curiosity. And curiosity creates readers.

C: Your first work with BenBella was for the anthology Welcome to Wisteria Lane. Is that how Lauren Baratz-Logsted found you for This is Chick Lit?

D: Actually, I pitched directly to Lauren as soon as I heard about her plans to create a counterpart to the This is Not Chick Lit anthology. She’d mentioned the idea on the Yahoo group for chick lit writers I moderate, and I thought, what the hey, I’ll pitch an idea to her and see what happens. I guess all those humorous, semi-fictional articles I’d done for the Romance Writers Report must have paid off because she gave me a chance, and I managed to get my pinky toe in the trade publishing door.

C: And now you’ve two more BenBella pieces coming out, on Veronica Mars and Stephanie Plum. What’s the best way for a writer to approach BenBella? How did you make first contact with them?

D: I’d love to work with them again if they’ll have me and if my schedule permits. There’s something wonderful about having an actual book cover to put on my site, even if I didn’t write the whole book.

I think the best way to make contact with BenBella is 1) to pitch yourself as a writer, including writing samples that emphasize your humorous voice, your depth of analysis and your willingness to do research, or 2) find a writer who has worked for them recently and ask if they’ve heard which topics are in the pipeline, then pitch creative, semi-academic-yet-fun-and-upbeat ideas for those topics.

C: So I see on your website you recently finished a screenwriting program? And your script is being produced? Details!

D: The good news is I got hired to tutor and teach at the screenwriting school from which I graduated. The not-so-good news is the producer who requested my first script says it’s too expensive for her company to produce. Ah, well. At least I’m in the game. Thanks for asking after that script. You reminded me that I have to keep sending it out.

C: What else are you working on? Any book-length irons in the fire?

These days I’m writing lots of treatments for movie ideas. Some of them will end up written as feature scripts, some will sit there and refuse to grow legs. I’m also drafting a teen chick lit novel and a new mystery featuring a female amateur sleuth. Let’s hope one of these projects sells! If not, well, I’ll just have to write another one, which I was planning to do anyway, so I won’t know the difference.

Thanks for this chance to blab about myself. I feel so important all of the sudden!

Before I opened the first pages of Sarah Bird’s new novel, The Flamenco Academy, I knew nothing about the gypsy dance. The flamenco world was utterly foreign to me, yet from the beginning, Bird drew me in with her incisive depiction of the nuances of friendship that comprise the heart of this book.

Cyndi Rae Hrncir is about as far from gypsy as you can get. She’s a pale-skinned blonde, American with Czechoslovakian roots, a Texas transplant to New Mexico, who wants more than anything to dance flamenco. She calls herself a “twisted tweaked math nerd” and admits that she does all the work in her friendship with Didi, a firecracker with a lit fuse.

Didi has the exotic good looks that flamenco fans expect, and a darkly passionate desire for fame. She starts dancing classes with Rae almost as a lark. Didi’s best trick, says Rae, is her ability to “read your deepest needs and turn herself into whoever could fill them.”

Their sweetly intense friendship is challenged by obsessive love and reflected in a parallel story set in the gypsy caves of Spain. Sarah Bird parcels out ancient flamenco teacher Dona Carlota’s tantalizing story in captivating installments. This is a writer who expertly plays character and setting, pacing and plot. She leads readers through her beautifully complex, finely layered story with the steady hand of a born storyteller.

Cindy: Why flamenco? What brought you to it? Did you take classes?

Sarah: “The Flamenco Academy” took me 15 years, off and on, to write. The one subject that I always knew I wanted to write about was an obsessive love affair I had that began when I was 16 and fell in love at first sight with a deliriously handsome young man and remained so until I was 23 while we had a tumultuous on-again, off-again affair. For years I tried to capture this experience on paper, but it always came out as a suburban melodrama.

When I was 20 and living with Beloved, I walked in on him in bed with a friend. Realizing that I had to put at least an ocean between us or I would never break free, I went to Europe. So, dazed and heartbroken, I hitchhiked and Eurailed for a year and a half. During that time I found a job as a tour guide in a botanical garden owned by White Russian émigrés on Spain’s Costa Brava. One very late night, very early morning, in a tiny club outside of Barcelona, I saw an astonishing performance of what I would learn later was flamenco.

Flamenco was the first materialization I’d witnessed that mirrored my tumultuous inner landscape. Decades later, as I was struggling to make a novel convey the experience of obsessive love, I recalled that night. The passion and intensity of flamenco, its insistence upon revealing the unrevealable, fit the emotional truth of the story I wanted to tell.

I began a fumbling, stumbling study of flamenco and quickly discovered how dauntingly vast and impenetrably arcane the subject is. I live in Austin, Texas, not a hotbed of flamenco activity. I was despairing of ever cracking the flamenco code when I learned that my alma mater, the University of New Mexico, where I’d studied Anthropology as an undergrad, was becoming the academic center of flamenco!

So I put on my intrepid journalist hat and scored an assignment from O Magazine to write about the festival that the UNM flamenco program hosts every summer that brings in the very biggest flamenco stars in the world to not only perform but teach as well. Submerging myself in classes and performances, I began to understand a bit about this art that only truly reveals itself in the moment of performance.

The University of New Mexico’s vibrant flamenco scene was a gift from the universe not only in terms of research but also in providing a setting for my young protagonists. Exactly the same one where, thirty years earlier, I’d enacted my drama. Flamenco’s other great gift to me is that, as one of my characters puts it, “Flamenco is OCD with a beat.” Flamenco dancers, guitarists, singers are obsessed and do become compulsive about their art.

C: Which character has more of you, shy Cyndi Rae, the detail person, or wannabe celebrity Didi, the star who casts an increasingly dark shadow over Rae?

S: Rae, most emphatically Rae. Didi is driven by the narcissist’s overwhelming need for attention/adulation which is sort of the opposite of the writer’s temperament. We have to be very, VERY, happy sitting alone in empty rooms for years. Though if I were a giant narcissist like Didi I’d be the last to know, wouldn’t I? Hah.

C: Rae decodes Didi’s dancing as lacking in technique but bursting with charisma. She notes that all the technical proficiency in the world won’t make you a star if your heart and passion don’t shine through. Is this true of writing, too? Does a work of fiction also need charisma? When you write such scenes about an art different from your own, do you draw on your own experience?

S: I think, at its heart, charisma is an entirely physical quality, something that is or is not almost in a person’s blood chemistry at birth. Charisma fascinates me. My mother had it all her life, a quality that simply drew people to her. Part of it, in her case, was great natural beauty, part of it was an entirely open nature. None of her children inherited it, myself least of all. So she had the completely white magic version whereas Didi’s version is significantly darker. I’ve been fascinated watching my son’s friends and seeing one little boy whom we’ve known since birth who has this magnetic quality. Charisma combined with narcissism is frequently what creates great performers.

C: Can a writer revise a piece of prose that is technically proficient but lacking in passion? How might one attempt such a feat?

S:As far as passion on the page, that’s an interesting question. For me it comes from a truth in my own life, some bit of autobiography, an experience, a perception, something I absolutely know to be true that I passionately want to capture well enough that readers will feel this truth as strongly as I do.

C: I was fascinated with Didi’s groupie phase, which she endured (and actually seemed to enjoy) in order to learn how to act famous. I know you wrote screenplays for a number of years. Have you seen this kind of behavior in the Hollywood community? Elsewhere?

S: I had a good friend when I was going to high school in Albuquerque who was an ace groupie. For her it was all about the reconnaissance, finding out where the bands were staying, sneaking into the hotel, swiping maids’ uniforms. I went with her on a few “missions,” but was too shy and self-conscious to be any good at the swift improvisations it required. Essentially, I took her experiences and updated them.

C: The story is told through Rae’s pov. Didi never talks about the sex part of her groupie gig, but eventually Rae sees the degradation first hand. Didi is such an intense character. Did she ever threaten to take over the book? Did you ever consider giving her a pov in the story?

S: I always knew that the novel was about Rae’s transformation. Didi, in some sense, is a finished character from the moment we meet her. But, even more than Tomas, Didi is essential to Rae’s development. I love Didi, I feel I understand why she had to become who she became. Didi is an amalgam of many people I’ve known, particularly in the film industry where world-class narcissists flourish and where if they are successful enough, their bad behavior is never punished.

C: Your novel opens after Rae and Didi finish college, but quickly flashes back to the beginning of their high school friendship. Most of the novel follows their relationship’s development and it is only in the final section of the novel that readers return to the conflict that started the book. How did you decide to structure the novel this way?

S: I’m embarrassed to admit that I wrote five, almost completely different versions of this book. Ouch. That’s a lot of typing. It started out as a murder mystery, but I was too interested in the characters to kill one off on page one. At one point I was so lost and overwhelmed, feeling as if I’d constructed a gigantic puzzle that I wasn’t smart enough to solve, that I went to a workshop given by one of my idols, Margaret Atwood, hoping to find answers. I asked what she did when she was stuck on a novel. She answered, “When I’m stuck it’s either a problem with tense or voice.” That was too general to be useful, but I did find many more answers about structure in her brilliant “The Blind Assassin.”

C: I loved the “crack cocaine keyhole” theory, that for addicts, all it takes is one taste, and it’s like a key slides into the hole that has been waiting a lifetime for this missing piece to make it complete. Is this an actual phenomena that you read about, or did you create it for the story?

S: No, it’s a true theory and it makes a lot of sense to me. All the addicts, alcoholics, I’ve ever known talk about how, from the first drink, hit, whatever, the substance made them feel “normal.” That seems to speak to a powerful physiological component. I used the metaphor of addiction because that is what falling in love at first sight felt like when it happened to me.

C: You’ve written plenty of journalism as well as fiction. How does the non-fiction feed the fiction? Do you get story ideas that way? Or does being a journalist just make you really good at research?

S: Being a graduate student makes you really good at research. Being a total nerd who loves nothing more than spending years in the stacks researching a subject she’s fallen in love with makes you even better! Generally, I use journalism to investigate an area that I’m setting a book in. All my ideas bubble up from the deepest sources in my own life. Maybe that is narcissism, but in order to sustain the years that novels require, I have to be compelled by this sense of unraveling a deep personal truth that I talked about earlier.

C: There is a point in the story when Tomas and Rae visit the Aztec Motel and Rae shows him the found art installations and he says “I love that whoever created all this knows that they’re never going to get rich or famous.” Is there a real Aztec Motel? It made me think of the Watts Towers in L.A.

S: YES!!!! 3821 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, 87108 – (505) 254-1742. Check it out! Here’s a website showing the great neon from The Aztec and other places along “The Mother Route,” Route 66.

C: Tomas’s feelings about art for art’s sake–is this something you think about as a writer? How does publication affect your work? Would you have written this story without a book contract?

S: I did write it without a contract as I’ve written all my novels. I can’t actually say I’ve never had any thoughts about my work as art. I guess I have the associations most people do of art as something you hang on the wall. My entire goal with publication is to be allowed to do it one more time, to write the next one, without having to go back to work for the state!

C: Knopf is marketing TFA as “literary fiction” and while

are smart and funny, this one IS different. It feels bigger, more dramatic than comic. Is that what makes it “literary”?

S: I am fascinated by what is and is not perceived as literary. Knopf is exclusively a literary press. They would say that if it’s on their list, it’s literary and they market all their books as such.

As far as humor goes, I love humor. I love writing it, I love reading it, but a novel about obsessive love was not the place for it. Humor is a distancing mechanism. Mostly a good one, it lets us detach enough that we can talk about tragedy and taboos, fears and failings. But I could not have distance or detachment in this novel. So, yes, I’d agree, this novel is much more dramatic than comic. As far as literary, who really knows? Critics?

C: The Flamenco Academy has a love triangle subplot, which reminds me that you once wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Tory Cates. Your novel, The Boyfriend School, is a fictional retelling of how you got into that business, and also how you met Nora Roberts.

S: I did meet Nora Roberts when I wrote an article about the first-ever Romance Writers of America. Actually, I never did write that article which I might have made a couple hundred dollars for. Instead, I discovered romance novels and, as Tory Cates, wrote five Special Editions for much more than I could have ever made as a freelance journalist. “The Boyfriend School” is not really about meeting N.R., it was more about my thoughts on the experience of writing romance novels and a response to the generally dismissive treatment they receive.

C: What are you working on now? Or are you taking time off between books?

S: For the first time ever, I have a manuscript finished at the same time that a new book has come out. A couple of years ago, when I was utterly, utterly, utterly stuck on “Flamenco” and grieving for my mother who’d just passed away and in despair about the tragic events happening in our country, I took a break and wrote a novel that had only one purpose: to cheer me up. If an idea or a character or a line made me laugh, in it went. My editor is looking at it now.

C: Any last thoughts?

S: Cindy, I’ve really enjoyed your insightful questions about the hardest book I will ever write, it’s not blistering hot, and a gentle rain is falling on Austin, Texas in July, so I have much to be joyful about.