Happy U.S. publication to my friend, Kate Hilton! The Hole In The Middle grew out of questions Kate asked herself about her own life — isn’t that so often the case with women’s fiction authors?
Today Kate shares with us what it’s like to self-publish, have the book picked up by a Canadian publisher, and then sold in the U.S! Plus, some heartfelt advice for writers.
Please welcome Kate to WFW! And share you thoughts about her covers (or anything else) in the comments!
Amy xo
What do my readers want from me? In today’s publishing climate, we’re often afraid to give something new a try, afraid of losing our readers, our followers, our mojo even. Sometimes our publishers are afraid as well, using the word “brand” to help us shape our new books. Staying within genre makes sense, but it’s not always possible. Especially when we have a story we want to tell that falls outside certain industry parameters. (I have a few floating around myself.)
Today we have with us, Laura Drake, multi-published, award-winning, romance author whose first women’s fiction title is releasing today! She wonders if fans of her romance novels will read her women’s fiction. Will the new readers she acquires with this book pop over and give her romance novels a try? Below, Laura shares with us her excitement and her fears for her new journey. She’s also sharing an short excerpt.
Please welcome Laura Drake to WFW! And tell us what you think, in the comments.
Amy xo
I could not remember the dead friend’s last name.
I realize this is a problem likely reserved for novelists, because if I had a dead friend, I’d probably recall her last name.
At that point I hadn’t written many pages of my third novel yet, but I had an outline and a short synopsis for my agent, and ideas jotted down on paper just for me. I rifled through all of it.
Cooper.
The last name was Cooper.
I intentionally choose simple last names but obviously THAT memory trick didn’t work this time. I was going to have to figure out something so that this story, the new one, didn’t have me scrolling through pages to remember every name and every eye color.
So you know what this meant. A trip to the corner Walgreens.
There is not a plethora of index cards in Walgreens, but when I’m on a writing roll I am not prone to a shopping trip. So I worked with what I had. I chose the large, white cards because in a moment of stark realism, I know the small ones would not give me enough space because my ideas come out sideways and in large loopy letters, not neatly, and not on little blue lines.
I must say I was disappointed with the quality of the cards. They were more like paper than cards, but I was determined. I wrote each character’s name at the top, and anything I knew about him or her. Boys in blue. Girls in pink. I didn’t have check list or a method, I just jotted down what I knew about the character, mostly things like all their names (middle, maiden, nick—you get the idea), eye color, hair color and style, short or tall, thin or fat, and maybe his or her relationship to another character. I wrote the things that needed to remain consistent through the story, the things that wouldn’t change. Maybe for this novel’s first draft I wouldn’t have to type “find out what color Celia’s eyes were” on page 86, because I’d have a card that told me what i needed to know. I would limit my scrolling backwards and increase my moving forward. And in story writing, that is a good thing.
But I had more cards. What to do?
I don’t use the common novel-writing lingo because it doesn’t work for me. I’m a rebel that way. I find the words CONFLICT and TENSION empty. I look at them and think HUH? But, I do understand WORRY and ANGRY and SCARED and WONDER and SECRET and WANT and NEED. So I wrote those out on cards for each character. Not in any order. Not the same for each one. Just what I knew to be important. Just what I knew at that time. That’s the great thing about index cards. There are always more.
I also put the major story points on cards. And—I wrote words you’re not supposed to write. AND THEN. That works for me. I wrote each major and minor event (you say plot point, I say event) on an index card followed by the words AND THEN…. This allowed me to consider the flow, and what was happening when and to move things around without major cutting and pasting in my Word doc.
I also wrote themes of the story on cards, and I’ll likely transfer those to—you guessed it—Post It Notes, when it’s time for me to revise. Those will stick all over my computer reminding me of what needs to float beneath the story to give it buoyancy.
For a few weeks I had each stack neatly paper-clipped together and tucked into an adorable little case I could carry around and look all writerly. Then one day I was chatting with my lovely agent and she asked, “What’s the last name of the dead friend again?” (No joke, she really did. She was writing up little blurb for the new book.)
“Oh my god,” I said. “I forget.”
“Well, call me when you remember.”
And then I did remember.
“I have index cards!”
And yes, the last name was still Cooper.
That’s when I realized index cards do not belong in pretty pouches. I wanted the cards out and around me whether I’m on the sofa or in bed (rules out the desk, but I don’t write there anyway).
The cards are like a little pat on the back to myself. I’ve thought it through, I have a plan, there is sense and order where I often feel there’s none. Even on days I get no writing done, I can read a card or two and have a good sense of story, remember something old, think of something new, and add a card to the pile.
I had no roadmap at all for The Glass Wives. When I wrote my debut novel I outlined the Chapter 3 when I finished Chapter 2. Yep, that book took four years to write. Not happening again. Ever. When I wrote The Good Neighbor I started with a (take a deep breath) twenty page synopsis. That synopsis served only as a loose tether to the story, because 1) stories always change as you write them, and 2) who is going through twenty pages to remember what’s just happened, what’s happening now, and what happens next? Not me.
The index cards are manageable size bites of the story and the characters, They’re snippets of time and place, fragments of intention and emotion. And on those days all writers have when the gifts of the writing life are elusive, when the rewards seem improbable and the words are fuzzy, these index cards are tangible rectangular reminders that many thoughts have been already been thought, and much of the work has already been done.
Cooper.
Sometimes you just click with someone, and that’s how it was for me and my friend, author Holly Robinson. I’m not sure even how or when we first connected, likely due to her first novel with NAL, The Wishing Hill, which was published around the same time as The Glass Wives. TODAY, Holly is launching her third novel with NAL, HAVEN LAKE (and has another coming out in the Fall, OMG). The best part of interviewing an author-friend is learning new things about her, her writing, her stories. They’re not usually the kinds of things that come up in casual phone conversations, but they’re the things I want to know and the kinds of interviews I want to share here.
Actually, that’s the best part of interviewing anyone—quenching my own curiosity by getting the answers to MY questions and knowing what, how, and why those answers would be of interest to others. (Hello, Journalism Degree!!)
Holly’s novels are family dramas strewn with emotion and mystery. Family secrets are woven through each one, as well as vivid settings, and character voices that ring clear and true. You’ll see what I mean when you read the interview!
Amy and Holly and lots of plates on a wall—September 2014
Please welcome Holly Robinson back to WFW!
Amy xo
You won’t be surprised to learn that I met Priscille Sibley on Backspace. You might be surprised to learn I read her novel when it had a different title and before Priscille had her current agent! How exciting it was for me to read it again in its final form. Another exciting thing is to introduce to you THE PROMISE OF STARDUST, which has a male protagonist (OH NO) but is clearly being marketed as women’s fiction (TRUE)! It’s was a real treat for me to ask Priscille questions about her novel and her process and to learn new things after knowing this author for so long. Priscille is also one of my Book Pregnant friends!
Please welcome Priscille Sibley to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Amy: What is the most important part of THE PROMISE OF STARDUST to you, as its author. Having nothing to do with its plot, what is the book about? Maybe some would refer to that as its theme.
Priscille: Although my story deals heavily with reactions to grief, I believe that ultimately the novel is about hope and resilience. Here is a line from the book: “There is uncertainty in hope, but even with its tenuous nature, it summons our strength and pulls us through fear and grief – and even death.”
Amy: Your novel holds a moral dilemma threaded together, and torn apart, by a love story. What was your favorite part of the novel to write? And I know that doesn’t mean it was the easiest.
Priscille: The backstory was more fun to write, lighter, essential to leaven the main story. About a quarter of the book’s chapters occur in the past. Elle is alive and healthy in those chapters, and Matt is much happier. After her accident, he is grieving. It was painful to climb into his head some days.
Amy: Can you tell us a little about your journey to publication, and perhaps the most surprising part of that journey?
Priscille: I am an unlikely writer. I didn’t study literature in school. (I have a BSN in nursing.) I was very fortunate that once I did start writing, I quickly discovered a number of online writer communities. I found a nurturing critique group. That said, I made plenty of blunders, too. After a couple of years, I realized my first manuscript contained fatal flaws. I put it away and started fresh with a new idea. A year or so later I found a literary agent to represent me. Alas, manuscript number two didn’t sell. My first agent and I parted ways, while I was polishing my third manuscript. By the time I was ready to query The Promise of Stardust, I had a much better idea of what I personally needed from a literary agent. Fortunately, I was really blessed when my manuscript resonated with an agent who fit my new description. With her insights, I dug in and made more revisions. When she sent it out to publishers, it luckily found several interested editors and a home at William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Amy: Do you have a favorite character in the book? Or is that like asking you to pick a favorite child?
Priscille: Having spent an entire book inside Matt’s head, he should be the one I favor right? I love him. I admire his devotion to Elle. He is flawed and I don’t think he completely sees himself or the situation clearly, but I like the way he loves her. I also love Linney and Elle. I even liked Adam (hush, don’t tell Matt.)
Amy: Even though your protagonist is Matt, who is clearly not a woman, you’ve mentioned that it’s thought of as women’s fiction. What is your definition of women’s fiction and how do you feel about your novel being considered part of that genre?
Priscille: Clearly. Matt is a Matthew and not a Matilda. I chose to write the novel from his point of view somewhat reluctantly, but Elle, his wife, has suffered a horrible brain injury. She is in a persistent vegetative state. So to tell their story, I climbed into his head, determined to make him authentically male. By most definitions, women’s fiction is about a woman’s journey. More and more I realized the story was about Matt, even though his focus is very much on her. I think the main reasons people describe TPOS as WF is that Elle is pregnant. Babies are still women’s turf. Moreover, The Promise of Stardust is an emotional story. (I keep hearing reports about tissues, and I’m never quite sure how to respond to that.) Author Keith Cronin, who has been here at Women Fiction Writers, said something women’s fiction being about the emotions conveyed in the story. I truly wish I had the quote because I think he nailed the definition.
Amy: What is your best advice to aspiring authors of women’s fiction?
Priscille: Write your heart out. Really, put your heart in there. Take something that troubles you or resonates and turn it into something someone else can feel.
Amy, thank you so much for having me. I love this blog!
A few people always know what they want to do when they grow up. Priscille Sibley knew early on she would become a nurse. And a poet. Later, her love of words developed into a passion for storytelling.
Born and raised in Maine, Priscille has paddled down a few wild rivers, done a little rock climbing, and jumped out of airplanes. She currently lives in New Jersey where she works as a neonatal intensive care nurse and shares her life with her wonderful husband, three tall teenaged sons, and a mischievous Wheaten terrier.
Please visit Priscille’s website or follow her on Twitter @PriscilleSibley.
Read Big Girls Don’t Cry by Priscille on The Book Pregnant Blog.
Rita Plush is here with us on Women’s Fiction Writers today to share her story of writing, querying, and publication. You’re sure to be inspired by Rita and her determination to see LILY STEPS OUT in print. I know I am!
Please welcome Rita to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
By Rita Plush
Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, with college-aged children of my own, I was a student, plugging away over an eleven-year period to earn degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing. But it was only when I tried to get my first novel published, that I came to understand the true meaning of commitment and patience.
Originating as a short story, “Lily Steps Out,” is a middle-age coming-of-age novel about a married woman who ‘steps out’ of her domestic life into the business world after her husband retires. This is an interesting couple, I thought, and continued writing about them.
I brought my efforts to my writers’ group and listened to their input and critiques. I worked on the characters, dialogue and plot line. After a time, the pages became chapters. Eventually, I had the first draft of a book which I painstakingly edited and brought back to my group. More recommendations, more character development, till the moment came—five years from that first chapter—when I decided this is a book, and tried to find an agent.
The dozens query letters I sent out brought in almost as many rejections—some agents didn’t respond at all—and I began to realize that finding an agent might take almost as much time and effort as writing the book itself. I labored on, and then months later, voila! An agent who liked what she saw—characters alive and vivid with real lives and real problems. Bidding wars and movie deals danced in my head, but alas, though publishers thought the writing “energetic and entertaining” and “were drawn to the characters,” they didn’t take my book.
My book. My book was about a woman with spirit and drive, a homemaker who’d spent her life caring for her family and then wanted more out of life than making beds and cooking dinners. Did Lily sit back because things didn’t go her way, or did she risk everything she had to get the life she wanted? And so I took a lesson from Lily. If my agent couldn’t find me a publisher, I’d find one on my own, and offered Lily to the handful of publishers who accepted non-agented fiction.
To my disappointment, my efforts fared no better than those of my agent, and something began to nag at me. Was I objective about the book? Or had I developed such a crush on Lily and my other characters that I couldn’t see what was right about them and what was not? Maybe I needed some of that proverbial space between me and them, and so I set the book aside and began another novel.
Years passed. Self-publishing had become the route for many authors who couldn’t otherwise get their books into print. Lily called to me.
But first, I dug deep, looking for the gold in Lily Gold. I tightened the prose, eliminated every non-essential scene and bit of dialogue that didn’t reveal a character’s personality or move the story forward, updating the social references along the way. I hired a professional editor to proof-read and fine-tune the whole business, and signed up a graphic artist to design the cover.
I was so close to self-publishing, I’d already chosen the company and sent them the cover on approval. Then one day I slipped my hand into a coat pocket and out came a scrap of paper with Penumbra Publishing written in my own handwriting. What’s this? I said to myself.
This, it turned out, was my prayed-for-dreamed-of-I-don’t-pay-to-get-published-publisher, who found my novel, “…engaging, with unique characters that gave the tale a certain refreshing charm.”
The rest, as they say is history, Lily’s history, and the twelve years from start to finish, when I began the book to the day it was accepted. Was it worth all the time and effort? Yes indeed! Keep at it, don’t give up.
Rita Plush is an author, teacher, interior designer, and Coordinator of the Interior Design & Decorating Certificate at Queensborough Community College; there she teaches several courses in the program. Rita has also lectured on the decorative arts at libraries throughout Long Island, and at Hofstra University and CW Post-Hutton House.
Her writing practice includes fiction and non-fiction and her stories and essays have appeared in many literary journals including The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Iconoclast, The MacGuffin, Passager, and most recently http://www.persimmontree.org. “Lily Steps Out” is her first novel (Penumbra Publishing, May 2012), and she is at work on a second novel that follows some of the characters in “Lily.” She is also putting the finishing touches on a collection of short stories called “Step into My Heart, the Door is Round and Wide.” Rita is a member of LIAG, Long Island Authors’ Group.
Newsday’s Act II, July 19, 2012, featured Rita as “published and proud,” and Times Ledger—August 23-29—headed their feature, “Rita Steps Out.”
“Lily Steps Out” is available through www.amazon.comin both ebook and trade paperback, and from www.barnesandnoble.com in ebook format.
Visit her website www.ritaplush.com for more information about Rita and Lily.
I met Seré Prince Halverson almost a year ago because we are both members of the debut authors group, Book Pregnant. Right away Seré captured my attention with her kindness and charm, and that was even before I knew much about her book, THE UNDERSIDE OF JOY.
Today marks the paperback launch of “Joy.” Same book, new cover, and hopefully many new, enthusiastic readers.
When you’re finished reading the interview and getting to know Seré, treat yourself to excerpt of THE UNDERSIDE OF JOY (published by Dutton) by clicking here.
But first, welcome Seré to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Amy: Seré, congratulations! Today is the paperback release of THE UNDERSIDE OF JOY! What’s it like to be re-introducing your book to new readers?
Seré: Thank you, Amy! It feels different than when the hardcover came out because it’s not quite such a huge unknown. I’m excited, but I’m happy to say that I’m also sleeping at night, which was something I could not say when the hardcover came out. I had serious Debut Author Insomnia.
I’ve discovered that I really enjoy talking to book clubs and have been blown away by their insightful discussions. A lot of those I’ve visited have had a picnic theme to tie in with the Life’s a Picnic store in the book. So, to celebrate the paperback release, I’m having a Win a Picnic Basket for your Book Club drawing. I thought it would be fun to deliver Sonoma County goodies and wine right to their doorstep! And planning a picnic is much more pleasant than Debut Author Insomnia. Details are here.
Amy: Without giving anything away, can you tell us a little bit about the story and how you came up with the idea?
Seré: A woman walks into a market…That woman was me. I walked out with a bag of groceries, and a vision of an Italian American family. That vision collided with some other visions I’d been having of a young woman, curled up in bed in despair. She had once everything she ever wanted and now had lost it all. But I didn’t know her story yet. And those visions collided with my fear of sleeper waves, my love for Sonoma County, my contemplations of mother/stepmother relationships and how harshly society judges mothers who leave their children, without knowing the circumstances behind that decision. (Yes, it was a rather big collision of visions.)
Amy: Oftentimes paperback editions have a brand new book cover — and that’s the case for TUOJ. How was the process of having a new “look” for your book?
Seré: First, let me say that I was very attached to the first cover. I loved the beautiful simplicity of it. My paperback publisher, Plume, always creates a new cover, but I was a bit skeptical. Until I laid eyes on it. Very different from the first, but I fell in love all over again, this time with the vertical treatment of the horizontal photograph, the water reflection, the little girl—together, they capture important elements of the story.
Amy: Do you have something you’d like readers to take away from your book?
Seré: My favorite books pull me in and make me feel like I’ve walked in someone else’s shoes, whether they’re Birkenstocks or Manolo Blahniks or old holey Keds with a flappy right sole. The best books also make me feel less alone–even if the characters’ lives are completely different from mine. And I love books that challenge and move me. Those are the kinds of things I hope readers feel when they read The Underside of Joy.
Amy: What is your definition of women’s fiction?
Seré: Such a hot topic these days. Definitions are sometimes necessary, especially for marketing, but they’re also limiting. I like to think the definitions are evolving. The Underside of Joy is a story about motherhood but also about family, war, food, love, death, grief, joy, resilience—lots of things that involve women and men. The book had a pink flower on the cover and now the paperback has a little girl on the beach—clearly marketed as women’s fiction, right? Right. And yet, I’ve received such thoughtful e-mails from a number of male readers, ranging in ages from 25 to 89.
So I’m going to say I see women’s fiction as an extremely broad category of fiction, which is marketed toward women but can usually be read and enjoyed by both women and men. (Men who aren’t scared off by feminine-looking covers, that is.)
Amy: What’s your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction?
Seré: My advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction is the same as my advice for aspiring authors of any fiction, in fact it’s the same for aspiring anyones—anyone who is working at something they’re passionate about. Writers love this one because we need it in the face of all that rejection: It’s the Winston Churchill quote—a favorite of my dear friend and writing sister, Elle Newmark: “Never, never, never, never give up.” Just don’t. Keep going. That doesn’t mean you can’t break away for periods of time if you need to, but keep rolling your work-in-progress around in your head, and always come back to it.
It took me hundreds of rejections and three completed novels before The Underside of Joy was published. Even if it hadn’t been published, I wouldn’t regret the years I’ve spent writing and learning my craft. Passion is a good thing. Elle also said, “Passion is our consolation for mortality.” She died last year, after a life of writing and living passionately—a life very well-lived. I learned a lot from her and am learning from her still.
Thanks so much for these great questions, Amy! I’m looking so forward to reading The Glass Wives!
Oh, thank you, Seré, all of that means so much to me!
Seré Prince Halverson worked as a freelance copywriter and creative director for twenty years while she wrote fiction. She and her husband live in Northern California and have four (almost) grown children. The Underside of Joy is her debut novel. Published by Dutton in January 2012, it will be translated into 18 languages.
You can find Seré on her website, blog, and on Facebook.
Don’t forget to read the excerpt of THE UNDERSIDE OF JOY by clicking here.
Dear WFW Friends,
I’ve interviewed quite a few Bell Bridge Books authors and it’s always a treat!
Katherine Scott Crawford’s historical novel, KEOWEE VALLEY, is steeped in Katherine’s personal history. She took a setting, an idea, a notion, a feeling, a passion — mixed it with research — and wrote a novel. What a wonderful reminder that everything around us can be fodder for our stories, if we remember to pay attention (and take notes)!
Please welcome Katherine Scott Crawford to Women’s Fiction Writers.
Amy xo
Amy: Congratulations on the publication of Keowee Valley! Your website says your novel is an historical adventure and romance set in the Revolutionary-era Carolinas and in the Cherokee country. Can you tell us how you got the idea for your story?
Katherine: Thank you, Amy. And thanks so much for having me–I’m delighted to be here!
The idea behind Keowee Valley had been percolating in my mind for years, but it really began when I was a kid. I grew up in the South Carolina Upcountry, and I’m lucky that my parents have a lake house in the South Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. The lake sits right at the foot of those mountains, in the middle of the countryside, and it’s bordered by national forest. It’s a gorgeous place, my favorite in the world. All throughout my childhood and into my teens (I went to college nearby) we explored the whole area, camping, hiking, river paddling. It was heaven.
In the S.C. Blue Ridge (all all across the Southern Appalachians, really), every mountaintop, creek or river, just about every road—really any pretty spot—has a Cherokee Indian name. So as a kid I became obsessed with Cherokee history. I couldn’t believe that an entire people had lived in this place I loved, and were gone.
Well, there’s this spot near my parents’ lake house. It’s really just a pasture (usually filled with cows), and at the crest of the pasture near the tree line, there’s an old stone chimney. The house must’ve burned down around it years ago. Whenever I’d pass that spot, I couldn’t shake the image of a woman standing there. She had long hair, wore an 18th century dress—and it seemed like she belonged, but didn’t at the same time. I just couldn’t shake that dream woman. I felt like she loved the land as much as I did. I had to write about her.
Amy: Will you tell us about your journey to publication? It can be such a long and winding road for some! Was it like that for you?
Katherine: Absolutely! People have been asking me this a lot lately, and every time I say it I shake my head in wonder: From starting to write the novel until the day my publisher made an offer, the whole thing took about six years. Add another year plus if you consider the time from the day of the offer until it was released! So it was definitely a long and winding road, and there were times when I thought I’d have to scrap the whole thing, that no one would ever read what I’d written. Thank goodness, that didn’t happen.
I went about the publication process in the traditional way: wrote my novel first (took me about two years, total, to research and write it), then queried literary agents. I queried LOTS of agents—around 200—and still have all the rejection letters. But I was lucky: after about three months of querying, I ended up with four offers of representation. I did some research, then went with my gut and chose one.
Because the agent thing happened so fast, I thought, “Man, I’m on a roll! My novel will sell quickly.” Ha. It took my agent three years to find a publisher. He’s a pretty reputable guy, has been in the business a long time, so I trusted his process. We started with the “Big 6” publishers, and actually got pretty far into the process with one of them, but it fell through. I was devastated, of course. All of them seemed confounded by the genre-bending Keowee Valley does: it’s certainly got romantic elements, but it isn’t totally a romance, and it’s a Cherokee-Indian-frontier-story of the Revolution, sometimes literary, sometimes commercial. Several editors said they just didn’t know where Barnes and Noble would put it on the shelves. One even said, “If she writes about the queens of Europe, let us know!”
I suggested to my agent that we seek out smaller publishers, and I knew about the one that would eventually be mine (Bell Bridge Books) because Deborah Smith—the VP—is one of my favorite Southern authors. So my agent submitted, and they bit. And they’ve been wonderful to work with.
Amy: I always assume the writers of historical fiction are plotters — do you fall into that category or do you do any writing by the seat of your pants?
Katherine: How I wish I was a plotter! I am so envious of those writers who can map out a novel and then make it happen. I think it’s a special talent, but it’s one I don’t have. I’m definitely a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of person, in life and in my writing. Usually my stories begin with an image or a scene—something I dream up or just see in my mind, usually when I’m traveling—and then I go from there. My research and the story itself seem to build organically around each other. Though I am a history nut, so I guess I do already have a store of knowledge about certain periods, and that definitely helps.
With Keowee Valley, it all started with that dream woman who eventually became my protagonist, Quinn. I knew I wanted to write about the 18th century in the South Carolina backcountry, because it was a wild and dangerous place, and the Cherokee were at their most powerful. I thought, why not take Quinn from a sheltered life and drop her into all that danger and mystery, and see who she meets?
But I’d still love to be able to plot. It’s something with which I really struggle. But I couldn’t do it in 9th grade English class, and I can’t seem to do it now.
Amy: Are you working on something new? Can you share anything about it?
Katherine: Well, I have big plans for a sequel to Keowee Valley. When I wrote it, I actually dreamed the story in a series of three novels, culminating with the American Revolution. And I still plan to do this. But because there was such a long stretch of time between when I began writing Keowee Valley and when it was actually published—and I thought no one would ever read it—I began work on something new.
It’s another historical novel, set in Charleston, South Carolina, in the year leading up to the Civil War. And it’s based on the descendants of Quinn and Jack, my heroine and hero from Keowee Valley—really, on their great granddaughter. She’s a lot like Quinn: independent, smart, stubborn, adventurous. And she lives in a gilded world she’s always questioned—a world that’s literally about to explode with the opening shots of the Civil War.
Amy: What is your definition of women’s fiction?
Katherine: That’s a tough question, because I’ve always found “definitions” in general to be sticky and often limiting. And, like a lot of women writers, I get frustrated by the publishing industry’s definitions of what we write—or can write. But I think, maybe, that women’s fiction is fiction centered on women: on our lives, our wants, our many paths, our dreams. And, since as my husband says, “Women are the center of everything,” those paths inevitably spider out, touching everyone.
I read stories with male protagonists all the time, but no one’s calling them “men’s fiction.” (The history dork in me could hop up on my soapbox right now, get rolling on history and politics and gender roles and all that good stuff. But I won’t do that to your readers!) I will say, though, that I think the times are changing, and readers are changing along with them. And don’t we all want a rousing story, something that transports us, that moves us, that stays with us? With a character at the center of it all who we can love?
One of my husband’s friends, who happens to be a man, told me he’s reading a chapter of Keowee Valley every night in the bathtub. I think this is hilarious and wonderful. So, I guess, to me, women’s fiction is, simply, darn good fiction.
Amy: Can you share with us your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction?
Katherine: I know it’s been said a thousand times, but PERSISTANCE. Unwavering persistence toward your goal of writing is imperative. There’s no way it’ll happen otherwise. And maybe persistence partnered with patience (that and humility). It’s okay if it takes you a decade, if you’re sidetracked by work, school, kids, grandkids, illness, change—all the tough and wonderful things that make a great life. Just keep at it. These are the things I continue to tell myself.
Oh, and find yourself a partner-in-crime. Someone—a buddy or a lover—who believes in you and what you’re doing. Who won’t let you back down, no matter what. Those folks are priceless.
Katherine Scott Crawford was born and raised in the blue hills of the South Carolina Upcountry, the history and setting of which inspired Keowee Valley. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award, she is a former newspaper reporter and outdoor educator, a college English teacher, and an avid hiker. She lives with her family in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she tries to resist the siren call of her passport as she works on her next novel. Visit her website at www.katherinescottcrawford.com for more information, or to connect with her via Facebook and at her blog, The Writing Scott.
Dear WFW friends,
It’s both tragedy and joy that bring people together. A week ago we were all waiting to see what Hurricane Sandy would do to the East Coast. Beaches, homes, businesses, and lives have been ravaged. Then, and even now, we’re focusing much needed time and attention where it should be. On the victims.
But for some, things are getting back to a new normal. And that includes the world of publishing. And celebrating with a friend, or discovering a new author, doesn’t mean we are not fully aware of what’s going on on Staten Island, Long Island, and Lower Manhattan, not to mention parts of New Jersey and the Jersey Shore. It doesn’t mean we won’t do our part or that we don’t know what’s important.
The truth is, many things are important. So, if you are fortunate enough to have power and heat and your life on-track, celebrate with us here for a little while today. It’s the joyful book birthday for Sharla Lovelace’s second novel, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE!
Sharla and I have internet trails that criss-cross around cyberspace. It’s these kinds of online connections that make me forget — I’ve never actually MET this person. And haven’t we come a long way that it’s not embarrassing to admit that?
Please welcome Sharla to Women’s Fiction Writers!
Amy xo
Amy: Congratulations on the publication of your second novel, Sharla! Can you tell us how launching BEFORE AND EVER SINCE differed from launching your THE REASON IS YOU?
Sharla: Well, really, the biggest differences were in time and promo. First one, I wasn’t writing anything else when it came out, so I sat all happy in my published glow, and watched the little birds fly around my head. 🙂 I didn’t know much about promoting, so I wasn’t doing all that I should have been doing. Now, as my second book comes out, I’m promoting it, my first, my novella, doing launch parties and all-weekend events, all while trying to keep writing on my new series and another book idea my agent came up with. Which, while that is all insane, it’s necessary to succeed as a new author. So, maybe there won’t be birds, but hopefully there will be sales. LOL.
Amy: If you could launch your first book all over again, is there anything you’d do differently?
Sharla: Everything I just mentioned above. 🙂
Amy: We’re both members (and on the board) of the RWA-WF Chapter. Tell us what women’s fiction means to you — and how that might differ from romance in your opinion. Where do your books fall? Under one category or both? (I think that’s possible, and I bet you do too!)
Sharla: Most definitely! In my opinion, there are many different levels of women’s fiction. There’s what I call “purist” which is strictly and only about the woman’s journey, no romance or even a hint of it involved. Then there are the “hybrids”. *laughing* I write Romantic Women’s Fiction, which borders on Contemporary Romance at times. I ride the fence. Because I love romance and tension and chemistry in a story, my stories always have them, but the difference is that the plot isn’t about the relationship. It may be about family, or issues, or something going on that the main character has to face and deal with, while this chemistry is pulling at her from the side. It’s a big part of the story, but not the central plot. I do have HEA’s though, so when push comes to shove, I qualify for romance too. Some stores put me in Mainstream, some in Romance. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Amy: Amidst all the changes in publishing, how do you keep a positive attitude? So many people get discouraged!
Sharla: I just keep plugging along. I’m a believer that rejections make you stronger and make you do better work. The publishing industry may have to be really really choosy right now in what they can afford to take on, and that just makes me want to write better so they will.
Amy: Do you have a writing schedule or any rituals you want to share with us that really help your process?
Sharla: I have a full time day job, so my writing schedule consists of what I can do after 4pm, around dinner and errands and laundry and my daughter’s schedule. She’s a senior this year so lots of crazy things. And she’s preparing to go into the Navy this summer, so additional crazies. I long for the day when I can be a grownup author and write full time in my pj’s. 🙂
Amy: What’s your best advice for aspiring authors?
Sharla: I know it’s a cliche but never give up. Don’t sell your dream short. If you want self publishing, do it because you want that, because it’s your first choice, not because you can’t get in a different door. If you want traditional, then keep improving and working your craft. Rejections mean it’s not there yet. You want your book one day to be out there looking flawless and worthy next to the big names. Take the criticism and keep on keeping on. You will get there if you have the drive and stamina. It took me years. Never give up.
Thanks so much for having me over to chat, Amy!
Sharla Lovelace is the National Bestselling Author of THE REASON IS YOU, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, and the e-novella JUST ONE DAY. Being a Texas girl through and through, she is proud to say that she lives in Southeast Texas with her family, an old lady dog, and an aviary full of cockatiels.
Sharla is available by Skype for book club meetings and chats, and loves connecting with her readers! See her website http://www.sharlalovelace.com for book discussion questions, events, and to sign up for her monthly newsletter.
You can follow her as @sharlalovelace on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.
I hope all of you in the path of Superstorm Sandy are safe — and that you have power, internet, chocolate, some of your favorite people around you — and I hope you have books! It might be a perilous day on the East Coast, but for author Juliette Fay, it’s also an important day — the publication of her third novel, THE SHORTEST WAY HOME. Juliette shares with us what she thinks of the fact that her book is labeled women’s fiction even though it’s about a man, how she allows her ideas to simmer for a year before she writes them, and what it’s like to revisit characters from her first novel, SHELTER ME, in THE SHORTEST WAY HOME.
Please welcome Juliette Fay to Women’s Fiction Writers!
And of course, stay safe, my friends.
Amy xo
Amy: Congratulations! Today is the release of your third novel, THE SHORTEST WAY HOME. Would you tell us a little bit about it? I know the story revisits the setting from your first novel, SHELTER ME, but isn’t exactly a sequel. Can you explain? And what is it about the setting and characters that drew you back?
Juliette: The Shortest Way Home is about Sean Doran, a nurse who’s worked in devastatingly poor areas around the world. He’s at risk for Huntington’s Disease—his mother died of it when he was young—but like many who are at risk, he has never wanted to be tested to find out if he has it, too. To avoid the possibility of passing it on, he’s never married or had children.
Sean makes what he thinks will be a quick trip to his hometown of Belham, Mass, also the setting for Shelter Me. There he finds that his elderly aunt who raised him, his sister, and his nephew are having a crisis of their own. Sean is drawn progressively deeper into the family drama, and finds it harder and harder to leave.
The reason I set it in the town from Shelter Me is that people often ask for a sequel to that novel. Unfortunately, I just don’t have an entirely new story with those same characters to offer. And I didn’t want to trump one up, because a bad sequel is more than just a bad book—it also has a way of ruining your memory of the first book.
I decided to set The Shortest Way Home in Belham, and used some of the characters from Shelter Me, so the reader would know, peripherally, how things worked out for them. As a result, Cormac the bakery owner, who was the cousin of Janie, the main character from Shelter Me, is the best friend from high school of Sean, the main character from The Shortest Way Home. Cormac was one of my favorites, so it was really fun to write about him again. The two stories are connected but stand alone, too.
Amy: Has your process for writing a novel changed since SHELTER ME and your second novel, DEEP DOWN TRUE? What have you learned between book one and book three? (and yes, we have all day!)
Juliette: I wrote Shelter Me without any idea if it would ever end up on a bookstore shelf. There’s a certain amount of freedom in that. You just write want you want to write with no sense of an agent, editor or readership looking over your shoulder.
With Deep Down True, I felt the pressure—it was internal more than anything else. I had to work hard to shut it out. Also, I was promoting Shelter Me, so it was like having two jobs, and a bit distracting. My editor for Deep Down True did a lot of trimming, and at first I was resistant. But she was (mostly) right, and it was a crash course in getting rid of anything extraneous. I learned to write cleaner and clearer. In the end I was very grateful.
When I turned in The Shortest Way Home, my editor joked that I had learned the lesson so well, she had almost nothing to do! A little clarifying here and there, a little buttressing this theme, trimming down that one, but generally her edits were fairly minor. It was so satisfying.
Right now, I’m almost done with book four, and I hope she’ll find that I’ve continued to hone the skills she’s taught me.
Amy: How did the idea for your novels strike you? What was the inspiration?
Juliette: A writer has to live with a story for a long time—for me, a year or more. So while none of my books are autobiographical, they’re all about things that intrigue or worry me: the sudden death of a spouse and learning how to be a single mother; how female friendships can get stuck in a middle school cycle of trust and betrayal, and how we always have that insecure middle schooler inside us; living with the threat of an incurable terminal disease.
My inspiration for The Shortest Way Home was a friend whose mother had Huntington’s. This was before the test was available and I watched my friend live with the terrible uncertainty of not knowing if she might have it, too. When she found out she didn’t, her life changed. She started looking at things with a sense of permanence. I was fascinated by this, and wanted to explore it through a story—not about her, but about a character dealing with a similar experience.
Amy: We’ve talked about this a few times on WFW, but how do you think books with male main characters fit under the women’s fiction umbrella?
Juliette: I think they fit fine. It’s not like readers of women’s fiction don’t want to read about men.
But maybe there’s a different question you’re asking: how does the gender of the writer affect the way a book is labeled, regardless of the gender of the main character. If that’s what your wondering, and if I’m being completely honest … I think that if someone in possession of a set of testicles had written this book, it would be called general fiction. After all, it’s not just about a man—it’s about a single man with no children. But since it’s ultimately a family drama, and I have ovaries, it’s called women’s fiction.
Amy: And this leads us to…what is your definition of women’s fiction? And does the hullaballoo surrounding “the label” bother you?
Juliette: I think of women’s fiction as family drama, and I wish they’d use that label instead. But the women’s fiction label doesn’t really bother me, because a rose is a rose. Happily, there are a lot of people who want to read family drama/women’s fiction—and, hey, I’m here to help.
What bothers me is that sometimes it’s assumed that women’s fiction isn’t as well written or serious as other categories, despite the fact that there can be gorgeous prose and weighty subject matter found in women’s fiction, just as there can be some bad verbiage and fluffiness elsewhere. Every genre has a wide range of both writing style and “seriousness.”
All this is to say, the label itself isn’t so bad; it’s the assumptions that aren’t always helpful.
Amy: What is your best advice for aspiring authors of women’s fiction?
Juliette: My best advice is to be a really good friend to yourself. A really good friend would be encouraging yet honest, would kick you in the butt when you’re getting lazy or being a fuss pot, and would make you take yourself seriously, but not too seriously.
Let that really good friend be the voice in your head. Let her drown out the voices that sound like critics or the growing laundry pile or that one mean English teacher you had high school.
That really good friend (who is you) would say: Worry less and write more … so stop talking to yourself and get going!
Juliette’s latest novel, The Shortest Way Home, is due in bookstores on October 30th. Her first novel, Shelter Me, was chosen as a 2009 “Book of the Year,” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress (which makes it government-related, right?) Her second, Deep Down True, was short-listed for the Women’s Fiction award by the American Library Association. She lives in Wayland, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.
You can find out more about Juliette and her books on her website, on Facebook, and by following her on Twitter @juliettefay.
women's fiction writers 