NiFtY Author

NiFtY Author: Sunny Frazier

Posted on by Beth Hull

For today’s NiFtY Author I give you…drum roll…Sunny Frazier! Sunny has published two mysteries, Fools Rush In, and Where Angels Fear, as well as contributed to numerous anthologies. She’s also active in her publishing house, and works to help other authors promote their work. Keep on reading to learn more about this nifty author!

BH: What’s your one-paragraph pitch for the first Christy Bristol book, Fools Rush In?

SF: Astrologer Christy Bristol is egged on by a former boyfriend to do a horoscope for a drug dealer and finds herself the one with a precarious future.

BH: Can you tell us a little about your path to publication? Did you go the traditional “agent” route, or did you use some other scheme?

SF: I won a spot as one of the seven authors chosen for the Seven By Seven anthology. The publisher liked my flash fiction so much that he offered me a contract for my book.

BH: Ah, that’s the kind of success story we unpublished authors salivate over. What are some of the challenges you faced by not working with an agent? Were there benefits as well?

SF: I only experienced the benefits. I got not only a lot of say with how my own books were published, but both my past publisher and my current publisher have looked to me for input on picking manuscripts for the publishing house. They also picked my brain for marketing ideas.

BH: Your publisher, Oak Tree Press, is an independent publisher. What are some of the benefits of working with an independent publisher?

SF: Trust and immediate access. We communicate constantly, by e-mail and phone. I am now acquisitions editor for the Dark Oak mystery line. I also introduced two new lines: Wild Oaks Westerns and Mystic Oak for paranormal novels.

BH: Are there any disadvantages to working with an independent publisher?

SF: It’s never easy to get books into brick and mortar book stores. However, many are closing and the reading public is ordering on Amazon. Also, e-readers are finally finding acceptance with Kindle and the I-Pad. Aggressive Internet marketing is leveling the playing field for authors with smaller houses.

Sunny standing with publisher Billie Johnson at a pitch session in Las Vegas

BH: I tried to write a mystery—once. It quickly turned into a (not very good) thriller/suspense novel because I couldn’t figure out how to give just enough information without making the killer’s identity obvious. Do you have any tips on this for aspiring mystery writers?

SF: I think the definition of “mystery” has blurred considerably. The “puzzle” type mysteries such as Agatha Christie wrote are not common these days. Instead of being plot driven, we are seeing more character-driven story arcs. I don’t write whodunits, I write whydunits. In fact, I tell you who the victim is and who the killer is on the first page—the “Colombo” formula. The reader keeps reading to see how my character Christy uses astrology to her advantage.

You should have stuck with your suspense novel.

BH: Oh, I did. Unfortunately the premise wasn’t a wowzer, so I’ve moved on, and I read other peoples’ mysteries now.

Every unpublished author thinks all her problems will be solved as soon as she gets her name in print…even though published writers tell us this isn’t true. Did you have any unfortunate wake-up calls?

SF: What I try to instill in writers is to start promoting as soon as you decide you want to write a book. Name recognition is very important. Getting people accustomed to your “voice” through blogging, learning about the industry by monitoring group sites, getting comfortable with promotion. People want to make it a chore and it’s more of a mindset. I work on promotion on Sundays. I have 35 sites I belong to, all are professional sites for writers, readers and publishers. They each give you your own page, so it’s like having 35 websites. I developed what I call “the posse” to teach people how to effectively promote. All I need is an e-mail and attentiveness to my nudges. It takes years off people’s careers, unless they want to start from scratch and reinvent the wheel.

BH: When you first wrote Fools Rush In, were you already planning a sequel?

SF:  I had six books in mind: titles, plots, characters.

BH: What was the most enjoyable part of writing the sequel, Where Angels Fear?

SF:  I didn’t realize that Fools Rush In was one of the hardest types of mysteries to write. My protagonist was stuck in a room for most of the book. In the sequel, Christy and her sidekick Lennie get to traipse all over the Central County uncovering clues to a sex club. There’s more humor as well. I had a hard time keeping a straight face while writing.

BH: Is a third book in the works?

SF:  Slowly but surely, A Snitch In Time is making its way on paper. I’m so busy speaking at conferences and conventions as well as reading query letters for Oak Tree Press that my own work suffers.

BH: Can you compare your series character, Christy Bristol, to anyone you know in real life?

SF: Uh—me. I worked as an office assistant with an undercover narc team for 17 years in the sheriff’s department and I’ve done astrology for nearly 40 years. Christy is much like I was in my earlier years.

BH: What is your writing schedule like?

SF:  My computer is on for 12 hours a day. I write in small clumps, fitting in the novel when I get tired of reading manuscripts and conducting business via e-mail. My eyes get so tired staring at the screen, sometimes I just hit the couch and close them. My brain keeps going over the story until I’m ready to tackle the keyboard.

Oh, and I don’t have kids, a husband or a job to interrupt me. Just a bunch of cats who give me space when I’m at the desk. If not, they have to go out in the yard and play.

BH: What does your writing workspace look like?

SF: It’s usually a mess with notes scattered all over. I have a rolodex, a Victorian calendar, and a pen carousel with a fake raven stuck in the center. For some reason I work well in chaos.

BH: What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

SF: Self-Editing For Fiction Writers—How To Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King. I checked it out at the library and loved it so much I ordered a copy from Amazon.

BH: What is the best writing advice anyone has given you?

SF:  Early on I heard authors say “Enjoy the journey, not the destination.” That’s the truth. If writers fret too much about publication they will miss the whole point of writing. It’s all about the people you meet, the sharing of minds, the art of creating, giving your ideas to the world. Money is usually lousy, hours are bad, solitude wears on you and there are no health benefits. But still, it’s a wild ride.

BH: Any words on advice to unpublished writers for keeping the hope alive?

SF:  Small presses are worth taking a chance on. I always tell writers “You can’t promote what doesn’t exist.” Get that first book out there and get the machine rolling. Don’t think the first book you’ve written is the only one you have in you. Start another right away.

Sunny, thank you so much for the interview, and for sharing your books and insights. To our studio audience: don’t forget to check out the links below to learn more about Sunny, her books, and her publisher! Simply click on a description to reach the site.

Sunny’s website. This is where you can find The Murder Circle.

Oak Tree Authors are assigned blog dates. Meet us!

Order Oak Tree Titles, learn about our contests, get the latest info on what we’re doing in the publishing world.

NiFtY Author: Marja McGraw

Posted on by Beth Hull

This week’s NiFtY Author is none other than Marja McGraw, author of the Sandi Webster mystery series. Now she’s branching out into a new series, The Bogey Mysteries, which also promises to delight readers. Details on Marja’s books, as well as her thoughts on research, writing, and how pets enrich a story, can all be found below!

BH: What’s your one-paragraph pitch for the latest novel in your Sandi Webster series?

MM:  Imagine you’re a young, female P.I., it’s late at night and you’re watching the motel room of an errant husband. Surveillance can be so boring, you think to yourself, until the angry wife shows up and blows your cover, and the husband comes after you. Now imagine that Humphrey Bogart, who’s been gone for many years, comes to your rescue. Huh?

BH: How many books have you published, and which is your favorite?

MM: I’ve published four books in the Sandi Webster series, one stand alone book, and the first book in a new series (The Bogey Mysteries) is due out before long.

Hmm. My favorite would probably be The Bogey Man, because not only was it fun to write, but I was able to research and use a lot of 1940’s slang. Chris Cross, whom Sandi refers to as the Bogey Man, really wants to emulate Bogart as he was in his private investigator roles in the movies. Also, the new series is a spinoff from this book, which is opening new doors for me.

BH: Tell us a little bit about Sandi. What makes her unique and engaging as a series character?

MM: Sandi is relatively young and a little naïve for a private investigator.  She tends to romanticize her job, which isn’t very realistic. She grew up watching the old P.I. movies, and she’s tried to model herself after the vintage gumshoes. Her partner, Pete, balances her attitude with his own ex-cop demeanor. She has an overbearing, menopausal mother who inadvertently teaches her about being tough. She’s constantly growing and changing as a character. She often feels she has to prove herself to people because of her naiveté, and she comes up with some fairly unique ideas in times of stress and danger.

BH: In a conversation with a friend recently, we discussed how some famous authors (unnamed for purposes of not slinging mud) have trouble keeping their series going for too long because eventually the hero’s development stalls. Do you have any tricks to share on avoiding that trap?

MM: What can I say? I’m mumble mumble years old, and I’ve never stopped changing and growing. Consequently, I try to fashion my characters to follow real life development. Circumstances change us on a constant basis. So I guess my trick would be to take a good look at real life and create circumstances in the stories in order that the characters may grow.

BH: Your novel A Well-Kept Family Secret departs from your other Sandi Webster books in that it involves a hundred-year-old case. While doing the research, did you come up with any new details that changed the shape of the novel?

MM: Nothing that actually changed the story, although the history for that era was quite interesting. I was able to include some of it in the story (in small doses), and I think that enhanced it. The people and their lifestyles were interesting around the turn of the century. This story involved the old Red Light District in Los Angeles, and I found some interesting papers and maps. For instance, there’s a tax map that shows Ladies’ Boarding Houses in Chinatown, and those were actually the brothels – so even maps helped.

In 1994 I read an article in the newspaper about the water district doing work on the parking lot at Union Station in downtown L.A. In the process they uncovered portions of the old Red Light District, including outhouses, which is where a lot of items were disposed of.  I contacted the archaeologist who handled the project, and he supplied me with invaluable information.

Why was I so interested in this period? Because my great-great-grandfather was one of two men who ran the real red light district. I grew up hearing stories about him, what he did, and about a buried treasure attributed to him and his brother.

BH: Do you have any other projects planned?

MM: As I mentioned, the first book in a new series will be out before long from Oak Tree Press. I’m pretty excited about it. Bogey Nights was a lot of fun to write. It’s probably a little more mature than the Sandi Webster series, because the characters are married and have a son, and I found a whole new type of humor in their lives. I’m working on the second book now, and the working title is Bogey’s Nightmare.

BH: I read one of your blog posts on how having pets in a story “enhances the storyline.” Could you elaborate on that?

MM: Absolutely. I’ve included canines in both of my series, so I’ll stick to dogs in my answer. A dog can play almost as big of a role as a human character if you’ll let it. They’re smart, funny and terribly loyal and protective. They’ll do anything in their power to keep their human happy, although they can be the cause of some angst, too. A dog can even be a possible victim or a hero, and they can provide comic relief. They can demonstrate hurt feelings, joy, sadness and grab your heart in the process. They can enhance the story without simply being filler.

I recall one of the lowest times in my life when I was sprawled out on the bed, crying my eyes out. My dog jumped up with her (gutted) teddy bear and laid it on my arm, and then snuggled up next to me until I’d cried it all out. Take note: the dog comforted me, while people kept their distance. I also recall another dog who became very frustrated with me because he thought someone was knocking at the door every time there was thunder during a storm. He couldn’t seem to figure out why I wouldn’t see who was there.

BH: What is your writing schedule like?

MM: I generally work for four to six hours in the morning, when I’m the freshest. I’ll work anywhere from five to seven days a week. Most of my stories take six to nine months to write. I write, let it sit and then go back and read it again, making changes where necessary. I have critique partners who read the stories two chapters at a time, and when they return the chapters, I rewrite again. When the story is done, I go back to the beginning and read it straight through, making more changes and edits.

In the meantime, I update my website every few months, and I try to keep my blog (located on my website) updated weekly, with a new one appearing on Sunday or Monday.

I critique for the same people who look at my work, review a book every once in a great while, and try to put together a marketing plan as best I can. Promote, promote, promote.

My writing schedule includes a lot more than just writing.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

MM: When we had our house built, I had them turn the third bedroom into an office. I have an oak roll top desk that fits nicely into what would have been the opening for a closet, and the closet shelf holds my paper and other supplies. Copies of the book covers adorn the wall by my desk along with a photo of Humphrey Bogart, and I have bulletin boards that I can jot quick notes on, so I won’t forget ideas as they come to me. For my birthday, my husband bought me a painting of a man wearing a suit and fedora, sitting at the bar in a lounge. The view is from the rear and you can just barely see the man’s jaw line. He has a martini in one hand and a cigar in the other, and it could most definitely be a picture of the Bogey Man sitting at the bar in the lounge part of the restaurant he and his wife own.

Other than that, my workspace is pretty much a mess.

BH: Sounds like my workspace. Oh, I’ll admit it. It sounds like my whole house. What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

MM: I can’t honestly say I have a favorite. I’ve read several, and I pick and choose what I need from each of them.

BH: What is the best writing advice you’ve received?

MM: Never give up and keep striving to make your writing cleaner with each read through. And grow a thick skin, because not everyone will like what you write. (Nah, really?) Always, always, remember your manners and treat people the same way you’d like to be treated. Lastly, and most importantly, don’t let family and friends fall by the wayside because you think you’re too busy for them.

BH: Any words on advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

MM: If you honestly believe you’ve written a good book that people will enjoy reading, never give up. Read some of the stories behind successful authors, and you’ll see that some of them went through a lot of hoops to get where they are now.

The Sandi Webster series is published through Wings ePress, and I’ll always be thankful to them for giving me a chance.

Now let me tell you my success story. I’d submitted Bogey Nights to Oak Tree Press, and they liked it, but they wanted to meet me. They were attending a conference in Las Vegas and asked if I could be there. Ha! Like I would have missed that opportunity. They offered me a contract right there, on the spot, something they’d never done before. Sometimes good things happen when you least expect it.

BH: That’s the kind of story that keeps us unpublished authors type-type-typing away. Thank you, Marja, for stopping by and answering some questions for us!

I don’t know about all of my writer and reader friends, but for me, it’s inspiring and informative to hear responses like this from other authors. The success stories are great because they get me movin’ and hopin’, and the advice is always sound, coming from other professionals in the trenches…er, I mean field.

To learn more about Marja and her books, you can visit her website by clicking here.

NiFtY Author: Velda Brotherton

Posted on by Beth Hull

This is a first in my NiFtY (Not Famous…Yet) Author Interview series – a nonfiction author! Gasp! Cheer! Amazement! However, nonfiction is just the most recent tip of the iceberg for Velda Brotherton, who has also published historical fiction: Images in Scarlet, and Fly With the Mourning Dove. Her most recent works of nonfiction include The Boston Mountains: Lost in the Ozarks, and Arkansas Meals and Memories: Lift Your Eyes to the Mountains.

BH: Welcome, Velda! Please tell us a little about your latest books.

VB:  I’d be happy to. The Boston Mountains: Lost in the Ozarks is a product of about 20 years of work. During that time I wrote a historical page for the Washington County Observer, a rural weekly newspaper. I gathered interviews, visited with folks and began a keen interest in Boston Mountain history. I wanted to know more about the settlers who moved in from 1828 into the early 1900s. My files grew over the years, and I began to put together an idea for the book. A compilation of stories told by the descendants of those early settlers, stories of the towns that no longer exist. The lost communities. Alas, no publisher was interested. Some of these stories would break your heart, others are of such joyful content as to bring laughter and awe. The book covers the stories from these communities in four counties that lie in the heart of the Boston Mountains. It also contains 137 photos, some very old, some as new as last summer when we traveled those back roads to bring the book together after I found a publisher. While doing that I decided to include directions and mileage as well as road conditions to many of these remote sites. So many people want to visit the place where Grandpa or Grandma attended school or grew up, and I decided to make that easy.

Arkansas Meals and Memories: Lift Your Eyes to the Mountains is a recipe book that contains 150 recipes from my mother’s collection of 80 years, plus quite a few gathered from some of the best cooks living in the Boston Mountains today. There are stories of growing up in these Ozarks during the Great Depression from my own memories and many sayings and beliefs of this area as well.

BH: I’ve heard that nonfiction books often include writing a proposal, but that’s the extent of my nonfiction publishing knowledge. Could you tell us a little about your path to publishing these books?

VB: You’re right that nonfiction books often include writing a proposal, however, this didn’t happen with either of these books.

I’m a great believer in networking, and that’s what I’ve done for the past 25 years. Every book I’ve had published during that time is the direct result of that networking. My six historical romances came about because of an editor I approached at a Western Writers of America Conference. The nonfiction books, beginning with Wandering In The Shadows of Time, were also the result of networking.

When I traveled to San Antonio to pick up a WILLA  finalist award for my book, Fly With The Mourning Dove, I pitched my idea for The Boston Mountain book to an editor there. He had attended the awards banquet at which I accepted my award. He was immediately interested in publishing the book, didn’t even ask for a proposal or an outline.

That same year I attended a conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and was approached by an editor to do the cook book. He was looking for someone to do one from the Arkansas Ozarks and had no notion that I possessed all of my mother’s collection. I’d never considered writing such a book, but when I learned he also wanted stories from the area, I couldn’t turn him down. The books both came out within two months of each other, making it easier for me to include both in all my promotion efforts.

BH: Your nonfiction works definitely will appeal to a niche market – the people who live or have history in the Boston Mountains. Can you explain the wider appeal these books may have?

VB:  When World War II came along, people living in the Arkansas Ozarks scattered to the winds. There was no money, no jobs to be had, and so they all headed out for places that offered more opportunity. I have people from California, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas requesting books because they want to learn more about their roots. Their parents or grandparents talk about this place all the time, and share their memories. Our area has been booming for the past ten years and we have a lot of “implants” who are very curious about our way of life prior to these modern times, so they too are interested in my books.

BH: Because you’ve written both fiction and nonfiction, I’d love to hear your take on the distinct challenges and joys of each one.

VB: Because most of my fiction is also historical, writing it poses much the same challenges as far as research goes. I struggle to get everything absolutely true to history while weaving my fictional characters through the story. However, writing fiction is a much more free form of writing than writing nonfiction. I really enjoy immersing myself in a fictional world where I’m in control, more or less. Often though, the characters take over and I’m merely channeling.

Creative nonfiction has given writers a bit more freedom to create dialogue and internalization, but it requires that we study the morals and beliefs of the time closely so that we have our characters spot on. In the Boston Mountain book I’m careful to explain that the stories there are modern folk tales. They are told the way they were told to me. The only thing I strive to do is make sure that the dates, historical occurrences and places are presented correctly. We all know that everyone perceives what’s going on around them differently, and so we make allowances for that. But I can’t allow myself to treat these stories as I would if they were fictional.

I enjoy both genres as long as I can do both and not be tied down to one. Recently I’ve moved into contemporary women’s fiction and am working on getting those published.

BH: So how much time, really, do you spend in a library or on the internet doing research?

VB: You wouldn’t believe how much time research can eat up. I began my historical romances before the Internet came on the scene for the common folk, and I spent a ton of time in the library doing research. Luckily, my husband fell in love with computers when the Internet came along, and he did a lot of my research for me giving me more time to write. Actual time, I’d say a historical fiction or nonfiction book can take as much as six months to a year of research. I usually begin to write long before my research is complete, though because I don’t often know everything I’ll need until I get into the book.

BH: I have to know: have you tried making each of the 150 recipes in your cookbook? Which is your favorite?

VB: Oh, goodness no. My mother cooked them and that was good enough for me. Growing up I didn’t want to learn to cook at all, though she struggled to teach me. My mother began cooking when she was 8 years old, standing on a crate in front of a wood burning cook stove. Her mother preferred outdoor work and they always lived on a farm. Mother was raised in the Ozarks, coming here with her family from Montana when she was 8.

I have tried many of the recipes. I took the Cheesy Squash recipe (doubled) to a pot luck picnic a couple months ago and everyone was clamoring for the recipe. I want to try a lot more of them, and have a copy the cook book in my kitchen now. My daughter has also tried some of the recipes and she doesn’t even like to cook.

BH: Can you share a simple recipe here?

VB: I’d be happy to. Here’s something for your sweet tooth. This is Grandmother’s Caramel Pie

1 c dark brown sugar

1 1/4 c boiling water with small lump of butter added

1 whole egg plus 1 yellow (save the white for top)

2 rounded T flour

½ t vanilla

Mix flour and sugar and add water. Place mixture in a double boiler and stir until thick. Drop in a whole egg and the yellow. Beat vigorously. Cook a few minutes, remove and add flavoring. Stir and pour into a crust (already cooked). Cover with beaten white of egg, put in oven and brown lightly.

This recipe was written in my grandmother’s hand exactly as it is reproduced here (I added the already cooked notation) and she notes that it came from Grace Shunk, probably a neighbor or church friend. We all lived in the country and had no close neighbors.

BH: Thank you for sharing that recipe. Do you have another project in the works? Can you tell us about it?

VB: As always, I have several. I think working on only one thing at a time would get boring, and so I usually have two or three going, whether I have a publisher or not. Fortunately, my publisher of the Boston Mountain book has already said he’d take a biography I’m working on about a woman in our small town who, in the 1920s, defied all the rules in place for women of that era. She was one of the first women in the state to become a pharmacist, she was elected mayor two years running and presided over a “petticoat government.” Finally, she took over the ownership of the local newspaper owned by her husband when he died of Influenza during World War I. Her personal life is rather tragic. The story will make good reading written in the creative nonfiction style.

Another project is a novel about a woman who learns that to forgive is not always enough after a young man driving while intoxicated is responsible for the death of her 16 year old son. This is based on a true story, but is purely fiction. That book is finished and with an editor in New York who seems to be very interested. I’m working on another women’s fiction while I wait to hear.

BH: What do you consider your greatest weakness as a writer, and what do you do to overcome that?

VB:  You would ask that. Now I have to reveal my secret. I’m way too serious with my writing. No matter how hard I try, humor evades me. I have a great sense of humor and laugh easily, but I just can’t seem to create characters who are funny.

I’m also very slow in completing a work. I just plod along, writing myself into corners, backing up, starting over. But I can’t seem to write any other way. I’ve tried outlining but that stifles my creativity. Once I’ve outlined the book, I’m no longer interested in writing it. The creation has been completed. Silly, I know, but I guess we all have hang ups, and those are mine. At my age, there’s probably nothing much I can do to overcome these weaknesses. Guess I’ll just keep on keeping on.

BH: Ha, that’s what I tell myself to do all the time: “Keep on keeping on.” What is your writing schedule like?

VB: For 25 years, I’ve gone to my office right after we eat our noonday meal, which we call dinner around here. That’s about 1 p.m. and I write till five or six. I do this six days a week. I do have a strict schedule for tasks each day. On Monday I work on the Internet, writing blogs, posting on Facebook, putting information on all the other sites where my book is listed, including my website which I keep up myself. On Tuesday I write a historical column and any other short things I’m working on. I submit short stories to anthologies on a regular basis and have 14 published so far. From Wednesday through Saturday I write on my works in progress. Whichever one is in need of my time or a little of each.

When I’m promoting a book, or currently both books this schedule is interrupted by book signings, workshops, and speaking engagements.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

VB: Eeeek! Put it this way, the last person who saw my office was struck speechless for a minute or so, then she murmured, “Well, I suppose you know where everything is.”

I work on a laptop. One wall is lined with file cabinets and bank boxes of old newspapers that contain heaps of historical information. My six historical romance covers are framed and hang there. There are two windows at my back that look out on a mountain incline that is wild and wooly and borders on the Ozark National Forest.

I sit at a large computer desk my son-in-law built to order for me. Above my head is a small white bear holding a bouquet of roses, a hand carving done by my husband and a protective dragon. The other wall has a floor to ceiling book case storage unit that is crammed to overflowing. A key to the city of Ft. Smith hangs beside my WILLA award. On top of the unit are my other awards from various sources. I’m surrounded by my work on all sides and when I retire to this room I feel totally at ease.

BH: What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

VB: Hands down, Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer.

BH: What is the best writing advice anyone has given you?

VB:  “The road to success is littered with quitters.” Persevere no matter what.

BH: Any words on advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

VB:  See above first, then hone your craft, never think you know everything about writing, study as if you were going to be a surgeon or a lawyer. Then find your niche. Despite all the bad news from the publishing industry, you can reach your goals. Come up with something different. In today’s market, story comes first. That’s not to say you can ignore good writing, but think out of the box, as they say. Try new things, and definitely take a look at E publishing. It’s on fire now and a good place to start your writing career.

BH: Thank you, Velda, for the interview, the insights, and the recipe!

For more information about Velda and her books (including where you can purchase them!), check out the following websites:

Click here for Velda’s website, which has links to publishers’ sites. You can also view her writing journal, as well as her writing advice.

Publishers site for purchasing The Boston Mountain Book

Velda’s Facebook page, with events and photos

You may also order books through Velda by emailing her. In addition, she generously said that writers may feel free to email her with questions. Here is her email address: vebrotherton (at) gmail (dot) com

NiFtY Author: Matt Coonfield

Posted on by Beth Hull

I have a very special NiFtY Author Interview for you today, featuring one of my favorite people in the world: my little brother. He hasn’t always been my favorite person. There was this time once when we were playing Legos and he was obviously wrong about something, and we weren’t very good friends right then…but I digress.

Here’s his interview. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll throw tomatoes and have to clean off your computer screen. Good luck with that.

BH: What’s your one-paragraph pitch for your work-in-progress?

MC: I don’t want to give away too much. I am actually quite paranoid. The short version is a young man named Ray starts a civil war in the ghost world in an odd and adventurous way.

BH: What was the biggest challenge in finishing your first draft?

MC: Honestly my biggest challenge has always been me. I am a big lazy hurdle that I just can’t jump. I don’t like to write when it is hard, when I have to grind it out. Generally I only like to write when it is flowing. Anyone who writes knows what I am talking about. When you can churn out twenty pages a day and the only reason you stop is fear of carpal tunnel. When your thoughts are practically jumping on to the paper for you. That is when I like to write. When this doesn’t happen I start a new book. Oddly I have never finished one until now.

BH: Can you compare Ray, the main character in your work-in-progress, to anyone you know in real life?

MC: I guess parts of him are me of course or parts of me if that makes sense. I’m not schizo or anything but I like to pretend I am Jared from The Pretender. I have hidden Matt compartments that I draw from and one of them happens to be a teenage ghost-hunting ghost, conveniently enough.

BH: I understand you’re working closely with somebody else on this project. What is his role in your project?

MC: As I mentioned earlier I am notoriously lazy when it comes to writing. My partner’s name is Don and he is basically my dentist. That is to say he pulls teeth. We have only been working together a short time and I am considering buying another cell phone and not giving him the number. Other than that he does all the things I hate: paperwork, typing, forms, queries. Once he offered to paint my garage if I promised to write more.

BH: What is your experience like, working with another person? What are the pros and cons of this arrangement?

MC: Well Don can be quite persistent sometimes calling me four or five times a day. I had to get used to it at first but we’ve come to an understanding now. He has given me 100 percent artistic say so, which was a condition when we first started, but even then sometimes he feels adamant about something and I hate to put my foot down too much. There is one scene in particular in the book that he wrote and it makes me leery but I have let it go so far.

BH: One of the things about your writing that impresses me is all the crazy ideas you come up with—ideas that you can make work. Where do you get your ideas and inspiration?

MC: Well… My faith is definitely an inspiration to me. Really I don’t think I could write without the Bible. Not that my stories are Christian but the right and wrongs for me come straight from the source. After that I steal them. I guess it sounds weird to say that right after my Jesus plug but it is honestly what happens. I always read things, good and bad, and I can see the improvements that need to happen. I see a tweak that if the author had seen could have changed his whole piece for the better. When I find those tweaks early enough in a book or combine them with other tweaks I get really excited about what I can do with it and when I get excited….

BH: What is your writing schedule like?

MC:  I try to fit it in between reading and Pokemon but too often I am forced to combine two of the three to make up for time.

BH: How has your writing changed—either the scheduling or the experience itself—after becoming a father?

MC: My scheduling has definitely become more intense. The very reason I had agreed to work with my coauthor in the first place is money. I need it. I can’t sell a book if I don’t finish one so I brought on Don to help me finish my books. The experience hasn’t changed in the least, I just have a deeper well to draw from.

BH: What does your writing workspace look like?

MC: My writing workspace looks suspiciously like the cab of a Nissan Frontier. Much to the chagrin of my typist most of my good ideas come when I should be paying attention to the road. This makes for some very peculiar handwriting and possibly the next unfinished series. We all know how well it worked out for the Canterbury Tales. Don’t judge me.

BH: Just remind me to avoid the road when inspiration hits. What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

MC: A notebook.

Beth and Matt Read Catching Fire

BH: You told me recently that Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is not your favorite book, but it made it into your “top ten.” What is your Top Ten?

MC: The Bible, X-Men, Dracula, Death in the Long Grass, The Night the Bear Ate Goomba, Yvain, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, The Great Divorce, God’s Grandeur.

BH: Twilight didn’t make it into your Top Ten, but we both admit we enjoyed it. What, exactly, is so compelling about that Twilight series? Why are these books so popular, in your opinion?

MC: Stephenie did something real special and it took her like a whole month. She tapped into something that was important to young women and made it interesting to young men. She took elements of comic books (which is why it translated so well to graphic novel), Fabio, and Mythology and made it her own. She didn’t follow rules, and she didn’t heed the pressure to omit her beliefs, i.e. her morals. I don’t think it was the best writing in the world but I loved it and I respect what she did… except for the huge let down in the end. That pissed me off but since the plot was ripped off another story what can you say?

BH: What is the best writing advice anyone has given you?

MC: Write down what you are feeling now matter how silly it sounds. It will make sense to everyone.

BH: Why do you want to be published?

MC: I would like to be superficial and say it is to finance my laziness but the truth is I want to be able to talk about it with someone, someone who liked what I wrote and who wants to talk with me about it.

BH: Who is your real-life writing role model? [Hint: the answer should be someone you grew up with. Who maybe lived down the hall from you. She had a pink room for a few years. And a cat named Apricot.]

MC: C.S. Lewis, Stan Lee, and Patrick F. McManus. I hate to admit but my sister’s love for all things academic never made sense to me as a child. I get it now and all those years may have rubbed off on me a bit.

BH: Eh, that’s practically saying that your sister taught you everything you know. Any words or advice to other writers for keeping the hope alive?

MC: Give up. The market is closed. You can’t do it.

BH: Hmm. Yep, that’s my brother.

Thanks, Matt, for the fun interview!

NiFtY Interview with Lauren Carr

Posted on by Beth Hull

Lauren Carr is the author of three mysteries. Before she moved to novel-writing, she wrote mysteries for television and the stage. Let’s welcome Lauren Carr for my latest NiFtY (Not Famous…Yet) Author Interview!

BH: What’s your one-paragraph pitch for It’s Murder, My Son?

LC: What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning.  After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This covert would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels.

BH: Tell us a little about your path to publication.

LC: My first book, A Small Case of Murder, was self-published and named a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2005. After being picked up by Five Star Mystery for my second book, A Reunion to Die For, I decided walked away from an offer from another traditional publisher to return to self-publishing for It’s Murder, My Son.

I turned down the traditional publisher to independently publish through CreateSpace for a variety of reasons. Mainly, I had all the same responsibilities and had to make the same investments of time and yes, money, toward making my book a success when I was traditionally published as I did when I self-published. I came to realize that with all of my education and experiences, I was more than capable of successfully publishing my books independently. So far I have been right. It’s Murder, My Son has received only positive reviews.

BH: Do you plan to write a sequel to It’s Murder, My Son, or have you embarked on a completely new project?

LC: I’m already working on it. In Old Loves Die Hard, Mac Faraday returns to Georgetown to clear his ex-wife’s name when she is accused of killing the assistant DA she had left Mac for.

BH: This book isn’t your first published novel, though; you’ve published two other mysteries. Are they part of a series? Can you tell us a little about them?

LC: A Small Case of Murder and A Reunion to Die For are the Joshua Thornton Mysteries. Joshua Thornton was a JAG lawyer who leaves the Navy after his wife dies, leaving him to raise five children alone. In A Small Case of Murder, Joshua returns back to Chester, West Virginia; his, and my, childhood home, where his children discover a letter that implicates a local pastor in an unreported murder.

In A Reunion to Die For, Joshua Thornton becomes the county prosecuting attorney and investigates the murder of an investigative journalist investigating the death of a high school classmate. The classmate died during their senior year in high school. Her death was classified as a suicide. Joshua begins to question if it really was.

BH: Where did you get the idea for your first novel?

LC: In 1998, my family was vacationing in Copper Harbor, Michigan. One rainy day, we decided to go antiquing. We had gone into this one shop and I found a beautiful silver tea set. The shop owner was very chatty and told me how he had acquired it. He had purchased all of the contents of an old house in which an elderly woman lived at an estate sale. While packing everything up, he was up in the master bedroom talking to the daughter of the homeowner when he turned over the box springs and found a brown cardboard box underneath. The daughter asked, “What’s that?” He replied, “Whatever it is, it’s mine.” The box contained the silver tea set, never used, completely in it’s original packaging, along with cards and letters all dating back to 1968. When he told me that story, I thought, “Suppose one of those letters implicated someone in a murder?” By the time we returned home from vacation, I had the plot for A Small Case of Murder outlined in my mind.

BH: On your website I learned that you gave up writing for television and stage to become a full-time mom, and you wrote your first book after that. How long did it take you to write the book?

LC: My “retirement” lasted about six months. Then I was back at the keyboard writing A Small Case of Murder. That was my escape. When I started writing it, I was writing only for myself. I had given up my literary agent, who never did anything for me anyway and didn’t handle novels. It took me about six months to finish the first draft. When I dug it out and dusted it off a year later, I read through it and thought I had something. So I started editing and working on it again. I spent another couple of years playing with it before I started to look into having it published.

BH: What was that like, balancing writing and motherhood?

LC: Tough.

BH: I’m listening to “Hear, hear!”s throughout our studio audience. Do you have any tips to share with other writing moms?

LC: Maybe this isn’t so much a tip about writing moms, but about life, as I see it having turned fifty this year. “When Mom’s unhappy, everybody is unhappy.” So, don’t be unhappy.

After a year of writer’s block and unhappiness, I decided last year to “give up” my career. I love the writing, not the frustration of dealing with literary agents and publishers and trying to please them, etc. So I decided to write my little mysteries and self-publish through CreateSpace and if they sold, and people liked them, great. If not, so what?

Well, when I made that decision, I was happy, and then everybody was happy. It became about the writing again. As luck would have it, I was offered a contract from a traditional publisher but turned them down in favor of self-publishing with CreateSpace. I’m sticking to my plan.

As long as it’s not self-destructive, do what makes you happy. If it makes you unhappy, stop it. Life is too short to be miserable.

BH: It seems to me that writing a mystery necessitates knowing just how much information to give, how much to hold back, and how much extra is needed to hide the important clues. Did the sense of knowing how much to include and when come naturally to you, or did it take some time developing?

LC: Both. I found that I had a sense of it, but had to develop it. It is comparable to having a natural talent like singing or throwing a football. Sure, when you first open your mouth to sing a song or get out onto the field to throw a ball, you may be really good, but you need to sing or throw that football everyday to develop it.

I write every day. I’ve written stuff that no one will ever read, until I’m long dead, if I’m lucky. But just the exercise of doing it has improved my skills at being able to write a scene and finely plant clues without giving away too much or holding back too much. I have found that by my third book I was better laying out the clues than I was with my first book.

BH: If you’re in a writing slump, what sort of things do you do to feed your inspiration?

LC: Mope a lot. During that year that I had writers block I kept trying to work it out by sitting at the laptop and staring at the screen. I would spend a day surfing the internet between sentences and find that I only wrote one paragraph at the end of the day. Finally, I decided to hang that up and started reading old mysteries that I hadn’t read in twenty years or so. I also read some inspirational books and got involved in more volunteer work at our church. Once I started meeting more people and having more experiences, I snapped out of it. I guess that was the key. I took my focus off myself and put it on the world around me.

BH: What is your writing schedule like?

LC:  Today? What it is today is different from what it will be tomorrow.

Now that I have a book out, I spend the day nine-to-five promoting it: doing interviews, making phone calls, printing up marketing materials and doing mailings.

I wake up early in the morning, six o’clock, to let the dogs out, brew coffee, and work on the next book until it is time to “go to work” doing the business end of writing. Now I am not necessarily writing that whole time. I take time out to drag my son out of bed, cook him breakfast, clean up the kitchen, etc. At five in the evening, I’ll stop “work” and cook dinner. After dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, then I will return to my writing until I go to bed. I reserve the weekends for writing, unless I have a book event.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

LC: I am blessed in that I have an actual writer’s studio. It is on the top floor of our house and has a fabulous view. This is my space. My husband is a neat freak. Everything has to be in it’s place and I am the opposite. This is my space, where I can be myself.

BH: [Battling jealousy over your writer’s studio….] What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

LC: Stephen King’s On Writing. I don’t like much of Stephen King’s books. Sorry, he’s a wonderful writer, but they scare me so much. But On Writing was fabulous. He tells a lot of truths about writing techniques.

BH: Stephen King’s stories scare me too. He gives great writing advice, though. What is the best writing advice you ever received?

LC: Keep on writing. I heard it on TV once, and have no idea who said it. Reviewers, literary agents, publishers, their opinions are subjective. If you really want to be a writer and you really believe you have talent, then keep on writing and don’t give up. If you give up, then you don’t have the commitment and love for writing to succeed.

BH: Any words on advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

LC: There is a scene in Whoopi Goldberg’s movie, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit where she is talking to one of her students. This girl has a lovely singing voice and really wants to be a singer, but her mother has nagged her into squelching her dream. Whoopi corners this girl and tells her that either you are a singer or you aren’t. If you are a singer, then you are born a singer and you are going to sing even if you become a truck driver. You wake up singing. You sing in the shower. You sing even when you aren’t singing.

That struck me because that is what it is to be a writer. I gave up my career, what there was of it, to be a mom but in the middle of the night while holding my baby who is now one hundred and ten pounds, I was thinking up plotlines for murder the way other mothers are thinking up lullabies. I had books running through my head until after six months I had to sit down at the computer and make it into a book.

Now is the best time to be a writer because advances in both technology and the publishing world (CreateSpace, Smashwords, and other companies) have opened doors so that any writer who is serious about writing books and getting them out there to readers can do it.

BH: Thank you, Lauren, for the interview and the insights into your writing!

To visit Lauren’s website, click here. Lauren also has a fantastic blog devoted to mystery writing, named, funnily enough, “Lauren’s World of Mystery Writing.”

She’s also got a book trailer for It’s Murder, My Son, and if that whets your appetite for the book (I bet it will!), you can click here to buy the print edition on Amazon. It’s Murder, My Son is also available on Kindle and audio. You can find a pdf of the media release here, and a pdf of deserved praise for the book here.