Here at Written Dreams, Lara and I want to be able to help as many writers as we can put forth a well-written story. We know editing fees are something writers may dread due to the sometimes heavy costs.
Every month we will post on our Facebook page the current sub-genre that is the Edit of the Month. August 2012’s sub-genre is Romantic Suspense. Send us your 60,000 word or less romantic suspense manuscript anytime in the month of August 2012 and the rate for editing will be $250.00. This rate includes a cover letter explaining any over-arching issues. The manuscript will be edited using the tracked changes feature and will include embedded comments in the margins.
Manuscripts can be sent to brittiany@writtendreams.com. Please type Edit of the Month in the subject line.
For manuscripts longer than 60,000 words, please query us for an estimate. Thank you!
August's Inspirational Photo Taken in Illinois at Haigh Quarry
E. Tip of the Day: Proofread your story for more than just typos. Look for inconsistencies and convenient placement of objects and actions. Convenient placements and inconsistencies in the plot can push the suspension of disbelief or even pull your reader out of the story.
Here’s an example:
Consistency:
End of Chapter 1:
Before going to bed, Brenda realized she didn’t have coffee for the morning and George was planning to be over early.
Beginning of Chapter 2:
The next morning, Brenda woke up to the smell of coffee.
“Good morning,” George said. “I made coffee. Would you like a cup?” he asked coming into the bedroom. “I found some in the cabinet.”
As an editor my comment would be:How did George find coffee in the cabinet when Brenda was positive the night before she didn’t have any? Please clarify.
Even little errors like this could bother your reader. For this story, having or not having coffee might not be a big deal. But it could be. It could make the reader think Brenda was under too much stress to remember what was in her kitchen cabinets. It could also pull the reader out of the story to think: “So, if this isn’t consistent in the story–a little detail like whether she has coffee or not–what else isn’t consistent? Should I even waste my time reading this book?”
And that’s something no writer ever wants the reader to feel–that their book is not worth the time to read. Because your book is worth it, you just need to take time to read your novel and make sure even the little inconsistencies within the story are clarified.
Convenience: Placing an object or action somewhere without any foreshadowing.
“Good morning,” George said. “I made coffee. Would you like a cup?” he asked coming into the bedroom. “I found some in the back of the cabinet.”
“Thanks.” Brenda said.
Let’s just use this line of dialogue and forget about the thought Brenda had about not having coffee the night before. Let’s say it’s never been mentioned at all what she drinks at home. For all we know she may drink vodka for breakfast. The reader has no idea.
As an editor my comment could be: That Brenda drinks coffee for breakfast should be mentioned sooner. Otherwise it feels like it’s conveniently placed to have it here. George conveniently found the coffee in the cabinet. Sometimes things that are convenient can push the suspension of disbelief for the reader. It’s important for the writer to be aware of this.
A better example for a mystery novel might be: She pulled the gun out of the drawer and pointed it at the intruder.
If the gun had never been looked or mentioned in the previous chapters, that would be a convenient placement.
It’s impossible to foreshadow every little detail, so as a writer you have to pick your battles and go with your gut on the important issues. The characters wear clothing, have a home, etc.
When editing, if I get a feeling that something doesn’t feel right, I’ll let the author know. It’s important to me as an editor to tell the author what feels odd or awkward or convenient so they’re aware of how the reader may react to that part of the story.
If you have specific questions on a scene in your novel that may have either too many inconsistencies or convenient placements, we’d be happy to take a look and let you know what we find.
Today we welcome romantic suspense author, Terry Odell. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of editing several of Terry’s novels, including Where Danger Hides, which won the the 2012 Romantic Suspense Holt Medallion Award. To learn more about Terry’s novels, visit her website at: http://terryodell.com
Terry Odell was born in Los Angeles, moved to Florida, and now makes her home in Colorado. An avid reader she always wanted to “fix” stories so the characters did what she wanted. Once she began writing, she found this wasn’t always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write rapidly became a romance. Although her genre is labeled “romantic suspense”, Terry prefers to think of her books as “Mysteries With Relationships.” Her titles include her Blackthorne, Inc. series, her Pine Hills Police Series, as well as other stand alone titles. Look for her newest release, NOWHERE TO HIDE, a spinoff of her Pine Hills Police series.
Point of view (POV) is the vantage point from which we show a section of the story to the reader—and it’s one of the hardest things to deal with when we write.
Usually, we only tell the story through the eyes of one character—or at least one character at a time. When we switch back and forth, the reader is jerked from one person’s head to the other, and it’s hard to develop empathy for either character.
Using POV
If we’ve chosen to use our heroine’s POV, then the reader will see what the heroine sees, hear what the heroine hears, and know most of what the heroine’s thinking.
The reader won’t know what anyone else is thinking, or what’s happening behind the heroine’s back, or what’s said after she leaves the room. If the heroine doesn’t see it, hear it, smell it or taste it, then it can’t happen for the reader—not in that scene, at least.
So how do you show the other character’s state of mind (like the hero)? We’ll know his state of mind by what he says, what he does, how he acts, and what the heroine thinks about it.
Let’s try an example. Sally’s the heroine, and she has just confronted Joe, the hero, about a lie she thinks he’s told her. Sally’s the POV character.
Include Sally’s words. (“Why did you lie to me, Joe?”)
Include her feelings as she works herself up to express herself. (Should she say it? Her head feels like it’s going to burst. Maybe it would be better to stay silent because he’ll only lie to her again.)
Describe what she sees. (Joe’s jaw sets. The corner of his mouth twitches. He looks away instead of straight at her. His knuckles go white.)
Include what she thinks. (He’s looking away rather than at me, so that must mean he’s admitting he was lying, or he’d look me in the eye.)
In Sally’s POV, we never include what Joe’s thinking—we don’t know if he’s feeling guilty for lying, or upset because he has been unjustly accused—and we don’t need to know. Knowing what everybody’s thinking will throw all the suspense right out the window. We know what Sally thinks, but we don’t know whether she’s right. And that makes readers want to keep turning the pages!
Types of POV
The most commonly used in fiction are first person (where the character tells the story as if talking to the reader) and third person (where a narrator describes what’s going on, sort of like a radio announcer doing the play-by-play of a basketball game).
Most romance novels use third person (Jane walked down the street), though chick lit often uses first person (I walked down the street).
In general, in a romance you’ll alternate between the hero’s POV or the heroine’s throughout the book. In longer books, you may go into the head of a significant secondary character who’s the pivot point of the story. But if a character only shows up in one scene, then it’s unlikely we get to hear her private thoughts. We’ll only hear what she actually says, or see her actions. The rule of thumb is that the POV character is the most important character in the scene.
Mystery novels often use first person, and the story is told from the POV of the detective. This is closest to reality, because the reader doesn’t get to know what’s happening until the detective does. However, third person also works well in mystery, especially when the author uses a deep POV.
Finally there’s a POV which tells everybody’s thoughts and actions. It’s called omniscient POV. Trouble is, the reader knows too much about what’s going on inside everybody’s head, and at the same time the reader doesn’t have a personal connection with any one of the characters. That’s why most entertainment fiction is written from one POV (or one at a time, with only a few total) and often with a very distinctive voice that draws the reader into the story and invites him/her to be the character’s friend.
Multiple POVs
As much as we try to stay in one character’s POV, sharing only their thoughts and feelings and impressions is difficult.
If you have your heroine thinking and then say, “She didn’t hear the hero coming up behind her,” if she didn’t hear it, then we’re suddenly outside her POV.
We do have to know what’s going on in all of our characters’ minds all the time, in order to select what they’re going to say, what they’re going to do, how they’re going to react. So it’s simple to let something the hero is thinking sneak into a scene where the author should only be giving the heroine’s thoughts.
Think about what your POV character can see and hear. If he can’t see it or doesn’t hear it, then you’ve shifted POVs. You can test for this by reading your scene aloud in the first person. If your scene is supposed to be the heroine’s POV and you’re reading, “I said… I moved…” and then suddenly you get to “he thought”—that’s a POV shift.
Of course, it is possible to have many POVs represented in one book. But it must be done judiciously and on purpose. The authors who do it well generally switch only a time or two during a scene (not with every speech) and only at places where it’s critically important to see what’s going on in the other character’s mind. If you’re writing suspense, it’s almost mandatory to show multiple POVs, because by definition, suspense means the reader is a step ahead of the action. Most suspense novels show the villain’s POV, so the reader knows what’s coming, and has to hope the protagonist will figure it out in time.
To switch POVs, you can always start a new scene. Starting too many new scenes, however, can make your story choppy and jerky. If you’re skilled, you learn how to lead your reader from one character’s head to another without scene or chapter breaks. But again, you have to be careful to do this seamlessly, and only when a POV change moves the story forward.
Are there rules? No. If your reader can follow your POV shifts, then you’ve done your job. But if you’re just starting out, it’s better to limit your POV characters and make your changes at logical breaks.
Thank you, Terry, for joining us today. If you have questions or comments for Terry about her novels, or about point of view, please feel free to post them. Thank you!
We’re so excited to announce a new service for authors!
Our new service will be very helpful to authors of series novels. For writers not familiar with the term, a Novel Bible is a who, what, where, and when of every character, building, street etc. in a novel series.
Our staff will read your novel(s), complete a list of characters and places, use the descriptions of each character, building, street, etc. as written by the author in the novel, and deliver a working glossary for the author. This is a great reference tool to use when writing future novels!
A complete list of rates is posted on our Services page of our website: writtendreams.com
Jim C. Hines: Author. Husband and father. Alternate universe cover model. Hugo-nominated blogger. We tracked down this balding 38-year-old man and asked us to share the real Jim Hines, to tell us what made the creator of Libriomancer tick. He responded, “Dude, what are you doing in my bathroom?” So we snooped around his house for something interesting to write about. We found a prominently displayed shelf of his own books, with titles like Goblin Quest and The Stepsister Scheme, which leads us to conclude that he is a very egotistical man. He also has an extensive collection of Peanuts books, a LEGO TARDIS and customized Doctor Who minifig, and needs to vacuum his basement. It was here that Hines revealed his true self, shouting at us to get the frak out of his house and repeatedly hitting us with a plastic lightsaber while his cats pounced on our shoelaces. To learn more, visit Jim’s website at http://www.jimchines.com
WD: How has your family inspired your writing?
JCH: I’m a strong believer in writing what you’re passionate about, and I’ve found that being a parent and husband has affected my stories a lot over the years. Sometimes it’s more blatant than others — there’s a goblin short story I wrote about a baby goblin and his nursemaid which was inspired by my own adventures in diaper-changing. Other times it’s the way I write about relationships.
WD: What method do you prefer writing in: long hand, typewriter, or computer?
JCH: I type much faster than I write by hand, and given the number of mistakes I make, the computer is the best fit for me.
WD: What was your journey like from writing the first pages of your first novel to getting that first book accepted?
JCH: Long. Bumpy. Kind of like driving from New York to Australia. With a faulty GPS. You get to see some amazing things, but it’s not a quick or easy road.
WD: What character is most like your own personality?
JCH: I’m probably somewhere in between Jig the goblin and Isaac the libriomancer.
WD: What was the hardest part of which novel to research?
JCH: Possibly all of the sailing information I had to learn when I was writing The Mermaid’s Madness. I have very little nautical knowledge, so spent a lot of time reading historical texts, browsing through photographs, and tracking down “Sailing for Dummies” type books. Sadly, I still messed up at least one detail. (I’m not going to tell you what it is, though!)
WD: If you could go anywhere for research, where would it be?
JCH: I think I’d start with outer space. If anyone wants to fund me on a weeklong moon vacation, I hereby promise to write them a cool story based on what I learn up there!
WD: What other books have you written?
JCH: The Goblin Series (Humorous Fantasy)
Goblin Quest
Goblin Hero
Goblin War
The Princess Series (Fairy Tale Princesses Team Up and Kick Various Butts)
The Stepsister Scheme
The Mermaid’s Madness
Red Hood’s Revenge
The Snow Queen’s Shadow
Magic ex Libris (Magic-wielding Librarian from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)
Libriomancer
WD: What awards have you won as an author?
JCH: I won first place in the Writers of the Future contest back in 1998 with a story called “Blade of the Bunny.” Not the kind of story I would have pegged as award-winning fiction, but I was delighted to be proven wrong!
WD: How often do you write when you are working on a work in progress?
JCH: I write every day during my lunch break at work (one hour), and I squeeze in night and weekend writing time when family and real life allow. When deadlines approach, I tend to make more time on those nights and weekends, but it can be hard sometimes trying to balance it all without neglecting my wife and kids or letting the house fall into disrepair and collapse around me.
WD: What are some of your methods you use when writing a novel to keep you on track?
JCH: I’m an outliner, though my outlines are generally broken in one way or another, so the book tends to veer off as I write it. More and more these days, I give my characters snippets of dialogue in my early drafts where they critique the story and yell at me if it’s getting boring or stupid. It lets me keep track of what I need to fix, and helps me to maintain some humor about the whole messy process.
WD: What are your experiences with using a Writer’s Critique Group?
JCH: I was in a writing group for a few years about a decade ago, and it was very helpful. Reading their stuff inspired me to push harder and aim higher with my own stories, and they helped me to recognize and improve a lot of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Every writer is different, but for me, this group was very helpful at that stage of my learning.
WD: What advice would you give to new aspiring authors on writing and revising?
JCH: Do both. A lot.
WD: What types of things do you do to relax from writing? Any hobbies?
JCH: What is this word, “relax”?
I’ve been doing karate for about five years now, which helps both for the exercise and because the physical workout helps me to let go of whatever mental and emotional stress has been following me around. I used to do gaming (Dungeons and Dragons, mostly), but then our DM went and had a baby, so that hasn’t happened lately.
WD: I’d like to talk about a more serious subject for a moment. Can you share with us a little about your thoughts on sex crimes, and what training you have received personally in order to help people that have been raped?
JCH: My thoughts … without writing a novel’s worth here, I think sexual violence is far too common, and that as a society, we generally do an unforgivably poor job of supporting victims and holding perpetrators accountable. I would love to see more education at all levels, and more work on bystander intervention instead of essentially writing it off as a “womens’ problem” and just telling girls, “Well, don’t get yourself raped!”
I was a volunteer crisis counselor during college, and was one of the coordinators for our sexual assault counseling program there. I also worked as the Male Outreach Coordinator at the domestic violence shelter on campus, which included both outreach/education and working one-on-one with students who had been referred for various disciplinary reasons.
I’ve written a lot about rape and sexual violence, and most of what I’ve written is available at http://www.jimchines.com/rape/
WD: Thank you, Jim, for joining us today! It’s been a pleasure having you here. Feel free to post questions or comments for Jim. Thank you.
E. Tip of the Day: Do not use the same descriptions your main character uses for herself for other characters, settings, etc. or vice versa. For instance, if your heroine describes herself as a banshee in a fight, use a different description for her when other characters refer to her actions in that same fight, such as calling your heroine a “wild woman” instead of a “banshee”. Otherwise it seems like characters are mind-reading each other. 🙂 And even if your characters have the mind-reading ability, unless it’s intentional they shouldn’t necessarily be using the same words to describe each other. It will only bore your readers.
If you’d like to learn if your characters are mind-reading each other when they shouldn’t be, do a search for the descriptions used by your main character. If any of the same words are used in those descriptions by other characters, you may want to try using a thesaurus. There’s a lot of words to choose from, so be creative. 🙂
We’re happy to welcome Lily Silver to The Editing Essentials today!
Lily has been swimming opposite the mainstream currents for most of her life. She has been practicing the art of writing since 1992, when as a homeschooling mother of two, she desperately needed something to do that didn’t involve the kids. Once her children were grown she returned to college as a non-traditional student at 42 years of age, and spent the next several years trying to pick ‘just one’ major. As a journalism student, she achieved an award for excellence in journalism, and went on to become the editor of the college newspaper, a staff writer and staff photographer.
Lily never did find that one perfect major as she explored art, writing, theatre, photography. She graduated with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Humanistic Studies with an emphasis in Ancient and Medieval Research, a minor in Art History as well as a minor in 2 Dimensional Art. She’d still be in college if they’d pay her to keep learning and acquiring degrees. True to form, Lily has chosen to go against the flow again by choosing Independent publishing over traditional. She published two full length Historical Romance novels on Amazon in the spring of 2012.
Dark Hero by Lily Silver
Dark Hero is a Gothic Romance with paranormal overtones. It is Book One in the Reluctant Heroes Series. Some Enchanted Waltz is a Time Travel Romance depicting the events of the United Irishmen’s failed rebellion of 1798. Bright Scoundrel, Book Two in the Reluctant Heroes Series, will be released in October 2012.
Independent publishing has divided the publishing world. There are authors who love it and those who reel back in horror, regarding it as <gasp> vanity publishing. In the past, self publishing was considered a poor substitute for the traditional publishing routine. Independently published authors had to spend oodles of money hiring a printing press to print large orders of books the author then had to try to sell on his own. And, there was a stigma connected to the practice as the author was considered ‘not good enough’ to have found a real publisher to accept his work.
With the advent of e-readers and e-book retailers, writers can now upload their books directly to online platforms and readers can purchase them within hours. This phenomenon is similar to what happened in Paris with the Impressionist Art Movement. You had a traditional gallery system; art curators decided what would be shown to the public and what wouldn’t. Unknown artists like Van Gogh kept trying to gain admittance to these exclusive salon exhibitions. The curators refused to allow the Impressionists to exhibit paintings, so these imaginative men held their own art show and invited the public to attend. It was a success, and brought new styles of art to the forefront for art lovers to purchase. Art dealers of the time thought Van Gogh’s painting was crap. Today, everyone knows who Van Gogh is. Thankfully, he and other artists were persistent about presenting their work to the public when it was refused entry into the traditional salons.
A similar revolution has taken place in the publishing world today; writers can upload books to digital stores and readers can decide what they want to read instead of corporate publishing houses.
Why choose to self-publish?
First, let me point out that the term self-published is not favored among us because of past stigma attached to it. We prefer to be referred to as independent or Indie Author to describe writers who have uploaded their works to digital platforms.
I have been writing seriously for twenty years. I submitted manuscripts to traditional publishing houses in the late 1990’s. I received very polite rejection letters. My last attempt at traditional publishing was in 1999. After that, I returned to college for several years. I still held the dream of one day sending a finished manuscript to a traditional publisher. At the beginning of this year I attended a talk featuring two authors with experience in independent publishing. They were having astonishing success selling their work on digital platforms. After hearing their experiences with both traditional and independent publishing, I decided to give independent publishing a shot. The results have been amazing. With over 6,000 downloads at Amazon in two months as an unknown author, I have found an audience for my work. Another plus is making 70% of the royalties instead of the typical 8%-10% with a traditional house. The best part is receiving letters from readers who say they enjoyed my books and asking about sequels.
Is working on the cover art difficult?
Not really. I did need to spend time searching online stock photo databases. My son is a graphic artist, so all I needed to do was purchase stock images and send them to him for my first book. He did the rest. For my second book, I purchased a pre-made cover from Romance Novel Covers. I was pleased with the results of both covers. If someone is proficient in Adobe Photoshop, they could easily create their own cover. If not, the good news is that there are tons of great graphic artists who can create digital cover art for a reasonable fee.
What have you learned from other writers about their experiences with Indie publishing?
Patience. You need a lot of patience. It’s like building a snowman. You start with a small snowball in your hand and keep rolling it in the snow until you have a life-sized snowman. It is the same with finding an audience for your work. It takes time. An added benefit of Indie publishing is your book can remain for sale indefinitely, allowing readers to discover it. With a traditional publishing, if your books don’t sell well within a few months, they are pulled from the shelves and returned by stores. Also, it is important to have someone proof your manuscript. This is where critique partners or freelance editing services like Written Dreams come in. You want to present the best book possible, so you need other people to help you remove the warts before you hit that ‘publish’ button.
Which outlets (Amazon, GoodReads, etc.) do you feel work well with authors? Which platforms are the easiest for new writers to use?
Amazon is easiest. It’s also the top digital platform at present. Smashwords is good, but their formatting requirements are a little more technical. If you download the formatting guide and follow it, you’ll be fine. Smashwords will convert and distribute your books to all the e-reader platforms (Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc) for you, so that is the place to go if you want to have your work distributed on all platforms. All the outlets accept indie authors but a few, like Apple, only allow distribution to them through an aggregator like Smashwords. Others, like Amazon, B &N and Kobo allow authors to upload directly to them.
Goodreads is helpful to authors. I held a giveaway of Dark Hero in June. 786 readers requested the 4 print copies offered. As a result, many readers put the book on their ‘to read’ list and will hopefully purchase it. Through August 25th, I have a similar giveaway in progress at Goodreads for print copies of Some Enchanted Waltz.
Some Enchanted Waltz by Lily Silver
Indie publishing isn’t for everyone. It requires courage and determination. You wear a lot of hats; writer, editor, art director, and marketing. Yet, it is a rare opportunity for authors brave enough to take up the challenge. I’m glad I did. The rewards are well worth the effort.
Thank you, Lily, for taking the time to be with us today, and for the excellent advice on Indie publishing.
Today on Writer’s Wednesday, we welcome Wisconsin author, Lorrie Kruse. Thank you, Lorrie, for being our Guest Blogger today! Lorrie Kruse is the author of A Life Worth Living, just released from Storyteller Publishing on July 3, 2012. To learn more about her novel visit: http://storytellerpublishing.com/
Lorrie Kruse
I’m just your average-sort of girl. I have a family (hubby Brian, 17-year-old son Tyler), and a full-time job. I have to buy my own groceries (gasp!) and I don’t have a maid (one look at my house will confirm that). I love bears of all sorts and all (non-breathing variety) are welcome in my home, which happens to be a log house in the country. I’d like to think that the general consensus among people who know me is that I’m a nice person, but I’ll admit I’m not perfect and I wouldn’t want to be, either. It’s an imperfect world we live in and I like knowing I’m part of it.
WD: What is your profession (outside of writing)?
LK: I am a legal secretary. I really like my job, although I wish I didn’t have to work. There’s nothing I’d love more than to be able to just stay home and write and make jewelry, but I fear I’d become one of those recluses who never leave their house.
WD: Do you have any hobbies?
LK: I just can’t sit still for long, so I’ve got lots of things I like to do to keep myself busy. I love making jewelry and have turned it into a little side business. Nothing spectacular, mind you. I can’t quit my day job, but I earn enough to keep my little hobby going. I also like crocheting. I have gotten into making socks, but don’t be watching for the Lorrie Kruse sock brand at your local store anytime soon. It takes way too much time to get a pair of socks done, but it’s something I can easily do while watching TV or traveling.
WD: What person or event made you interested in writing?
LK: A lifetime ago (and, truly, it was almost a lifetime ago as my son was only a few years old and he’s now 17), I was reading a John Sandford book, one of his Prey series, and I came up with a story idea. I thought about contacting him to let him have my idea, but I just never got around to doing so. You know how that goes. The story idea stuck inside my head, though, and I thought that I’d read enough books. Why shouldn’t I write one? I mean, as long as I had the idea, right? So I sat down and wrote a story. Not the one that had come to mind and, admittedly, not a very good one. But it was enough to get things rolling for me.
WD: What method do you prefer writing in: long hand, typewriter, or computer?
LK: No doubt about it – Computer. I can type almost as fast as I can think but I can’t handwrite that fast. If I try to handwrite anything, I lose a whole lot of thoughts as I fumble around. There’s nothing worse than losing a great idea!
WD: What other books have you written?
Written? Or, written well? :0) I wrote several books before I knew what I was doing. It was so much easier writing back then, before I had to pay attention to things like grammar rules and plot. Nothing like “plot” to slow down the writing process. :0) Since none of those books are anything I’d want anyone reading, I guess then I have to say that at this moment, A Life Worth Living is all there is. However, I am working on a romantic suspense that’s about half-way done. Unfortunately, Keep Your Friends Closer has been temporarily shelved because I thought that maybe I could get a collection of short stories completed more quickly. Not sure what I was thinking there, but, oh well.
WD: What was your journey like from writing the first pages to getting the book accepted on A Life Worth Living?
LK: Oh, my. That’s quite a question. Whew. Well, there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Seriously, when I started writing A Life Worth Living, I was not a very good writer. I have learned so much since those first words and the finish product reflects that. When I first wrote A Life Worth Living (which was “The Accident” back then), I just wrote whatever sounded logical to me as far as Matt’s medical condition. Matt was also a very angry jerk and Crystal was beyond self-absorbed. I discovered I couldn’t just make up stuff. How odd. It’s a fictional story from my mind, yet I couldn’t make stuff up? I interviewed several trauma nurses, physical therapists, and a few paralyzed people. I soaked up whatever knowledge I could find on spinal cord injury. And then I poured a whole lot of that knowledge into Matt’s world as well as a whole new appreciation for my health into my own life. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone through a slush-covered parking lot thinking about how lucky I am to not have to be wheeling a wheelchair.
A Life Worth Living has gone through quite a journey on its way to publication. It’s been entered into numerous contests and has finaled in many. It’s landed upon many agents’ desks (and was unfortunately rejected by all). But the happy ending is that I submitted it to Storyteller Publishing, who loved it, and it’s finally published! Yay! See me doing a happy dance.
WD: Who is your favorite character in A Life Worth Living?
LK: Hmm. Can I say Kaylee, Matt’s 2-year-old niece? I love the way she calls Matt ‘Unka Matyou’. I really think Kaylee adds a lot to the story even though she’s not a main character. She brings out the softer side of Matt.
WD: What was the hardest part of A Life Worth Living to research?
LK: Having to live within the confines of reality. I really wanted Matt to go through the book struggling with his desire for a full recovery and then get his wish at the end of the story. However, I discovered that if he were going to recover, that recovery would happen early on and, sigh, that just didn’t work for the plot.
WD: What authors are your favorites to read?
Well, John Sandford, since his stories were what inspired me to write. I love Harlan Coben’s characters and his writing. He’s just got a great style. And, speaking of great style, Janet Evanovich. Wow. If I could be half the writer she is, I’d be…well, half the writer she is, which would still be a darn great writer. Another writer who I think is someone to keep an eye on is Jane Porter. I don’t recall how I came across her books or even which book of hers was the first I read, but I really enjoy her writing. However, the writer I have most enjoyed in recent past is Jeff Lindsay with his Dexter series. There aren’t many authors I’ve come across where I’ve felt the need to devour their works, but from the first Dexter book I read, I was hooked and I read every book of Jeff Lindsay’s back to back. It was a sad moment when I read the last word of the last book because it was the last word of the last book. I’m eager for Mr. Lindsay to get those typing fingers moving and get another book out there!
WD: If you could be any character in anyone’s book, who would you be?
My first thought was which character of Jane Porter’s went to Hawaii? I very much would love to be lying on a sunny beach in Hawaii (with a ton of sun screen). But, seriously, when you get right down to it, I don’t think there’s any character I’d want to be. While they all have happily-ever-afters, they all have their challenges along the way. There’s things I’d love to change in my own life, but, all in all, I like my life and I am very happy with the person I am.
WD: What advice would you give to new aspiring authors?
LK: Run! As fast as you can, run! Truthfully, if you have a writer living inside you, you’ll discover you can’t escape it. If you can, then you shouldn’t be writing because it is not an easy task. So, you’ve got this writer inside you that you can’t escape and you need to know how to handle that writer. Learn everything you can about writing so you do it right and hopefully don’t have to write the same story multiple times until you get it right. Join a critique group, but the challenge there is finding a group you blend well with. It really needs to be a person or group of people you feel comfortable with and whose opinion you respect. The two most important things though are to develop a thick skin (you will be rejected multiple times – it’s just a sad fact – and you’re going to hear criticism upon criticism about your writing and your story because you just can’t please everyone) and to be very persistent (chances are, you won’t get lucky enough to get a publishing contract on your first try, or your second, or even your thirtieth). Oh, and enjoy yourself. Life’s too short to be doing things you don’t enjoy.
WD: What are your experiences with using a Writer’s Critique Group?
LK: For as frustrating as it can be, I highly recommend anyone who writes being a member of a critique group. We all want to hand a chapter to our group and receive nothing but positive responses, but, seriously, that’s not the way to improve your writing or the story. A Life Worth Living has turned into the great story that it is thanks to my writers’ group. They pushed me in directions I never would have gone on my own.
WD: If you have questions for Lorrie, she’ll be visiting all day.
Thank you again, Lorrie, for joining us today! We wish you the best of success with A Life Worth Living and your writing career!
Terry Odell was born in Los Angeles, moved to Florida, and now makes her home in Colorado. An avid reader she always wanted to “fix” stories so the characters did what she wanted. Once she began writing, she found this wasn’t always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write rapidly became a romance. Although her genre is labeled “romantic suspense”, Terry prefers to think of her books as “Mysteries With Relationships.” Her titles include her Blackthorne, Inc. series, her Pine Hills Police Series, as well as other stand alone titles. Look for her newest release, NOWHERE TO HIDE, a spinoff of her Pine Hills Police series.
