Allison Winn Scotch has struck NYTimes bestselling gold with TIME OF MY LIFE and THE DEPARTMENT OF LOST AND FOUND.  Now she’s back with a third ringer, THE ONE THAT I WANT.  Summer reading is in full swing and THE ONE THAT I WANT crops up on recommended lists all over the place.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Allison: My first publication credit is kind of nebulous because the first thing I wrote - professionally, aside from my college paper - was ghost-written. I was working in PR, ghostwriting for celebrities, when I was hired to ghostwrite a book for The Knot on wedding flowers. Though my name was supposed to be on the spine (I can’t remember in what capacity, but in some capacity), it wasn’t, and thus…no one really knew that I did it. (Trust me, I won’t go into the details but I was IRATE.) Anyhoo, the upside was that this gig led to my first bylined piece, which was an article for Bride’s, also on wedding flowers. So even though I don’t have a lot of positive memories of that very first experience, I’m grateful for it because it definitely opened a lot of doors.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Allison: I wanted to take the themes I explored in my last book, Time of My Life, and flip everything on its head, while still delving into the concept of how we – and my characters – can create more fulfilling, fleshed-out lives. So for The One That I Want, it was this whole concept of, “What happens when you think you have a perfect life, and it totally gets shattered to pieces?” In this day and age, not an entirely uncommon – unfortunately – scenario. In The One That I Want, Tilly Farmer is thirty-two years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high school sweetheart, working as a school guidance counselor, trying for a baby. One afternoon at the local fair, everything changes. She wanders into a fortune teller’s tent and meets an old childhood friend, who gives her the gift of clarity. Tilly starts seeing things: her alcoholic father relapsing, staggering out of a bar with his car keys in hand; her husband uprooting their happy, stable life, a packed U-Haul in their driveway. And even more disturbing, these visions start coming true. Suddenly Tilly’s perfect life, so meticulously mapped out, seems to be crumbling around her. And as she furiously races to keep up with - and hopefully change - her destiny, she faces the question: Which life does she want? The one she’s carefully nursed for decades, or the one she never considered possible?

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Allison: I think that I’ve surrounded myself with really good, solid, high-quality people. My agent is a dear friend and trustworthy and hard-working and full of kindness and integrity. Too many authors settle for the first agent who offers, which, in my opinion, can be a mistake. Your agent has to be your biggest advocate, and if he or she isn’t, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. The same holds true for my editors. I opted to leave my first publishing house because it wasn’t the right fit for me. I ended up taking a lower advance from an editor and imprint who I thought were better long-term career fits, and they were. As an author, you’re pretty solitary in a lot of what you do, but having the right support around you - and for me, that means nice, dedicated, funny, honest, hard-working people - is really important.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Allison: Well, in an ideal world, I’d probably have the luxury of writing at night. I’ve always been a night owl, and tend to get big spurts of energy after 8pm. BUT. I have two young kids, so I DON’T have this luxury! I need to be in bed fairly early if I’m going to have the stamina to get through the day, so to that end, these days, I write in the mornings. I drop my son off at school, then head home to write for a few hours. Trust me, it’s not always easy, but I’ve found that if I don’t get it out of the way before lunch, I’ll procrastinate the whole day through.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Allison: Never assume you are as good as you think you are. What I mean by that is that many new writers - and I CERTAINLY fell  into this category, so I know of what I speak - think their first work (or works) are genius. And the simple truth is that they’re not. That there is SO MUCH to learn about writing fiction that sometimes, those early manuscripts are just there as a learning tool. There’s no shame in that. I have one and a half unpublished manuscripts too, and I still take heavy notes and constructive criticism from my editor and agent. I revel in that. I love that they help me take my work to the next level: that’s what they’re there for. So be  open to constructive criticism and be okay setting aside a manuscript and starting fresh. It’s not a failure, it’s a stepping stone.

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You can snag Allison Winn Scotch’s, THE ONE THAT I WANT, anywhere you can land a new book - in brick and mortar bookstores or online, with ease, from the handy link at www.allisonwinn.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under *Jamie's Posts, 5 Minutes Alone, AuthorScoop Exclusives, The Writing Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.