5 Minutes Alone… with Christine Lemmon
Think women’s fiction and beach read, and if you think hard enough, you’ll conjure something along the lines of Christine Lemmon’s fourth novel, SAND IN MY EYES. Or you can just read on and let her take you there. You’d be in good hands. She’s an expert.
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?
Christine: A poem I wrote in high school was published in the year book.
AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.
Christine: SAND IN MY EYES is the story of a woman so overwhelmed by life that hardly is she seeing the 
beauty around her. It’s as if she is walking around with sand in her eyes until her elderly neighbor brings her flowers, and wisdom related to womanhood.
I let the characters in this story be who they wanted to be and do what they wanted to do without following an outline. It was a bit hard for me to create a woman so overwhelmed and on the brink of misery, especially while in that stage of life when her children are small. I find a tremendous amount of joy being a mother to three young children but also have those hard mommy moments, too. There is a balance in the story between the mother who is spinning around her house like a top, answering the demands of her children while desiring to write a novel, and the wise woman next door who tells her this phase will pass, that she might as well look for the daisies hidden within the weeds.
AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?
Christine: If it weren’t for my husband, my manuscripts would be tucked away in a drawer and hidden from the world. When we were dating I would write of him in my diary and then dangle it in front of him, reading only that which I chose to read and substituting ‘blank blank’ for the juicy parts. But I have read every one of my manuscripts to him line by line in a monotone voice, hitting him with a pillow whenever he’d fall asleep. He is honest about my stories, what he likes and doesn’t like but through it all, he is the one who has coached me on tenacity, hard work and pursuing my dreams. When I have felt down with regard to my writing, my husband tells me to get over it and get writing.
AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?
Christine: Either early in the morning, right after I wake and pour myself a cup of coffee, or at night from nine until eleven. I write best when I have a daily and consistent uninterrupted chunk of time and when my room does not have sunlight coming through the window. I find it is easier to enter into the story when there is not that bright light coming into the room. If I do try writing when my husband and children are awake, I often turn on classical music to tune out the noise in the house.
AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?
Christine: Discover your best time to write and write each and every day regardless of how hectic life becomes. Life only enhances the writing, so write through good times and through bad. Don’t wait for the right time to start writing; just write and enjoy the process. It might takes years to finish your story, or to get published, so make writing your special time and enjoy it. And don’t feel bad about all those stories you wrote that didn’t get published. Writing is like practicing the piano. No one hears all those times a pianist’s fingers hit the keys. They only hear the recital. All those hours you have spent writing in solitude, those pages no one will read, have only gone into making you a better writer.
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SAND IN MY EYES is summer reading to the letter and is available now. Ms. Lemmon’s web page has the lowdown on getting a copy into your beach bag.
AuthorScoop
