Jamie Ford is a new novelist, breaking onto the literary scene with HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET.  He’s also an essayist, blogger, and an example of grace under fire.

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

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Jamie: Fiction-wise, you’re kinda looking at it. Sure, I had a lot of flash fiction and short fiction published online, but Hotel was really my first foray into deep waters.

And to be fair, I’m not counting articles I’ve written for business publications, ad campaigns, commercials, videos and such. I even wrote part of a speech for the governor of Montana, years ago. Very surreal to hear my words coming out of her mouth. Frightening too. I think I stopped believing the words of politicians at that very moment.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Jamie: Well, I can tell you that Publishers Weekly shredded it on the same day that
Costco chose it as their pick for February. Followed by an IndieBound NEXT List selection, a Barnes & Noble’s New Reads Book Club selection, and a nod from the Borders Original Voices Program. Hey PW—I ain’t mad atcha, I ain’t got nothin’ but love for ya.

But beyond that, HOTEL is the story of the Japanese Internment in Seattle during WWII, but seen through the eyes of a 12-year old Chinese boy, named Henry. Henry is sent by his father to an all-white private school to ostensibly “become more American” and there he meets Keiko, a young Japanese girl sent by her parents for similar reasons. There they form a unique friendship and innocent love, amid the hysteria and chaos in the wake of the bombings of Pearl Harbor. But it’s also the story of Henry, as a grown man, reflecting on the choices he made, the things he said, or left unspoken, all those years ago. At its core, it’s a love story.

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

Jamie: Orson Scott Card. When I attended his literary bootcamp, he worked us like rented mules. It was exhausting and exhilarating too. One night he treated everyone to this fabulous dinner at a Brazilian restaurant and I remember him telling me, “You should send your short story to the New Yorker,” I was flattered. Then he continued, “Of course they accept a lot of crap, but they don’t always accept crap, so you might have a shot.” It was a very jangled compliment, but it was a real confidence booster. (The New Yorker soundly rejected me, by the way).

That workshop also broke some of my bad habits—namely over-writing––or writing to impress my audience. Instead, I went the other direction, learning to write less, but constantly banking or spending emotional currency with the reader.

Basically, I arrived at that workshop as a writer and left as a storyteller.

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

Jamie: When the voices in my head stop mocking me. (Morning, usually).

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

Jamie: Don’t expect to sit down and nail it on the first try.

So many newbie writers try to write the “Great American Novel” on their first go, and upon failing, decide they have no talent. It’s not like that. Think of writing as a craft––something akin to playing a musical instrument. You wouldn’t sit down at a piano for the first time and expect to play Beethoven, would you? Or course not. You learn scales, you plink away at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, you go through the motions––sometimes for years before you’re playing anything that anyone would actually want to listen to.

So allow a healthy margin for improvement.

Now storytelling on the other hand…

R.N. Morris‘ crime suspense series features Detective Porfiry Petrovich, first revealed to readers over 140 years ago by the pen of Fyodor Dostoevsky.  A secondary character in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Porfiry sparked a curiosity in Morris that hasn’t yet let go, so far yielding two successful and acclaimed books - THE GENTLE AXE and A VENGEFUL LONGING.  A little bird told me, it doesn’t end there…

Oh, and for a giggle, don’t miss out on the link about the cat.

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

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Roger: The first place that published me was a magazine aimed at teenage girls, called Look Now. I doubt it’s still going. I was a college student at the time. In other words, it was a long time ago. They paid me £75 I seem to remember, for a short story about a girl who was nervous about bringing her boyfriend home to meet her parents because he had dyed green hair (this was in the first punk era) and her mum was very conservative. I followed that up with a story in another teenage girls’ mag, called 19. Then I had a third, sold again to Look Now. I don’t know how I managed to crack the teenage girl market, perhaps because I was a teenage-ish guy. But I was basically writing stories from the girl’s point of view, which was fun. It amazed me that I got away with it. And taught me that writing really is a leap of faith. Women’s magazines were the only places in the UK I knew of where you could sell short stories for money. I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to make money from my writing, so I had to learn how to write for the women’s market. The fact that I aimed my stories at the younger end of that market is really more to do with my age at the time. I did try and write some things for older readership mags, but I think being a callow youth played against me there!

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Roger: My most recent book is a historical crime novel called A Vengeful Longing. It’s the second in a series of books I’m writing featuring the detective Porfiry Petrovich. You may recognise the name. I’ve shamelessly purloined him from Dostoevsky’s great novel, Crime and Punishment. I thought he was such an intriguing character. But he’s really a secondary character in C&P, Raskolnikov’s nemesis of course. He only features directly in a couple of chapters. I wanted more of him. So, I thought the best way to get that would be to write a novel with him as the main character. That was how I came to write A Gentle Axe, my first Porfiry Petrovich novel. The publishers wanted me to turn it into a series. So I did! The books are set in St Petersburg, Russia, in the 1860s. I find it a fascinating time. There are so many tensions at play. For me, Porfiry is essentially a decent man. Solving the crime is the first step in saving the criminal. What makes that
especially interesting is that he is working within the tsarist state, enforcing the tsar’s laws – so you could say he is a just man in the service of an unjust regime. In A Vengeful Longing the crimes of the state are represented by a cholera epidemic that’s out of control at the height of a stifling summer. A series of apparently unconnected murders take place against this background. Even Porfiry is too hot and bothered to find the connections at first.

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

Roger: My wife Rachel has been an incredible support. Basically, she never nagged me to go out and get a proper job. She’s put up with me being a precarious freelancer, working as few days as I can get away with, so that I can steal as much time as possible for my writing. We could have been a lot better off if I’d given up on my writing dreams several decades ago. She never tried to change me, in other words. You can’t ask for more than that. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been less lucky with my cat. My cat has done nothing but prevent me from working.

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

Roger: I think I’m a morning person. I wrote my first published novel, Taking Comfort, largely in the early hours of the morning, setting my alarm for 6 a.m. – sometimes earlier - then going straight to work, just stepping out of my dreams up to the PC. It gave the work a slightly hallucinatory feel, I think. Getting up early really kick-started my day. I would get a solid hour of writing done before anyone else was up. Then the kids would start to stir, and I would go down to get them breakfast, and a cup of tea for Rachel. She is not a morning person. Having that base of words in hand for the day gave me something to build on when I came back to it later. I don’t do that any more, but I do like to start working as soon as possible, and the morning hours are always the most productive. Having said that, I am slightly obsessive. I lose track of time when I’m working, and find it hard to stop when things are going well. These days, I have to remember to go and get the kids in the afternoon. Sometimes I have to set an alarm to make sure I remember.

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

Roger: Stick at it. I’ve heard it said that the only difference between a published author and an unpublished author is perseverance. That’s certainly true in my case. I know it does happen that fantastically clever people sit down to write a book, and get published straight away with their first effort. But it wasn’t like that for me. I was an unpublished writer for a lot longer than I’ve been a published one. So I know how it feels. I really do. We’re talking decades of rejection and disappointment. I have a slight disagreement with my wife about exactly how many unpublished novels I have. Let’s just say I lost count at seven. My reaction to rejection has always been, ‘OK, you didn’t like that one, I’ll write something better.’ I did reach the point where it looked like I would never get published. I remember having a conversation with my agent over coffee where he told me that my name was ‘starting to meet with resistance’. In other words, editors were saying to him, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know him. Haven’t you got anybody else?’ That was a depressing moment. But actually it galvanised me more than anything. I decided to stake everything on one final, mad throw of the dice. It was time to write the idea that had been obsessing me for years – a detective novel drawn from Dostoevsky. I knew it would be difficult, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to pull it off. And I also knew that if I did do it, it was bound to get some attention, if only for the hubris. I was very scared that Dostoevsky-purists would tear me apart. But I realised that I wanted to write it very much. Also, I knew that I had to play for high stakes. I had to take the most ambitious idea I had, and go for it.

Actually, it was a double roll of the dice, because at the same time, almost, I wrote, very quickly, another book that had been obsessing me – Taking Comfort. And I wrote it in exactly the way I wanted. I thought, Sod the bastards. I didn’t give up, but I did let go, if you see what I mean. There’s no point double-guessing what editors might or might not be looking for. You’ve got to write out the stories that won’t let you go – that are important to you. I think the conviction that arises from that comes through in the writing and editors react to it. So, don’t give up, let go. That’s my advice.

John Levitt is an author and musician who splits his time between Alta, Utah and San Francisco. His latest Urban Fantasy, New Tricks, was released in late 2008. You can check out an excerpt of it here.

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

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

John: My very first?  I wrote a chapter on local bird identification for a small pamphlet about the  history and natural fauna of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Alta, Utah back in  the 1970s.  All proceeds went to the Alta Historical Society, and it was still selling twenty years later.  My first “real” publication was in 1989, a mystery/thriller novel titled Carnivores, published by St. Martin’s Press.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

John: My latest is New Tricks, an urban fantasy set in San Francisco.  It’s the second in a series about Mason, a jazz musician and reluctant magical practitioner who runs into all kinds of trouble while he’s trying to live a quiet life.  His friends and acquaintances keep dying, and he has to figure out what’s going on, and why, and who’s responsible.  Lots of magic, a few supernatural creatures, but no werewolves, vampires, fey, or traditional fantasy tropes in this book.

Mason is  aided by his magical companion, Lou, who is a small dog like a mini pinscher.  Only, he’s not really a dog.  Just sort of.   He can’t talk, or do magic, but he’s a great help and everyone’s favorite character, hands down.

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

John: I always thought I didn’t need any help – I use no crit groups or beta readers, and no one sees any of the ms until it’s done.  But it turns out I do occasionally need help, and I was lucky enough to find an agent, Caitlin Blasdell, who is also a very fine editor, which she used to be.  Her editorial advice has been invaluable in pinpointing problems and steering me back on course when I start flailing and don’t know how to fix the book.  Not to mention that she managed to sell the series to Ace.

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

John: That’s totally dependent on the rest of my life.  I used to be a night person, and worked swing shift and nights for years.  I wrote my first novel between midnight and two every night after getting off work.  These days, I futz around in the morning, and finally get to work around noon, so afternoons are now my writing time.

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

John: Honestly, there’s nothing I can say about writing that hasn’t been said a hundred times before, and by better writers than I.  But as far as getting published goes, I do think that luck, or timing if you don’t believe in luck, has a lot more to do with it than we like to admit.  And the longer you persist, the better chance you have of getting that break.  So don’t give up, don’t let rejection get you down, and grow a thick skin – you’re going to need it.

Celina Summers is an author of speculative fiction and a blogger.

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

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Celina: Aside from journalistic credits in high school and college, my first publication credit was the first book of my epic fantasy series The Asphodel Cycle. The Asphodel Cycle is a reworking of the Trojan War mythology, using fantasy archetypes in place of and in addition to the Greco-Roman lore. The novel is called The Reckoning of Asphodel and much to my surprise it went to # 1 on the Fictionwise bestseller list for Fantasy in the summer of 2007.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Celina: My latest release is the third book in the series, entitled Temptation of Asphodel. In this book, my heroine Tamsen de Asphodel must overcome the temptations thrown in her path by the gods who are working against her. If she fails, an entire race of mortals will cease to exist. If she succeeds, then she will lead an alliance of nations back to the plains of Ilia where they will fight the greatest war of ancient history again. The Asphodel stories center around a strong female protagonist who is equally at home in the complex world of politics, the luxuries of a royal Court or on a battlefield. Although she is a pawn in a wager of the gods, she discovers that even a pawn can change the course of the game.

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

Celina: I was blessed with extraordinary teachers throughout my life. My Latin teachers in high school were a husband and wife team, Grady and Dr. Kaye Warren. They gave me a background in classics that persists to this day and inspired the Asphodel series from the beginning. My high school English teacher, the late Kitty Savage, was the first person who convinced me that I could—and would—be a writer. I never had a teacher push me as hard as she did. She taught me that just writing well wasn’t enough. Rewriting well was the skill that she forced me to learn. And, finally, Dr. Howard Stein, a former Associate Dean of the Yale School of Drama and Chairman of the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University, taught me in a college master class in playwriting. He gave me the best piece of advice I’ve ever received as a writer. “Celina, a lot of people will say to write what you know. For you, it’s going to be different. Know what you write.” He gave me permission, in a way, to explore the outer reaches of my imagination for inspiration. I think he knew, before anyone else did, that speculative fiction was going to be the realm I flourished in. I took his advice to heart, and as a result I know my characters and the worlds that they live in.

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

Celina: I write best at night. Although I do a lot of work during the day, my best writing happens when the house is quiet and dark and everyone else is asleep. Then I turn on my writing music and lose myself in the story. If I’m writing a climactic scene, I always write it at night, by myself in my study.

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

Celina: The most important part of writing is rewriting. There’s no such thing as a perfect first draft…or a second draft. When you’re churning out that first draft, you’re throwing the bare bones of a story onto paper, like Dr. Frankenstein attaching parts to his experimental body. It’s when you’re rewriting that those bones flesh out into an entity that will take its first, shuddering breath. It’s only after rewriting that electricity will course through your words and your story will live.

For the very young writers, the ones still in school, listen carefully. Cherish your teachers. Absorb what they have to share with you. Finally, at the end of your time with them, thank them for setting your feet upon the paths of literature.

I had the pleasure of speaking to author Jason F. Wright the other day for PsychJourney.com.  Mr. Wright has hit the bestseller lists with two previous books, THE WEDNESDAY LETTERS and CHRISTMAS JARS, and his new novel, RECOVERING CHARLES, takes a successful photographer into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to search for his estranged father.

I always enjoy speaking to writers, but this interview had a twist in that Jason Wright is more known, at this point, for his political advisory and commentary than he is for his inspirational, warm-hearted fiction.  On the cold cusp of the US Presidential Election, the release of RECOVERING CHARLES has been somewhat of a challenge for him.

If you’re interested, the interview can be found here, and the book is simply everywhere.

Pediatric intensivist, Dr. Christopher Johnson, has released an excellent new guide book for parents, called HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD’S DOCTOR.

It’ll be with the parenting books, but I maintain that it’s for everybody.  Well-organized and insightful, HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD’S DOCTOR diagrams how doctors are trained and goes on to make sense of some attitudes, jargon, and procedures that we all encounter in the physician’s office.

It’s a terrific book and Dr. Johnson was kind enough to come talk to me about it for The NorthStar Guardians podcast series.  Listen to the interview here and check out Dr. Johnson’s website for a great blog and resource list on children’s health issues.

Talking about writing is often a pretty quick solution to being mistaken for a good conversationalist. When asked what you do, best just say you’re not at liberty to disclose the nature of your employment and ride the crest of mystique.

It isn’t that people aren’t interested in the creative process. They are. It’s only that it can be difficult to make the nuts and bolts of word-tinkering live up to the fantasy of orchestrating Genesis all day every day, and smoking and drinking at the Algonquin all night. Duels of wit and fits of eloquent agony and taking out the garbage and getting your teeth cleaned – it just takes more skill than most of us have to render this paradox intriguing in chit chat at the neighborhood barbeque.

So writing is most reliably a solitary venture. But with the advent of the internet and more recently the proliferation of writer’s sites, that’s not necessarily as true as it used to be. We can convene without combing our hair. We can debate the nuances of ‘leap’ versus ‘gambol’ with people who occasionally care. And we can form partnerships of the mind without consideration of distance, just a little thought to the time zones.

It really is quite brilliant.

Trish Stewart and Kevin Craig are ripe for commentary on this very phenomenon, as they are seven chapters into a collaborative project for all to observe on Yours, Mine… Ours.

Trish and Kevin have agreed to chat with AuthorScoop throughout the process, so we’ll start off with a basic Q & A.

***

Jamie: So, Trish and Kevin, here’s what I know about you:

Not much. From my own experience, I know you as poets and contributors at Absolute Write’s Forum Boards. You both developed reputations there – good, solid, writerly ones – and now, you’re collaborating on a novel. Online, no less.

How did that happen? Who are you people?

Trish: It was all Kevin’s fault. We have been beta readers for each other for a while, so we’re familiar with each other’s styles of writing. He found a blog with nine people contributing to one novel. He thought we could give it a try; that it would be fun to see if we could meld our styles into one voice. So he set up the blog, even got my blog account and password set up for me. I said “I’d love to.” He said it would be fun, and just for exercise, so why the hell not?

As for me, I’m a wife, mother and Proposal Writer in Southern Illinois. Poetry is my first writing love, though I’ve been writing novels for the last several years. I’m presently querying my second novel, Taking Lessons from Ernest. My poetry can be most easily read at Absolute Write’s Poetry Forum.

Kevin: How did the collaboration happen? The collaboration felt like something that was imminent from the beginning. I responded to one of Trish’s first posted poems at A.W. with a poem. I just felt an immediate creative connection to her. We have critiqued each other’s novel manuscripts and built a creative trust between each other like no other. Then, one day I came across a blog where nine writers were collaborating on a FanFic novel. The first thing I thought was, “I could do this with Trish!” I emailed her that day and asked if she would want to collaborate on a novel and post it First-Draft-Ugly to a blog for all to see. Then I nervously waited for her reply.

Who Am I? I’m a husband and father. I’m an office worker. I’m a freelance writer on the side. And I was a closet writer for about twenty years. About 7 years ago I decided to come out of the closet and face writing head on and I haven’t stopped since.

Jamie: Tell us about the nature of collaboration. How did (do) you work out who does what?

Trish: Well, since Kevin did all of the work on the blog site and the whole thing was his idea from the beginning he chose me to write the first chapter and suggested that we would alternate from there. I was pleased with the alternating chapters, but terrified to write the first one. From that point, each of us writes our chapter in turn and the other proofreads the chapter before it gets posted. We share the site administration, of which there is virtually none. We email with ideas, prod each other, and occasionally send each other apologies for where the story left off at the end of a chapter.

Kevin: When Trish agreed to do this I elected her the writer of the first chapter. It was a total cop-out. I didn’t want to be the one to create the characters…I just wanted to walk into something that was already there and expand upon it. The plan was I would write Chapter two, she would write chapter three, and so on and so on. We’ve had a few emails between us with a couple of thoughts here and there, but we’ve been pretty much on our own with the process. I have the next chapter in my inbox and I still have to read it. I have NO idea what’s in it. I don’t know what direction she has taken things in. I like the way it’s happening…almost totally blind. I think I have asked Trish more questions…since she wrote the first chapter I am totally afraid of dragging everybody somewhere that she didn’t see them going. It’s almost like I’m playing with her characters. But at the same time, I read it and think, “these are my characters”. It’s one of the weirdest writing experiences I’ve ever had. It’s a thrill to take her next chapter and make it mine and add the next to it. And it’s also very scary.

Jamie: Are you flying blind or are you following an outline?

Trish: Completely blind. I wrote a first chapter and hoped Kevin would like it. He did, so he wrote chapter two. I feel too blind on occasion. Picking up where someone leaves off isn’t always easy. He can do whatever he wants with his chapter. I trust him to take it the right direction, and hope I make the right choices when it’s my turn. Going without an outline is a natural writing style for both of us, but doing so publicly means that we can’t go back and change a reference or add a clue in a previous chapter, at least not easily. I’ve tried to leave a few little tidbits for myself that I might be able to snag later in the story, though only having half control of the story might not allow for that.

Some of our readers ask us questions about what is going to happen or where something is leading, and the truth is we don’t even know. For instance, when Mickey disappeared from the grocery store in Chapter Three, I couldn’t tell Kevin where Mickey went because I didn’t know, so he had to figure it out. When the big man visits Duncan, Kevin couldn’t tell me who he was. I still haven’t figured that one out.

Kevin: No outline. Just a couple of emails here and there asking, “What do you think about this?” But not much more.

Jamie: And, so far, are the tears shed measured by the ounce or gallon?

Trish: Ounce, definitely. It is very challenging, and we’ve made a sort of game out of handing off chapters, leaving cliffhangers (and apologies) to one another at every turn. The process is invigorating and the pressure is more intense than just writing for ourselves.

Anyone who chooses to visit our blog is seeing a first draft of a chapter; pressure goes with that territory, and a bit of fear does, too. Sometimes putting a chapter out there feels like hanging laundry out your car window to dry while you drive around town. No one needs to see that. Or even worse is following a great chapter written by your co-author with aimless drivel in your own. There haven’t been a lot of tears, there has been a good deal of sweat, but I think we both agree that it is an absolute blast. The challenge has been a fun one.

Kevin: I’ve been constantly conscious of the fact that I might be going in the wrong direction. And Trish has been constantly reassuring me that there is no wrong direction…that I should take them where I want to take them, since that is what she’s doing. No tears. We have been backing each other creatively for a couple of years now. What we usually do is email each other the next chapter so we can read it before posting it. The email usually says something like, ‘This is terrible, but for what it’s worth…here’s the next chapter’. It’s almost inevitable that we apron-wring. And it IS inevitable that we tell each other not to apron-wring. That’s the nature of our creative relationship. Accept your work. Trish is a wonderful writer. That’s why I wanted to work with her.

Jamie: Any surprises so far?

Trish: I didn’t expect it to get harder as we go along, but it has. I also didn’t expect that first chapter would lead to where we are now. The story’s progression has been one surprise after another.

Kevin: I had no idea what to do when Trish put Duncan in a garage fire. I panicked for a bit, but then I had a vision of a Chatty-Cathy nurse and introducing her alleviated the panic. My favorite surprise wasn’t a surprise at all…her first chapter. I thought it was brilliant and I was extremely excited to pick up where she left off. She did a great job introducing three wonderful characters I could really sink my teeth into. I feel we have this connection…sure there will be surprises along the way, but we are writing a book. I have surprises along the way when I write a book solo…it’s the nature of writing without an outline. I’m more than ready for the next surprise! I’m about to read the next chapter…maybe I’ll find one there.

***

AuthorScoop will return to the adventures of Kevin Craig and Trish Stewart as their project develops. So stay tuned here and stay tuned there.

I wear a few hats, that is when I can be bothered to dress from top to toes and make myself useful.

Just lately, I’ve been given the opportunity to do a little podcast journalism and commentary with PsychJourney.com. Mostly I read interesting books and get to pick the brains of the authors for my own enlightenment. But PsychJourney’s set-up means the whole deal is recorded and posted here, so everyone can hear what these authors had to say.

Last week, I interviewed best-selling author, Darcey Steinke, on her memoir, EASTER EVERYWHERE. She’s a very good writer and she says we’ll have a drink when next she’s in my neighborhood. (That’s an AuthorScoop behind-the-scenes exclusive.)

Stop by, if you’re so inclined. Ms. Steinke was a pleasure to talk to.

Patricia Wood’s experience with her debut novel Lottery is the scenario most aspiring novelists can only dream about in quiet, self-indulgent moments.

After a three-month writing frenzy, she began querying agents and, within months, was witnessing a bidding war that ultimately netted her a six-figure deal.

And life has only gotten better. Not only was the book optioned for film by a well-known Hollywood actress; as of this week, it was short-listed for the coveted Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

But like most “overnight successes”, Patricia brought a lifetime of personal experience and hard work to her craft. AuthorScoop chatted with her about her inspiration, the keys to her success and life after that first book deal.

AuthorScoop: First off, congratulations on the success of Lottery. Have you been surprised at the accolades it’s received, especially with it being your debut novel?

Patricia: Thank you. It’s interesting to me that I am not actually surprised — I’m more gratified and appreciative. I’ve always had the attitude that whatever happens… happens. Yes Lottery is my first published novel but it’s the third novel I’ve written so it’s still one of my children albeit the most precocious, successful one to date!

AuthorScoop: What was the inspiration for the book, and how long did you spend writing it?

Patricia: Many people assume that my father winning 6 million dollars in the lottery was the pivotal event but it was not. My brother in law Jeri who was profoundly affected by Down syndrome, my teaching, my work in disability studies — these things were markedly more inspiring. I will say that first and foremost, I am a writer and writers use all of their life experiences in their work — we thread them throughout both consciously and subconsciously. This is what creates that authentic feeling for the reader.

The first draft of Lottery took me two and a half months (I started it January 2006) and it ended up approx. 59,000 words. I did two- three more months of editing and revising and queried at 72,000 words at the end of May. I was offered representation in July and my agent and I “tweaked” it for anther three months until it was submitted to editors in November 2006 — at that time is was 89,000 words. The published novel is 87,000 words and was released August 2007.

AuthorScoop: How have your perceptions of the publishing industry changed since Lottery’s publication?

Patricia: They have changed dramatically. First of all I realize now more fully that agents and editors are people too and they deal with rejection on a DAILY basis in their work. They are on the writers’ side and are not adversarial. They WANT us to succeed.

Secondly: This is a business. Too many writers only perceive the creative artistry side and fail to realize a whole machine that is focused on getting books out to bookstores and into reader’s hands. I had no idea the importance of good relationships between the author’s work and the bookseller. I thought it was only the reader. It has been a sobering fact to realize how important distribution and placement in bookstores is to the success of a novel- especially a debut.

AuthorScoop: How has your life changed, both on a personal level and in the way in which you approach your work?

Patricia: My life has not changed. I learned that from my father. You cannot react to altered circumstances — you must bend them to your needs to be successful (I feel).

Is it easier to write? No. Do I have financial freedom? Not as much as I would like. Do I have more friends? Yes, but like my father I am never quite sure if it’s because of me or the success of my novel. We tend to think of publication as a goal and once you’ve achieved that goal you think you’ll just sit back and let it all happen but it’s far more complex. I have to think of my readers now, where I want to go with mycareer and I also have to spend time doing interviews!

AuthorScoop: What was your reaction to finding out you’d been short-listed for the Orange Prize?

Patricia: The authors find out a week ahead- the prize committee notifies the publisher so I got an email at 5 am from my publisher asking if I was available to fly to London as I had been short listed! and…not to say anything as it was confidential until April 15. After screaming and then crying (kind of at the same time) I called my husband who was driving to work. He had to pull over onto the shoulder of the road he was so moved. My NY agent called a few minutes later & we had a conference call with my UK agent and all of us went “SQEEEEE!!!!”

I am so profoundly grateful.

(It all would have been a phone call but as I am 6 hours earlier than NY and 11 hours earlier than London they emailed first so they didn’t wake me up… LOL)

AuthorScoop: That honor, combined with the recent film optioning of Lottery by Sarah Michelle Gellar has made 2008 quite a year for you, yes?

Patricia: Well, yes. I have to say that if you had told me what was to happen last year at this time (my book wasn’t even out yet) or two years ago (I had almost finished writing it) I would have been skeptical. I really am astounded and yet have such faith and love for my characters in Lottery that I see it as mostly their success rather than mine.

AuthorScoop: Given the success you’ve achieved thus far, what words of advice or encouragement would you offer young (and old) authors still trying to break into the business?

Patricia: Everybody’s path is different but there are some general similarities. The writers I know who are published treat it as a business and don’t get personal with rejection. I know it’s hard getting that “not for me” slip in our own SASE but it is a thousand times worse to read an unfavorable review in a publication with a circulation of a million plus…as a writer you have got to get a grip. I keep every one of my 70+ rejections just so I remember.

When you treat something as a business your whole view changes. Just as you invest in your career to go to college or be trained in some specialty you must do the same with your writing. Pay the $20 bucks a month to subscribe to Publishers Marketplace to understand the language and the way the business works. Go to the library and read Publishers Weekly, Start knowing the names of the agents, editors and houses who handle or publish your particular genre.

Be active online and get involved with Absolutewrite, Backspace and blogging. Read Read. Read. And read some more. Write EVERY SINGLE DAY. Write something. Give yourself deadlines because when you get published you have to get used to meeting them. Don’t quit your day job — make it part of your plan. Fulfilled people with varied experiences make better writers. It makes your work more authentic.

Go to conferences and retreats. Try to take workshops from successful writers. In 2005, after I had actually finished my first manuscript, I went to the Maui Writers Conference and Retreat. The Maui retreat is the best kept secret. You study and write with a successful author (I studied with NYT bestselling author Jackie Mitchard in 2005 and 2006 and with Karen Joy Fowler in 2007) I will be attending again in 2008. It’s critical to network in this business and to keep learning.

This year the Maui conference and retreat will be in Honolulu which gives greater flexibility for those on a budget. In 2006 I met several editors from Putnam at Maui and when my book was submitted I am certain that was one of the reasons for Putnam’s interest and eventual successful auction bid.

First and foremost you have to be absolutely certain you want to be a writer. Many people want to be authors. They are attracted to a perceived glamorous life style…It ain’t so. Ya gotta wanna write.

You have to have more than just one novel in you and you have to be willing to put in the time to write three or four manuscripts before you finally have something that is publishable. My first novel is in a drawer — someday I will take it out, dust it off and rework it…

And finally? Never give up. Never. If it is your dream then pursue it no matter what.

Lottery is currently available in hardcover
and will be out in paperback in June 2008.