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Q.
Tell us a little about your writing journey so far.
A.
My journey to publication has taken longer than I expected and has
turned down paths I didn’t anticipate when I eagerly began my first
novel. At that time, I was a new mom and a caregiver to my
mother-in-law, and I needed a creative outlet just for me. That
first novel took me about three years, and then I re-wrote it and
revised it many times. I joined Georgia Romance Writers and
discovered that a first novel at 650 pages had limited
marketability, and revised it again, cutting 250 pages. Now I write
about one 400-page novel a year. One of the nice surprises along the
journey was the discovery that I could sell quirky Southern short
stories. I’ve sold seven so far. Another surprise occurred in 2003
when one of my historical romances, Amid the Shadows, finaled
in RWA’s Golden Heart, and I found lifelong friends who are now part
of the Wet Noodle Posse.
 Q.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received from
another author?
A.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received from another author was
from friend and nonfiction author Gregory A. Freeman (The
Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the
Largest Rescue Ever Behind Enemy Lines, Penguin Books, Fall
2007). Actually, he gifted me with several golden kernels, but the
best advice was that I needed my own writing space. He encouraged me
to kick my husband, one of his best friends, out of our office, thus
turning it into my office. Greg and I have a mutual whining pact. He
listens to me whine about rejections with great empathy, and I do
the same for him.
Q.
If you could spend an hour picking the brain of someone, who would
it be?
A.
I would choose Margaret Mitchell. I read Gone with the Wind
the first time the summer I was eleven. At about two in the morning,
I realized from the throbbing pain in my ear that I had an ear
infection, most likely swimmer’s ear. Not one to keep the pain to
myself, I informed my mom and added that I’d read all my books from
the library. Back then, if you recall, television went off at night
rather than broadcast infomercials. Anyway, though sympathetic, Mom
walked me to our built-in bookcase, squinted at row after row of
spines, then pulled out the fattest book I’d ever seen other than
the dictionary. She handed me Gone with the Wind, the paper
jacket long gone because it had been my grandfather’s pre-WWII copy.
Mom went back to bed. I happily immersed myself in Scarlett O’Hara’s
world, glad to have something so wonderful to distract me from the
earache.
During this brain-picking session, Margaret and I could sip
sweet tea or bourbon, her choice. We could chat about Southern men.
I’d love to know her secret for creating a classic. What I don’t
want to know is what she would have written as a sequel to Gone
with the Wind. Call me weird, but I like not knowing if Scarlett
ever wins back Rhett. It gives me, as a reader, the opportunity to
imagine what I’d do with those characters.
Q.
What do you feel is your best strength as a writer?
A.
I’ve been told my strengths as a writer are description and sensory
detail. I’ve also been told my plotting is good. Can you tell I’m
not comfortable giving myself a compliment?
Q.
Is there a type of book you’d like to write that you haven’t?
A.
If you’d have asked me a few months ago, I’d have said yes. But now
I’ve started my first YA. As a mother of a 12-year-old, I figure I
have a built-in audience and critic! A Ghoul Just Wants to Have
Fun is written in first-person point of view, quirky and
Southern with a little paranormal twist.
Q.
What, in your opinion, are the three writing books no writer should
be without?
A.
The three writing books that I can’t live without are Stephen King’s
On Writing, Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling
Writer, and Mary Stewart’s The Moonspinners. I think of
Stephen King’s railroad spike of rejections whenever the doubt
gremlins visit. If he could succeed after all that rejection, so can
I. When I need craft advice, I go back to Dwight Swain’s
Techniques of the Selling Writer again and again. And my
favorite romantic suspense of all time, Mary Stewart’s The
Moonspinners, is what I reread when I need inspiration.
Q.
What is your writing process like?
A.
My writing process used to be more complicated, but I’m trying to
simplify, sort of like a golfer improving his swing. Recently, I
looked at what was working for me and what wasn’t and decided to
part ways with my elaborate outlines with each scene mapped out,
which I ended up ditching large chunks of anyway. These outlines
made me feel like the story was done before I even started writing
the chapters and I’d want to move on to something new. Now, I write
down the bare bones of an idea, flesh it out into a blurb and
synopsis and do character exploration work. Because I am a plotter,
and what I need to improve is the emotional connection readers feel
for my characters, I now swear by the exercises in Getting into
Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors. My
critique partners tell me whether the synopsis and characters work
or not. I set up chapters and take lines from the synopsis to plug
into the chapters to serve as guideposts so I know what I want to do
in each chapter. With this new approach, each chapter feels fresh
for me. Before I write, I read through what I’ve written the day
before. I do my best writing in the morning, so I start right after
I walk my daughter to the bus stop. I stop for lunch, exercise, and
RWA chapter business.
Q.
Other than writing and reading, what other activities do you enjoy?
A.
Other than writing and reading, I love to do arts and crafts
(there’s a dollhouse base in my basement that needs flooring). I sew
and scrapbook. I like to bake when I have time. I like to watch
Project Runway with my daughter, and I adore watching romantic
comedies and adventures (something my daughter and I now share).
Q.
What is your dream vacation?
A.
Renting a large beach house for an entire month is my idea of a
dream vacation. The must-haves are squeaky, sugar-white sand and
clear, green-blue water, like Blue Mountain Beach on the Florida
Gulf Coast. Every afternoon, I’d walk along the spreading surf and
revel in the salty breeze tugging at my clothes and hair. I’d occupy
the rest of my time collecting shells, listening to the tide roll in
and out, writing, reading, talking and playing board games like
Balderdash with family and friends who come to visit.
Publications:
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“Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow” in More Sweet Tea (BelleBooks,
2005)
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“A Very Mossy Christmas” (BelleBooks
web site, December
2005)
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“Blinded by the Lights” and “Resolutionary War” in
A Day
in Mossy Creek (BelleBooks, 2006)
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“Be Mime” (BelleBooks Web site, February 2006)
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“Be Mime” and “A Woozy Kind of Love” in
At Home in Mossy
Creek (BelleBooks, February 2007)
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“The Good Son” in Sweeter Tea (BelleBooks, TBA)
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