Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Alicia Rasley, and I’ve written 14 novels and several non-fiction books. My home in the American Midwest on a lazy river, which has inspired a couple of my novels. I also teach writing at a state university, and in workshops to fiction writers. “Story” in all forms is my obsession, whether it’s a student’s memoir or the latest serial on Netflix. I’m especially interested in how the medium changes the progression of the story, that is, novels are “closed” stories with a particular ending, while videogames can be more open and interactive.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Tryst at the Brighton Inn, a mystery-romance. These two characters have been in my head for years, in different incarnations. She was always Russian and named Natasha, but sometimes she was a modern refugee and sometimes she was a 19th Century countess– but in my head, she was always a bit mysterious and untrusting. Matt had several names over the years, and he was usually the cynical best friend.
Neither ever actually made it into a book that got published, so I decided finally I’d have to give them their own story. I was surprised to find that these two, who never “met” in my past attempts to write them, completely belonged together. It’s hard to explain, actually, how a character can be “in my head” and change radically but still be that same person. This made me understand that we really do have a core personality that never changes even when our circumstances change.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I’m writing non-fiction, nothing bothers me. I can be in the middle of a schoolroom of singing children with the fire alarm going off, and keep on writing. But when I write fiction, I can’t have any words around me. I can’t have the TV on or any conversations in the room. I can only listen to instrumental music.
So I generally write my stories in a back bedroom where there is no TV and no husband! Now I’m experimenting with a standing desk (better for the health), and would like to work up to being able to type at a treadmill desk. I doubt I’ll manage that!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
For Tryst at the Brighton Inn, which is a mystery-romance set in the Regency era, I wanted the feel of a classic locked-door mystery. So I’ve re-read most of Agatha Christie’s mysteries that have a murder in an enclosed space. She’s a much better stylist than she’s been given credit for, and has a quick, deft way of explaining character that impresses me.
Georgette Heyer, of course, inspired me to write Regency novels. Re-reading them now, as I do every couple years, I’m struck by the delight of her dialogue. I’m not sure anyone (even Jane Austen) writes dialogue as well as she does. I wish I could do that!
I read CS Lewis’s Narnia series when I was a child, and was profoundly affected by his conversational and yet elegant style. I didn’t realize how much I’d been influenced until I read the books aloud to my own children, and thought, “This sounds like me! Only a lot better.”
And just to prove I have read a few books written since WWII , I’d cite Marilynne Robinson (Gilead) as a recent influence. Her books are very quiet– I don’t know exactly how to describe it– but full of suppressed emotion. Alice Munro has that gift too. I’m trying to infuse that suppression into my own scenes now– creating emotion without describing it.
Of course, every good writer influences me a bit. Shakespeare has been helpful (thanks, Will!) in teaching me how to “tell the truth through lies”. No one is better than the Bard at tricking the reader into learning something profound. This week I’m reading the latest Stephen King novel, and am struck with how he mixes the quotidian reality of life’s routines with the extreme action and emotion of historical events.
What are you working on now?
I am just starting a new book in the Regency CSI series. Tryst at the Brighton Inn was the first in that series. I’d come across some historical reference to a meteorite killing someone in England at that time, and thought I might try to incorporate that.
I always have more than one project going, so I’m also tracking down fragments of a spy novel set in the Napoleonic era. Bits of this exist on different backup drives from several computers. I am not very organized. But I have enough collected to remind me what I meant to do in that book– explore what sort of person is drawn to the clandestine art of espionage.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m not actually very good at promotion. What I think is most important is to link your books together in some way– in a series, or with a common setting– and promote them all at once. Readers do tend to buy the next book when they’re already invested in the characters or situation. I know I just bought the 15th book in a series that I’m not enjoying much at all… but heck, I’d read 14, so why not 15?
Problem is, I get bored with writing the same characters. So I’m going to try to make a series around a situation (like the espionage ring). Then I’m going to build a website and Facebook page for the whole series.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I was traditionally published for 20 years with several of the “Big 5” publishers. I know the allure of “real publication.” There’s a status and prestige that comes from one of the big publishers choosing you out of the pile. But that’s often all there is. Often the happiest moment is the one when you get that first phone call offering you a contract. Then there’s often a long wait to get published, minimal or no editing and promotion, and little loyalty– authors, even successful ones, get dropped all the time.
Thing is, before recently, we didn’t have many options. It was NY or the extremely hard work of publishing and selling your own books. But now self-publishing is much more accessible. My advice is, if you want traditional publication (and I don’t blame you), give yourself a deadline. Very often it takes a decade– I’m not joking– to break through that brick wall. Decide how long you’re going to give this quest for traditional publication, and in the meantime, while you’re waiting the eight months for the agents to respond back, and the year before the contracts all get signed, write another book, and this time try publishing it yourself. (No, it won’t harm your chances of getting published traditionally. If the indie-book does well, it might even help.)
We have options now, and we should at least try them out. And the greatest prestige, frankly, comes from a bursting bank account and readers clamoring for your next release.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Claire Zion, my second editor, way back in the Dark Ages, gently said to me, “Every scene should have some event that affects the overall plot. Twelve pages of the hero walking around and thinking deep thoughts and occasionally crushing a dried leaf don’t count as a real scene. Make something happen. Make something change.”
We would all be better writers if we dedicated ourselves to that proposition that every scene should change the plot, if only in a minor way.
What are you reading now?
Stephen King’s latest, the one about the time-traveler who goes back to stop the assassination of JFK, is on my audio-player. I am also reading Catherine Exley’s Diary, which is the actual diary of an army wife who followed her soldier husband through the action of the Napoleonic wars. Let me just say, when I grumble about having to go out and walk for exercise every day, I should remember this woman, who carried a newborn baby while she walked over the mountains in Portugal– wearing borrowed shoes.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am going to try to focus on one book at a time, for a change!
I also want to start doing a podcast about how stories work, and interview storymakers from other fields, like film and videogames. Of course, first I have to figure out how to do a podcast.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Hmm… I’d bring a Brother Cadfael mystery because those are so beautifully soothing.
I’d also take the Collected Works of Shakespeare. Would that be cheating? It’s just one book. Of course, it’s so heavy, it would sink the raft I’d be building to escape.
And I’d take one of the books of the Patrick O’Brian sea-adventure series (Desolation Island), where the ship strikes an iceberg and the crew is shipwrecked in Antarctica… and survive. Maybe there will be some useful survival techniques for me on my own island!
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