Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Wrote my first story at age 5, after I learned to read. My mother typed it for me. When my hands got big enough, she taught me to type. Always knew I’d be a writer, even poetry. Won Poet Laureate of my high school. My career included writing marketing copy, but I also wrote essays and travel notes. My first book, on bad bosses, was published in the mid-90s, but I wasn’t satisfied with nonfiction. My agent/friend all but commanded me to write fiction, and I got started. It took me a long time to figure out how to tell the story of a woman’s desperation in dealing with family secrets. MASON’S DAUGHTER is the first in the “MASON” series, with MASON’S KEEPER coming next (early 2014).
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
MASON’S KEEPER will follow MASON’S DAUGHTER, as a prequel, but the books can be read in any order. Crazy family stories inspire me. I wonder how our relationships would be different if we knew the secrets our parents and other family members kept. Most of the time, these secrets have influenced their behaviors, which shapes us. It’s a cycle that knowledge and compassion help break.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I listen to classical music while I write, but first I pray to get myself out of the way. The characters need the freedom to tell their stories in their voices. When they’re talking to me, I forget to eat or shower. I try to remember to go outside for 15 minutes every day, but I don’t take phone calls (except from certain family members). After what seems like several hours, I look out my office window and the darkness surprises me. How did all that time pass?
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen for heroines who get things wrong, Barbara Kingsolver for beautiful language, Larry McMurtry for settings and descriptions, Pat Conroy for relationships. O. Henry for the unexpected, Mark Twain for humor, Ernest Hemingway for sparse prose, John Irving for intensity, Kathryn Stockett for POV … the list goes on.
I also shouldn’t leave out my writers’ critique group, which I call “the Master Class.” My fellow authors have helped me with novel structure and verisimilitude, among other issues.
On writing, highly recommend: Swain, Gardner, Stein, Vogler, Truby, Lamott, et al.
What are you working on now?
Finishing MASON’S KEEPER, historical fiction, and plotting the next one, a romantic comedy (also with family secrets). There are about 7 other stories that keep my creative carousel spinning, so I’ll have to choose which painted horse to jump on next.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like to use websites (such as this one) that know what the authors need (readers) and what the readers need (good books). It helps to be able to promote by genre and offer a discount. Showing the cover image is vital, because the subscriber makes an impulse decision most of the time.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. Join a critique group and listen to the reactions — if you get the same one more than once, pay attention. Get professional editing (you can’t edit your own story — no, really, you can’t). Read books (see recommended list above) and take classes on writing. Attend writers’ conferences for workshops. Keep writing. Read your stuff out loud. Kill your darlings. Don’t write with your mother or grandmother over your shoulder. Be fearless. Learn the rules before you consider breaking them. Don’t write for the money. Keep writing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Go indie!
Something like, “We never finish editing our novels. We just abandon them.”
Once I asked a composer friend when he knew a piece was finished. He said, “When the music sounds right.”
How about editing? His answer: “Mostly I take out notes rather than add them in.”
Same for writing.
What are you reading now?
A wonderful and dramatic nonfiction book I can visualize as a movie: THE TIGER, by John Vaillant. Fascinating setting, inciting event, characters, backstory, with cultural, political, geographic, and socioeconomic insights as interesting building blocks.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Publish more books. Goal is one/year. Ideas come faster than time allows. What can I give up? Vacuuming! Washing my car.
What is your favorite book of all time?
My Kindle! Loaded with classics (Tolstoy, Austin, Fitzgerald) and current authors. My Bible, in case I’m not rescued. My mascara, in case I am.
Author Websites and Profiles
Cynthia J Stone Website
Cynthia J Stone Amazon Profile
Cynthia J Stone’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
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