Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I enjoy reading and love to write. When I first discovered books, I just had to read one right after the other. I had a thirst for words and stories. As an elementary school girl, I went to the library almost daily returning the books I read and getting more books. I remember I got a flashlight from my father’s took kit and hid it in my room. My sister and I shared a room. I would come home from school, do all my homework, and stay up most of the night on the floor next to the heating vent and reading under a blanket with my father’s flashlight shining on the words. I just couldn’t get enough books to read. I also kept a spiral notebook where I wrote my own stories. I never read them back and I have no idea what I did with them. I would finish one story and begin another until I had many spiral notebooks filled with stories. I guess they got thrown away when I grew up, and left home.
So far, I have written four novels, but have published two. The first two novels, I viewed as practice. Even though I took classes from writing centers and at a college, I wanted to write the first two novels to understand the nature of a novel. What is its purpose, how do I begin it, what happens in the middle and how do I end it. Of course, I also needed to know what went in between the three sections. But I wanted to understand the flow of a story, and what makes it different from someone saying, “I have a good story to tell you about what happened to me yesterday.” In novel writing, the author must use the elements of story telling and each element must be fully developed. I recognized the tools that an author should use, and have even specialized in two of them. The first two books helped he understand those things. After practice, then I thought I was ready to write. Sue Grafton said that it takes a person about five novels before the person becomes good at novel writing.
That Ever Died So Young is my first published novel. The book won an award. My efforts in understanding stories and story telling paid off. My second novel. Blessings and Curses, is a very complex story with more twists and turns than the first novel. I also used tension and empathy more than I did in my first novel. I am working on my third novel, presently.
I enjoy my characters as I write. I don’t think of them as characters. I think of them as people. As I write, I enjoy being with them. I see them as I write, and hear them speak. People who have read both books talk about how close they feel to my characters and how they feel like they are in the same room with them. I want my readers to feel what my characters feel, understand the way my characters understand things, and hear them speak.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Blessings and Curses is my latest novel. It was inspired by my high school students. My high school student came from various backgrounds. I had a student who had lost a leg when he was nine, and told me that he wasn’t a man with only one leg. How could he take care of his family with one leg? Another student whose parents said he had to leave home as soon as he turned eighteen. He had caused too much trouble in the home. He turned eighteen months before he graduated. He was was, and still is, I’m certain, one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Another student was involved in gangs when he lived in another state and his mother wanted him as far away from there as possible. I had many students who were from other countries and didn’t understand the language or the culture. They were students I thought of as “in the middle.” They had parents who were not involved in their education, who were too busy trying to eke out a living, and they didn’t speak English. The students “in the middle” went home to one culture and went to school where there was a different culture. These students, all felt like giving up. No one expected anything out of them, they were not able to contribute to society in any way, they thought, so why bother to learn anything. I spent many days trying to convince them not to give up. They were all listening to what society said about them and forming who they were on that. I asked them not to do that. I told them that the only person who gets to say who they will be and what they will do in life is them. I told them that so many times, that they began to listen to me. Partly because I wouldn’t allow them to not listen. Many of the students today have graduated from colleges and universities, own their own businesses, and my friend with one leg had his dream come true. I was able to get him a computerized leg and he walked across the stage to get his diploma. After that he was interested in attending college. Many of my students refused to give up because I refused to give up on them. They keep up with me and let me know how and what they are doing.
Olivia Douglass, my main character wanted to give up when she discovered things about herself. I thought so much about my students when I was writing her thoughts and feelings. The things that she did for herself came from some of the things my students decided for themselves. I want my reader to see that only you have the power to say what you will be and who you will be. Don’t give that power to others who don’t value you. My students helped me see how people value themselves based on what others thing, and we see that in Blessings and Curses as well. There is a strong family theme in the story. Many times when something happens in a family, the family members will pull away. When a family member is having trouble or going through a tragic situation, that is the time to support the family member, so what you can for them. In my classes, I thought of us as a family and encouraged support.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I mainly want every part of the story to be authentic and when a scene worries me, I remove it and start again.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Lee Martin, Clint McCown, Jodi Picoult, Kim Edwards, Nicholas Sparks, Anita Shreve, Karen Kingsbury, Anthony Doerr, Frederik Backman, Jamie Ford. Lolly Winston, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Crystal Wilkinson, Nora Roberts, Donald Ray Pollock, Geroge Pelecanos, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Strout, Sue Grafton. These authors not only write good stories, but they use the tools of story telling. These works are filled with not just one technique, but several in the same paragraph. That’s what makes their work different from others.
What are you working on now?
My novel now is, The Attractiveness of Wisdom. I hope to have it finished within the next several months. Then it goes to my writing group, beta readers and my editor.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesome Gang, of course.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If, in your heart you know you have to write, then write. I encourage new writers to know their genre. What type of story would you like to write? Read all you can about how to write stories of your genre, and recommended stories by authors of that genre. Remember to read for the language used in your type of story, the sentence type and length. Some stories have to have certain things in them, so read to find out how authors include those “must haves” in their stories in order to get an understanding of what it is and how it is used. Read and learn before you write. If you write first, you may be disappointed in how your story is received. Keep learning. Even after you have published, there are always new things to learn.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing. At first, I didn’t know what that meant. But it means that you need more practice in writing. You’re almost there, you have potential, so keep writing. In a sense it also means to mean continue learning. When it was told to me, I just did it. I continued writing and since I like to take things a part to see how something works, I did that to writing.
What are you reading now?
I am reading Sandra Brown’s Tailspin, and Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter. I am enjoying both very much.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As soon as I finish The Attractiveness of Wisdom, I will begin my fourth novel. I would also like to be interviewed on podcasts, or maybe interview other authors on podcasts, and I would like to continue my dialogue, and other presentations at conferences, workshops, or wherever and whenever I can.
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?
I would have to have A Man Called Ove, In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby, and anything by Nicholas Sparks. Could I also sneak one of my novels in there?
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