Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Roswell, New Mexico, and aside from writing and publishing, I work in student affairs at our local college, Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell. At this point in time, I have written only one book under my real name. I have ghost written on some other titles, but did so under a non-disclosure agreement, so I’m not able to discuss those in much detail. Nonetheless, those other titles have enjoyed wide exposure and have received good reviews.
I also co-own a small publishing company that strives to help first-time authors get published. We also work with established authors who have books that traditional publishers might shy away from or that have very limited or specific audiences. We enjoy reading something different and believe there is a market out there that does as well. We will publish our fifth title by the end of this year and look forward to publishing many more in the future.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Fighting Against Gravity is my latest and first book. I was inspired to write it when I was out shopping one day about eight years ago. I overheard a conversation between a mother and her son. The son wanted a toy that society would probably categorize as a “girl’s toy” and the mother was having quite a fit trying to convince her son that the toy was not appropriate. I thought to myself that the norms society sets for people about gender are too rigid and ridiculous. If the child wanted to play with a “girl’s toy” what would it hurt? I started thinking about gender roles and how binary we think of gender. This inspired me to write something different about gender.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I know a lot of authors who stop writing when they get writer’s block. They end their process for that day and come back later. I try to kick writer’s block by writing about something totally different than my current project. I have a composition notebook that is filled with random writings. I try to find random prompts and just start free writing. Later, when I get another writer’s block, I skim through that notebook and look for any free writings that I can adapt to fit my current project. It’s amazing how something you free wrote months or years ago can become your best scene in a book that you never thought would come of anything of substance.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I really love magical realism, and although I haven’t put much magical realism into my writing, I am inspired when I read works by Rudolfo Anaya, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Juan Rulfo. I studied Spanish Literature in college and that inspired me a lot to strive to write something unique and unusual.
What are you working on now?
Right now I have two projects I’m focusing on. The first is a novel I’m co-writing with a friend about a woman with PTSD from several events in her life and telling the story of her struggle to not only overcome her illness, but also to find true love in a world where she feels everyone wants only one thing from her. It’s going to be a great story with a couple of unique twists and I’m excited to get it out there within the next year. The second project I’m working on is a fiction story based on my great-grandparents and their struggles throughout the 1930s in rural Kansas. People have forgotten over time how difficult things were for farmers during that time with dust storms, the Great Depression, and a major drought. A lot of people left Kansas and the Midwest during that time, but my great-grandparents stayed and found success afterward. I want to share their story in a fictionalized account so that we as a society don’t forget their struggles and accomplishments.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really think Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great for social media promotion. Being able to interact with readers in that way is really different from the days before the internet. Authors are no longer separated from their readership…they are now expected to be involved in the process.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Go for it! You truly have nothing to lose other than the time you put into writing. Yes, the time is a big investment, but it is worth it in the end. You may never become rich as a writer, but the satisfaction of finishing a book is so invigorating that it makes it worth it. Even if only a handful of people read your work, that’s a handful of people you reached in some way.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t think about the people who will read your work and what they will think. Instead, think about your characters and what they would think. Too many people think that they might offend someone if they include this or that in their writing. That may be true, but if it’s something that’s necessary for your character or the story, that’s okay. If you’re doing it to blatantly offend, then it’s probably not the best thing to do. But if it’s pertinent to the story, then go for it!
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading some submissions to our publishing company. We get some really great submissions with unique stories or writing styles and I really enjoy seeing what’s out there in the world of literature that traditional publishing might scoff at.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to continue to polish my skills as a writer and find ways to tell a unique story or experiment with style and voice. There is too much rigidity in traditional publishing about point of view, style, and plot. I want to break through that and help other authors break through that. Writing should be about creativity and as long as the reader isn’t lost, there is a lot of opportunity to use that creativity in many of the mechanics of writing.
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?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and two or three books by David Sedaris or Erma Bombeck. I love the way they both use comedy and sarcasm so eloquently.
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