Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in southern Missouri, deep in the piney woods. While I love it here because of the beautiful scenery and opportunities for long, quiet walks or leisurely floats on clear, bubbling streams. But the seclusion can be hard to deal with. The closest town of any size is an hour away and the closest airport is over 100 miles away.
I worked for most of my life as a teacher in public schools, community colleges, and online. At the moment, I work part time as an online editor for professional development documents for a virtual education provider. Don’t tell them, but I write or think about writing nearly all the time.
I’ve written and published two books. The first one is a creative nonfiction book that I self-published more for family than for publication. The second is titled Just Like Gravity and is a paranormal romance/adventure about reincarnation and karma set in Scotland.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Just Like Gravity was published in November of 2014 by Oghma Creative Media. It is about a reluctant fortuneteller who travels to Scotland seeking the source of bad dreams. The book peeks into three reincarnations and tells a story of love, betrayal, hidden treasure, murder, and Karma.
The ideas of reincarnation and divination fascinate me so when I decided to get real with the writing thing, those topics were the first I wanted to explore. While I don’t pretend to understand how the Cosmos works, putting together a book about three lifetimes allowed me to explore those ideas and my own beliefs about them. I wondered what would happen if you found yourself repeating the same thing over and over–always ending in death and blood. How could you work your way out of that and change the outcome? That is what the main character asks herself, but she’s flying blind–unaware of the past lives and unaware of the way those past events are manifesting themselves in her current life. I think we are all in the same boat as we try to make sense of the lessons we’ve learned and the challenges we face.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Loads! I think all writers do. I like to exercise first–take a walk, yoga, maybe meditate. Then a shower, a bite to eat, and a fresh cup of tea.
That is on a perfect day. More often, I get up late, throw my hands in the air because the day is half over, grab a cup of tea and gallop to the keyboard. I do find I write better and more efficiently if I am mostly clothed with a little makeup and earrings–the earrings are important. I have also employed what I call my lucky writing bra–a black thing with hooks and lace. Try not to picture it; some things you can’t unsee.
Music is an important part of my writing day. I make a playlist for my work in progress and load it up when I get stuck or when I am writing something particularly difficult to get out.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read the classics as a youngling and continue to write first drafts containing long, Poe-like sentences. I find I use keenings–those multi-word descriptions like the wine-dark sea– from the Odyssey and other kinds of imagery from early British works such as Beowulf. Shakespeare’s intricate plots and the crowd-pleasing qualities of his stuff remains the pinnacle to me. I love language, so wordplay and any work that shows the ever-changing quality of English is valued.
As for the craft of writing, Stephen King’s On Writing, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style have been particularly helpful.
What are you working on now?
Ah–I’m so glad you asked. I’m deep in a three-book Gothic adventure/romance about a witch named Zoraida Grey. The first book, Zoraida Grey and the Family Stones is finished and seeking an agent/publisher. I hope to release it later this year. In Zoraida Grey and the Family Stones, Zoraida’s crazy granny is dying and Zoraida must steal a fabulous healing stone to save her. Zoraida’s life in Bear Hollow, Arkansas, has grown stale as has her relationship with one-time lover and local tattoo artist Al, so she’s up for the challenge–until she finds out the stone is guarded by sorcerers. In a haunted castle. In Scotland. When Zoraida and her best friend find the stone, they also find themselves smack dab in the middle of a clan war and bewitched by not one but two handsome Scottish witches. Granny didn’t tell Zoraida everything–not by a long shot.
The second book in the series is titled Zoraida Grey and the Voodoo King. I’m nearly finished with this and hope to release in before the end of this year. The third book is Zoraida Grey and the Black Tower. That one is in outline but I have no doubt I will finish and release it early in 2017.
I’m also working on an anthology of Zoraida Grey short stores that follow her around Arkansas as she reads tarot cards, hunts werewolves, and battles demons. Look for it in May, 2015.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I blog, tweet, and FB. I relied on a publisher to help market and have been disappointed at the lack of marketing from that entity. I am building a following on my blog and working to provide quality content there. I use FaceBook to promote, as well as Twitter, but I’m still looking for that magical combination that produces sales. I maintain a presence at GoodReads and several groups who read and/or promote paranormal books.
My belief is that if I consistently provide fun, entertaining, and useful content, they (readers) will come. Marketing is a numbers game–focus your promotions on YOUR specific audience, create unique content, share the dickens out of it. I’m in this for the long haul, so I do something everyday to get the word out about my writing. I also believe that writers are not in competition and do better when they band together. I’m looking for such a group of progressive, savvy writers to join.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write like the wind. Then revise. Then have somebody else read it. Then revise again. And again. Repeat as necessary.
I read a great many books that need just a little more time–one more revision–one more set of critical eyes. The plot is there. The characters are developed. But the author did not take the time to tell the story as it deserves to be told–and this takes time. Good storytelling is a thing of beauty like a fine wine, a classic painting, a single-malt whisky. Savor the experience and produce something you can be proud of. I am suspicious of an author who poops out 4 or 5 or more books in a year. It is easier than ever to get published, but the art of telling a story still takes time.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Two things have helped me. While I love to read, when I began to write fiction, I wondered it I was doing anything I could truly call useful. I went into teaching to make positive differences in the lives of my students. I think we all have gifts and we have to use them for the greater good–but what good is a simple romance or a rousing adventure–really? A favorite author told me. M.C. Beaton writes neat little books about Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin among others. She was asked why she writes what she does. Her response really helped me find purpose. “I write to give, as other writers have given to me, a good time on a bad day.”
That simple idea informs everything I write. Every story or book is a gift I am preparing for a reader somewhere who needs some fun, some romance, some adventure, some interesting ideas. While I don’t pretend to do it perfectly, this is my goal.
The second bit of advice is the bit you always hear–just write. Put your butt in the chair, put your fingers on the keyboard, and write. Writers write (and when they are not writing, they are thinking about writing which also counts as long as you eventually get around to writing.)
What are you reading now?
I just finished a little book titled Smoke Gets in Your eyes and other lessons from the Crematory. It is a lively look at death and the way our culture handles (or doesn’t) handle it. Eye-opening and thoughtful, but–you might imagine–a little depressing. I have not grabbed anything else to read yet, but am looking for something lighter and more fun. A nice serial killer, perhaps.
What’s next for you as a writer?
While I work on the Zoraida Grey franchise, I’m also developing a blog and learning to market more efficiently. The blog is all about legends and traditions in many cultures. Many of these things I find in research, but others seem to seek me out. I love sharing the amazing diversity of beliefs and practices from ancient people and explore how those traditions have grown and changed. I include quite a few witchy bits on the blog such as healing herbs and crystals. Topics about anything Celtic–especially Scottish–and information about single-malt whisky–especially Laphroaig–show up with regularity.
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 cheat by taking my big book which contains the entire 5 books of the Hitchhikers Guide trilogy 🙂 and count it as 1 book. Then I would pack my huge Riverside Shakespeare volume which contains all of Shakespeare’s works. If I had time to plan, I would search for a compendium which holds the entire Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books and count that as 1 also. And then I would find a multi-book book of all or most of P.G. Wodehouse. Ta da. 4 books.
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