FAQ
1. Are you from Texas?
2. Are your characters like you?
3. One of the main characters in the Southern Witch series is lawyer/wizard, Bryn Lyons. How do you pronounce his first name?
4. Where do you get your story ideas?
5. How long does it take you to write a book?
6. When will your next book come out?
7. How many books will there be in the Souther Witch series?
8. Do you have any advice for writers who want to be published?
No, I was actually born and raised in Michigan. I grew up on the east side of the state in a suburb of Detroit, but also lived briefly in the middle and western sides of the state. Michigan is wonderful, and I love it. I usually travel there a couple of times per year. But the winters are very cold, which is why I had to run away from home.
I have my theories about why I love hot climates. I think it might be in the genes. Three of my four grandparents were from hot climes (my dad’s parents – Tennessee, my mom’s dad from an island in the Mediterranean) Also, I was a summer baby born in August and used to love to spend school breaks swimming in our backyard pool. And finally, my dad had a convertible when I was little, and I always loved that car. When I moved to Houston, I bought myself a convertible, and I still love tooling around town with the top down.
2. Are your characters like you?
No way. My characters are much more adventurous than I am! That’s the beauty of writing fiction. I can enter another person’s world— one that might be terribly scary or fantastical. For me, writing fiction, like reading it, is an escape from the every day.
“Bryn” rhymes with sin.
4. Where do you get your story ideas?
All sorts of things inspire me. Books, movies, the news, and so on. With the Southern Witch Series, it was a case of me wanting to combine some elements that I enjoy as a reader.
I love urban fantasy (authors like Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, and J.K. Rowling. Movies like Underworld, Xmen, and Iron Man). I also love humorous and/or cozy mysteries (by authors like Janet Evanovich, Katie MacAlister, and Carola Dunn and A&E mystery series such as Nero Wolfe or Poirot). I enjoy eccentric characters in small towns (as captured by authors like E.F. Benson and M.C. Beaton and in movies like Doc Hollywood.) So I thought: What if I blended a bunch of things that I like together? What would that be like? Then one day Tammy Jo showed up, and I had a series of my very own.
5. How long does it take you to write a book?
It really depends on the book. Generally, I write quickly, but if I take a wrong turn in a story, the re-writing can take awhile. I wrote WOULD-BE WITCH in about five weeks (over several different week-long vacations), and it took me six weeks to edit. However, while WOULD-BE WITCH came easily, other books have not. Some I’ve worked on intermittently for years while I was studying the craft of writing.
6. When will your next book come out?
BARELY BEWITCHED, the second book in the Southern Witch series, will be released September, 2009.
7. How many books will there be in the Southern Witch series?
So far, I know there will be at least three. I’ll keep you posted!
8. Do you have any advice for writers who want to be published?
There are lots of online resources for writers. Many of your favorite authors probably have blogs and websites that can help you.
A couple of blogs that I recommend are:
http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com
http://sweetmysteryoflife.blogspot.comMy “looking at the big picture” advice is:
- Read a lot of novels
- The type of book you most like to read is the type of book you should write.
- Extensive reading helps you to understand the structure of the books in the genre (the structure is something you’ll often want to mimic) and to learn what ideas have already been used “to death” as story premises (which you won’t want to use because you want to be original)
- Write a lot!
- Polish your work
- Get a second opinion on your writing
- Join a critique group and/or find a critique partner by joining local chapters of Mystery Writers of America or Romance Writers of America or online science fiction & fantasy writing groups
- Go to writers’ conferences or retreats where you can get feedback on your writing
- Find an agent who represents books like yours and submit your manuscript
- www.agentquery.com is a good resource for finding agencies by genre
- Going to conferences to network and pitch to agents is another good way to get your work in front of them
- Once you have an agent, let her do her job while you go back to yours, which is to read a lot, write a lot, and polish a lot!
