Writing Edge

JANET EVANOVICH

Exclusive Interview with the author of One for the Money

by S Cuppari

What feedback do you get from readers when on book tours?

Mostly readers talk about the characters. Grandma Mazar and the heroes.

How different is the feedback from US and international readers?

Not different at all.

How do you see the Stefanie Plum series to that of the Alex Barnaby series?

I think the entertainment level is the same. The fun part for me is the protagonists personalities are reversed. In the Barnaby series it’s the heroine who has the innate talent and drive to pursue her professional passion.

Your style is super smooth and reader friendly. How would you describe your style?

Super smooth and reader friendly. Also maybe, it’s unpretentious.

How do you feel about your journey about paying your dues to the writing gods and then becoming a bestselling author?

I would rather have gone the J. K. Rowling route.

How do you feel about agents and writing competitions and how they can help develop aspiring writers?

Agents are essential in today’s market. I think very few have the ability to develop a writer but it’s impossible to sell a book without one. RWA has some competitions that might help to get a writer noticed.

What inspired you to get into the writing game?

I like to make things and I needed money.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Put your ego aside and be resilient.

For more info: www.evanovich.com. One for the monet, the movie is out in 2012.

We all know what memoirs are, those tales of the trials and tribulations that make up someone’s life, but did you ever think of writing one about yourself? I’m sure most people think their life isn’t anything special so who’d want to read about it? While on the surface that might indeed be a true statement, if you dig a little further, I’m sure you’ll see there were obstacles that were overcome. This is the stuff that’s the foundation of a memoir. A memoir isn’t about one’s entire life, but about a portion of it. A biography or autobiography is where the whole life is discussed. So, what then do you write about in a memoir, and who is the audience? Simply put, if there is some aspect of your life that’s relatable to others, such as losing a child, fighting a debilitating disease, succeeding against all odds, you’ll find an audience who’ll be inspired by your words. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’ll be easy to write and sell a memoir. The topic of the memoir must be handled in such a way that it draws in the reader. And you don’t have to be a celebrity to sell a memoir, it doesn’t hurt of course, but it’s not necessary. These days, agents and publishers seem to like a memoir handled in the creative non-fiction method. This means that while it’s non-fiction, you write it in scenes with dialogue so that it appears like fiction. It’s an interesting and very engaging way to write and has become very popular. This has become a genre in itself and when you look at many agents, you’ll see a lot of them also represent memoir. If you’ve ever thought or have had people tell you that you ought to write a memoir, maybe it’s time to seriously consider it. Get busy and write!

With the popularity of laptop and netbook computers, writing can, in theory, be done just about anywhere; on a bus, train, airplane, at the beach, a coffee shop or on the back porch. While this is true, it’s also important to have a special workspace set aside. The main reason is to avoid distractions. We all have distractions, whether from children, spouses, friends, cell phones, those old-fashioned land lines, TVs, iPods, even pets. For example, I have three hairless Sphynx cats that need constant attention and like nothing more than to perch on my shoulder or in my arms while I’m trying to write. Don’t get me wrong, I love my cats, but it’s very annoying and distracting when I have kitties smothering me. This is why a dedicated workspace is a grand idea. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy like a bookshelf-lined study with soft lighting and Mozart playing in the background, although that really does sound nice. It can be your bedroom, a spare bedroom, or even the garage (providing it has heat or cooling when necessary), so long as there’s a door that you can close. Let your family members know that you won’t answer the phone and they are not to bother you unless it’s an emergency. Your workspace is where you can concentrate, dream up ideas, develop plot and characters, and write. It doesn’t mean you’ll isolate yourself from the family or friends, although you will for a short time, but instead simply means you will extricate yourself from the normal, or abnormal depending on your life, distractions that make it harder to write. Many writers, me included, write late at night when the kids are in bed, the TV is turned off and there’s little noise around. In this instance, your workspace becomes the living room, den, kitchen or whatever. The ‘door’ I spoke of earlier is the night in this case. The night has closed the door on the daily distraction. A writer friend of mine has a small spare room she uses as her writing room. On the inside of the door, she hangs a sign that says ‘do not enter’. Yep, the inside of the door. This is so when she is tempted to go out, she sees the sign not to enter the noisy world outside of her door. It’s a form of self-discipline for her and keeps her tucked away in her workspace until the time she’s allotted herself it up. If you need a similar reminder to stay put and write, try whatever method you need. Most of us don’t have the luxury of writing all day, so try to set aside some time each day, whether it’s late at night or during the day like my friend, and make it known that you need time in your workspace to work. After all, it is a work space!

PATRICIA WALTERS-FISCHER:

The NEW Editor of Writing Edge

by S Cuppari

What inspired you to become a writer?

Honestly, I don’t know what inspired me to become a writer, but I come from a long line of storytellers so becoming a writer had been an obvious choice. I penned my first story at eight, a short play about the Loch Ness Monster. I wrote it from the person’s and the monster’s points of view.

For years, I’ve written in a journal, short stories, but never did anything with my works until after I’d been working as a trauma nurse for five years. I decided to get my journalism degree after taking a writing class at the local community college. After working at a Level 1 trauma centre, I assumed earning a writing degree would be a piece of cake. Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

What made you decide to focus on romance? 

One of my favourite books was and still is A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux. When I read it, I completely identified with the heroine Douglas. She was in a terrible relationship with a man who sucked the life out of her, but she stayed because she held onto the slim hope she could save him. The character even looked like me! When I got to the end of the story, I remember thinking, I can be strong like her, I can rescue myself from this situation and I did. After that, I promised myself I’d write a story to help someone else, pass it on as it were. I’d always loved romance and romantic stories and felt that would be the best genre for me. 

Tell us about your published works.

Since 1997, I’ve written more health and wellness articles than I can count. Additionally, I’ve had the pleasure of writing for Hot Mom’s Club (www.hotmomsclub.com) and interviewed multiple celebrities. Also, my short story A Visit From Mom was published in Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul 2 and Chicken Soup: Stories of Faith. As for romance, I’ve got an erotica novella - A Naked Holiday, The Wild Rose Press - published under the name Mystique Devereux and my contemporary manuscript Worth the Weight won the Wisconsin Fab Five Contemporary category last year. It’s still looking for a home, but I’m hopeful. I’ve also got several projects I’m working on including a paranormal series, medical romance, and another erotica novella.

What was your reaction when you knew you had become the editor of Writing Edge?

S Cuppari (Publisher) and I had worked together before, so when I was offered the chance of a lifetime, I had to take a few moments to process it. “Let’s see, be on the ground floor of a established magazine who brings together the readers and writers of all genres on an international level or not?” I think I called about fifteen people that day, I couldn’t have been more excited.

What have been some of your achievements in this role?

For the first few months, I simply wanted to get the word out and see what kind of response we’d get. It went great and we’re still getting feedback. People are excited about us and I’m glad for that. 

What are your future plans for Writing Edge? 

I would love to see us at conventions and doubling our subscriber numbers and website hits monthly for the first year. Plus, I’d love it if we could get some or all of the cast of One for the Money to interview with us. I plan on bringing in many authors, new and established because I would like to see a wide variety of artists on Writing Edge pages. 

For more info: www.waltersfischer.com

Photo courtesy of Patricia Walters-Fischer.

Cover courtesy of 

The Wild Rose Press

thewildrosepress.com

Book Review:

http://www.writingedgemag.com/tagged/A_Naked_Holiday

by Patricia Walters-Fischer

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

- Toni Morrison

Afraid to even start? Worried your first works won’t be good enough for anyone to read? Here’s a secret. Everyone’s first draft is complete rubbish. Everyone, from Nora Roberts to Clive Cussler to the speech writers of political figures, no one writes a perfect first. No one.

The time and energy, the frustration along with pounds of chocolate, gallons of coffee, and endless “what if’s” feed every writer’s mind when they create a world that relies completely on their imagination. Don’t allow fear of writing something bad get in the way of creating something incredible. Allow the words to flow onto the pages or screens and be amazed at where your imagination take you.

Plus, a book cannot be written if it only stays in your head. Get it on paper, on the screen and start pushing yourself forward. Be willing to write rubbish so you can get your book started.

As Writing Edge becomes a digital magazine, I find myself bridging new territory as well this month. New articles, new formats, and new stories, all of which I’m excited to bring to an incredible group of readers.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for requests on articles, celebrity interviews, and craft of writing pieces you’s like to see. We can’t do this without your input. Now, we get to those computers and start writing badly!

Send your emails to:

editor@writingedgemag.com

Interview with Patricia Walters-Fischer coming tomorrow.

Writing Edge has reached a milestone…its first 1000 followers on Twitter. Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Follow Us: www.twitter.com/writingedgemag

Writing Edge is now open to publishers, self-publishers, authors, agents or anyone who wishes to advertise to an international audience. In the month of January we are featuring on the home page Barbara Burgess of Burgess Write a great company that works with great authors and the like. Click the banner on the homepage under the About Me section.

Would you like to be featured at that spot? The cost is usually $25 per month but if you book in January for the upcoming months of February, March and April the cost is half price - $12.50.

For more enquiries or to book an ad contact S Cuppari the Publisher at enquiries@writingedgemag.com. 

There is this thing called ‘simultaneous submissions’. Any writer who has checked an agent’s website for their submission guidelines (which you absolutely must do) has probably noticed somewhere that there is sometimes a comment regarding simultaneous submissions. What this basically boils down to is whether or not a particular agent wants you to send out a query to more than one agent at a time. If they would rather you not do this, then it means they want you to only query them and then wait and wait until you hear back. This is painful for the writer as it means you have to hold off querying other agents until the first agents gives you the okay to send a partial or full manuscript, or passes on you. If they reject you, it means you’ve wasted all that time when you could have queried others. The reason behind the ‘no simultaneous submission’ policy is that if the agent decides to accept you as a client, they don’t want to have to fight it out with any other agents. Selfish concept really. There are also the agents who simply want you to mention if you are submitting to several agents at a time, just as a ‘heads up’ if you will. Then, and I’ve just noticed this lately, there are the agents who seem to be firmly rooted in reality and state in their guidelines that they don’t want a writer to restrict their submissions to them and they encourage writers to submit to plenty of agents. I think this is wonderful and shows that these agents fully understand what we writers are going through. I love this new trend!

Okay, so it’s now a fresh new year. 2012. The frivolity of your New Years celebration is long gone and now you’ve probably settled back down into your regular lifestyle. Whether that’s working your ‘day job’ or writing full time, things are back to normal. Or are they? Like most people, you may have made one or more resolutions for 2012. If you did, do you actually plan to carry them out or was it more of a ‘I’d love to do this or that’ kind of thing? I honestly believe that when we make New Years resolutions, we have the intent to fulfill them, but I also believe that most of them fall by the wayside. Many resolutions I’ve noticed (mine included) are to lose weight or be healthier in the new year. Great pledges no doubt. I think the issue here is that most of the resolutions get pushed aside because as we all know, our lives these days are so full with copious commitments that our hopes and plans get pushed aside. But, as resolutions should be about something we wish to accomplish, we really should concentrate of fulfilling them. After all, we need to take some time for ourselves once in a while. My resolution, while not officially scribbled down on paper, is to get at least one of my finished novels published this year. Let’s see if this one comes to fruition! 

And the winner of the Thanksgiving Quiz Book Giveaway is…

Slavka Holeschova (Slovakia)

Prize: A signed copy of S Cuppari’s Coffee Break Poetry.

COFFEE BREAK POETRY 2 COMING SOON - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

For more information:

http://www.writingedgemag.com/coffeebreakpoetry