Good questions, Bonnie. And oh, I’m glad you liked the excerpt! I just love Claire. She’s a character I really missed when her story was told. But oh yeah, she’s one of the characters that keeps telling me she’s not finished yet. So, who knows?
Yes, you’re right, I didn’t really write as a youngster. I wrote my first attempt at a romance in my early 20’s. I decided that other people were writers, I was a teacher, so I put it away for a while. It wasn’t until my sister moved to Hawaii and left a huge box of her romance novels behind–and I started devouring them–did I start to tinker with it again. That was like 20 years ago. So even though I didn’t start writing until then, I’ve been writing now for almost twenty years and it feels like its been part of me for forever. (okay, so quit doing the math there…yes, I’m slightly over 50!) I published a lot of non-fiction while waiting to make that first romance sale, which helped the motivation quite a bit. I’m a by-line junkie. I get a big kick out of seeing my name in print. Isn’t that pitiful? It doesn’t matter whether it’s on a book or a magazine article, but I love getting a by-line. I suppose I’m a collector. LOL (oh, and by the way, all of my non-fiction is written under another name–to protect the innocent, or the guilty!) 🙂
Ideas are everywhere. I keep an idea file. Getting ideas are NEVER a problem for me. I have so many storylines rolling around in my head right now it’s difficult to keep them tamped down at times. I get them from phrases, newspaper articles, snippets of conversation, magazine articles I’ve read, the news, etc. Everywhere. I have this bunch of yellow sticky notes in my day calendar of titles, things I’ve heard people say, that I think I could write a story around. Like, one of them is Multiple Exposures. Couldn’t you write a book around that? I think I could. Or, another one is, On The Verge of Being Average. Sounds like a YA novel to me. doesn’t it? Ideas are the least of my problem. Writing the stories, now THAT is my biggest challenge. Since I have a full-time job, in addition to my writing, balancing that time is always the issue.
So, I find ways. As we speak I’m sitting propped up in a bed in a hotel in New Mexico, watching Survivor, and typing away after I’ve been at work all day. I had dinner with the crew and even though I have a bit of day job work to do this evening, I’m finding time for the writing right now–by talking with you all! This week I’ve written some every evening, started a short story on the flight out here, and caught up on some edits during a layover in the airport. I have to use the snippets of time I have, and try to use them wisely.
But you see, as I said earlier, I’m a by-line junkie. I love seeing my name there in print. And even more than that, I’m a contract junkie and lately, I’ve been spoiled. I’ve had some good success lately in contracting my books and it’s like…wait…I haven’t had that fix in a while, I need to get cracking! I need to sell something! I need to finish that project and start another one!
I guess it’s the entire process. I love the thrill of the sale, the revisions, the edits, getting the cover, seeing it on the shelves, etc…. I guess, in the end, all of that is the motivation for me. Okay, so I’m addicted.
Is there a genre I’d like to tackle? One of my crit partners tells me often to focus, focus, focus! I have a difficult time with limiting myself to genre. I know, that’s probably not a good thing. I’ve done short and long contemporary. I’ve done single title romantic suspense. Time-travel. Futuristic. A few novellas. There is sex in all of them, some hotter than others. I’ve not yet tackled erotica. I’m tinkering with a project upcoming. We’ll see. Oh, and another totally random off-subject writing project that I want to finish in the near future is a cookbook. I’d also like to write for women’s magazines. How is that for diversity?
I just love the written word and laying those words down on the page. Addiction. Yes. But we already established that, right?
Yes, I’m Maddie, and I’m a by-line junkie.
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