Don't forget to check out the exhibitor tables at the OWFI conference!

My friend, Mike Miller, insisted that August McLaughlin be a speaker at OWFI. Mike is a persuasive fellow--hence the Reading Room as a feature of this year's conference. Don't get me wrong, I can resist Mike's charms and tell him flat-out tell him when I disagree with him. Only problem is, and I'd never admit this to him, he's usually right.  Of course, I had to check out Miss August, find out what all the fuss was about. I read one blog post and I started following her. After reading three posts, I started cyber-stalking her.  Okay, not really, but you know you've made it as a blogger when you get a stalker and I just wanted to make her feel better.  Not that she needs any help from me. She's bloody brilliant! Seriously, y'all. She's fantastic and... accomplished and... smart and... pretty. And I don't hate her. It's amazing!

1. How did you start your writing career?

I was working as an actress in Los Angeles and had written a short film featuring a character I wished to play. On somewhat of a fluke, the film was optioned by a production company. Rather than feel ecstatic over the opportunity, I felt pretty lost. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I missed writing. (They also cut the dog from the film. I mean—seriously?!?) I was sitting in an acting class after a storytelling exercise one night when it struck me full-force: I’m a writer! I haven’t turned back since. (See? She likes dogs!)

2. Tell us about your current release.

My current, and first, release is a psychological thriller called In Her Shadow. It’s based loosely on my experience with anorexia. It features a psychologist named Claire, who develops bizarre eating disorder symptoms near the anniversary of her parents unexpected deaths. Meanwhile, another woman is locked away in a basement, enduring horrific abuse. In order to survive, both women must face unfathomable truths, and jump through hoops no one should ever have to. Though it’s a dark tale, it’s also meant to be inspiring. It’s about hope, perseverance and the extreme lengths we’ll go to for those we love.

3. Entice us, what future projects are you considering?

Other than the sequel to In Her Shadow, I’m most enthused about Girl Boner, a blog series, Facebook community, Twitter conversation and overall movement-in-the-making. If #GirlBoner doesn’t entice you, well—I’m not sure we can be friends. (KIDDING!) I can’t say much about the Girl Boner book project, other than that it exists. I’m grateful to have the support of my agency reps and readers, and can’t wait to let it loose!

4. What was the scariest moment of your life?

I’ll be sharing one of my scariest moments during my reading at OWFI—a near-death experience that led me to recover from my eating disorder and eventually pursue my creative dreams. The scariest part wasn’t the nearly dying, but my mindset at the time. I’d say more, but you know—spoiler. ;) Injury and death, involving my loved ones or myself, frighten me significantly more now than they did back then. Life matters so much more, infused with vitality and passion. (From a reader's standpoint, I find this intriguing. On the personal side though, I'm sorry for August's pain.)

5. What are the most important attributes for remaining sane as a writer?

GREAT question. Some amount of insanity is understandable—I mean, we’re writers! That said, there is a ton of pressure on writers today. We’re expected to not only write publishable works, but maintain a strong online presence, market and promote our work, and somehow fit eating, sleeping, breathing and, holy smokes, other responsibilities in beside. If we maintain passion for our craft and careers and an openness to roll with the punches, I think we’ll be okay. I also think it’s vital that we apply our creativity to the business aspects of our careers—not simply pages. I’ll be chatting more about this during my workshops.

6. Would you change gender for one day?

YES! Where do I sign up? I think all writers are fascinated by others’ lives. Gender differences, I find particularly fascinating—same for the cultural, environmental and scientific reasons behind them.  (I KNOW!  How cool would that be. Even if it was just for a day. I might be able to write dual POV romances if I did this.)

7. Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it?

After graduating from high school in Minnesota, I moved to New York to pursue a fashion career—a culture shock I craved. I arrived to the Big Apple exhausted, and with Big Tears streaming down my cheeks. While unpacking, I found a card my dad had slipped into my suitcase. The cover featured an Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” It reminded me that dreams should never stop, regardless of how “grownup” our lives become, and that no matter where life led me, I was loved. It still does. (How cool! My dad gave me a $2 bill for luck. Still have that sucker too.)

My favorite quote related to writing comes from one of my favorite authors/activists, Maya Angelou: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

8. Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they?

Stay true to yourself. What makes each of us unique is our voice, which is really an extension of who we are deep inside—our thoughts, ideas and emotions. It can be easy to seek and apply too much feedback, particularly early on in our careers. While  some critique can be helpful, and arguably vital, going overboard can cause frustration and self-doubt—creativity zappers. Second, write your heart out when you can, and practice patience with yourself. We all carve our own paths and methods. What works for someone else may not work for you and vice versa. Lastly, always prioritize writing. Marketing, social media, classes and conferences can be invaluable, but they should never, ever take precedence over our work. Write first, party later. ;) (Amen, sister!)

My mama always told me to use my friends wisely. There are many aspects of the writing world that I just don't get. I've mentioned my poetry deficiency, but creative non-fiction and memoirs also allude me. With non-fiction, I take the creativity a little too far. I'm usually flat out lying by the second paragraph, which really is odd since my life is a true testament to the "life is stranger than fiction" statement. There is no reason to embellish, but before I know it the fish was 4 feet long with 3" fangs and a mermaid tail hanging out of its mouth.

As for memoirs, I get them. I value them. I wish to goodness my grandmothers had written theirs, but I know nothing about writing them. So, I used my friend, Brenda Black, to get some ideas on who to invite to OWFI.  Brenda is writing the nicest story about her husband's family. I could sit and listen to her read her tales all day long. She's so descriptive and honest in her writing.  So when she suggested Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, that was all the recommendation I needed. Not only did my mama teach me to use my friends wisely, she taught me to choose my friends wisely.

I chose wisely with Brenda Black.

So, here we go.  Matilda and Kendra tell us about their writing careers and their 30 year collaboration.

So, ladies, how did you start your writing career?

KENDRA: This is a bit of an atypical interview, Patty, in that just one person usually responds to your questions. Instead today you have co-authors who have worked together for more than 30 years. Matilda lets me tell this part of the story. You see, Matilda was my first boss. Just out of graduate school at UC Santa Barbara I felt I needed to go to the city to get a good job. Even though I’m originally from the East Coast, I knew I wasn’t ready to tackle New York City. Instead, I choose a city where I felt very comfortable--San Francisco.

A friend helped me become a temp at the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. After a few months, I was getting a pretty good reputation for my editing and writing skills, and that’s when the editor position opened with the Women’s Educational Equity Communication Network. I interviewed with about 25 others (although I didn’t know that at the time).

MATILDA: Let me jump in here. I didn’t do the initial interviews so at this point in the story, I hadn’t met Kendra. My associate director, Jean Marzone, interviewed the large group of applicants.  Later, she walked into my office, sat down on my flowered sofa (well, it was the 70s) and told me about her three favorite candidates. As she described them, she concluded by saying “Kendra’s my first choice.” I looked at the three resumes and hesitated to even include Kendra in the top candidates I’d interview. I remember saying, “Jean, she doesn’t have the right experiences and hasn’t written about women’s issues.” But Jean insisted, and I agreed to the interview. Even after I talked with Kendra, I was somewhat hesitant.

KENDRA: Matilda, I knew I was a quick study and obviously persuaded you to give me a try. Being editor turned into a great learning experience. I was responsible for dozens of publications each year. I remember the first time I was faced with a publication layout, I sneaked in on the weekend, and found the mechanicals for some previously published materials piled in the closet. I pulled them out and began taking one apart.

“Rubber cement!” I shouted to the empty office. That was more than 30 years ago. Our page layouts were still done with rubber cement and layout boards. Well, my mother was a commercial artist, and she’d taught me long ago the proper way to work with rubber cement. That was when I was certain I could do the job.

MATILDA: That was the fall of 1979. We could never have imagined that 30-plus years later, we’d continue to be friends and colleagues and now business partners and co-authors of two books -- the award-winning collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story [ http://RosiesDaughters.com ]and our new Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep [ http://womensmemoirs.com/the-writers-store/writing-alchemy/ ]

KENDRA: Well, Patty, back to your question. Assuming a career can start long before one gets paid for it, I’d say I started my writing career when I was about eight. I invented a game I named Editor and Reporters that I played with my little sister and brother. Even though they couldn’t read or write, they knew the alphabet and could copy words, and that’s all I required of them. I equipped them both with small pads of paper, freshly sharpened pencils and a couple of Daddy’s old felt fedoras. They were my reporters, and it was their job to search for “news.” Not events but words, and whenever they found them—an ad in a magazine, the title of a book, a recipe, a listing in a phone book or a piece of junk mail lying on the kitchen counter—they had to write it down. They’d bring me the slips of paper filled with their eclectic and unrelated collection of words and phrases, which I’d assemble into a story. We’d entertain ourselves for hours, and I had an excuse to play with Daddy’s old manual Smith-Corona typewriter. The metal chassis was painted black and scarred from years of use. The keys were flat and cold to the touch; there was nothing ergonomic about their position or angle. The rubber platen was old and hard, and the ribbon equally dry. I just loved that old typewriter.

MATILDA: Smith-Corona played a role in my early years as well. My parents bought one for my older sister who rarely used it. I, on the other hand, decided to become an entrepreneur while in the fifth grade and soon was pounding away on the typewriter. I got the idea that I’d create a school newspaper and sell copies for $.05. I carried a steno pad--one that was spiral bound at the top--around with me throughout the day and jotted down ideas for stories. Then at night I’d write them out and finally type them onto Ditto masters. On the weekends, my father let me tag along with him to his office and use his Ditto machine. I learned to put the master on the drum, load the tray with paper, grab the handle and turn it round and round until I had the number of copies I needed. This was not a particularly successful venture, but I learned to think about the readers, learned to see events and find what could be made interesting, learned about layout, and even learned a bit about printing at least as far as having purple ink on my fingers.

PATTY: You two are right. This is definitely a different kind of interview. You mentioned a couple of books you have written together. Could you tell us a little about writing those?

MATILDA: Let me start with a brief description of Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story.

I am a Rosie’s Daughter. What does that mean? I was born during WWII; my mother was part of the iconic Rosie the Riveter generation. I conceived the book after attending the 40th reunion of my class at National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, DC. In one joint session, we were seated around tables in the cavernous room where four decades earlier I had studied English Lit, American History, French and Algebra every afternoon and evening. Representatives of each quinquennial reunion class spoke about their experiences, telling stories that were alternatively humorous and serious because of the momentous times in which we all have lived. I was struck by how the stories of my class differed from those of women who graduated even five years earlier or later.

Once back in my California home, my thoughts returned many times to that session. For the most part, despite good educations, women who graduated earlier than my class did not seek careers but found fulfillment as wives, mothers and homemakers. Women who graduated some years after my class (Baby Boomers) took their careers and the juggling act of work and family for granted. They were fulfilling a pattern they had observed and planned for.

My class had a much more complicated and even confused story to tell. When we were in high school, we expected to spend our lives in traditional roles. (Our high school even taught us how to entertain, including the protocol of tea service.) Some time after that--in fact, at different times for different reasons--unprecedented numbers of women born during WWII switched tracks and pursued careers. None of us remember thinking, Well, of course that’s what I’ll do. Instead, we opened closed-doors and moved in what seemed to be the right direction until the next doors appeared, then repeated the process. By trial and error, we became proficient in careers that we never imagined when we were the well-chaperoned charges of our alma mater in Washington. Combining careers and children presented novel changes, but we were young and energetic. I assumed we were among the role models that the younger alumnae observed, inspiring them to think, Well, of course that’s what I’ll do.

Trained as a social psychologist, I wanted to determine how well this model held up across my generation. And that led me to a formal study of many Rosie’s Daughters to better understand whether “war babies” truly belonged to a generation of women on the cusp of change or whether I was listening to an isolated set of women’s experiences. I interviewed more than 100 women across the United States. Multi-hour interviews, some conducted in person but the majority by telephone, were tape recorded, transcribed and computer indexed.

The results did indeed hold up. We were unique, pioneering opportunities for all subsequent generations of women.

This was a story of women that begged to be told but not in the way that I originally envisioned. When I started work on the book, I saw myself as a social psychologist writing a research-based non-fiction account of a generation of women. By the time I completed the interviews, I had become a memoirist, helping a generation of women to tell their stories in a collective memoir.

KENDRA: Furthermore, we know from the comments we continue to receive from the readers of Rosie’s Daughters that they are emotionally moved to a greater understanding and appreciation for the force this generation has had on changing women’s roles in the United States. We named these Rosie’s Daughters the  “First Woman Two” (FW2) Generation based on a phrase frequently used in newspapers in the 1970s as so many barriers were broken by these women. All one has to do is read even a partial list of FW2s to see that some of the most accomplished women in politics, entertainment, sports, education, literature and business of the last 30 years have one thing in common--they’re all Rosie’s Daughters: Nora Ephron, Annie Dillard, Leslie Stahl, Martha Stewart, Diane Sawyer, Anita Roddick, Sherry Lansing, Alice Waters,, Jill Clayburgh, Penny Marshall, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Billie Jean King, Angela Davis,  Judge Judy and Twyla Tharp. These are just a few of the names.

MATILDA: With Rosie’s Daughters published and marketing underway, Kendra and I began teaching writing.

KENDRA: Not so fast Matilda. You’re skipping the story of how the marketing of Rosie’s Daughters led us into a new business with associated merchandise. A business, by the way, that has quadrupled over each of the past four years and is set to really explode this year as we pursue new markets for the book and related Rosie the Riveter gear.

MATILDA: Yes, Kendra, that’s a story for another day. Do you want to tell some about our newest book, Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep, since that’s the basis for our workshop at OWFI’s conference?

KENDRA: Sure. I’ll at least start this by giving the backstory. When Matilda and I began teaching writers, we discovered a significant difference between what they knew about writing and what they actually wrote. We saw our students’ frustrations with writing in the sense that there was often a disconnect between what writers envisioned would be their finished product and what they actually wrote. Knowing the basics of writing wasn’t the problem. It was the writing--the execution--that wasn’t working. We’d critique their work, point out the source of problems, even rework sentences and paragraphs to illustrate what we meant. Our challenge, however--what kept us up at night--was figuring out how to give students something that could guide them when we weren’t around to help. Something that would help them make sense of the different books they would read and the different teachers that they had.

We had been talking for some time about a new approach to writing, but we were struggling for the right concept. We didn’t want another rehash of books and ideas that were already on the market. On one of my visits to Matilda’s home--she was still living in California at the time--we attended an evening concert in San Jose’s Le Petit Trianon performing arts center. The Ives Quartet was debuting a new piece they had commissioned, and the composer Dan Becker was present to talk about his work. He explained how he deconstructed the elements of his composition into their most basic form--rhythm, harmony and melody. He actually wrote the piece once for rhythm, once for harmony and once for melody. In between, he listened to the quartet play each version. Then fully understanding each of his deconstructed elements, he went away and composed a fourth piece that was the construction or orchestration of all three elements.

The concept clicked with us. “That’s it,” we mouthed in unison and began writing in the margins of the evening’s program notes. We knew in that instant that we’d found our solution, or at least the beginning of our solution. Becker was the springboard that moved us away from one more amalgam of writing tools and toward a revolutionary new writing system that puts the writer in complete control of the words.

MATILDA: Let me pick up on the story here. We immediately began developing what we eventually called Writing Alchemy and testing it with our students and coaching clients. From the beginning, the results were remarkable. As people slowed their writing process, spent more time in what we call the pre-writing phase, they went deeper into their characters and story detail. And what they wrote came alive on the page and connected with readers. They were happy with the results, and we were thrilled. From what we’ve seen with our students, we believe that Writing Alchemy has the potential to become a truly revolutionary process and a great asset to writers at all levels of their craft. From what we’ve observed first hand, Writing Alchemy does not appear to be like any other book on writing currently on the market.

While working with our students and conference attendees, we continued to refine the system. For example, we realized that we needed Writing Alchemy Lite after our first conference workshop when the evaluations told us the participants absolutely loved this approach. They even saw the difference in their writing during the workshop. But, and there was a big “but,” they didn’t know how to proceed after they left. This sent us back to better understand the process and to figure out how we could communicate it. After almost four years of teaching and presenting the concept in workshops and conferences, after testing our method with hundreds of students, we were ready to commit it to the book Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep.

KENDRA: As usual, Matilda, we’ve gotten long winded. Let me wrap this up by saying that the objective of Writing Alchemy is to remake writers into purposeful writers by giving them the means to achieve greater focus, banish superficiality and help them connect with their inner writer...in short to put them in control of the writing process. The fact is, good writers all have a system. It may be intuitive. It may even come naturally although probably most have worked hard to develop their craft, their style, their voice. Rather than a fill-in-the-details tool or rigid, formulaic method that dictates a typical set of results, Writing Alchemy reflects the organic, non-linear nature of writing. It adapts to the many ways individual writers choose to work. Most of all, it’s a reminder to slow down and collect one’s thoughts before starting to write.

MATILDA: Kendra, since you started this interview, let me end it by briefly mentioning the unusual support system that we have built for readers of Writing Alchemy. Kendra and I have a bit different take on marketing. Earlier we mentioned that with Rosie’s Daughters we created an entire Rosie the Riveter product line complete with red and white polka dot bandanas, Rosie mugs, Rosie collar pin/employment badges, and even a DIY Rosie the Riveter Kit that includes a Rosie Cookbook, handful of rivets in a red and white polka dot bag, as well as the bandana,  DIY poster, and a World War II ration book. With Writing Alchemy, we decided that if we wanted writers to get the most out of this new writing system, we needed to find a way to continue to give them new ideas of how to use it. We figured we would be successful if our readers were successful. So we founded the Association for Writing Excellence (AWE). Each buyer of Writing Alchemy just has to register their book and they become a Charter Member of AWE. In the future, membership will cost $99. But for now, membership is free and includes monthly webinars. We have a number of other benefits planned for later this year.

PATTY: Typewriters, childhood endeavors, two successful books, merchandise, and even an association for writers. This has been quite an interview. I look forward to seeing you both at OWFI in May.

I met Alex Miner when he joined the Northwest Arkansas Writers Workshop, the amazingly wonderful group founded by Dusty Richards and Velda Brotherton.  He is brilliant. He never lets a participle dangle and not only does he know what gerunds are, he uses them correctly. Add to that his appreciation of snark and I knew he was the critique partner for me. When he moved away to the dreary Pacific Northwest, I cried. But alas, the world has created the handy-dandy internet and we were able to continue as critique partners.

I can't wait to see him again.  I'm curious if he wears stocking caps regardless of the weather, listens to garage-punk-grudge-funk-metal-death music and carries around a giant, giant, venti cups of Starbucks everywhere he goes.

What does your significant other and family think of your writing career?

They’ve been encouraging me to become a drifter or panhandler because the Department of Labor website has a lot of good things to say about those career paths, especially compared to "writer." But to make myself feel better, I look down on poets.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

I'm part of a vicious group of cutthroats that some might call a workshop. We're more competitors than partners, each trying to blow out the creative spark of the other. Passive aggression is our preferred method, but we also rely on sabotage and ad hominem attacks thinly disguised as constructive criticism. In fact, the stories we submit to one another tend to be heavy-handed satires about the group members themselves. You might say we hate each other.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned while writing your books?

That I'm a genius! (I also never revise.)

How do you describe your writing style?

Annie Proulx meets Chuck Palanhiuk meets Dr. Seuss. One publisher described my writing as "a word salad with little bits of broken glass mixed in that you have to pick out."

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book?

Because I took my cues from Tolstoy and George Eliot: the thicker the book, the better the value. My 300,000-word tome covers a single two-hour session spent in the bathroom when I got food poisoning.

You just won a huge lottery. What is the first thing you'll buy?

When I'm rich, I fully plan to embrace the humble, Warren Buffet lifestyle, and will limit my purchases to bare essentials, such as a solid gold rims for my Bentley that are shaped like dollar signs, a bathrobe made from the fur of an endangered species, and an extraordinarily large haircut.

Melanie Billings from Whiskey Creek Press will be at the 45th annual OWFI conference taking pitches.  I don't know Ms Billings so I can't add any pithy side-notes, but I can tell I already like her.  Yet another person who understood the significance of Firefly.  Her 7th grade English teacher inspired her to write. I often wonder if I had any effect at all on the kids I taught. Wouldn't it be nice to know that you encouraged someone to follow their dream?

How did you start your writing career? I had an awesome English teacher in 7^th grade and I started seriously writing then. I did not pursue publishing until college and after.

Where do you dream of traveling to and why? Germany and France, the vicinity of the Alps. I went about 20 years ago and the scenery of places like Bavaria and Gordon, the various castles I got to visit, these are still a haunting, aching memory.

Who is your favorite author? Terry Brooks

What was your first sale as an author? Climbing the Mountain, my first poetry anthology

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day? I prefer to write in the morning, as the sun is coming up. I love the idea of a fresh new day, full of new possibilities. Typically, when I get a chance to write, I’ll spend about two hours per day.

What does your significant other and family think of your writing career? Because of my responsibilities as an editor, I don’t have a lot of time to pursue my writing. My family views it as more of a hobby at this point.

Does your significant other read your stuff? No. Poetry isn’t his “thing,” and I’m not sure if he has ever read my short stories and vignettes.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers? My cousin, Laura Josephsen, will read anything I write and give me wonderful feedback. She is my go-to person when I need an opinion. (You've got to love family members as critique partners. They never pull their punches....or is that just my family?)

Who are your books published with? Currently, my two poetry anthologies are published with Whiskey Creek Press, LLC (whiskeycreekpress.com). I have a handful of short stories and vignettes published with Digital Dragon Magazine (http://www.digitaldragonmagazine.net)

How do you describe your writing style? I like to write stories with an element of fantasy. I enjoy writing free-form poetry, with a little bit of a shock factor.

What do you think makes a good story? I enjoy storylines with a twist in the plot. I like characters that overcome obstacles and grow over the course of a story.

Plotter or Pantser? Why? Plotter, with elements of Pantser mixed in. I like to know where the story is going, so I’ll loosely outline. What happens in the course of the writing is not always set in stone, and sometimes, I veer from what I’ve originally planned.

Tell us about your family. I met my husband in college and we have been married for almost fifteen years. We’ve got two boys, eight and thirteen. No pets yet, but the kids keep pushing for a cat… (Come on. Get a cat already. Or perhaps a rabbit? or a chicken? Maybe a donkey?  Kids should have a pet, you know?)

Do you listen to music while writing? If so what? I prefer to listen to classical music while I write: Bach, Mozart, and Wagner are my favorites.

What was the scariest moment of your life? The scariest moment was when I thought I would lose my first child during pregnancy. It was a very high-risk pregnancy and I was in the hospital for a long time before the emergency C-section.

What books have most influenced your life? The Bible. The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien. This Present Darkness, by Frank E. Peretti. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.

What are your favorite TV shows? Firefly, Psych, Star Trek (all incarnations), Dr. Who, Grimm, Castle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel

What canceled TV show should be brought back?  Why? Firefly and V, too many unresolved things and wonderfully memorable characters!

What songs are most played on your Ipod? Paralyzed, by Love and Death; Eye On It, by TobyMac; Make a Move, by Icon for Hire

What do you do to unwind and relax? Editing, crocheting.

Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they? Revising and rewriting are gifts that should never be squandered; you can only get better! Be open to constructive criticism, even if it doesn’t feel so constructive at the time. Be part of a writers’ group, either online or in real life. 

What would you consider to be the best book you have ever read? Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Amen to that!)

What is something people would be surprised to know about you? I’ve been to Europe, but never to NYC…and I live in Upstate NY!!

You just won a huge lottery what is the first thing you'll buy? A Peppermint Mocha Frappucino from Starbucks. 

Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it? Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.

Is there a piece of advice that you have received that has really stuck with you? If so, what was it? Treat everyone with kindness.

Steve Semken of Ice Cube Press will be taking pitches at the upcoming conference, May 2-4. I love his advice for beginning writers. It is so true. Never hide your light under a barrel. I know it seems like there are millions of writers out there especially when you hang out with other writers, but guess what? There aren't. Writers are a unique bred of folk. We're obligated to share our gift with the world.  So, listen to what Mr. Semken has to say and get your manuscripts ready and polished. He's attending to conference to find folks to publish!

Q: Has someone been instrumental in inspiring you as a writer?

A: I was originally inspired by a talk of Barry Lopez’s on nature and the environment. I was captivated by the inquisition to details, the use of words as almost tricks and teachings at the same time. After this I begin to discover devour environmental writing by a many contemporary authors: William Kittridge, Scott Russell Sanders, Gary Synder, Terry Tempest Williams, and the like.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they?

A: I believe you should be brave and not hide your writing. I choose to share my writing with six people that were alive and find out what they thought. There is no better schooling than this to arrange your confidence into an upword spiral. Writers are people who share their thoughts, diary writing, journals are fine, but they aren’t the stuff of be a writer.

Q: Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it?

A: Yes, I have two that guide me all the time and I paraphrase them both here: Matthew Fox, “The environmental crisis is a crisis of the soul.” and Jim Harrison, who writes, “It only gradually occured to me that it’s not people’s problems that interst me, but their solutions to their problems that interest me”

Q: What do you find most rewarding about writing?

A: I enjoy the rapture of the creative process in action. When you are striking what you feel are golden ideas while working on a book it is unlike anything else.

Q: What’s your 5 word memoir?

A: Creatively devising modern environmental myths.

Steve Semken began the Ice Cube Press in 1993 and now bases his business in North Liberty, Iowa. He was one of Radish Magazine’s Top Ten People award winners for 2009. A publisher of well over 50 books, he has focused primarily on place-based writing as a way to better understand how to best live where we do, whether through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual arts, or memoir. He is also the author of six books, including The Great Blues (Woodley Pres

s) on great blue herons, which won the Kansas Book Award and Pick Up Stick City (Rivers Bend Press) a novella which Publishers’ Weekly called “funny, poignant and more than a bit whimsical,” adding that “this allegorical tale of small town and environmental care is suffused with wonder.” He was also a writer-in -residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska.

Linda Apple is my hero. I'm in awe of this woman. When I first met her, I thought there's no way anyone can be that perfect. Guess what? She's living proof that what you see is what you get and that is perfection. She has a loving heart and a generous nature. To top that off, she's a talented writer and an amazing speaker. She connects with her audience instantly. Plan on attending her lunch session at OWFI. Even if you're the most tongue-tied person on the planet, you'll walk away with a platform and a megaphone.  She's that good!

How did you start your speaking career? It came about as a question. After selling several stories to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, someone asked me, “What’s your secret?” After thinking a while about it I realized it was because I used the creative nonfiction style of writing. So, I put together a workshop in the hope that it would help others get published. I called it My Recipe for Chicken Soup for the Soul. This workshop grew in popularity and it also lead to other types of speaking opportunities covering different aspects of writing and life.

Have you had any formal training as a speaker? In my very short stint in college I took Speech. That course taught me the different kinds of speech, but nothing technically. Then, when I began to write in 1998 I joined a Toastmasters group with a friend. Great group and I highly recommend them. You will learn technique with them. But mostly, I learned by doing and making mistakes. My book, Connect! A Simple Guide to Public Speaking for Writers is written from my doing and falling on my face.

Why do you think public speaking is important for writers? It gives you a connection that the social network cannot. It is true that the social network is worldwide, but very few of us are selling thousands of books because of it. There is something about meeting people, integrating with them, sharing with them in a conversational style, and giving great information that they appreciate. I have found that one speaking engagement results in at least two more invitations and boosts my social network strength. I sell a lot of books after I speak, and the icing on the proverbial cake is meeting great people and traveling on someone else’s dime. My goal is a speaking engagement in the UK! (I've already volunteered to carry her bags!)

Tell us about your public speaking workshops. They are very practical and involve audience participation and discussion. We look at how we can find topics other than our book, where we can present these topics, how to approach groups for a speaking invitation, the tools we need, and then fun nuts and bolts about how to overcome fear, insecurity, how to dress, what to do with our hands (a big problem) body language, voice inflection. My students leave with PLENTY of material to work with.

Have you heard from writers who have taken your class? Did it help them? Yes, just recently as a matter of fact. I spoke to a Masters Class in Eureka Springs, AR. One lady contacted a group and they were excited that she wanted to come and speak to them. The lady sold a lot of books. She was ecstatic!

Finally, tell us a little about your writing. What is your current work in progress? I have two books, Inspire! Writing From the Soul, and Connect! My agent is pitching my novel, The Journey. In October I pitched an idea to Wild Rose Press Publishing and they liked it, so I’m writing a romance set in Mississippi. Here’s hoping they like it! (Of course, they'll like it!)

In case you haven't noticed, we're thirteen years into the 21st Century.  I kind of miss rotary dial phones and party lines.  Goodness, what a great way to gather gossip on the neighbors. Now, you have to use those high-dollar, CIA microphones and sit in your car in the dark with night vision goggles to get dirt on them.

Only having four television stations was kind of cool too.  Because let's be honest, even with three thousand channels to choose from there still isn't anything worth watching on TV.  At least when there were fewer options you gave up quicker and moved on to more productive tasks. Now, carpal tunnel sets in as you keep the remote control buzzing from channel to channel. Okay, I do have to admit that I love remote controls. I was always relegated to the front of the living room to change channels and adjust the volume.

The good old days: bubble gum cost a penny (green apple was my fave!) radio stations played all genres and album covers were works of art. There was no such thing as a PG-13 movie and a G-rated movie actually meant you could watch it with your grandmother without dying of embarrassment.  Remember the days when dropping the f-bomb at school or work would result in immediate dismissal?

Times change. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the worse. Personally, I think our children would be better off without all those dadgum video games and such. Then again, I don't have kids. I can still distract my cats with a shiny ball of foil on the floor so what do I know?  One of the changes I do appreciate, and am admittedly addicted to, is the internet.

I remember submitting my first manuscript to an agent. I printed out four-hundred pages of pure brilliance, bond them with a rubber band and went to the post office. Trying to explain to the postal worker that I needed to include a SASE was AWFUL. The poor guy was so befuddled. He couldn't for the love of God or country figure out why the heck I had a bunch of papers to send to some chick in New York and why in God's name she would send them back to me.  That hassle lessened the thrill of submitting my novel, not to mention the fact that it cost me $45! Of course, finding the SASE in my mailbox a few months later really sucked.  I had to PAY for rejection?  Come on, really?

These days it is very unusual for anyone in the publishing world to request hard copies of manuscripts, which is one of the reasons OWFI in transitioning to electronic contest submissions.  Heather Davis, TMI Mom and teacher of middle school Language Arts, is presenting a workshop on how to Tip Toe into Technology. She chatted with me a bit and here's what she has to say about the workshop.

Q: “Tip Toe Into Technology” –are special shoes required?

A: No special shoes needed, just an open mind ready to learn about electronic submissions, organizing your electronic life and other extra technology tips and tricks for the beginner.

Q: What skills do attendees need to get the most out of this course?

A: I’m going basic, baby! I won’t tell you how to turn on the computer; I’ll give you that much credit, but I will walk even the most reluctant user through the best ways to get the most of his or her computer and other technology as a writer. 

I’ll share technology vocabulary and give step-by-step instructions on how to submit your writing electronically, how to organize your writing electronically, and how to feel more comfortable with your computer.

Q: You think you’ve got what it takes to teach this workshop? 

A: Yep, yep, yep! By day, I teach middle school English/Language Arts. I also have two daughters, one husband, two dogs and two cats. That right there demonstrates my patience. I use technology almost every minute of every day and have been known to even tweet in my sleep. Plus, when I was a lifeguard the summer of my senior year in high school, I attempted to teach my own momma how to swim. She did not drown and we didn’t kill each other. That’s the sign of a good teacher.

Q: Tweet in your sleep? In what other ways do you use technology? 

A: I am a blogging queen supreme. I blog at www.Minivan-Momma.com and www.Chick-Wit.com.  I am also an administrator and editor with www.OklahomaWomenBloggers.com. I cruise Facebook like a teenager on Main Street on Friday night (Heather Smith Davis—friend me!), and I tweet in my sleep (@MinivanMomma2).  My husband and I have our calendars synched up on our smart phones (we’re still late to most events). I voice record my story ideas with my iPhone, and I have a total of five email addresses. Five.

Q: So, you’ve got quite the presence online—what do you do when you’re not in front of a screen? 

A: My daughters are active in basketball, golf, softball and horseback riding. I also write a bi-weekly humor column for my local newspaper, Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise. My first book TMI Mom: Oversharing My Life was released in April 2013. My second book, Fooling Around, will be released in fall of 2013. I’m busy writing book number three. I’ve taught a couple of social media classes and blogging classes in my spare time as well. PLUS, I’m associate producer / director of the Listen To Your Mother-OKC show. Of course, I also like read and write. 

Q: When people leave your session at OWFI 45, what do you want them to say?

A: I want them to be excited to get in front of their computers and to feel like they are ready to take their writing to the new levels that technology is affording a 21^st century writer.

I heard Marilyn Collins speak at the Northwest Arkansas Writers Workshop free conference in March 2012. That's a hard group of folks to keep under control. Velda Brotherton and Dusty Richards have instilled the fear of God into us, but we're kind of rowdy when other folks are speaking. Not that we're being rude or disrespectful to the speakers , but goodness knows we have to share our opinions on the speaker with the folks sitting next to us. When Marilyn spoke, there were no asides. Folks were raptly enthralled with her topic and her speaking ability. I'm thrilled she'll be joining the 2013 OWFI faculty.

1. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? My friends wanted to grow up, get married, and have children. My sisters wanted to be teachers. I wanted to be a “high-heeled business lady” like my mother. Somehow, I managed to do them all.

2. What books have most influenced your life? It’s hard to choose among favorites. I’m most drawn to adventure books or those with deep personal challenges for the author/characters. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading hardback books. My Mother had a huge wooden box in the attic of our two-story barn filled with incredible books on many different subjects. More books filled shelves in our house. No restrictions were made on ones we read. My aunt was the town librarian and her inspiration opened up an even greater wealth of books. My world is still surrounded by books. (Is it just me or does this sound like heaven?)

3. What was your first book sale? I was director of the Beaufort Historical Association (NC) and responsible for several historic houses on site; a double-decker, English tour bus; and the Old Burying Ground. As a seaside town, this ancient burying place held the stories of star-crossed lovers, pirates and privateers, an entire Sunday School class and their teacher who died from the yellow fever scourge of 1864, and even one little girl whose precious body was preserved in a barrel of rum when she died at sea coming to America. Arcadia Publishers, large publisher of local/regional history, asked me to write a book about Beaufort. Instead I collaborated with a professional photographer and a historian to write my first published book: Beaufort’s Old Burying Ground (NC).

I’ve since published two more history books with Arcadia—Rogers: The Town the Frisco Built (AR) and a pictorial book, Rogers, Arkansas. I was born in Rogers and hold dear many of the old stories. For instance, my grandmother was the first business woman in town. Many colorful and nationally-known characters have walked these sidewalks and centuries-old streets of brick.

4. What is the hardest part of writing your nonfiction books? I love the research but can easily get lost in all the tantalizing side stories that I discover in a library or museum archive. I’ve finally learned to make “notes to self” for future reference about these stories and where I found them—otherwise I’d never finish my primary book. (Boy, can I relate! The first book I wrote was about Followers of the Signs (folks who take up the serpent in worship) I think I read every book on the topic. I think I only had one or two pages about it in my book!)

5. What is your writing schedule? Do other family members become involved? Who else reads your drafts? I’m one of the morning people—fully clothed, full of coffee and ready to go. No writing in jammies for me. My husband, Larry, was formerly an editor with a government agency and one of my sisters, Barbara Youree, is a multi-published author and they both read most of my work. Also, I belong to a great writing critique group of published authors, Northwest Arkansas Writers’ Guild, who regularly meet to help each other. I rely on this quality input and encouragement.

I’ve published well over 100 magazine/newspaper articles and work these deadlines in with book publishing and speaking.

6. How do you describe your writing style?  I write a Step-by-Step Writing Series that offers practical and easy-to-follow advice along with warm encouragement for writers. I give common-sense tips on structure, research, interviewing, writing, publishing and marketing. I cut through the fluff so readers can quickly find answers to their questions. The series currently includes: Memoir Writing Guide: Brighten Your Leaf on the Family Tree; The Art & Business of Writing Local or Regional History;  You Can Write a Book about Your Family; and Write History Right (www.chspublishing.com ) .

As a conference speaker, writing coach, and inhouse/online instructor, my goal is to help each participant develop their confidence and write the story they’ve always wanted to tell.

7. How do you develop your plots and your characters? I’m a Pantser (rather than a Plotter) when I write fiction. The first line comes to me and I just start writing. I’m fascinated with the characters who show up and walk on my stage. They come complete with name, personality, problems, position with other characters, and their own special voice. I can be right in the middle of a story and a character shows up completely unexpected. What fun. I write mysteries so at some point I have to consider where to plant clues and determine a direction for the plot. However, I went to a seminar that insisted that as a writer I must first outline. So, I outlined—first—my next mystery. Then lost all interest—I already knew what would happen. Why bother?

8. My favorite quote is by Erma Bombeck: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left—and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’”

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AUTHOR BIO:

Marilyn H. Collins held professional marketing and publishing positions in Washington DC, Virginia, and North Carolina. She is author of several how-to books and ebooks for writers, regional history books, and magazine features. Currently she is owner of CHS Publishing (www.chspublishing.com) and editor of an online newsletter  for writers, Proficient Writer NEWS (www.proficientwriter.com). Collins is a writing coach, online/classroom instructor, and frequent speaker at writers’ conferences.

Desiree Holt, author of over 130 books--many of them erotica--is being interviewed on CBS Morning News, March 24th. Desiree will be conducting a workshop at OWFI Friday, May 3 from 10:30-11:45.

How Hot is Hot-or When to Wear Asbestos Glasses

With the huge success of the Fifty Shades and Crossfire trilogies, erotic romance has moved from the corner of the bedroom into the mainstream. Where once upon a time every scene was almost “fade to black,” now people are hungry for details. But as with anything else there are degrees. Not everyone wants the same level of heat.

So how do you distinguish between “spicy,” “hot,” “erotic,” “highly erotic,” “erotica” and just plain out and out “porn?” During this workshop we will discuss the history of erotic romance and erotica and study excerptsfrom romance authors who write at various levels of heat. We’ll talk about what works and what doesn’t. And we’ll explore how the emergence into mainstream of these genres is helping a lot of women (and men) learn to appreciate their own sexuality.

Be sure to bring your questions with you!

For some insider information of the interview and the visit to Ellora's Cave, check out the Publishers Weekly blog on the steamy, exotic trip. I've got to figure out how to get invited to one of these photo shoots!! Oy!

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=7837&cpage=1#comment-205979

Madison Woods stopped by a for a visit. I thought you might want to get to know this amazing woman. And she is amazing. She's a member of the Northwest Arkansas Writers Workshop hosted by Velda Brotherton and Dusty Richards.  I thought I lived in the back of beyond, but Madison makes my quaint, little Ozark farm look positively metropolitan. Not only does she live in the boonies, her commute to work is unbelievable (close to 3 hours a day,) plus she has children, horses and a fiancé to contend with and yet, she still writes and blogs and does all kinds of mind-boggling online stuff. She starts discussing social media and my eyes glaze over. She knows it all and I'm always so overwhelmed.

Her workshops at OWFI will be entertaining and informative.

Where do you dream of traveling to and why?

I want to go to the old worlds, into the countryside where real life transacts, away from tourists and commercialism. Tuscany, Provencal France, and Germany, Scotland most of all, but really anywhere I can soak up the tradition and heritage of a culture.

Does travel play in the writing of your books?

My work in progress, Symbiosis, involves a lot of travel between different realms. The distances between them all aren’t great but the cultures from one locale to the other are widely varied.

What does your significant other and family think of your writing career?

My children don’t think of it as my “career”. It’s hard to make anyone else understand that even though it isn’t paying the bills, it is my vocation and career-in-progress. My fiancé, Rob, is 100% behind me and even pushes me when I am teetering on despair. He’s enabling me to reach the full-time writer status I have dreamed of for so long.

Does your significant other read your stuff?

Yes, and he’s a great critic. He thinks I use far too many commas though. I’m trying to wean myself off of some of them, but I really like commas. He’s told me he’s my #1 fan

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

My first reader is Rob. I have a few other people waiting to read Symbiosis when it’s finished. When I’m able, I like to attend the Northwest Arkansas Writer’s critique group. The founders there, Velda Brotherton and Dusty Richards, have been an inspiration to me. The other writers of that group always offer useful and honest opinions.

What do you think makes a good story?

One that the reader identifies with the protagonist, but most of all, one that makes me wish it hadn’t ended. A good story makes me want to read far beyond the end. I don’t know exactly what makes one fall into that category though. I only hope mine does that to readers when it’s out there in the published world.

Ever since I've become involved with OWFI folks have requested that Jordan Dane speak. Well, guess what? Jordan Dane will be speaking at the 45th Annual OWFI Conference. Yes! You read that correctly. JORDAN DANE is presenting at the 45th Annual OWFI Conference, May 2-4, 2013. That's like, forever away, you know? So, I thought I'd ask her a few questions and feature her on the blog for those of you who can't wait until May.

All I can say, is WOW! I have a new hero. I can't wait to meet her.

Please tell us about your latest release, INDIGO AWAKENING.

INDIGO AWAKENING is book #1 in the Hunted series with HarlequinTeen (Jan 2013). The story centers on a fifteen-year old boy, Lucas Darby, who escapes a mental hospital and is lost on the streets of LA. As the drugs fade, the voices he hears become louder and beckon him to find them. The last phone call he makes before he disappears is to say good-bye to the only person who really loved him, his sister Rayne. She refuses to heed his warning to stay away and not look for him because it’s too dangerous, but she has no idea how right he is. Lucas is an extraordinarily gifted psychic boy hunted by a faction of a fanatical church (the Believers), people who fear he’s the next evolution and a plague to test mankind. After Rayne becomes a target of the Believers, she’s rescued by a mysterious runaway boy, Gabriel Stewart, who’s even more powerful than her brother with awakening Indigo powers that could get them all killed.

Your adult thriller books started with a greatly successful boom with NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (HarperCollins) sold in auction and being named as Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2008. Very few authors seem to be able to balance writing adult fiction, young adult fiction and nonfiction, but you seem to excel at all three.  Do you have a favorite of these formats?

Fiction is definitely more fun, but I wanted to share my writing epiphanies and connect with other writers through my craft book that emphasizes writing for the young adult market – ONE AUTHOR’S AHA MOMENTS. There are challenges in writing for both the adult and young adult markets in fiction. Getting the YA voice right is not easy. I also see a distinct difference in how I plot both types of books. In adult thrillers, I tend to come up with my characters first, then build a plot around them. But in YA, I had to train myself to devise the premise first and fit the right teen in the story, so my teens from book to book would be different and unique for each plot. Another difference is that when I write for the adult thriller market, my books have tighter narratives and less internal monologue, but in YA it’s important for the reader to relate to the teen voice, so the internal monologue is a key element and there’s more of it. The challenge then becomes a balance of that teen voice and pacing.

YA is a booming market and you are in the midst of a great trajectory.  Can you share how you view the increased popularity of today's YA books?  What is the appeal of yours that have made them so successful?  In other words, what kind of social network feedback are you getting from your avid readers?

YA is growing in popularity and is setting trends for many reasons. Publishers Weekly did an interesting article on September 13, 2012 – New Study: 55% of YA Books Bought by Adults. YA appeals to a broader audience than teens which is great news for the publishing industry. In the case of HUNGER GAMES, for example, many adult readers didn’t even realize they were reading YA. The story lines are HUGELY imaginative and are very cross-genre. A big concept in YA is called “YA mash-ups” where strange combinations of subgenres are being matched up in extraordinary ways—Sci-Fi/strange science with horror and romance, for example. The romance angle keeps the story line and characters relatable. Romance is a key component. For me, I love how writing YA fuels my imagination. It not only taps into my memories as a teen (Oy!) and allows me to go tripping down memory lane, but it also expands my storytelling. Very cool.

A hard adjustment in being an adult thriller author who now writes YA too is the promotion infrastructure. They are vastly different, so it’s been a challenge to target two audiences, but in many ways, learning what it takes to promo for YA gets me plugged into social media more and I have to get creative. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, group blogs, virtual tours, Goodreads – online promotion is becoming more important than it was when I first started out in 2008. Online marketing skills can help with promoting my adult books too. I’m finding that my adult readers are discovering my YA books and loving them. My debut YA – IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS (HarlequinTeen) – is a cold case murder mystery with paranormal elements. I wrote it with the idea that my adult crime fiction readers might find it appealing and they have. And as my teen readers get older, I’m hoping they transition into my thrillers too. The characters in my Sweet Justice series with HarperCollins are in their mid-twenties and fit into the target market of New Adult that some publishers are embracing. If it sounds like all the pieces to the Jordan Dane puzzle fit together, that is no accident. I think it’s important for an author to have a vision of how they will fit into the future of an ever-changing industry.

I love the wording in some of your great reviews and endorsements:  that your books are "thriller country" and my favorite, that your novels are "as cozy as brass knuckles."   How would you briefly describe your new series, THE HUNTED, which launches with INDIGO AWAKENING?

I love dark YA and teen psychics hunted on the streets of LA by a fanatical church punches all my buttons. In this series, I’m bumping up against horror too. I’d describe it as plenty of action, intense paranormal scenes, and a memorable cast of characters. Early reviews have been AMAZING and I’m hoping this series appeals to boy readers too. Here is what Romantic Times Magazine wrote:

“Dane’s first offering in her new series, The Hunted, is sensational. INDIGO AWAKENING has strong characters and a wild and intense story, matched only by the emotions it will generate within you. Readers will love this book and eagerly await the next adventure. Fantastic! A keeper.”

~Romantic Times Book Review Magazine – 4.5 Stars (out of 5)

Can you give us a couple of "Ahas" from your nonfiction book on writing tips, ONE AUTHOR'S AHA MOMENTS? What inspired you to write that work?  As a long-time teacher, I think you must be a teacher at heart to write that book and share so many helpful articles on your website.

I have the utmost respect for ALL teachers, but I could never be one. I’m not patient enough. I just love sharing what works for me. I speak to a lot of writing groups and pass on my thoughts on group blogs, like The Kill Zone, but doing a non-fiction craft book is yet another way to reach out to fellow writers. For writing tips, I also maintain some freebie posts on my For Writers page.

Your website (http://www.JordanDane.com) is full of great advice for authors.  I'm especially intrigued by "Giving Characters A Unique Voice."  Can you define the way you approach this in your own key characters in INDIGO AWAKENING?

With such a wide variety of characters in INDIGO AWAKENING, I had to pay special attention to absolutely every voice to make each one distinctive. That was a BLAST to do. I love a challenge.

In this new series, I load up the main characters with conflicts and emotional baggage. They’re at odds with themselves and each other. The emotional scars are deep. I also wanted to imagine what it would be like for kids to be faced with life or death choices, without the safety net of parents. They become a family of strangers. In this cast of diverse characters, I make sure there is a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds, accents, street lingo, and gender differences. Even my internal narratives are in the voice of each character. They are real in my head and I hear their voices as I’m putting them in a scene. Crazy, right?  

You have been praised for balancing paranormal elements with reality in your work.  Is that a real challenge in your YA novels or is that something that comes easily to you?

Put yourself into the tormented nightmare of a Native American boy whose peyote-induced vision quest went horribly wrong and got him separated from his spirit guide. One girl is the only person able to penetrate the veil of that vision. When she touches the boy, she’s sucked into his nightmare where every dream symbol is a clue to a tragic murder. Is he the killer or the only witness? 

Or imagine what it must feel like to awaken a frightening psychic power in you, something that makes you a freak and dangerous. How would that power manifest? What does it feel like to course through your body? 

I start with a base of research that triggers my writer “what if” questions. Lately I’m a freak for the Science NOVA channel, but I love it when paranormal elements are based on science or something real. It’s scarier, I think. If you had asked me about writing paranormal elements in 2008 when my adult thrillers came out, I would have told you that I’m a crime fiction girl. My how things have changed! Writing any story is about emotion. I’ve tapped into something new and I’m doing it my way, so it fits. 

You are so diversified and your author schedule is impressive--conferences, workshops, meet-the-author appearances.  So I had to smile when I saw your past career was Energy Sales Manager.  Granted that was in the oil and gas industries, but how do you balance promotions for your writing career with time for actually writing and having a "real life"?  Any advice?

When I had my energy day job, I still wrote every day, several hours at night and more on weekends. Even with a full time job, I wrote two books a year, submitted proposals, attended conferences and workshops, entered writing contests, etc. As a full time author, I can devote my efforts to my passion to write and it doesn’t feel like work. My advice? If writing is important to you, make time for it. Even if you only write one page a day, that’s progress and you’re working toward a finished book. Learn your craft and be a sponge to absorb new things. Balancing my personal life is harder. Since I love what I do, it’s tough to set it aside when my mind is always plugged into my stories and wild imaginings. Even when I’m watching TV, I might conjure an idea from a commercial. That comes from joy.

Amy Shojai has been reinventing herself for years. She’s a certified animal behavior consultant, and the award-winning author of 26 best selling pet books that cover furry babies to old-fogies, first aid to natural healing, and behavior/training to Chicken Soup-icity. She is the Puppies Guide at puppies.About.com, the cat behavior expert at cats.About.com, and hosts a weekly half hour Internet Pet Peeves radio show. Amy has been featured as an expert in hundreds of print venues including The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, and Family Circle, as well as national radio and television networks such as CNN, Animal Planet’s DOGS 101 and CATS 101. She’s been a consultant to the pet products industry and a host/program consultant for select “furry” TV projects. Amy brings her unique pet-centric viewpoint to public appearances, writer conferences keynotes/seminars and THRILLERS WITH BITE!

Sure she writes Thrillers that Bite, but Amy doesn't. If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact her via her website or blog.  Honestly, how can you not love someone whose blog is titled Bling, Bitches and Blood? Website: http://www.shojai.com Blog: http://www.amyshojai.com

How did you start your writing career?

I call myself the “accidental writer,” because I never planned to be published. I have a double major in music (voice) and theater, was going to star on Broadway! Ha! Instead I met someone, fell in love and we ended up on a tiny town in Eastern Kentucky. After a job as the local TV news anchor went away (long story involving investigative piece that got the school board president fired…), I got a job as the office manager/assistant at a new veterinary clinic. It frustrated me to see clients come into the clinic who didn’t know how to care for their cats and dogs and made mistakes that could have been prevented. So I began writing these personal experience stories for the “pet press” (Dog Fancy, Cat Fancy, Bird Talk, etc.) from my work at the clinic, and somehow that turned into a career as a pet journalist, certified animal behavior consultant, and nonfiction book author. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything in the world! Well . . . maybe Broadway. *s*

Tell us about your current release.

LOST AND FOUND is my debut thriller, a first novel after 20+ years writing 26 nonfiction books. But it’s close to my animal behavior roots and even includes “dog viewpoint.”

An autism cure will kill millions unless a service dog and his trainer find a missing child . . . in 24 hours.

AN AUNT searches for her lost nephew—and dooms her sister.

A MOM gambles a miracle will cure—and not kill—her child.

A DOG finds his true purpose—when he disobeys.

Animal behaviorist September Day has lost everything—husband murdered, career in ruins, confidence shot—and flees to Texas with her cat Macy to recover. She’s forced out of hibernation when her nephew Steven and his autism service dog Shadow disappear in a freak blizzard. When her sister trusts a maverick researcher’s promise to help Steven, September has 24 hours to rescue them from a devastating medical experiment impacting millions of children, a deadly secret others will kill to protect. As September races the clock, the body count swells. Shadow does his good-dog duty but can’t protect his boy. Finally September and Shadow forge a stormy partnership to rescue the missing and stop the nightmare cure. But can they also find the lost parts of themselves?

Do you hear from your readers? What kinds of questions do they ask?

Oh yes! I constantly hear from readers. Mostly they ask me how to stop the cat from “being creative” outside the litter, or how to keep the dog from stealing their underwear—or similar behavior type questions. And at a book signing I once met a couple who, with tears in their eyes, greeted me and thanked me for writing THE FIRST-AID COMPANION FOR DOGS AND CATS because it had saved their dog’s life. Wow, that just made me weepy, too! 

More recently I hear from readers of my thriller, asking if the September character is me. Uh—no. She’s prettier, smarter, younger, and more athletic than I am, and…a bit more damaged. They also ask when the next book will come out featuring September and Shadow. I don’t have a date yet, but do have two more books in the series planned to continue the roller-coaster ride. My thrillers have BITE!

What do you do to unwind and relax?

To relax, I read, or perform on stage (it ain’t Broadway but it’s fun!), do training drills with the cat and dog, and write music. They all sort of go together. This past year I co-wrote, produced and performed in a musical theater production, KURVES, THE MUSICAL and the next show we plan to write is STRAYS, THE MUSICAL. The pets are my worst music critics and howl or chatter when I hit a wrong note, LOL! And yes, cats can be trained. You just need to find the right bribe to float kitty’s boat. Just watch out, the dog doesn’t swipe the treat first.

What makes you happy?

Laughing with friends and interacting with my pets makes me happy. My friends and my pets like me, whether I’m a “success” or not—they don’t even care if I wear sparkles. *s*

Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they?

Write what you love, because you’ll be in it for the long haul. And give yourself permission to suck. Everybody sucks when they first begin to write. So write through the suck-icity, sit down the next day and do it again, and the next and the next. Don’t look at the crap writing, give it time to cool off and some of the bad aroma actually dissipates with distance. Then you can go back, pick out the gems and save them, and dump the other stuff, and you’ve got some solid beginnings to work with. 

The first draft is the most difficult writing for me, and for many writers. It’s painful. And it’s created that head-shaped dent in my office wall, because I hate hate hate working through the first draft. Only rarely do you have those out-of-body-writing-experiences where the words flow like a gift from God—and then it stops and you want to shoot yourself when you can’t regain that rush. But once you work through the pain barrier and have a first draft done, you have a lump of clay to mold, shape, add to and carve up into sparkling prose. That’s where the joy comes in. 

Successful writers must have a bit of masochism inside to get ‘er done. Even once you’ve found “success” the rules can change and you end up in the down-and-the-dumpsters. That’s when you suck it up, and reinvent yourself, if you’re really intent on being a writer. I wrote LOST AND FOUND in part because the unique dog viewpoint hadn’t ever been done before and it was the book that I wanted to read—and taking that chance has made a huge difference in my career. Be unique. Be fearless. Grab that brass ring! It is within your reach. 

Why do it? Because it feels soooo good once the pain stops and your baby is sparkly and ready for readers! I’ve had to reinvent myself over and over again. If I can do it, you—can—do—it!

Here are some more great Amy Shojai reads:

I met Romney Nesbitt in 2009 at the West Texas Writing Academy in Canyon, Texas  hosted by Dusty Richards and Jodi Thomas. We were both in the advanced novel writing class. Each of us had to read the first chapters of our works in progress to the group and then they were critiqued. To this day, I remember in vivid detail the chapter Romney read. It was poignant and hilarious. When I found out that she is a creativity coach, I was even more intrigued. The woman is a genius!

In case you haven't noticed, I'm--as my other brother Darryl often says--a little high strung. Romney is like Yoda. She's calm and dispenses wisdom and as a result, she calms me. No easy task!

I can't wait for you to get to know her! I know her workshop at the OWFI conference in May is going to be fantastic.

Besides...Duck Dynasty and dog CPR? This woman is awesome!

WHY SHOULD YOU READ MY BOOK?

Many creative people struggle with everyday problems such as time, focus or purpose.  My book shows you how to identify your block and offers simple strategies to turn things around fast.

WHAT ONE WORD DESCRIBES ME

Creative

WHICH WRITER DO I IDOLIZE?

I idolize Jodi Thomas. She writes engaging stories full of true to life characters-- and she’s NICE. She gives  her time and talent to nurture her students. See for yourself, go to her West Texas A & M Writers’ Academy in Canyon, Texas.

WHO IS MY WRITING MENTOR?

Peggy Fielding.  She was the first person to tell me that I could write.  I think Peggy is the Wizard of Oz of the writing world—she knows all—and she is willing to share her knowledge.  She encourages me to become more than I am today.

WHAT I DO TO UNWIND AND RELAX

I watched Ghost Adventures or Duck Dynasty. Ghost Adventures fuels my interest in the paranormal and Duck Dynasty makes me laugh OUT LOUD!

THE ONE PASSAGE THAT GETS TO THE HEART OF MY BOOK

This short passage explains why people don’t do what they say they want to do

Excerpt from SECRETS FROM A CREATIVITY COACH, pgs. 20-21

Don was a student in my Creativity Coaching class at Tulsa Community College who said he wanted to write a novel but admitted spent his free time doing yard work.

“Don, do you ever think about writing while you’re mowing?”

“Yeah, I think about writing all the time.”

“Does the urge ever hit you to stop what you’re doing and go to your laptop instead?”

“Yeah, but I don’t.”

“Why not?”

He paused and let out an exasperated breath before he spoke, “Because I don’t have time to make any progress, so I do something that shows, like mowing. My girlfriend is happy when the yard looks nice. It’s a no-brainer. The grass is high. I cut it. It looks good. My time and effort make a difference.”

“Mowing makes sense,” I said, “unless what you really want to do is write.”

Don’s excuse for not writing had nothing to do with time; he had plenty of free time. His reason for not writing was all about “mattering.” Don needed to feel as if his time counted for something-like it mattered. He wanted to see results for his efforts. A cut lawn was nice. It made him feel good to do the work. His girlfriend was happy, the neighbors were happy, but Don wasn’t happy. He had simply found something to do that kept him busy, that made him feel good. Not writing made him feel bad. Mowing was a noble substitute activity. Now all I had to do was help Don find a way to make writing feel good—maybe even better than mowing the lawn. ”

MY FIRST SALE

True Confessions magazine. I wrote a story about a school bus driving pastor’s wife who did CPR on a dog!

WHAT PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

I am an ordained minister and pastor a small church in Tulsa. My love for writing developed under the ever-present deadline of a Sunday sermon.  A sermon is a short story with a beginning, middle and end.  Preaching is basically story-telling with a purpose.

I met Rhonda Penders in Eureka Springs, AR at the Ozark Creative Writers conference. I liked her instantly. Her presentation on how to lose an editor was hilarious.  Linda Apple was so impressed she asked Rhonda to present at the 43rd annual OWFI conference. I know several folks, myself included, who have been published by The Wild Rose Press. The most common comment I hear is how fair and equitable TWRP is. They are a very user friendly press and I hope all you romance, women's fiction and western historical folks have polished manuscripts and are ready to pitch up a storm in Norman.

Rhonda took the time to answer a few interview questions so we could get to know her better. You have to appreciate the irony of an Editor-in-Chief who hates to edit. (see question #5)

How did you start your writing career?

My writing career started probably like a lot of writers – as a child.  I have stories I wrote when I was 7 or 8 about our family pets, then as I got older I wrote some “Nancy Drew” type mysteries, and then finally settled into romance.  I was the editor of the high school newspaper, I wrote for the local neighborhood paper, and then our town paper.  Writing has always been a part of me but I never published anything until my first short story sold to Adams Media for their “Cup of Comfort” books (similar to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books)

Does travel play in the writing of your books?

Yes and No.  I live in Upstate NY and most of my stories are set in Texas but I wrote the first of those books before ever stepping foot in Texas.  However, now that I’ve been there I love to go back as it inspires me and does give me good research for my next book or short story. So yes it does inspire me but I don’t think a writer has to travel in order to write about somewhere else.

Tell us about your next release.

My next release is due out in the Spring of 2013 and is called “A Hero for Tonight”.  Its actually rather special to me as the cover model is my own son who at the time was deployed to Iraq.  He sent me the photo of himself in the desert and I loved it so much I saved it for a book cover.  It took me four years to come up with the story to go with the cover.  The story itself is about a Marine Reserve named Shane but it definitely is not my son.  It would be incredibly difficult to write a romance with my own son as the hero.  Very tough to do.  I will admit, however, that there are parts in the story that have happened in our own family – little conversations that I couldn’t resist dropping in there as they worked for what I was writing.

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?

I’m a morning writer.  I can’t even write a grocery list at night.  I would rather get up before dawn and write for several hours then try to squeeze it in during the day.  As for how long, it depends on the rest of my life.  Sundays for example are my best writing day as there’s no other demand on my time so I am free to sit at my computer most of the morning and write for hours and hours.

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

I really hate editing.  I mean hate it.  I like the creative process of getting the story out but editing just doesn’t do it for me.  I have to really force myself to get through edits.

Where do you research for your books?

If I have to research and typically I don’t – I use made up towns to avoid this – I will use the internet and also reach out to people who live in the area I’m researching.  For example, a favorite story is when I was assigned by a magazine editor to write a story around Groundhog’s Day and Punxsutawney Phil.  I had never been to the Groundhog Festival so I researched the area online but once I reached out to their Chamber of Commerce, they invited me to come be part of the festivities.  That was a, shall we say, once in a lifetime experience. But I use that research all those years later if I need to write about that particular event.  It has also turned into a once a year radio interview that gets me publicity in a round-about way.

Who are your books published with?

My books are all published with The Wild Rose Press, however, I have had several shorter items also published by Dorchester and Adams Media.

Plotter or Pantser? Why?

Always a Pantser.  I have a beginning in my head, I have characters and they tell me their story.  I never know the ending or what’s going to happen ahead of time.  When I try to plot or put the whole story down, I get bored with it.  While I write I’m telling myself the story and I enjoy that.  If I know the story already, it makes it tougher to write it out.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

Read, I love magazines because I can flip through them and read what catches my eye while watching TV.  I also love to cook and bake in my spare time.  In the summer, we have a place at the lake and I adore taking a boat ride or hanging out with my kids around a fire.

Morning Person? Or Night Person? How do you know?

Morning.  I’m the most creative in the morning and the happiest.  I think the way you know which you are is pretty easy.  When are you at your best?  For me that’s early morning.  I can roll out of bed and hit the ground running but by 9:00 p.m. I’m getting tired and grumpy and ready to drop.

What makes you happy?

That’s easy.  My house full of my kids and their friends and family.  My sons are young adults now and I love it when they are all back here and around my dinner table or just hanging out.  The more people I’m surrounded by the more I like it.

What are your hero and heroine of the story like?

My latest hero, Shane, is a Marine Reserve who has spent time in Iraq during a deployment.  He works as a Deputy Sheriff in a small town and is at the point in his life where he has his own house but no one special.  He is a bit of a ladies man having dated most of the single gals in their town from time to time but not ending up with any of them.

My heroine, Krista, is the typical girl next door.  Her mother and Shane’s were business partners in a small gift shop and now with her mother’s passing she is partners with Shane’s mother.  She is always around and has been a thorn in Shane’s side her whole life.  This is not the they are friends turned lovers story – Shane thinks of her more as a huge annoyance than anything else.  But, in the usual way, during the course of the story events unfold that make Shane suddenly see Krista in a new light.  Krista has no interest in following the road to heartache that is Shane.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

That’s an easy one.  In my Double B Series, the characters live on the fictitious ranch of the Double B.  The entire family lives there as they have the largest cattle operation in the country.  I would love to live on the Double B. It’s a lot like the television show “Dallas” without quite so much drama.

Is there a piece of advice that you have received that has really stuck with you? If so, what was it?

A wise author once told me that you can’t edit a blank page.  I know a lot of people say that but she was the one who shared that with me.  It’s very true.  Even if you write complete garbage you’ve written.  Another piece of advice or rather statement that sticks with me is that even if you only write 1 page a day – in a year you’ll have written 365 pages.  Sometimes we think we can’t write if we can’t have marathon sessions but some of my best work has been done in 20 minute spurts squeezed in here or there.

You have a time machine. What time period would you visit and why?

This will sound weird but again being a mother of young adults I look back sometimes on the days when they were all young.  I would give anything to go back to one day in the life of myself when my boys were in elementary school.  Young mothers miss so much by being busy and stressed out.  I would love to go back and do this again.