Don't Miss This One!

Hope you'll hop over to Suzanne Fisher's blog to catch the interview with award-winning author Debora M. Coty!

Suzanne Woods Fisher - http://suzannewoodsfisher.blogspot.com/

And have a happy and holy Christmas!

Interview with award-winning author, Ruth Ellinger

Can you give us a little bit of information about your publishing history?

I have been writing magazine articles, short stories, periodical columns, and literature for over thirty years for both secular and Christian publications. My writing interests cover a wide variety of genres including everything from garden articles for Ogden to a recipe book that went to three printings. My real love, however, is writing for the Christian market. In 2005, my first full-length historical fiction was published and was my first experience in writing fiction. This was an entirely new genre for me and I felt very unqualified. I have just completed the third book in the ‘Wildrose’ series and it has been quite a ride. I am actually beginning to enjoy writing historical fiction.

When in the process of writing your book did you begin to look for a publisher?

After my first draft of The Wild Rose of Lancaster, book 1 in the Wildrose Series, I began to seek a publisher. I should have waited until it was the FINAL draft. It would have been far more impressive. I thought my first draft was the final draft. It was my limited experience in fiction, but I soon learned I had only begun. The revisions came next.

What struggles have you had on the road to being published?

Concerning book publishing, the time element is always a challenge. As a pastor’s wife, I have many other obligations and I must lay aside writing time to attend to ministry needs. I do this willingly but the interruptions do get me off track when writing full-length historical fiction. So far, I have met only one deadline. Yikes! Fortunately, my publisher is very understanding.

What has been the best part about being published?

Several things come to mind. Of course, it is always thrilling to see your book on the shelf at the bookstore. Most importantly is sharing the message of God’s love and biblical/Faith principles to anyone who might read your book. It is so rewarding to receive a letter or email from someone who has been inspired or blessed by your unique way of sharing the gospel. Meeting other authors and writers who share your writing ambitions is also a blessing and encouragement.

Will you share with us how you come up with ideas for your books?

The Wildrose Series is based on the lives of the colorful and passionate people in my ancestral lineage. I have always loved stories from childhood, and my paternal grandmother inspired me with her love of God, family, and events that shaped the lives of our ancestors. I tucked these great stories away and filled in the blanks. A book was born.

Do you plan your stories first with an outline or does it come to you as write it?

I have a loosely structured outline with a list of significant events, characters, and a time frame organized according to chapters. I estimate the word count I want for each chapter and try to stick to this count. However, sometimes my plans go in another direction when one of my characters begins talking or acting on their own, so I change my outline to fit the character. So, yes, sometimes the story comes as I write. I like my writing best when this happens.

What do you want readers to remember and carry with them after reading your book?

My goal in writing inspirational fiction is to reach out to my readers with the message of God’s Sovereign love for His children and His willingness to forgive all who seek Him. I want them to carry away the expectation that -- “because He lives,” they can face the complexities of life with hope and courage. This has been a theme in the Wildrose series.

What are your dreams for your writing?

Mostly, the same as the above question except…it would be really great to have my books sell without doing all the promo. I would much rather be sought after than seek after readers myself. I am getting lazy.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given/learned in your life as a writer?

Revise, rewrite, reword, rewrite. Then rewrite again.

What do you wish you had known when you first started out as a writer for publication?

I wish I had known how important it was to join a writers’ group and attend conferences where good instructors and teachers offer their expertise and assistance. Going it alone is not an easy road.

Has it been a bumpy ride to becoming a published author or has it been pretty well smooth sailing?

I don’t know of any writer who would say it is smooth sailing right into publication. It is hard work with long unpaid hours. I must average about 1 cent an hour. My thirty-year portfolio as an article/story writer paved the way for the launch into book publication, but even then, I piled up some rejections before I landed a publisher.

For this particular book, how long did it take from the time you signed the contract to its release?

Eighteen long months.

Do you have an agent and, if so, would you mind sharing who he/she is? If not, have you ever had an agent or do you even feel it’s necessary to have one?

I don’t have an agent and I don’t really need one with my present publisher. There are pros and cons to having an agent. I like being free to plan my own agenda and don’t want the hassle of complying with agent requirements. I have looked into acquiring an agent and this route doesn’t seem to be a fit for me. Too much ‘Highlander’ in me. It probably works well for some though.

If money was no object, what would be the first thing you would invest in to promote your book?
A super smart, hard working publicist. (some are not)

How important do you think self-promotion is and in what ways have you been promoting your book offline and online?

Self-promotion is not my strong point although a certain amount is necessary. I cannot be the shameless self-promoter. It’s just not in me. I do just what is necessary to keep my publisher happy and to keep me happy too. I have a website and blog online. I have no time to twitter, my face, your face, buzz—whatever else comes down the pike. I promote my books at a variety of events at libraries, festivals, book fairs, bookstore signings, and workshops. I have a loyal readership who help spread the word. Wow! That’s enough for me!

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

My latest book, Sword of the Wild Rose, will be released April 24, 2010 and will be shortly posted online and available at your favorite Christian bookseller very soon. It is available online from CBD, Amazon.com, and can be ordered from most online booksellers such as Barnes & Nobles, Borders, etc. In regions of interest such as the Midwest, my books are available in ‘Choice” book racks as well. You can also order autographed copies from my website. Cross your fingers for an in the works deal with Target and Cosco.

Author Interview with Elaine Viets

Can you give us a little bit of information about your publishing history?

I write two series for the Penguin Group. My eighth Dead-End Job mystery, “Killer Cuts,” is published in May and got a good review in Publishers Weekly. For that book, Helen Hawthorne works in a high-end beauty salon. I’ve also written four Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper books. The latest in that one is “Murder with All the Trimmings.”

When in the process of writing your book did you begin to look for a publisher?

After it was finished. A lot of writers are told they only need three chapters and an outline, but that’s old school advice. Too many took the money and never finished the book. Now, it’s a three-stage process. New writers have to finish the whole book, and then look for an agent, who looks for a publisher. I’d recommend an AAR agent. That’s the Association of Authors Representatives (http://www.aar‑online.org/mc/page.do)

AAR agents follow a code of ethics. There are a lot of rip-offs out there, including agents who tell writers they have talent but need a book doctor – who will only cost around $500. A real book doctor costs $3000 to $5000 and up and is usually a retired New York editor. For $500, you may get, if you’re lucky, a copyedit. The so-called the agent shares the fee with the alleged book doctor.

What has been the best part about being published?

Holding my new book. I take time to admire the cover, the type and other handsome features. I pray it doesn’t fall open on a typo.

What do you wish you had known when you first started out as a writer for publication?

Writing is a business as well as an art. We need to write well, but we also need to know things like “sell-through” and “stripping.” Professional organizations are important. I belong to Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. I also wish I’d attended the genre conventions the year before my first book was out. For mysteries, my favorites are Malice Domestic, Sleuthfest, and Bouchercon.

Has it been a bumpy ride to becoming a published author or has it been pretty well smooth sailing?

It’s been a roller coaster ride. My first series was published by the sixth major New York house that read it. I had a three-book contract and then a contract for more. I was on top of the world, until Random House killed off that division. That same year, my husband had cancer, we lost our money in a stock market crash, and we were audited by the IRS. To pay the mortgage, I wound up working in a bookstore, shelving more successful authors.

That experience became the basis of my Dead-End Job series, which NAL, a division of Penguin, bought in 2003. The first book in that series, “Shop Till You Drop,” is now in its twelfth printing. “Murder Between the Covers,” which is set at a bookstore, was the second book in the series. The eighth Dead-End Job book, “Killer Cuts,” will be published in May, 2009.

How important do you think self-promotion is and in what ways have you been promoting your book offline and online?

Promotion is important, online and off. I blog for The Lipstick Chronicles with five other women writers, including Nancy Martin, Sarah Strohmeyer, Michele Martinez, Kathy Sweeney, Lisa Daily and Harley Jane Kozak. Our back bloggers come to many of our signings. (www.thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com)

I’m also with the Femmes Fatales, which includes Charlaine Harris, Donna Andrews, Kris Neri, Toni L.P. Kelner, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Saums, and Dana Cameron. http://www.femmesfatales.typepad.com/

We’re thrilled that Charlaine has seven books on the New York Times bestseller list. She’s one of those rare people who deserves her success.

When “Killer Cuts,” my latest Dead-End Job novel is published in May, the launch will be at the Malice Domestic Convention, May 1 to 3, in Arlington, Va. Then I’ll go to the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, Pa. This is an event no mystery writer – or reader – should miss. After that, I have signings from Washington DC to Fort Worth to St. Louis. The details are on my Web site at www.elaineviets.com

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

Most chain and independent bookstores carry my mysteries. I have links to several sources at www.elaineviets.com If you’d like a free signed bookplate, please email me at eviets@aol.com

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Killer Cuts: A Dead-End Job Mystery Elaine Viets. NAL/Obsidian, $22.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-451-22686-0

Near the start of Viets’s hair-raising eighth Dead-End Job mystery (after 2008’s Clubbed to Death), Helen Hawthorne, who’s working at Miguel Angel’s high-end beauty salon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., assists Miguel in fluffing and buffing Honey, the pregnant fiancée of Kingman “King” Oden, a notorious gossip blogger and cable TV star. After the couple exchange “I dos” at King’s Hendin Island waterfront palace, someone shoves a drunken King into his pool, where he drowns. Miguel becomes a top suspect in King’s murder after heroin’s found in the hairstylist’s makeup case. To help clear Miguel, Helen investigates other suspects, including Honey and the victim’s two ex-wives. Meanwhile, Helen must cope with anonymous threats in her mail as well as plan her wedding to her PI boyfriend. Viets keeps the action popping until the cliff-hanging ending, as Helen ignores signs that her best-laid plans have a black hole connected to the past she’s been running from for years. (May)

Author Interview with Deborah Brunt

Can you give us a little bit of information about your publishing history?

I started writing articles for publication in 1980. In the nearly 30 years since then, I’ve written more than 1,400 published articles and four published books. In 1998, God took me on a lengthy detour from fulltime writing. In the last 10 years, I’ve primarily written two ongoing columns, a weekly and a monthly one. However, during that decade, God did surprise me with a couple of unexpected writing blessings: He opened the way for me to write devotions for the Focus on the Family women’s website and to publish my fourth book, Focused Living in a Frazzled World: 105 Snapshots of Life.

When in the process of writing your book did you begin to look for a publisher?

To my surprise, the publisher came looking for me. After publishing three books with a denominational publisher, I spent seven years in a ministry position that allowed little time for writing and no time for preparing and sending out book proposals. Near the end of those seven years, I was approached by a subsidy publisher who had seen and liked my writing. I made the investment in order to get my foot back in the book-publishing door.

What has been the best part about being published?

By far the most fulfilling part has been finding out that, perhaps months or years after I wrote an insight or told a story, someone read it – and God used it to speak directly to their need of that moment.

What do you want readers to remember and carry with them after reading your book?

I want each “snapshot” in Focused Living in a Frazzled World: 105 Snapshots of Life to offer readers the blessing of an aha! moment when they really see what they’re seeing. I want readers to learn to see life differently and, as a result, to live their lives differently.

What do you wish you had known when you first started out as a writer for publication?

I wish I had known how religious I was – but at the time I wouldn’t have seen it or believed it. I wish I had known how easy (and devastating) it is for us Christians to try to get our significance from things connected with Christ, rather than from Christ himself. Yet because I didn’t know those things, I now have true stories to tell and insights to share that can help others experience freedom in Christ and fully live out their God-given identity.

Has it been a bumpy ride to becoming a published author or has it been pretty well smooth sailing?

In writing, as in life, I’ve gone through different seasons. As a young wife, knowing God wanted me to write for publication, I learned as much as I could from writers’ magazines, writers’ conferences and other helps. Then I plunged in, quite successfully. In that first season, I wrote primarily for denominational and regional publications and often had as many assignments as I had time to write. At home with a toddler and a new baby, I wrote my first book (a devotional for young women) because a publisher for whom I’d written numerous articles called me and asked me to do so! Two other books followed, and lots and lots of articles.

Then, I entered a frustrating season: With our two daughters in elementary school, I had more time to write. I had developed better writing skills. Eagerly, I tried to write for new markets and to publish another book. But every door that seemed to be opening slammed in my face. The article-writing assignments continued, yet no matter what I did I couldn’t seem to move beyond the “box” that held me.

As our daughters entered middle school, I entered a paid ministry position. In order to fulfill family and work responsibilities, I had to lay down every writing endeavor, except for a weekly newspaper column and a monthly column in a women’s devotional magazine. I had to fight to find time to write those two columns. Repeatedly, I asked God if I should quit writing them. He told me to persevere and, as mentioned above, even gave me grace during those years to write a series of devotionals for Focus on the Family women’s website and to compile some of the best of my Perspective columns into my book, Focused Living in a Frazzled World.

Now, I’ve entered another new season. Our daughters are grown. I’m helping my parents as they face the challenges of aging. With regard to my life and my writing, I’ve catapulted out of the box! I’m in a totally new place, at once wonderful and challenging. I describe that place on my website, www.keytruths.com, and on my new blog, http://religioushasbeen.blogspot.com, where the picture of me riding a mechanical bull says it all. Before, I had a passion to write. Now, I have a passion to tell what I’ve seen and heard. I have a passion to help others catapult out of religious boxes. I have another book inside me, clamoring to be born. It’s tentatively titled, You Get Your Life Back: Confessions of a Religious Has-been. My struggle? To find the keys to get this message out to the many churched or formerly churched people who are, in the words of Matthew 11:28 (MSG) “burned out on religion.”

How important do you think self-promotion is and in what ways have you been promoting your book offline and online?

I can recall times in grade school when the teacher asked for volunteers to read parts in plays in our school reader. I desperately wanted to read one of those parts – but did not raise my hand. No surprise: I didn’t get picked. Whether you want to read aloud in school or you want other people to read what you’ve written, it’s vital to present yourself. That doesn’t mean bragging or pressuring people or pushing others down. For me, it means seeking every appropriate venue to confess who I am and what I do, to tell what I’ve seen and heard with candor and humor – and then see who comes forward to connect.

One of the most effective ways I’ve found to present Focused Living in a Frazzled World is to read excerpts from it when I speak. Before the book’s release, I presold copies at a discount rate. When the book came out, I sent an email announcement to my database list. I’ve also done book-signings and an interview that aired on Focus on the Family Weekend Magazine. Online, I’ve promoted the book through:

my website: www.keytruths.com,

my blogs: http://perspective.keytruths.com and http://religioushasbeen.blogspot.com,

my Facebook page,

and the two free e-columns I send out. (You too can sign up for Perspective and/or for Key truths, Open gates at http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101137250569&p=oi.)

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

Readers can order Focused Living in a Frazzled World: 105 Snapshots of Life online at my website, www.keytruths.com, and at amazon.com and www.tatepublishing.com. They can also order Focused Living through any local Christian bookstore.

Author Interview with Mark Mynheir

Welcome to author Mark Mynheir.

Can you give us a little bit of information about your publishing history?

Rolling Thunder was my first book; it released in 2005. From the Belly of the Dragon was my second. The Void was next.

The Night Watchman is my latest. It releases in May of 2009.

When in the process of writing your book did you begin to look for a publisher?

I had written a complete novel before I attempted to find a publisher. But to be fair, I knew nothing about the publishing business. I do think it’s good for the first-time author to have the book completed. That way the agent/publisher knows that you have the wherewithal to finish the book.

What has been the best part about being published?

Seeing my name on a book at Barnes and Noble has been pretty cool. But in truth, I enjoy the whole process. I like writing the stories, seeing them published, talking with readers and other writers. The publishing industry is a lot of fun. Sure beats my day job.

Will you share with us how you come up with ideas for your books?

Usually, I use personal and job-related experiences. It’s a mishmash. I take from many sources. Anything that I can think of to make the stories stronger.

Do you plan your stories first with an outline or does it come to you as write it?

I do a very vague outline and then jump into it. The story often changes as I’m moving along. I classify myself as a seat-of-the-pants writer.

What do you want readers to remember and carry with them after reading your book?

I hope to create characters that the readers think about long after the story has ended.

What are your dreams for your writing?

I’d love to quit chasing bad guys at some point (they’re getting faster as the years go by) and write and speak fulltime. But for now, I still have to split the careers.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given/learned in your life as a writer?

Hone your craft. Everything else revolves around this.

What do you wish you had known when you first started out as a writer for publication?

I wish I’d have read a few more books on novel writing. I’ve had to play some catch up. There are a lot of subtleties and techniques to make stories stronger, particularly with regard to structure and point-of-view usage.

In publishing, I should have taken the time to talk with experienced authors about the business end and expectations. It would have saved me some unnecessary aggravation.

Has it been a bumpy ride to becoming a published author or has it been pretty well smooth sailing?

Quite bumpy. When I was growing up, the worst thing I could think of doing was writing. I loathed putting words to paper. I’m Dyslexic and the very reason (I believe) that God invented spell check. But soon after I became a Christian, I felt the Lord leading me to write. It didn’t make much sense to me and seemed impossible. I shared with my wife what I thought God was doing, and she encouraged me to go to school and learn the skills I needed to write.

So, it took about ten years of classes, writing, and more classes. I met my agent at a writer’s conference. He shopped my first novel, which got some good reviews but didn’t sell. Then I wrote the proposal for Rolling Thunder, my first published novel. He sent it out. I expected it to take six months or so before I heard anything. But about a week later, I got an e-mail from Multnomah, asking if I would be interested in writing a series. I had to wake my wife up to read the e-mail, just to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind.

To say the least, I got kind of weepy when I held my first book. But don’t tell anyone.

For this particular book, how long did it take from the time you signed the contract to its release?

I started with a three-book contract, but it was upgraded to a five-book contract after the release of Rolling Thunder. So The Night Watchman is the fourth book of the contract.

Do you have an agent and, if so, would you mind sharing who he/is is? If not, have you ever had an agent or do you even feel it’s necessary to have one?

Chip MacGregor is my agent and a fantastic one at that. (I hope he reads this.) In today’s publishing world, a good agent is a must. The agent does a lot more than just secure the contracts. A good agent helps develop your career and writing as well.

If money was no object, what would be the first thing you would invest in to promote your book?

I think radio and TV are the best options. Oprah would be good.

How important do you think self-promotion is and in what ways have you been promoting your book offline and online?

Self-promotion can be huge. But each author has to determine what he/she can reasonably accomplish. I have a very limited amount of time for self-promotion, so I’m very selective about what I take on.

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

Amazon.com

Christianbook.com

Family Christian Bookstores

Barnes and Noble

Lifeway Stores

And anywhere Christian books are sold.

Please visit me at my website: www.copwriter.com

Thank you for having me.

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