what writing is for me

Writing is a twitchy thing for me. I pay little to no attention to grammar. I disregard all the important things, really, that may put writing into the category of “high art”. Writing has just always been something that has been there for me, its always been a part of me. I don’t know if I’ve always been good at it, mediocre even, or if it’s just the one thing I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since I can remember. I love being able to sit down and feel some sick flood of inspiration come over me and just dilute every other sense. In those moments where I want to write, there is nothing else. All there is, the only important thing, is to write. I haven’t found a certain niche in writing yet. I’ve dabbled in short stories, fiction, poetry, manifestos etc. I don’t think I’d find myself writing for a living, not even as a critic or journalist. It’s the only thing I really do for me, which is maybe why I value it so much; that intimacy. I’m an incredibly open person, a “straight shooter” most would say and writing is the only thing I really have a problem sharing. It’s the root of the root of what I’m made up of, its not something I want to hand out to whoever or even those I love. The hold certain pieces have on me is bizarre. Writing is both something terrifying and self satisfying. It’s fertilizer, perhaps? It is such a fantastic feeling to read a book or a poem, anything, and find that one paragraph, sentence, word, minute moment in which it all clicks, and BOOM I find myself inspired. It is also so wonderful to find oneself going about our daily business when suddenly, there it is, that grand moment where all of those ideas suddenly string together and you get it! Its time to write this, this is what has had my mind racing for days, nights, months. On the other end of things, not writing…well, it stinks frankly. When I find myself without anything of importance to say or write I find that I am more bored with everything. With writing comes an understanding of ourselves, of our surroundings, and feeling as if we cannot write is almost as if we’ve lost touch with all of the concrete things that surround us every single day. All of that being said, all jumbled up, writing is a cataclysm of sorts. Its different for every person, its culmination of our darkest demons and lightest light. It can be simple or complex. It can be lost for years or right in front of us. Writing is the author.

Expectations

One of the best and worst things about reading is expectation. For instance, I think that most readers delve into whatever book or poem, anything, expecting to either walk away with a fulfilled mind or with nothing at all. When I am about to read a poem that I’ve read or that I know of, or that I’ve heard is good I go into it thinking I will read and then finish feeling inspired to think a different way, to write, or just leave with a new word that I like the sound of. When I read a novel I expect to lose myself in a story, I expect to escape reality. When I read something historical, autobiographical etc. I tend to expect that I will close the last page feeling smarter, like I’ve learned something about the world and those that have walked before me. When I read something from a new writer, I expect the unexpected. But all of the above I expect in PRINT. There is something about words on a screen that lower my expectations. If I find a book/article/poem/piece that I’ve read before on print and then read it online I find it less engaging. I don’t know if it may because the certain romance of the page is gone, or if the light on the screen is too bright, or if it has to do with the fact that I may have read the piece before. I find my senses dulled. I find my mind in other places. Its even worse when it comes to the “new”. There are thousands of blogs and websites designed for new writers just like there are thousands of libraries and bookshops all over the world but there is something daunting, sickening almost about the high volume of material on those sites. I sit there trying to decide what I ought to click on. I think, I think. How good can any of these really be? Self publishing online takes away a bit of the drive, a bit of the competition of who is actually GOOD and who is GREAT. Then of course, there are the really awful mixed up in the batch as well. But that’s the thing, why bother? If my mind seems to be hardwired to think that I am going to bore myself to death with one bright screened page after the next. We need to be able to sift better, to find the things that meet our expectations like all of our favorite books once did.

Author Questions

Author Questions 1. Who or what inspires you as an author? Ive just always written, there was never anyone I’ve ever read that I said gosh I want to do that. I have authors I like to read. I write cozies, mysteries. Its usually about a single woman. 2. Who or what motivates you as an author? Cause I’m not happy if I’m not writing. I just felt myself relax because I finished a novel. 3. What author[s] or book[s] influenced you as an author the most? Nothing really in particular because you don’t want to be derivative. But reading them, and because Ive written mysteries for so many years that I can now spot a poorly written one. 4. Most often, where, when, and how do you write? Since January its in the evening, 1000 words a night. I write and blog in the evening. I have my critique person, I call him my mentor, he was on the faculty for many years and hand carried me through my doctorate. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ll send it to him and I wont look at it again until I have his comments. 5. How is technology changing print culture, specifically regarding authors and readers? Well theres the whole ebook and pod business. Its overwhelming. I put two older books out to a company that does that. The publisher Im with now sells 10 ebooks for every print copy. The ebook comes out first and then the print, so you have to reformat. The last one, the ebook came out in August, but the print copy came out in December. I read on my ipad. 6. When you write, who is your intended audience? Anyone who reads cozy mysteries. Women almost exclusively. Usually older people. 7. How is the current technological revolution changing your audience? You have to have ebooks in genre writing. Its also, there’s no gatekeeper on the internet. Its harder to get an audience. 8. What do you think reading and authorship will look like fifty years from now? I have no idea. When I got into publishing in 1982 we were using typewriters. We’d get long galleys of what we had to read, and look where we are today. 9. How did you find a publisher, and how long did that process take? Mysteries are a whole different world. I used to write about the American list, I was published my Bantom in NY. When I started writing mysteries, I wrote to an agent I knew and he said “I liked it, but I didn’t love it”. Which is code for Im not going to publish you. I wrote an editor and then I finally found an agent who was so enthusiastic. Gradually, he got less and less enthusiastic. He sent it to 6 publishers in NY. The big houses already rejected it. So I sent it to a small press. I belong to sisters in crime, a writing organization, and they interviewed this woman from a press called turquoise morning and she said for me to send the manuscript. They called me back in February and said they’d publish it, and so that’s who I’ve been with. 10. How much did your manuscript change during your publisher’s editorial process? Not a lot. My mentor makes more changes. 11. Do you have a definite and specific organization and structure in mind as you begin writing? If so, how definite and specific is your outline? There are outliners, which I’m not. I’m a punster, I write by the seam of my pants. I think up a general one page idea when I start and that’s it and it often varies dramatically from when I start. One went a totally different direction and they made me change my synopsis. 12. How would you describe your writing process? On a computer. Sometimes, rarely these days, I’ll print it out and do some handwritten notes. 13. Do you have any writing habits or rituals that help your wiring process? I don’t like music playing, sometimes I have the TV low. 14. Do you write in multiple genres? I wrote about women of the American West and I’ve written quite a few children’s books both fiction and non fiction. 15. What was your first publication, and what do you think of this publication now? I like it. It was a book called “After Paul Was Shot”. When I wrote it I didn’t think I was writing a book for young adults, but I still like it. 16. Besides teaching and authorship, have you had any other jobs in the writing field? I haven’t really taught much. I was on TCU press. I’m not really comfortable teaching, but I could do workshops.

Author Questions

Author Questions 1. Who or what inspires you as an author? Ive just always written, there was never anyone I’ve ever read that I said gosh I want to do that. I have authors I like to read. I write cozies, mysteries. Its usually about a single woman. 2. Who or what motivates you as an author? Cause I’m not happy if I’m not writing. I just felt myself relax because I finished a novel. 3. What author[s] or book[s] influenced you as an author the most? Nothing really in particular because you don’t want to be derivative. But reading them, and because Ive written mysteries for so many years that I can now spot a poorly written one. 4. Most often, where, when, and how do you write? Since January its in the evening, 1000 words a night. I write and blog in the evening. I have my critique person, I call him my mentor, he was on the faculty for many years and hand carried me through my doctorate. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ll send it to him and I wont look at it again until I have his comments. 5. How is technology changing print culture, specifically regarding authors and readers? Well theres the whole ebook and pod business. Its overwhelming. I put two older books out to a company that does that. The publisher Im with now sells 10 ebooks for every print copy. The ebook comes out first and then the print, so you have to reformat. The last one, the ebook came out in August, but the print copy came out in December. I read on my ipad. 6. When you write, who is your intended audience? Anyone who reads cozy mysteries. Women almost exclusively. Usually older people. 7. How is the current technological revolution changing your audience? You have to have ebooks in genre writing. Its also, there’s no gatekeeper on the internet. Its harder to get an audience. 8. What do you think reading and authorship will look like fifty years from now? I have no idea. When I got into publishing in 1982 we were using typewriters. We’d get long galleys of what we had to read, and look where we are today. 9. How did you find a publisher, and how long did that process take? Mysteries are a whole different world. I used to write about the American list, I was published my Bantom in NY. When I started writing mysteries, I wrote to an agent I knew and he said “I liked it, but I didn’t love it”. Which is code for Im not going to publish you. I wrote an editor and then I finally found an agent who was so enthusiastic. Gradually, he got less and less enthusiastic. He sent it to 6 publishers in NY. The big houses already rejected it. So I sent it to a small press. I belong to sisters in crime, a writing organization, and they interviewed this woman from a press called turquoise morning and she said for me to send the manuscript. They called me back in February and said they’d publish it, and so that’s who I’ve been with. 10. How much did your manuscript change during your publisher’s editorial process? Not a lot. My mentor makes more changes. 11. Do you have a definite and specific organization and structure in mind as you begin writing? If so, how definite and specific is your outline? There are outliners, which I’m not. I’m a punster, I write by the seam of my pants. I think up a general one page idea when I start and that’s it and it often varies dramatically from when I start. One went a totally different direction and they made me change my synopsis. 12. How would you describe your writing process? On a computer. Sometimes, rarely these days, I’ll print it out and do some handwritten notes. 13. Do you have any writing habits or rituals that help your wiring process? I don’t like music playing, sometimes I have the TV low. 14. Do you write in multiple genres? I wrote about women of the American West and I’ve written quite a few children’s books both fiction and non fiction. 15. What was your first publication, and what do you think of this publication now? I like it. It was a book called “After Paul Was Shot”. When I wrote it I didn’t think I was writing a book for young adults, but I still like it. 16. Besides teaching and authorship, have you had any other jobs in the writing field? I haven’t really taught much. I was on TCU press. I’m not really comfortable teaching, but I could do workshops.