Interview Questions: | |||
About the Book:
Q. When did you start writing the book?
A. About four years ago
Q. How long did it take you to finish the book?
A. About a year and a half.
Q. Was there a certain part of the book that you were set on from the beginning?
A. I wanted Polarity to deal with the worst possible public humiliation. The press about nude pictures on the Internet made me wonder how a teen would deal with being exposed to the world. Would she be able to get anyone to believe her side of the story? Would her boyfriend be able to get beyond it?
Q. Was there anything in the book that was a struggle?
A. Ethan was challenged for me to write. I was very concerned about being true to his race. Since I'm a white woman and he is a black fifteen-year-old boy, I was very cautious about not allowing my own cultural lens to impact him.
Q. Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you added some qualities of real life people?
A. My characters are entirely fictitious.
Q. Which character do you relate to the most?
A. Tilly -- she has the capacity to understand deep emotions and needs, but sometimes she struggled to find the words to express them.
About You:
Q. Where did you grow up?
A. My dad was in construction, and we moved often to follow his word. I lived in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Haiti.
Q.What is something you would love your readers to know about you?
A. I write from my heart.
Q. Is there anything that you are working on now?
A. POLARITY IN LOVE. By the time POLARITY IN MOTION was complete, Polarity and Ethan had matured to the point of taking their relationship to a deeper level. They are ready to take more risks. They walked out of the first book and right into a second one.
Q. Any ending note comments?
A. I leave with a line from the book: "And somehow just his voice saying my name...reached so deep inside me that he found places to be touched that I didn't even know I had."
Guest Post Topic: 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Being an Author I Didn't Know Before
- I wish I had been better prepared for writing blog posts! I've worked my whole life on writing fiction,but blog posts are an entirely different animal, and they are a struggle for me.
- I should have started an author Facebook page, Twitter page, and website years ago. For some reason I wanted to have my book cover before starting those pages. If I had it to do over, I would have started social media as soon as I had a book concept. Now I'm playing catch up.
- I wish I had started working with other writers sooner. Having people to exchange pages with for feedback really boosted my process, but for many years I wrote in isolation-- without sharing my work with anyone.
- I didn't know that you can start deducting your "writing" expenses on your income tax forms up to three years before you publish. It's amazing how those writing conferences, contest fees, and workshop expenses mount up.
- THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron helped me immensely with things like writer's block and understanding my own creative process. I wish I had read it sooner in my journey.
- I thought if you once snag a well-established agent, you're home free. Wrong! A great literary agent, Charlotte Sheedy, agreed to represent my book, but a year later she told me regretfully that none of the acquisition editors she associates with were interested. I had to start all over!
- I wish I had drafted the book's acknowledgment earlier--maybe as soon as I started writing the book. There are so many people who played a role in the development of Polarity's story, and I wanted to include everyone. The publisher asked for the acknowledgement right after we finished editing the book, and in my rush I left out some names.
- I'm just now reading Stephen King's ON WRITING. It's amazing--should have read it years ago!
- I attended several writers' conferences and paid for ten-minute pitch sessions with agents. It was probably a good experience for me in that I definitely polished my pitch, but it was a waste of money as far as gaining representation. I think the best way to get an agent or publisher is through querying as per the agent or publisher instructions on their website. By the way, nothing is harder to write than a pitch! Nothing!
- There's endless rejection in this business. Never give up! I just read that James Lee Burke spent yen years getting 111 rejections for THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE. The book became a Pulitzer Prize nominee. He's published 36 books--many best sellers and movies.
I just want to give a big thanks to Brenda for stopping by the blog and participating in the interview and guest post. Please guys, go check out her book Polarity in Motion. It's such a wonderful read--my review will be up within the hour.
