Debut Author Interviews

Now that you're under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

• Joni Sensel on...Family Appreciation
• Melissa Marr on...Family Appreciation
• Paula Chase on...Family Appreciation
• Greg R. Fishbone on...Family Appreciation
• Kelly Bingham on...Family Appreciation
• A.C.E. Bauer on...Family Appreciation
• Ruth McNally Barshaw on...Family Appreciation
• Heather Tomlinson on...Family Appreciation
• Carrie Jones on...Family Appreciation
• Stephanie Hale on...Family Appreciation
• Marlane Kennedy on...Family Appreciation
• Sara Zarr on...Family Appreciation
• Sarah Aronson on...Family Appreciation
• Suzanne Selfors on...Family Appreciation
• Ann Dee Ellis on...Family Appreciation
• Eric Luper on...Family Appreciation
• G. Neri on...Family Appreciation
• Rebecca Stead on...Family Appreciation
• Laura Bowers on...Family Appreciation
• Rose Kent on...Family Appreciation
• Judy Gregerson on...Family Appreciation

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family is great anyway and always has been. I’m single (more time to write!), but my parents and main squeeze are uber-supportive. Only my brother is sorta blase, and he’s just too busy with his own windmills to care.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My spouse, children, & parents have actually been more supportive of my writing inclination than I have. Writing was a dream, not a practical option. If not for their encouraging me, I wouldn’t have stepped out on this branch.

So I set a deadline— 3 years to write. I couldn’t let go totally though: I taught part-time (2 to 4 college courses per term). It’s important to me to pull my weight, and I felt that I wasn’t, so I had just decided to resume FT teaching. My family was very opposed to this plan. So when the contract came—a few months shy of my deadline—it resulted in quite a bit of me saying “I was wrong, & you were all right.”

They had faith all along; I didn’t.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family (husband, kids and parents) took my writing seriously once I said I was going to pursue it in hopes of going full-time. They know me. Once I set my sights on something, there’s very little that will discourage me. So from the start they were on board.

However, when it comes to giving me the proper time to write in peace - and I emphasize PEACE - that comes and goes in spurts. Now that I’m on deadline with edits my husband does try harder to keep the girls away from my office door. But when I’m not on deadline, it’s much harder for them to understand I need uninterrupted time to create.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

When I was growing up, my father tried to discourage me from my writing. He said I could do anything in the world, so why was I wasting my time with all those useless stories?

I was discouraged for a while, until I spoke to my grandfather about it.

“Absolutely you should be a writer,” he told me. “It’s what you enjoy and what you’re good at. In fact, I wish your father had taken more of an interest in books when he was your age. I told him that he could do anything in the world, so why was he wasting his time with all those useless electrical circuits?”

So if my dad could grow up to be an electronics engineer, I knew I could write silly stories for a living.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family has always been truly supportive, and never voiced doubt. Still, you’d have to assume after two years of listening to me say, “I’m working on my novel,” they would have had a few private misgivings. Everyone was thrilled when it sold, and I do think that now I have a bit more credibility when I say I’m working on my book!

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

Although my family has always been supportive, my most validating moment came a few weeks ago when my youngest daughter told me: “I never realized how much work it takes to write a novel until I saw you do all those revisions!”

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family is now 100% supportive.

They weren’t always.

Contracts, advance payments, and correspondence with big-time industry professionals all have a way of convincing people that I’m finally legit.

(though I still can’t get my kids to read my book. They want to wait til it hits the bookstores)

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

Well, “appreciate my writing” and “support my writing” are two separate concepts for me. My family has always supported my writing, and my mother and sister commented on various drafts. Unfortunately, the one time my husband (with all sincerity and good intentions) critiqued a couple of chapters of my work-in progress, I was devastated. We agreed that my critique group would help me fix things, and he could read the book when it was published. Now that I think about it, he’s had to follow my progress as a writer over the past few years by the rejection parade… first the form letters, then some personalized “not right for my list” notes, then finally the “please revise and re-submit” letter that resulted in publication.

So I do hope he appreciates Swan Maid when he finally has the chance to read it! The path to publication would have been much rockier without his steadfast encouragement.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

This is a hard question.

This is what my dad said, “Someone bought your book? That’s great. What’s it called?”

“Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.”

My dad began laughing, “Ho boy. Ho… boy. Wait till I tell your Aunt Athelee that one. Tell me that again. .. Gay what?”

“Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.”

My father then laughed some more. “Let me write that down. That’s really the title? Ho…boy.”

Then today, about six months later, I was talking to my dad on the phone while simultaneously trying to make vegan shepard’s pie and he said, “How many books have you sold?”

I told him.

“Three? Three! In less than a year?”

“Yep,” I said, dicing onions, which always makes me cry.

He was really quiet and then he said, “Your grandfather was a really literate man. He was a great reader, you know. And my mother…she loved poems.”

“I know that, Dad,” I said, wiping my eyes with a paper towel that smelled like onions and only made things worse.

Then he swallowed so loudly I could hear it and he said, “I’m dyslexic you know. I don’t read very well.”

“I know Dad. You’re super smart though,” I said this because sometimes my dad forgets that he is super smart.

The silence settled in and he finally said, “I’m just really proud of you. You know that, right? I’m really, really proud of you.”

So, even if no lovely people ever buy my books, at least I know that I did something that made my dad proud.

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When I sold my first book, my mother said, the way my mother always says, “Oh, sweetie. That’s so wonderful. I knew you could do it. I am so proud of you. My daughter the writer.”

To be fair to my sweet mother and to be honest, this is what my mother says about everything I do. Like the first time I made an angel food cake she said, “Oh, sweetie. That’s so wonderful. I knew you could do it. I am so proud of you. My daughter the angel food cake maker.”

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The rest of my family, I think, are appreciative of the fact that I sold a couple of books. It makes me more legit to them somehow. Which is strange but typical I guess. In our culture it often seems that the process of learning and creating is often only considered worthy if a tangible product comes from it and if that tangible product has market value.

But to me… the big value is that I made my dad think about his parents and think about books and think about me and made him proud.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

Absolutely! NOT!

Don’t get me wrong, my family is my world. But they are very “in the box” job kind of people. Pretty much the only writing time I have is when my kids sleep so nobody ever sees me working so it’s still like I don’t. I suppose maybe when I get my cover they might realize what’s happening, but I’m not holding my breath!

It was funny how no one had a problem asking me how much money I was going to make though! I just told them it depended on how many copies they bought!

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family has always been great, even though it took me fourteen years to be published. My father has been bragging to people for years that he had a daughter that was a children’s book author. Pre-contract I found that pretty embarrassing, but I appreciated the fact he thought what I was doing was worthwhile. And now that I will actually have a book in print you can imagine how much more bragging he is doing. My husband has always made time for me to write. I can’t even begin to count the number of times he has taken our kids places or entertained them so I coud have some quiet time to write without the usual interruptions. Never once has he grumbled—even when it seemed like my writing was destined to be a hobby only. He certainly was happy though, when the first advance check came in!

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My husband has always been supportive and has taken me seriously ever since I took myself seriously, and I think my extended family has always been hopeful even when they didn’t fully understand what I was doing. What a contract has done for me is make me more secure in how I talk about my writing and in my own identity. Those things were always bigger issues for me than what my friends and family thought.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My kids have been great. We like to joke that while I’ve been writing and working toward an MFA, they’ve been raised by wolves.

Wolves make very good parents!!

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

I started writing four years ago and honesty, I wasn’t the easiest person to live. Trying to squeeze in hours between raising kids, doing all the domestic diva crap, etc., etc,. can make a person a bit cranky. And those lovely rejection letters can make a person a bit depressed. But my husband believed in my writing (at times, more than I did) and he was great with the pep talks. My children (ages 10 and 12) always asked me to read my chapters to them.

Because of my success, both my kids are writing books. So now, in the evenings, they often come into my office and sit beside me and work on their books. It’s great!

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family has always been a bit sarcastic about my writing life. If I ever got dumped or got a speeding ticket, they’d say, “Write an essay about it.” I guess they were used to be dramatically scribbling away in the corner whenever anything went wrong. When I got the contract for This Is What I Did: they were a bit shocked. It’s not that they didn’t think I could do it, they are actually very supportive people. I think they were just shocked that made my scribblings public. Now they are always asking about my next project and make me promise to never put a character resembling them in any of my books. They follow that with, “Well, if you do put me in, I better be really cool.” Of course.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

I actually made the mistake of letting my parents read an early version of the manuscript. My mother began to cry because she saw similarities in my stories to things that happened to me when I was younger. These were things my father swore I’d never remember when I got older. It’s nothing too bad and actually most of it has since been edited out. Nevertheless, I learned a lesson that day.

My parents, though, have been very supportive through the process. And now that I have a contract, the comments such as “An English Major?!? What the hell are you going to do with an English degree?” echo less loudly in my head.

My wife is also more supportive. She understands that sitting home writing on my day off is a “job” as opposed to a casual hobby. Now she gives me more slack when I write for an afternoon in lieu of mowing the lawn or getting her window treatments made. She also looks forward to all the red-carpet treatment and paparazzi stalkings we’re going to get once my book hits the shelves (shhhh, don’t tell her the grim reality!)

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

They are starting to. My wife recently read my novel and free verse novella. One made her cry, the other impressed her tremendously, even though she was not the type for this book. She is starting to see that this is for real, that I actually might be a writer, and not a “writer.” My mom recently looked at my new website, and for the first time, saw me as the real deal. “Are you my son?” she asked surprised at everything that has been happening.

Of course, they all have doubts because it has been so long since I made my deals, they have no real proof yet. I keep saying to everyone, it’s coming, you’ll see….

I can hardly wait to give them a real live book to hold in their hands. Then I can say “Oh me? I’m a writer. Look, here’s my book!”

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family has believed in me from day one. They’re pretty wonderful.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

My family has always been beyond supportive, especially my husband and mother, who’ve read through countless drafts and would often stay up until 1:00 am so we could hash out a plot problem.

But do they appreciate my writing more? Sure, while they’ve always had my back 100%, my writing is now considered more as my job, not just a hobby or a dream I’m chasing. And the time I spend on the computer answering emails, fiddling with MySpace, and posting blog messages is marketing and networking, not just for fun.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

Yes, yes, yes, my family appreciates my writing. They are excited about KIMCHI & CALAMARI publishing and all that entails.

Indeed, Mom-as-author is all fine and dandy AS LONG AS we still have clean laundry, “good” snacks in the house after school, and car rides to all the baseball games/dances/clubs/sleepovers they NEED to go to.

Mess with that list and then the book is no longer news but a major life inconvenience.

Kids are amazing about having their priorities in place.

Now that you’re under contract, does your family better appreciate your writing?

Well, my husband used to call me “Back of the Head” because that’s all he saw of me when I was writing. Although I loved the name, I don’t keep those long writing hours anymore and I’m back to my real name. My kids hardly remember a time when I didn’t write and they think it’s kind of cool to have a mom who’s a writer. I don’t know that any of my family have a greater appreciation of me or my work, but I know that they’re very proud of me and they have a lot of faith in my book. Both of my daughters are writers, so maybe they’ll follow in my footsteps. Right now, though, it’s not hip to do what mom does. As to the rest of my extended family—they just want free copies of my book!