Having recently finished a manuscript, I decided to take a bit of a break and reflect back on some other things I’ve written. What an interesting catalog of unpublished work in the Kerri Library. 

I found the romantic suspense manuscript that had plenty of romance but lacked even an ounce of suspense. There was the lovely little jewel written half in first person and half in third. And of course, let’s not discount the manuscripts that were so eerily similar to already-established authors I’m actually embarrassed by myself.

That brings me to my very first manuscript. After turning twenty-one and reading a couple Nora Roberts books, I thought, “Doesn’t seem that hard to write a romance novel. I can totally do that too.”

Hence, my first attempt was born. I planned it as a series about quadruplets, three girls and one boy. I referred to them as “The Quads.” They came from a Kennedy-esque family, born in privilege in Boston, moved to Chicago where their parents had a bitter and public divorce and then off to Hawaii to grow up with their father. Each of them lived in a different state and struggled with issues stemming from their mother, a wealthy and uncaring socialite who paid off judges and got plastic surgery.

But the first book belonged to Maddy. Ah Maddy.

My chief complaint about romance novels at the age of twenty-one was the too-young heroine, someone in their early twenties who achieved way more than the typical person of that age. So when I sat down to write my first heroine, I remember thinking she needed to be worldly and experienced. No way would I make her too young to get married and have a fabulous job. I made a very conscious decision that she would be old.

She was twenty-five.

Also, her job at the age of twenty-five was a secondhand historical biographer, which is a career I made up. (It’s someone who interviews people who experienced a historical event from a distance, but weren’t necessarily involved in it, in case you’re wondering.) And yes, Maddy had many, many published works.

Good thing she lived in a two-bedroom studio apartment on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. Obviously, I did not understand what a studio apartment consisted of – or not consist of – such as bedrooms. Also, the fact that a twenty-five year old could afford to live on Wisconsin Avenue in a two-bedroom speaks volumes. Of course, if she already had several best selling published books, I suppose it makes sense.

Yes, it all makes sense. Somewhere in the far recesses of twenty-one year old Kerri’s mind the whole story came together. I loved Maddy and her completely insane story. So imagine my shock when Harlequin turned it down. Clearly, they didn’t know what they were missing.

Clearly, I didn’t either.

Do you remember your first pass at writing a romance novel?

Those of you in the Washington, DC area won’t be surprised to see Michael Hauge’s name in the title of my blog post today. Any WRW member who had a chance to spend time with him this weekend at his fabulous workshop, presented by WRW, appreciates my adoration. The man rocks hard with the identity and the essence and the stages of conflict that bring emotions to life. You know what I’m saying.

But why Six Sentence Sunday? Besides the sense of community it fosters and the promotional ops, why am I mentioning the two in the same blog?

A few weeks ago, I pulled out one of my old WIPs and decided to use it for Six Sentence Sunday. Then after a few weeks of consistently searching for, finding and posting a ‘good’ six, my old WIP felt brand new. Positive feedback fueled me, prompting me to shove the WIP to the number one spot on my must-finish list. (And oh, it’s about a vampire FBI agent struggling to keep a promise to a witch.)

So with that WIP in my head, I spent the weekend with Michael Hauge. Now in short, Hauge is a Hollywood script (screenplay) doctor. This was my third Hauge encounter in four years. And this weekend, I also signed up for a 30-minute one-on-one meeting (which he allowed me to record!).

A quick aside…I’m a visual person, and whether or not you buy this next statement–so are all writers. At least fiction writers are visual artists – they take the vision in their heads called a story and write it into words that make so much sense the reader ‘sees’ the characters in action as they read about the character’s conflict, emotions, fears and longings…played out in a plot.

So Mr. Hollywood screenplay script-doctor Hauge is perfect for me. Combined with other workshops, craft books, brainstorming sessions, online think tanks, and all the activities writers use to make better sense of their craft, he brings a fresh terminology and a passion for emotional story telling that captivates me. He also isn’t shy about showing his impatience with writers, which made me smile. But more importantly, that impatience reinforced a key component of his message for me—simplify, simplify, simplify.

Some writers, like me, we do too much. We put too many obstacles–situations–in front of the character to replace the difficulty of understanding and writing conflict. Our world building is so complicated it takes over the characters—which can never happen in a good book. You can tell I could go on and on…but let me recap the highlights of what I learned this weekend.  Here goes:

• There is a difference between conflict and obstacles. Don’t laugh. That realization was a big deal for me…
• Internal vs. external or emotion vs. situation. Without conflict, without emotion, a situation is a plot point without a heart.
• Less is more.
• Don’t give away too much about character in the opening of your story–drive to the finish line (don’t sprint). In my one-on-one private session with Hauge, which I highly recommend, we talked about my opening scene and the black moment and the ending scene, all driven by conflict and set-up in the opening scene (yep, in 30 minutes:).

If you were there this weekend, I’d like to know what hit home for you. If you weren’t, what craft book or workshop instructor, or author, comes to mind when you need inspiration or just a reminder of what matters on the page…and how you can get there. So share, and let’s celebrate good workshops, good RWA chapters (hoorah WRWDC!), and insightful instructors.

(And oh, I have nothing to say about NaNoWriMo – I put it in my blog title because, well, my brain is ready to explode…12k and counting…and we must never forget November is National Writing Month–damn it!:)

I’m beyond excited to share with you a chat I had with one of my personal writing heroes Lori Foster! So dive into the Waterworld Mermaids lagoon, Lori. I promise the water is perfect.

Set the scene for us, where are you and what are your three favorite objects within arms reach.

I’m at my desk… almost always. ::Sigh:: Well, unless we’re at the lake house, and since I don’t have a desk there yet, I use a patio table – but the principle is the same: I’m facing a computer! Within reach: my iPod of “writing” songs. My drink, which is usually Lipton green tea citrus. And a snack, usually pretzels or Nabisco 100 calorie salty snack mix.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Why?

Complete and total panster. I bore easily. If I plotted it out, it’d feel done to me, and I’d never get around to writing it. I need to be surprised – by the characters and the atmosphere and how the romance unfolds.

How often do you write and do you keep a set schedule? Do you ever start to get the shakes if you don’t write? 🙂

LOL. I write off and on all the time, but I like to get up early, get through all the e-mails (I get a TON of emails) and then do the treadmill around 9 (when I do the treadmill, which is hit and miss) and then I write. Usually I’m at it till 5 or 6, and then hubby has dinner ready, we eat, and either go to the movies, or crash in front of the TV. That’s a schedule when I get a schedule – and I don’t always. You know how life is. I have 3 sons, I have a grandson with another on the way. I have 4 indoor cats and a dog and a bunch of outside feral cats that I feed. I have friends. Extended family. And I have promo. Out of all of that, I dislike doing promo the most. Of course, it’s necessary to the biz. Oh, and I do FB and twitter. I enjoy chatting with readers online during “breaks” in writing. I don’t get the shakes when I don’t write, but I do get cranky. I’m a happier person, an easier person to be around, when I’m writing.

There was a little dust up about you putting too much of yourself or your experiences as an author into your books. What’s your response to that and, really, can an author keep themselves completely out of their novels?

There was a dust-up? Seriously? Okay, just kidding. Yeah, there was. Eh. There’s always something, you know? I love readers. Totally, completely love them. Shoot, without readers, I wouldn’t have much of a career, ya know? But writing is one of those things that not everyone gets. For every reader who has a reason to criticize or – in some cases – outright despise me – there are a lot more who are just happy people, enjoying life and taking the books for what they’re meant to be: entertainment. I’m a realist. I can’t please all the people, all the time. I don’t expect to. I wish I never disappointed readers. I wish there was world peace. Ain’t happening. I always apologize to readers who are disappointed, and I thank readers who appreciate my work. That’s about as much thought as I put into it, because honestly, I’m always concentrated on those things I mentioned above – family, work, life…

As to me being in any books… it’s a funny thing. One little event can spur an idea, and from there, a writer creates an entirely different world/circumstances/characters and reactions. They’re not MY reactions – I only used that first small kernel that inspired more. Back when I wrote “My Man, Michael,” which I did as a TT smack dab in the middle of a contemporary series (doh, what was I thinking?) it disgruntled many people. I can see why! The muse said, “Time Travel,” and I said, “Okay, Muse!” without really thinking how jarring that’d be for readers who expected to stay in the contemporary setting I’d built. My bad. It was a serious judgment error on my part. I love that book, but I wish I’d done it as a standalone, and I wish my editor or I would have thought to put “Time Travel” on the front or something. But being human means we’re not perfect, so neither of us did think of it. It wasn’t meant to dupe readers and God knows I would never set out to disappoint anyone. LOL. That’d be suicide for my career. So… it happened, and I learned a lesson. MOST disappointed readers were frank in their comments, and I apologized for letting them down. But a select few literally threatened me over it. One wanted to “beat my face bloody.”

Now do I pin that sentiment on all disgruntled readers? No, of course not! But it’s a reality that happened, and it’s from those few really over-the-top reactions that I came up with the idea of “When You Dare.” Not because of unhappy readers – shoot, with EVERY book I have unhappy readers. But because of a rabid few who totally crossed the line, I came up with a plot about human trafficking, threats, insane relatives, hot sex, and love everlasting. The heroine is a writer – but she’s a mega-successful writer whose books are being made into movies. Hello! Not me. She’s young, and busy. Soooo not me. LOL (I wish!) She’s a victim of human trafficking. Thank God, not me. (I would never be as strong as her. I’d be a sobbing mess for the rest of my life, I’m sure.) The book was fiction. All of my work is fiction. But the next thing I know, some folks are posting online how I used that book to show disdain for my readers, and how I took them to task for daring to criticize me. Again, eh.

Readers who actually know me, the ones who chat with me online on FB or Twitter or in emails, KNOW that isn’t the case. So I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. And I’m not – EVER – going to try to tailor my work to suit the few who wrongly place my motives. It’d be a waste of energy. I dwell on the positive, not the negative. And shew… that was a long answer. But you watch, someone – one of those original people who made the accusations – will see this and repost it and draw forth hidden meanings that don’t exist. And again, I’ll say, Eh.

What kind of support do you have as an author to help you with your website, e-mails, promotion and all the other non-writing parts of being a successful author?

My hubby is INVALUABLE. He does a ton of stuff for me. He organizes a lot of the promo because it’s something he enjoys, and he’s good at it. He comes up with these awesome, innovative and unique ideas. With the last trilogy, I had 3 publicists. One I hired, one the publisher supplied, and another the publisher hired. Hubby ran interference for me, answering e-mails, making decisions after talking to me about opportunities, mailing in items needed (like clip art, or photos or whatever) and he does all the mailing for me. He makes it possible for me to spend more time writing. He doesn’t answer personal e-mails or do interviews in my place, or anything like that. He’s just there to do what he can, when he can. God Bless the man!

My agent, Karen Solem, from Spencerhill, has been with me for a long while now. She’s terrific. We’re very in sync. She handles all the contracts… and so much more!

Wax Creative does my website. They also do my newsletter (I send them content, they add images and send it out), and they handle the database on my annual “Reader and Author Get Together.” (more info on that here: http://www.lorifoster.com/community/readergettogether.php Everyone is welcome to attend! Wax does some of my bigger contests for me on my site. They also have done a lot of work on my FREE app available for iPhone and Android.

COS Productions do much of my routine promo. Sheila Clover is a goddess. She’s done most of my book trailers (the last one, for the trilogy, was created by Hqn) and she can do my press releases, blog tours, postings at social media, etc… LOVE working with her.

I create bookmarks and post cards and images for T-shirts because after writing for a long time, I like to tinker around with Photoshop doing that sort of thing. I have a blast with it. I do a ton of giveaways on my FB fan page and on Twitter. I give out free promo to anyone who sends me an SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.) The items vary from bookmarks, postcards, magnets, key chains, pens, tote bags, and t-shirts. It just depends on what I have at the time, but I always have “stuff.”

I should say though, I answer each and every personal e-mail myself. I get over 200 a day, but I deal with them. If a reader is kind enough to write me, you can bet I’m going to make the time to write back.

With the increase in e-books, digital publishing, self publishing and all the changes in New York, where do you see the industry going and what are you doing to prepare?

Nada. I mean, I leave that up to my agent and editor and publisher and publicist. I just focus on writing the best books I know how to write. From there, it’s pretty much out of hands!

***

Thank you, Lori,for swimming with the Waterworld Mermaids today!

If you haven’t had enough Lori – and really who has? – stop by the Avery Flynn blog to read more of our conversation, including a discussion about which one of her heroes she’d set her best friend up with. Avery is giving away a copy of Lori’s “Luring Lucy” at her blog (ends midnight Nov. 6). We Mermaids are giving away a Kindle copy of Lori’s rereleased “Buckhorn Beginnings” to one lucky commenter here (ends midnight Nov. 6). Also, check out Lori’s book listings to make sure you’re not missing any of her great books – I highly recommend them all.

**** UPDATE****

Congratulations Maude Allen! You won a Kindle copy of Buckhorn Beginnings! Thanks to everyone for joining us in the Waterworld Mermaids Lagoon. Come back and swim with again soon!

As you may know, I’m a big fan of Julia Cameron’s book, THE ARTIST’S WAY (10th edition, 2002). In it, she discusses the concept of “synchronicity”: “we change and the universe furthers and expands that change.” (2). More specifically, “when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance. It is a little like opening the gate at the top of a field irrigation system. Once we remove the blocks, the flow moves in.” (2).

Cameron doesn’t ask us to “believe” this concept. Rather, she simply asks us to “observe and note this process as it unfolds.” (2). Several times in my life, I’ve noticed that as soon as I place my attention on something, the universe responds. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s Cameron’s concept of synchronicity. But here is an example of something that’s happened to me:

Several years ago, I wrote my first “real” novel and went through the query process. I was not successful, so I laid the manuscript to rest and got pregnant with my first child. About a month before my child was born, I decided to dust this novel off and give it one last try. I started revising the story. Within a week, an agent whom I had queried a year before responded to request the full manuscript.

Nothing ultimately came of this request, but the timing of it struck me as bizarre.

What do you think? Random coincidence? Or an example of synchronicity? Has anything like this ever happened to you? If so, what was it?