Make-Believe Mondays With Brenda Williamson

Brenda, first tell us a little bit about the manuscript you're working on now.

Brenda: By day, I'm working on the edits for A DESPERATE LONGING, a romantic suspense that comes out August 14th from Samhain Publishing. It's about a woman that was attacked by a stalker and is a bit nutty until she meets a man that she falls in love with.

Debra: Now I am curious about what way she is nutty. LOL Guess I'll have to wait and read the book, right? ;)

Brenda: By night, I'm writing a story about an empress that is pleasured by eunuchs because her husband has neglected her, but this is unfulfilling. Then her husband dies and she meets a man, that really satisfies her.

If it’s not obvious, I write a lot of erotic romance.

Debra: Well, yes... LOL

Brenda: At this very moment, I'm working on three things: a) plotting and starting to write the fourth book in my demon-hunting soccer mom series, DEJA DEMON, b) finishing a proposal for a new paranormal romance series, (which DESPERATELY needs a title), and c) putting together a proposal for a project that I'm hoping will come to fruition, but is still in such an early stage that it may not get off the ground. Fingers crossed! (Okay, a quick amendment ... the proposals are out the door! Yay! So now I'm focusing on the demon series, working on the next book and updating the series bible.)

Debra: So many manuscripts so little time. :) Congrats on getting the proposals out.

Ray Bradbury said, "We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Brenda: I think Bradbury is right and it's not something that you actively do. Your cup is always being filled simply by being in the world around you. Going to the store, playing with your kids, reading books, taking long walks, sitting in a dark theater with a bag of popcorn! I think with regard to storytelling in particular, so much creativity spins off of the simple question: What if? If you're open and let yourself go from there, you can come up with any number of wonderful takes to tell!

Debra: That's the big question...the "what if?"

Brenda: The harder part, I think, of Bradbury's quote: tipping over and letting the good stuff out. I think that's what stymies a lot of potential authors. I know that I had hundreds of false starts in fiction, and a lot of that stemmed from a basic shyness in my personality. I wanted to write, but I didn't necessarily want to reveal myself. And even if you're writing about superheroes or psychotic killers or demon hunting soccer moms, a little bit of you will always seep into a story. It wasn't until I was finally able to get over that hurdle of letting other people (my mom, my friends) read my stuff, that I was able to step back and seriously think about trying to get it published.

Debra: Yes, sometimes we have to write through the messy part to get to the gold.

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Brenda: I've woken from dreams and went straight to my computer to write down everything I remember. Unfortunately, I don't always capture the tone that the dream has and I ended up with nonsense. But some bits of the dreams always work into a new story.

Not really. I tend to remember my dreams, and if I do remember them, they're usually more Lovecraftian than I tend to write. :)

Debra: And that would be a different kind of story. LOL

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Brenda: Oh my gosh, yes! I was so influenced as a kid. Madeleine L'Engle and A Wrinkle in Time and it's sequels, Half Magic and all the other books by Edward Eager, Paul Zindel, Paula Danziger, Judy Blume, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, E.L. Konigsburg, Shel Silverstein. Man, I could go on forever!

Debra: So could I. :)

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of, what kind of story would that be?

Brenda: I already use the wildest imagination. I write what I like, figuring someone out there will have the same taste I do. My wildest story has yet to find a home. It borders taboo and is about a tiger shape-shifter in the tropics, cursed by a voodoo priestess. A woman is ship wrecked on his island and while the tiger in him wants her for sexual breeding, the man in him falls in love with a woman.

Honestly, I'm writing them! If you look at my book history, you can see that I've had a very varied past within women's fiction. I've been very fortunate that the ideas I've pitched have sold. That's not to say there haven't been rejections along the way - there most definately have - but I don't feel like there's some story out there that's the book of my heart just waiting for the market to open up and let me write it.

Debra: I'm always pleased to hear an author say she is using her imagination in the largest way possible and not allowing the market to shrink wrap it.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Brenda: Just that it's important to follow your dreams!
I'd love to hear from readers. I'm online at my website, http://www.BrendaWilliamson.com

Chat with me at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/BrendaWillamsonRomanceParty/

And on MySpace: http://www.myspce.com/BrendaWilliamson

Brenda, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Thanks for having me!



NOTE TO READERS AND SCHEDULED AUTHORS:

Make-Believe Mondays will pause August 11th to the 22nd while I travel through Scotland. We will resume on the 27th.

Make-Believe Mondays With Tracy Cooper-Posey

Last weeks Make-Believe Monday interview was delayed as I was at the Antioch Writers Workshop and was unable to get on the internet long enough to load the interview. But I'm pleased today to be able to finally introduce my friend, Tracy Cooper-Posey.

Tracy, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you're working on now.

Tracy: I’m concentrating on two manuscripts right now. I have a historical romantic suspense novella with Ellora’s Cave that will be released on July 4, and I’m building up promotion on that one at the moment. I’m very pleased with that one…it has a fabulous cover – one of those covers that grabs you. I was very pleased to see it.

The other manuscript is a mainstream romantic suspense that Harlequin MIRA have asked to see. I can’t say a lot about it right now, of course, but it’s proving to be a lot of fun so far.

Debra: Can't wait to see that cover.

Ray Bradbury said, "We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Tracy: My first impulsive answer to this was “I haven’t got a clue!”. I’m usually so damned busy, I don’t have time to court the muse and lure her in. She just has to be there when I sit down at my laptop, or I’ll write the damn thing without her.

But I think that’s my answer right there: I have a very full life (too full!), one that includes three teenagers at home, one living in Shanghai, a husband that is juggling two careers and a day job, my own demanding day job, plus promoting and writing my books. Two cats, Merry and Pippin, and a rock python, Sam. A house that refuses to stay clean and tidy, and an extended family that is spread across every continent in the world except Antartica.

I also workout daily.

With all that, and the dozens of people I interact with in the flesh and on-line, and just watching the way the world works...the ideas come.

I’ve also grown very good at forced idea brainstorming over the years: Sitting with a pen and paper (lately, that has become a laptop and a blank new Word file), and making myself come up with new ideas.

It sounds like it’s a terrible way to build a story, but it’s actually a good way to tap into your creativity when life won’t give you the time to daydream and reach your ideas that way.

Debra: I am simply amazed at the many things you juggle and the way you pull it all off with flair. Such a full life must give you plenty of material to write about.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Tracy: Just about every author I met managed to suck me in. I was a voracious reader as a child – I grew up without television, and without children my own age, and discovered books around eight or nine years of age. Back then it was mostly Enid Blyton (an English writer of children’s adventures), but later on I branched out into almost every genre there is, including the adult titles.

As a result, for many years, I could never pronounce unusual words; I’d seen them in books, and understood their meaning and grammatical usage, but because no-one around me used them in conversation, I’d never heard them pronounced properly.

One of the strongest spells to grab me was Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. And not long after that I discovered Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, and Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave. Strangely, I rarely read fantasy these days. I go for more gruesome and realistic stuff.

Debra: Isn't it wonderful how books can enrich a child's mind in that way, words a child might struggle to pronounce such a stretch which expands a child's world? That's the beauty of language.

Tracy, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Make-Believe Mondays With Meg Winston

Today on Make-Believe Mondays I'd like to introduce my friend, Meg Winston.

Meg, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you're working on now.

Meg: A dark, edgy little urban fantasy about the Wrath of Hell and her idiot apprentice. I'm a sucker for a happy ever after and these two just spark each other off the page, so it's been a joy to write. Tons of conflict, all of it smoldering, and a lot of black humor, which I love. Crazy sisters on smiting sprees, angry gods running amuk, lifelong secrets, and The Fates banning her from love...it's been loads of fun to write.

Debra: The crazy sisters smiting had my attention before you went any further. (Having one sister, I can just imagine the trouble they might get into.) LOL

Ray Bradbury said, "We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Meg: Music, Google, forums, and my own filthy imagination. I consider every day research, which gives me a nifty excuse to look into all the wild and crazy things I'd never do, haven't done, or whatever in the name of ficton.

Debra: So many of us are armchair adventurers, playing that what if game.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Meg: The point at which they misbehave. At first they're nice and bidable. Do what I tell them, when I tell them. No snarking, no...anything. Then, out of nowhere, they'll say/do/think something stupid that requires me to work around their stupidity.

Debra: When they start talking back you know you're in trouble. ;)

Some very famous authors have played with the language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so, how?

Meg: I make up forms of existing words to suit what I'm working on. My gut tells me which root word best puts across my message, then I'll adjust the prefixes and suffixes until it suits the form grammatically required to make sense. Unfortunately, the resulting word isn't always an accepted part of the language. An example? Spot it if you can...*g*She blogged incessantly, spurred by diatribal vanities and the security of silent audience.

For the record, there's nothing I love more than finding someone who knows the language well enough to catch me when I do this and call me on it. I had a prof in college who caught every single one, even ones I didn't realize were actually words. What's more, he supplied acceptable forms, including grammatically correct synonyms. Obviously, I loved his class indescribably. I'm also terrified to let him read anything I have written since. *g*

Debra: He sounds like an excellent professor. I have always admired authors who are brave enough to play with the language.

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Meg: Dreams? Nope. I bring my characters out to play when I daydream, but the stuff I come up with at night is woefully uninteresting.

Debra: As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Meg: Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne series. *sigh* Gilbert Blythe. *double sigh* The first book I ever got a library fine for was the eighth of the series, Rilla of Ingleside. Not that I'd lost it, but I couldn't find a copy in any of the bookstores near me and I didn't want to give it up because I was having serious re-reading joneses. The librarian and I compromised. I proved I still had the book and paid like $1 to "rent" it for the rst of the school year, which gave me a few months to order it from W. H. Smith.

Debra: Ah, yes. Anne of Green Gables. I read every single one of those. What a lovely thing for the librarian to do, and thank you for sharing that story. I wonder if she knows you are now a published author. Librarians are unsung heroes. I wonder how many of them nurture young readers in this way in between their quiet shushing.

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination you could think of, what kind of story would that be?

Meg: I'd want to explore my characters beyond what I can do now. Just because they're perfect for YA doesn't mean they don't grow up to have fabulous erotic romance situations. Also, just because the first in the series is a romantic comedy, that doesn't preclude a subsequent story from being dark, or vice versa. Basically, I'd like to blur the line, take characters between subgenres within a series.

Debra: That's an interesting idea. And the YA readers might follow you there as they grow up with the characters.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Meg: My day job requires me to live by facts, to somehow absorb those facts and release them back into the world as a story. For me, it's less about dreaming myself a tale than it is about letting myself form the facts to release a different sort of story. Every story hangs on a conflict, some piece that doesn't jive with the expected, and no matter what sort I'm writing, I rely on my imagination to find that twist and make it a hook worth following. Everyone has that potential, but I've noticed a lot of people simply don't apply it as often as I do. I'd love to see more people find the random and absurd in everyday life - that's what makes it such a joy for me.

Debra: Meg, thank you for joining us here on this Make-Believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Please visit Meg at www.myspace.com/megwinston