Make-Believe Mondays With Lisa Logan

Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Lisa Logan.

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

Lisa: That would be A GRAND SEDUCTION, an intrigue packed with schemes, seduction, betrayal-and murder. Four women decide to help one of them escape her marriage- and ironclad prenup-by setting up her lecherous husband with a phony affair. When their plan succeeds, they offer this "help" to other desperate housewives . . . and before long they've made a business of seduction.

I started the book for National November Novel Writing Month, then got sidetracked getting VISIONS out the gate and a couple of short stories published. I recently started on AGS again, and it's about two-thirds complete. It's been great fun to write!

Debra: It sounds like a fun read as well.

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?

Lisa: How true. As a wife and mother, keeping that cup filled is challenge enough without adding writing to the mix. The problem, I think, is many of us take stress in, rather than letting it bead off like water from a newly waxed car. Stress should frame the good in our lives, the way parted clouds showcase the sun. It shouldn't become our focus. When I stay true to that, simple things like watering my patio garden or a breeze during my walk fills me. I also do a lot of focused visualization and meditation.

Debra: I like this image of stress beading off and your suggestion to meditate and focus on simple things. Excellent advice.

Lisa: Letting it out onto paper - that's the other trick. Truth is, when I'm feeling stressed or upset nothing will pour out, good or otherwise. I've never been one to shed my angst onto paper. So keeping filled and staying positive is doubly important to my craft. Whether all the good stuff comes out . . . I suppose my editor would beg to differ! But is is my goal.

Debra: Tapping that vein is never easy. Each author has to decide whether to pour angst onto the page or hold it in and we all have different comfort levels. Staying positive is also important to building a writing career.

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

Lisa: As a matter of fact, yes. It's no accident that my slogan is Writing in My Wildest Dreams - dreams, interpretation and dream programming have been interests of mine for many years. The premise for my novel Visions came from a dream, as have several scenes from a variety of my works since.

I stumbled across the idea of programming my subconscious to write by accident. When I was new to fiction I learned a writing exercise, where you look at an ordinary object amd come up with as many desciptions for it as possible. I started doing this everywhere I went - flower vases on the desk at work, salt shakers in restaurants, etc. Soon, my mind did this on auto-pilot, whether I wanted it to or not. A portion of my brain had dedicated itself to crafting. This even works while I sleep. So now, when the daily grind keeps me away from my writing desk, I focus on scenes that need doing or problems I need to write my way out of as I settle down to sleep. Took some practice and doesn't always pay off, but my dreams will often take over. It's been a very useful way to get around my severly limited writing time.

Debra: Fascinating. I've been intrigued by the role dreams and dreaming plays in writing fiction for quite some time.

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

Lisa: I read with a passion as a child. Of course, the usual titles come to mind - A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Toll Booth, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Jonathan Livingston Seagull - you name it. But I have to give a special nod to an author that really pulled me in and kept me there - actress/singer Julie Andrews. I read her book Mandy so many times that the cover fell off, and it stayed with me throughout adulthood. I actually named my fifth child after the title character.

Debra: I had no idea Julie Andrews was also an author.

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?

Lisa: I can't say I'd write anything different. The stories that come, come without any thought of what the market is looking for at the time. I'm Writing in My Wildest Dreams, after all, literally and truly!

Debra: 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?

Lisa: Pay attention to your dreams - your subconsious may be trying to tell you something important! In fact, I'm now doing a regular blog feature on lisalogan.net about it. Readers can post their dreams for a free interpretation of common dream symbols.

Also readers can visit me on MySapce at
http://myspace.com/authorlisalogan.

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

Lisa: Thanks for the opportunity to talk with you and your readers . . . and may all YOUR wildest dreams come true.