1. Tell us about your current
novel or project.
I’m juggling several projects
right now, in different genres.
My PJ Gray series of suspense
books has been given new exposure as e-books and audio books. These are the
foundation of my writing career, and I’m pleased that they’re selling well in
their new formats. PJ Gray is a psychologist who works for the St. Louis Police
Department developing virtual reality crime recreations. A bit ahead of their
time when they were first published, the PJ Gray books now have police
technology in the real world beginning to catch up with their concepts.
Detective Leo Schultz is PJ’s partner. I published a short story, “Calamity,”
extrapolating Schultz into a P.I. career. It was enjoyable to write and made
the first cut for a Thriller Award, until I had to pull the story out of
competition. I was a board member of International Thriller Writers at the
time, and board members can’t win anything. Drat. The first line of the story
was, “My Goodwill couch had never cradled such a luscious ass in its long and
tacky history.” What fun! It was the first time I’d written in first person,
and I found out I liked it and don’t know why I avoided it for years. I’m planning
a story collection for P.I. Schultz, bringing one of my first series characters
into his own spotlight.
Honor’s Journey,
historical fiction for middle grade students, has just been self-published
under the pen name of DB Ayers, which I’m using for children’s and YA books. It
has a literary tone, unlike my other writing that is so commercial it might as
well have dollar signs instead of page numbers. It has an interesting
background in that I brainstormed the book with fifth grade classes when I was
invited into schools to speak on “What an Author Does.” I couldn’t talk about
my published books, since they are all R-rated, so I came up with the idea of
taking the kids through a brainstorming session for a novel on their own
reading level. The result of all those sessions was such a good story I
couldn’t resist writing it. I already know my target audience goes for it, too.
How often does that opportunity come along for a writer?
I have a proposal for a Young
Adult science fiction trilogy, Aftermath, with my agent, who has
submitted it to major houses. Three Hollywood production companies are
reviewing it, too, which produces a heady feeling but nothing solid to talk
about. It’s a treat while it lasts, though.
2. Can you give us a sense of
what you’re working on now?
I’m just getting started on
the fourth book in my Mortal Path series (written as Dakota Banks), a story
about a woman who sold her soul to an ancient demon three hundred years ago and
now is working to earn it back. It’s paranormal without any of the usual
vampires, werewolves, witches, etc., and is based on Sumerian mythology brought
forward to the present. After the first three books, the publisher wanted to
switch to e-book only (a lot of paranormal series were following that path),
and I said no thanks. Why did I need a publisher involved to do that? I could
do it myself for higher royalties. So I put it aside for a while to work on the
other projects above, and something I hadn’t expected happened. I started
getting email asking when the next book was coming out. A lot of email,
enough to swell my head. I have a synopsis for the book, Bloodletting,
and the cover art finished, something I very much enjoy doing.
3. What is the greatest
pleasure of a writing career?
I’m sure every writer has a
something different to talk about here. For me, without a doubt, it’s the
freedom to create and explore other worlds while sitting at my desk. With
science fiction or paranormal, the need for world creation is more obvious, but
even in crime novels, each book has a world slice: a piece of our world closely
examined, its inhabitants fully in tune with it (or not), its morals, and the
ways and degrees to which its laws are bent. When story, characters, and world
meld perfectly, it’s magic. That’s the greatest pleasure—those quiet, magic
moments that light up a novel like a string of Christmas lights.
4. The greatest
displeasure?
The business aspect of a
writing career is uncertain and intrusive. I’d like to be left alone to write
and not have to worry about contracts, promotion, and Twitter. It would be good
if a monthly salary would fall on me, hard and regularly, as it did when I
worked as a corporate manager. Then again, there were a lot of strings attached
to that.
5. Advice to the publishing
world?
To publishers: Get real about
e-book royalties. Big houses usually pay 25%; writers can easily get 70%
through self-publishing. Either increase royalties or offer value-added
services, like meaningful promotion.
To writers: You’re going to
need a strong love of writing to keep you going in this field. You will leave
your blood, sweat, coffee, and tears on the pages. If you don’t, what you write
won’t be worth reading.
6. Are there any forgotten
writers you’d like to see in print again?
I’m going to transform this
question into “any under-recognized writers I’d like to see become popular?”
Glad you asked! Jo Hiestand (http://www.johiestand.com) writes wonderful
English mysteries. She has two series going. The team of Detective-Sergeant
Brenna Taylor and her boss, Detective-Chief Inspector Geoffrey Graham solve
mysteries when British customs run amuck in small villages; ex-police detective
Michael McLaren investigates cold cases on his own. Her writing is lyrical,
filled with descriptions of the natural world woven into the stories, has
plenty of twists and turns, and does it right as far as British police
procedures go. These are traditional mysteries with a touch of gore, not
cozies. Jo has fifteen novels and a non-fiction book about British customs
published. Her work deserves a far wider audience. If you or someone you know
enjoys British police procedurals, give Jo’s books a try. Yes, she’s a friend
of mine.
7. Tell us about selling your
first novel.
I didn’t sell my first novel
at the time I wrote it. I wrote my first novel, Burning Rose, to enter
into a contest. Having a deadline was a great motivator, and the $10,000 prize
would look good in my bank account. I was convinced I was going to win the
prize, and when I didn’t, I sulked and figured I wasn’t meant to be a writer.
Six months went by, and of course I was no closer to being a published author.
The solution? I decided I needed an agent. I wrote ten query letters to agents,
got three requests for the full manuscript, and had an agent within a month.
Again, elation. Then time passed and Burning Rose didn’t sell. It had
been written by the seat of my pants, and I have found out since then that
doesn’t work for me. I had only written short stories prior to attempting my
first novel, and short stories I could handle without a lot of planning. Not so
for a novel-length project.
With Burning Rose in
my rear-view mirror, I started planning a crime series, developing the
characters and the world-slice in which they operated. Then I wrote Gray
Matter, the first book in the PJ Gray series, in one page, then expanded it
to ten pages. I had a synopsis, a guide for my writing. Not that I stuck to it
completely, but I had a beginning, and end, and some great stuff for the
middle. I didn’t feel confined by the synopsis. There was plenty of room for
creativity in the process of turning ten pages into a four-hundred-page
manuscript. I had a technique that worked for me. Three weeks after turning in
the manuscript to my agent, I had a two-book contract to start the series.
I came back a while later and
took a look at the Burning Rose manuscript. Couldn’t believe I wrote
that crap! It was a good thing it didn’t get published. I rewrote it and it was
published as my fifth novel.
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