Author FAQ

The following are some of the best questions I've been asked in interviews. 

Question Categories:

General Writing Questions (More Added July 2006 begins with question 30)

Stasis Questions

General Writing Questions:

1. How did you prepare yourself to become a novelist? (Education, books, etc.)

I started my preparation during my childhood, though I didn't realize that's what I was doing at the time. I didn't grow-up in the happiest of households and I had a lot of restrictions placed on me so I spent a great deal of time escaping into a fantasy world based around a favorite television series. I got to the point where I could go so deep that I was completely unaware of my surroundings. Unless someone broke my line of vision or touched me I didn't know that they were there, even talking didn't always register. Of course, if my parents did either of those two things, I'd scream bloody murder. I lost count of the number of heart attacks my screaming fits nearly gave my father.

He'd always hold his heart and say, "God _____ it, you know we're in the house!" He just couldn't grasp the concept that yes they were in the house and my body was in the house; but I wasn't. I was someplace infinitely more pleasant. I don't recommend living in a fantasy world to prepare to be a writer; the real world can be quite a shock especially after spending six years almost completely detached from it.

I minored in English while at college. In the education program, I couldn't specialize literature or writing I had to go with a general program. Other than general writing courses, the only writer's training program Northern Michigan University offered was journalism, which didn't interest me at all so I stuck with teaching which isn't what I really wanted either. When I got out of school I worked as a substitute and I bitterly hated it! It didn't help that I was quite ill at the time. As my health deteriorated, I had no choice but to quit. My husband suggested that I pursue writing, which was something I had always wanted to do. Between Richard and Colleen prompting me I acquiesced.

The first thing I did when I decided to pursue writing full-time was to subscribe to Writer's Digest Magazine and I joined their book club. I highly recommend both particularly the articles by Nancy Kress. She maybe a sci-fi author but her articles are on the general mechanics of putting together stories and can be applied to all genres.

I took a couple of Personal Enrichment classes through Macomb Community College in Michigan: Patients, Trademarks and Copyrights and Copyediting. Two attorneys taught the first and the second was taught by a science fiction author, though she wasn't one I had heard of at the time. They were low cost, had several sessions and I feel that I learned a great deal from them. I had even considered applying to teach a course through them myself. Our local school district also offered adult education courses that were low-cost. Check out what's available in your community. You definitely don't need a college degree to be an author just a little guidance and a push in the right direction.

I also attended a free lecture given by a local small press publisher being given at Borders and took notes. My husband found it listed in the newspaper. All I had to do was call and register for a seat.

2. How did your childhood influence your writing?

From the time I was three years old, I was involved in historical re-enacting with my family.  Re-enacting is a great spark for the imagination because you’re both pretending and living the life of a person from another time period.  I experienced so many different emotions in ways that I wouldn’t have had I not been involved in such a hobby.

3. In your opinion what are the pleasures of writing?

The pleasures of writing are commemoration, escapism and exploration. By commemoration, I mean that I’m able to pay tribute to people who have influenced my life either directly or indirectly in my work. With escapism I get to live the story and be someone else for a while and get away from my problems. Exploration is the research aspect, which I love, there’s nothing like finding that needle in the haystack and having your whole story come together.

5. What Would Your Ideal Writing Setting Look Like? (Updated Answer: 2005)

After careful consideration of my old answer which was a romanticized view of places I’d like to live, I’ve come to the conclusion that the perfect writing setting would really be someplace connected with the manuscript the I’m currently working on.  Of course that would mean a different locale for each one, which I realize, isn’t economically feasible for me but I believe the locale would serve as a great inspiration during the creation process.

4. Why do you write?

I write to honor friends and memories, America's war dead and those that survived and can't forget those we lost, our allies and in certain cases seek justice for past wrongs even if it's only in a fictional sense. I find writing to be cathartic therapy.  

I also write to escape reality.  There aren’t any bills or pressures just the people and the world I’ve created and I can go there and play whenever I want too.

5. What sort of books do you like to read?

I read non-fiction in the areas of history, biography, autobiography and New Age. I also love novels in the following genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror and romance especially Jove's Haunted Hearts. I love supernatural stories.

6. Who is your favorite author or who has influenced your writing?

Harlan Ellison's commentary on Sci-Fi Buzz influenced Stasis because it challenged me to write hard science fiction rather than a space opera. I think my co-author was a bit reluctant at first; but once we got started everything seemed to fall into place. As for any one author influencing my writing as a whole, I'd have to say that there weren't any. Each individual project I tackle has a different inspirational influence that depends on the type of story I'm telling. Some of my favorite fiction authors are Robert Heinlein, Anne Rice, Mercedes Lackey and William Shakespeare.

7. As a reader, who are your favorite authors and why?

 Mercedes Lackey- Lackey’s worlds are so complete and so detailed.  They really grip me emotionally!

 H. Beam Piper- Piper can take one idea time travel and write so many unique stories off it.

 Ray Bradbury- Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles are the same way as Piper’s Paratime stories.  I think both authors show

 a true mark of genius because each story is fresh and exciting.

 Gordon R. Dickson- Dickson makes some really keen observations about life and he isn’t afraid to explore them in his work.

 Edgar Allen Poe- Poe's prose are simply breathtaking, macabre but breathtaking. 


8. If you could meet any character from a book, who would it be and why? 

9. How did you find your first publisher?

I started out looking for an agent to represent my co-author, Colleen Elliott, and I in May 2000. I sent out twelve queries and received twelve rejections. A couple agencies accepted email queries so I sent a letter to each of them. One of them was Erica Books Literary Agency. The next day I received an email from their publishing house AmErica House (now known as PublishAmerica, Inc.) asking to see the entire manuscript. I sent it to them, three weeks later they offered us a contract on June 26th and we signed with them in July. AmErica House is a non-subsidy POD publisher, however the authors still have to publicize their books. (Note: The other email query was answered by an interested agent was interested; but he had a sixteen month publishing schedule which meant Stasis would have sat there all that time unread. Colleen considered that a rejection; but I'd read enough to know that he was doing us a favor by leaving us free to find someone who could devote immediate attention to it.)

10. How do you know where to begin your story?

An author should always open the story with some intriguing mystery that offers the readers lots of questions to entice them into exploring further. We opened Stasis in the year 2023 with a news story about the Luyet Institute successfully reviving a cryogenically frozen man. The anchorwoman acts particularly hostile when all the on scene reporters' questions aren't answered. Then we flip to the year 2027, the present time of the story, and introduce our main character Brad Harris, as he's receiving the news that his grandfather James, deceased for the past twenty years has been revived. Brad knows nothing about James because he was the black sheep of the family and no one wants to talk about him, even his own sister Evangeline, who raised Brad after his parents were killed. The reader also discovers that the first supposedly revived man has never been seen publicly. Already questions are forming in your minds, aren't they?

11. Do you think much of your audience as you compose?

My major audience concern when I’m composing is that they will understand what I’m saying and will be able to clearly see the scenes as I envision them. I spend an inordinate amount of time during the editing process clarifying my prose. I even read passages to my husband and then question him about them to be sure that the point is clear. For me, editing is a continual process meaning I don’t sit down and write a rough draft from start to finish and then edit it. I write scenes as the muse strikes and then piece them together into the whole so I am constantly aware of the audience.

12. Have you seen an evolution in your writing? What steps did it take?

Yes. For one thing, when I started out I was unable to write a short story everything was novella length and even then they weren't complete stories. They had a lot of holes in them. I call that the disease of the long-winded. Now that I've completed a novel, I find that I can write short tight nonfiction essays without a problem. I sill haven't master the short story.  I used to overwrite a lot it still happens, only not as frequently and I'm pretty good about scaling down most of it.  My grammar has also gotten infinitely better. 

13. What one thing do you like most about writing? Least?

I like being able to set my own schedule and make my own decisions about how the work will be put together and completed. I dislike the derogatory comments that have been made to me in the past when I was an aspiring author. I don't know if people feel that writers are putting on airs when they tell them that they want to be a published author or if these people are jealous because they aren't able to do it. I've heard that the same comments have been made to actors, painter etc.

14. Can you explain how your characters are "born?"

When I have a general idea for a story, I sit down and say, "Okay, what types of people do I need to make this story work?" I make a list of occupations sometimes it's just a personality type that I'll need for a certain character to advance the plot. Then I start the process of building character sheets. I believe each book or story needs its own character sheet because each is different therefore the characters require specific elements so I start from scratch each time. There is an excellent example of a character sheet in The Writer's Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon. It has some elements to it that I had never thought about. The thing I like about the lengthy sample in the book is that it's thorough. I think it is a particularly good example for anyone writing a novel series because when you do that you have to know as much about your main characters as you do about yourself. (Note: This answer is coming from post Stasis and post Camelot's Revenge (my second novel) stories. I didn't think about character sheets at the time those two novels were started. I've discovered that they help a great deal.)

15. What is the process you use to name your characters?

Naming characters, for me, is the most difficult part of the writing process. Your name shapes who you are as a person; therefore the name a character is given shapes them as well. I guess you could say that I use the storyline to help decide a character's name. The main character in Stasis had to be an ordinary guy, so I chose Brad Harris and James to be his grandfather's given name. Colleen concurred so we wrote an average guy description for Brad. We wanted the ordinary guy thrust into circumstances that he had absolutely no clue how to deal with.

I've used The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon with Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet for other stories. It mainly has given names with only a few surnames all are categorized by culture such as Greek, Gaelic etc. and they give each name's meaning. I've chosen names based on their meanings before because I find symbolism very attractive. I've also used baby name books. A good place to look for surnames is Classmates.com and any genealogy site.

16. How do you build empathy for your characters?

I build it in myself and translate it to the writing. I have a really good imagination. I sat for some artists when I lived in Green Bay in the summer of 1990. I worked as a historic site interpreter at Heritage Hill State Park. This artists group paid us to come and sit for them in our period clothing. When I sat for them in my Revolutionary War garb, they had me hold some of my medical instruments in my lap. To keep from getting restless and remain in my set pose, I pictured a wounded soldier lying in my lap and began fantasizing a battlefield scene. As I portrayed a nurse at re-enactments, this wasn't a terribly difficult thing to do.

Later one of the artists told me that at one point she thought I was going to cry and that I nearly made her cry as a result. She asked me what I was doing. I explained about my visualization technique and she told me that I had a gift. The others told me that I was their best model because I could remain still for long periods of time. It's too bad I wasn't born beautiful I could have made a living off that talent! Forgive my indulgence; at any rate when I looked at the pictures drawn by those who saw me face on you could see that they'd captured the extreme sorrow I was projecting. I bought one of them and gave it to Richard who was my fiancée at the time. It's on our living room wall.

My parents got involved in historical re-enacting when I was three years old. It had a major impact on training my imagination. When I was nine, I saw my first large-scale battle re-enactment. It was at Fort Wayne, Detroit, a Civil War Era fort, though the event was Revolutionary War. We were there to help raise money for the site. I knew what I was seeing was pretend that no one was actually being hurt but what's in your mind and what's in your heart are two very different things. When I saw those American soldiers biting the ground, I got hysterical. We were loosing badly for every volley the British fired we were loosing anywhere from six to ten guys. I started screaming and crying and finally I ran away from the field because I just couldn't watch anymore.

When I turned thirteen, I became the regimental nurse for the 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment and I followed my men into battle. Being in a battle is a lot different than watching it. Whether you're a nurse or a soldier you have a chance to affect the outcome, but being on the sideline like I was at nine, I was completely helpless and I hate that helpless feeling!

There are times when the modern day completely disappears suddenly it's the 18th Century and this is deadly serious. It happens to all re-enactors at one point or another. I remember one battle in particular. We were at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI. I was holding a soldier in my lap, giving him water and talking to him when I looked up along the line of men in front of me. I watched three guys fall then I looked to the other side of the American line and I saw two more. There were some serious holes starting to form at varying intervals. Then I looked across at the British line. I saw a thick scarlet line and I knew that they'd be charging us with their bayonets fixed very soon. Then I looked behind me. The field was littered with bodies. I remember thinking, "Oh my god, how am I going to protect them?" The British had a bad habit in the South of bayoneting the wounded. I didn't know who was alive and who was dead. And I didn't have time to gather the living. Even if I could, they'd just carry me off and still kill the wounded. I experienced a very real deep-seated fear.

Then I heard fifes and drums off in the distance behind us, when I looked up, I saw a row of flags coming our way and there were soldiers behind them. I had gotten so caught up in what I was feeling that I had completely forgotten that not all of our soldiers were on the field. The reinforcements marched up and took the center of the line in three ranks meaning the front rank would kneel, the second would lean over them and the third would stand straight and fire over the shoulders of the second. Muskets may not be very accurate but sending that much lead flying into one area was very effective and I knew that we were trying to break the center of the English line. See, if you break the center, you can surround the ends. I went back to tending soldiers. The next time I looked up there was a whole in the center of the opposing line and not too long after that we charged them. They broke and ran and we wiped the field with them! It was such and emotional moment for me to win the battle, after thinking that I was going to loose most of my soldiers. Then as suddenly as the 20th Century disappeared the spectators were back and I could hear the announcer commanding the dead to rise. It was quite the experience!

I try to recreate those sorts of strong emotions along with the turmoil that goes with them in me and completely immerse myself into that particular moment of the character's life. I guess you could say that I become the characters and try to write their reactions, decisions etc. according to how they are as people.

17. Have your characters ever surprised you? Explain....

No, the plot has surprised me though. I generally start out with an idea for a story and what I want to happen in the end, how I get from point A to point B gets determined as the writing progresses.

18. What's the oddest thing one of your characters has done?

James murdered a dog and performed an amateur taxidermy on its body but I'm really referring to how he disposed of it afterward, for the rest of those two oh so gross and touching scenes, I'll refer you back to Stasis.

19. Is there anything a character has done that you've regretted?

Not yet and hopefully I won't ever second-guess myself once a book is in the publishers queue or worse yet in print.

20. How do you handle the storyline? (Do you use outlines, plot guides, etc.)

I write a brief plot sketch in the beginning and start to fill in the details from there. I call it a sketch, but essentially it is an outline only typically done my way, which usually depends on how I'm feeling at the time. Hey, as long as I can understand it that's all that matters! Then I start making notes about the areas of research this story will entail. I do the research and then I start writing.

21. Do you write with an overall theme in mind? Explain....

Yes in Stasis’ case, the theme was that technology could be both a savior and a condemner. An old adage warns if you don't know your history, you will be forever condemned to repeat it. Likewise, if you don't know your science fiction, and heed its warnings, you could condemn the Earth to future catastrophe.

22. Tell us about how you promote your book.

Unfortunately, I have a very limited budget and can't afford magazine or newspaper ads.  Ads, television and newspaper interviews and reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal are the best ways to reach a mass market audience.

I subscribe to a large number of online freelancing newsletters.  A list can be found on the Writing Resources page. Many allow authors to send in press releases and announcements about their work. They also offer many helpful articles that teach an author how to promote their work.  There are many websites that also allow writers to post news. I also joined a number of Yahoo Groups.

I manage three free websites Authors Den, Writers Net, and AT&T (my server, which carries my personal home page). My husband and I plan to purchase our own domain name (The Steed Zone) within the couple years. When that happens, I'll only loose the AT&T site. My husband also plans to build our own server so that we can expand the website.  I've done URL exchanges with other sites. I submitted my Authors Den site and AT&T site to search engines and The Steed Zone joined a number of genre related webrings.  After we purchase the domain name, I plan to have bumper stickers printed to help advertise the site and ask friends to put them on their bumpers especially if they live outside of Michigan. 

I post free classified ads.  I used to have a list of sites outlined here but things change so quickly on the Internet that it's best just to do a free ad search.

I  joined my university's alumni association. They offer free publicity in their alumni magazine for writers.  Networking can really benefit a career and the alumni association provides a perfect opportunity to meet others working in the publishing industry.  I'm also a member of Classmates.com where I'm able to put announcements on my personal page.  Remember if you write fiction, it's about getting your name out there!

With Stasis, I put copies of my prepublication discount offer from my publisher on my apartment building's bulletin board. An author could do the same thing on a community posting board, in a grocery store, library, or Laundromat.

I printed bookmarks off my computer, signed them and placed them in the local bookstores and libraries when given permission to do so.  Just make sure if you take them to a bookstore that the copy is set for that bookstore!  Always include your webpage URL so that interested readers can obtain copies of your work!

I've sought reviews.  You have to be really careful sending books out to reviewers.  Many never returned a review nor did they return the book I sent!  If they can't prove affiliation with a tangible publication whether e-based or print based, don't sent them anything!

I submit additional text content and my professional reviews to Amazon.com and Borders.com (Amazon and Borders are affiliated!) as well as at Barnes & Noble.

I write short pieces for eZines and Anthologies to help get my name out there.

The more books an author has out there the better their sales can get on earlier works. In that spirit, I continue to work on other projects.

23. What is one aspect of being a published author that you weren't prepared for, that surprised you, that made you think, "Sheesh... I didn't realize I'd be doing this...."?

That aspect would have to be the sheer magnitude of promoting a book and just how little the publisher really does. It's all left to the authors.  I was also shocked to learn how irresponsible independent publishers are as far as getting galleys, books, cover photos etc. to the author in time for them to do their publicity.  It's like they don't want to sell any books at all. 

24. What type of writing schedule do you have?

I make lists of things that I know need to be done and set a goal for the amount of work I want completed each day or week. The amount of time allotted all depends on what stage I am at in the story and how much additional work I am doing.

25. How do you handle life interruptions?

Unless I'm ill or my husband is ill, I generally don't deal with the interruptions, he does. I shut the phone off when I work so that I won't be disturbed etc. 

26. Do you get blocked? Any hints how to stave it off?

I suffer eyestrain more often than I do writer's block. When I get blocked, I walk away from the project and work on another. If ideas are still strangers to me, I watch movies, read a book, call a friend, surf the net or go for a walk. Sometimes a weeklong hiatus is the best cure.

27. Do you write best at a certain time of the day?

I write best at night. I've always been a night owl and hate getting up early. Mornings are only good if I've been up all night and will be heading to bed shortly, otherwise, I don't want to see a clock or the sun until noon.

28. What is your best piece of advice for aspiring writers?

Start a publishing reference library.  I have some book recommendations on the Writer Advice page.  I also recommend a subscription to Writer's Digest Magazine and a membership in their book club.

Subscribe to as many freelance newsletters as you can stand to read in a week or a month's time depending on their publication schedules. The writer's advice articles are invaluable many print market news and offer free or low-cost promo opportunities. Most subscriptions are free the ones that have pay subscriptions are for $5 or $10. Those that went to a fee did so because of rising web costs. You have to weigh which ones are the best for the type of writing you do in terms of exposure to your target audience and in terms of helpful information.  

29. What's the best advice you ever received?

Never prepay an agent or sign a contract for a commission that is more than the going rate.  Agents make their money off your sales.  Never go to a subsidy publisher because the industry places a stigma on authors who are self-published.  

30. If an author wrote your biography after your death, what would the title be? (NEW)

Just Put Your Hand Over It!

It's a long story so you'd have to read the book to understand.

31. What were your favorite books as a child? (NEW)

The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Nantucket Summer by Phyllis Green

In The Keep Of Time by Margaret J. Anderson

The Ghosts by Antonia Barber

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Abe Lincoln Frontier Boy by Augusta Stevenson

Meet Abraham Lincoln by Barbara Cary

32. Which books do you love to read again and again? (NEW)

My favorite childhood books have been read multiple times and are still a part of my library.  The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a children's book that I discovered as an adult.  It reminds me so much of the good parts of my childhood that I revisit it again and again.  

Valdemar and Darkover Novels by Mercedes Lackey (& Marion Zimmer Bradley)

Six of Swords and Exiles of the Rynth by Carole Nelson Douglas

Skyrider series by Melisa C. Michaels

Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine

Any Heinlein or Bradbury!

Stasis Questions:

1. Tell us a little bit about your co-author on Stasis and how you decided to work together.

I met Colleen Elliott at a pajama party when we were in grade school. We stayed up all night talking while everyone else fell asleep. In the end, I became better friends with her than the girl the party was being thrown for. I lived in another city so we kept in touch via phone calls and letters. We'd spend one to two weeks a summer at one house or the other. It was at this time that we started to play act stories that we created based off a television series that we adored, Battlestar Galactica! Later we even had uniforms! We used to just call it "The Story"; the "New Age" term would be fanfic. The two of us writing together professionally was a natural progression off of that experience. Colleen actually was the first to suggest it; but I was skeptical about us being able to create something wholly our own after playing in someone else's universe for so long. Obviously, I was wrong!

2. Tell us what it's like to write a book with a co-author.

It was difficult because we live about 40 miles apart so scheduling was a problem as were high phone bills. Eventually, I got a computer; but she didn't have one at that time so we couldn't use email. I sent her a lot of my stuff via snail mail. She would come to my apartment and spend weekends and when her dad went out of town and she housesat I'd go there for a week. Work on the novel as a duo was sporadic at best. We'd each chose parts to work on individually and then when we got together we'd orally read through the entire manuscript and edit the pieces so that they fit in with what we already had written. Sometimes two heads are better than one. Then we'd decide what areas still needed to be explored and choose sections to work on for next time.

3. Stasis is a tale about cryogenics "gone awry." How did you handle all the technical information without allowing it to interrupt your story line?

Actually it is about cryonics, the freezing of a deceased human for future revival after a cure has been found for the agent that caused their death, though the term cryogenics can be used to describe the freezing process. To be honest, I struggled with the technical information at first. I say I because I had the research experience so I took on that part of the project. Cryonics is a very involved process. I knew in order to make the story complete the reader would have to know how this was accomplished. I'm a historian, not a scientist or doctor, so I had to make the scientific and medical portions accessible to me as well. Before I could write anything I had to look up all the terms to be sure I understood it, so you can imagine, I had pages and pages of this stuff.

Brad Harris, our Joe public hero is an ordinary college student, majoring in political science, so all of the technological gobbly gook would be over his head. The challenge was make it accessible to the character and hopefully the reading public would follow in Brad's wake. I opted for a cryonicist taking Brad through the facility and describing the procedures used to preserve his grandfather, repair the damage to his body done by both the brain tumor and the freezing process, and how they managed to revive him. It really fit well into the storyline because I was able to greatly condense all the information and not loose anything vital.

Since my forte is history, you'll see more alternative history and time travel novels from me in the future rather than hard science fiction. Unless I come up with a particularly juicy story idea, I've officially retired from hard sci-fi.

4. How did you research this Stasis?

I saw a documentary on cryonics, which got me thinking about it in relationship to reincarnation. I took some basic notes did some brainstorming and a story idea was born. Colleen searched her encyclopedias and came up with a lot of information on the industrial applications of cryogenics while I searched the magazines at the local library and came up with some vague cryonics information. It took five years to write Stasis. I got the computer about three years into the project; really it wasn't until I got the computer that we were able to obtain the resources to get the type of information needed to make the story plausible. I also looked into forensic medicine to get a good grasp of what happens to a body after death and poured over a medical encyclopedia.

5. Who is your favorite character and why?

In Stasis, my favorite character is James Harris. I know that anyone who's read Stasis is going to think that I need to be committed to an asylum for the criminally insane when I say this because he's not exactly the type of person you'd want living next door to you. He's one of the characters I built. I liked writing him because he's diabolical and it was fun to write someone so different from me and let my imagination run with it. As I wrote his dialogue, I kept hearing Jack Nicholson's voice in my head, which really made me laugh.