Literary Spotlight

Jane Johnson is an English author and Fiction Publishing Director for HarperCollins Publisher, UK, where she is responsible for the Voyager science fiction and fantasy list as well as publishing thrillers and historical fiction. She was also with Tolkien Publisher for several years, and worked on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Her novel, Crossed Bones (UK) The Tenth Gift (USA title) is her first foray into writing adult mainstream fiction. Ms. Johnson also writes for children.

Q: From the perspective of a publishing director, what catches the eye in novice manuscripts?

A: I look for a distinctive and authentic voice, one that hooks me within a couple of pages; clear, sharp writing, a sense of rhythm in the sentence structures, a good use of language without being flowery or overwritten; a strong sense of plotting and characterization; realistic dialogue -- and, of course, that indefinable 'something special.' The most important thing of all is to have the ability to make the reader want to turn the pages. That requires strong characterization, a real sense of a person that you are interested in, or can empathise with; and a great story.

Q: How does a novice writer come by these skills?

A: By reading, reading, reading; and writing, writing, writing -- and doing both with awareness rather than passively absorbing or channelling the words. And looking and listening to the world around them, getting out into it with eyes and ears open, trying to describe what they see and hear; jotting down dialogue and impressions, dreams and ideas. It is worth realizing that certain sectors of the fiction market sell better than others, and if you want to be published by a commercial publisher you need to be writing commercial material.

Q: In today’s marketplace, genre vs. mainstream – which is the tougher to write/sell and why?

A: I've always disliked such categorizations: historically, they were terms used by marketing personnel, rather than by readers and editors. As a reader, I read far and wide without making distinctions between books except as to whether I liked them or not. But gradually the market has ruled the publishing houses, and the corporate publishers have allowed these divisions to be imposed, so we're now faced with a fait accompli. I've always railed against the way that science fiction and fantasy are a) jammed together under the same dismissive heading and b) shoved in some dark corner of the bookshop (and never in supermarkets). This has created a self-fulfilling prophecy: and so the 'genre' has been supported less and less well and sold fewer and fewer copies. At present, it's probably the hardest area of the market in which a newcomer can break through.

Thrilllers, when they sell well, sell very well indeed: but because the rewards are visibly greater in this area, there's heavy competition. Writing well in any area is hard and requires great dedication and a thorough understanding of the sort of novel you're writing. You need the capacity to hold an entire storyline in your head; you need to hear and understand the characters; you need to be able to cut and edit your own work ruthlessly; and you need to be open to criticism and flexible enough to rework material if it's not working. That's the same across the writing of all areas of fiction.

Q: Crossed Bones/The Tenth Gift is inspired by the abduction of a family member in 1625 from a Cornish church by Barbary pirates. What are the challenges of writing about a historical event from a fiction point of view?

A: It was necessary to do incredible amounts of research into the 17th century and Morocco. It was necessary to read, absorb and hold in my head dozens of books and hundreds of articles, as well as landscapes and cultures before I could even begin to write. You can't just make things up as you go along if you want the story and characters to be authentic.

I read a lot of historical fiction, and there's nothing I hate more than anachronisms: they jolt you out of the reading experience and make you lose trust in the author. You need to be relaxed when you're reading, not constantly on the alert for errors. On the other hand, you don't want the writing to be fact-packed and stilted. And all this is then complicated by two passionate love stories that need to catch the reader up and fire their imaginations: characters and motivations must be convincing to pull that off. So making it all look effortless, while putting in the hard work is what you're aiming for -- the classic analogy of the swan gliding across a lake comes to mind: All grace and serenity above the surface of the water, and frantic effort beneath!

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

William P. Young, self-published author of the novel The Shack was raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in what was New Guinea. He worked as a former office manager and hotel night clerk in OR. His book debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list.

Q: What accounts for the popularity of your book?

A: It is a little outside the box like a parable. It’s the truth inside a story. It appeals to the heart as well as the brain. There is a lot of sadness out there and people have questions and want to have them discussed in the open. People speak out of pain, and this is a positive message that grace extends to anybody.

A lot of the success has come from word of mouth. And what has surprised me are the people who send e-mails describing its transformational impact. The people it helps are those who are hurt and broken. I’ve seen it help those in prisons and those in grief counseling.

Q: You have succeeded in creating a marketing success by self publishing. What was that like?

I am an accidental writer. I wrote this for my children as a gift. There is a huge group of readers not being written to. We tried twenty-six major publishing houses. The answers were either ‘too much Jesus’ or ‘we don’t’ have a niche for it; its too edgy.’ No one wanted us. There is an unspoken rule in publishing; if nobody else is doing it we can’t do it and if everybody else does it, we can’t.

So we printed fifteen copies at a local printer and gave some to people we loved and asked them to give it to people they don’t know. We learned a lot from the feedback. In sixteen months, there were four major revisions. I was very open to conversation about the book. The response was great, and we formed Windblown. Without intending to we shook up the publishing industry in a good way.

Q: You have said the shack is a metaphor for the house you build out of your own pain. Explain.

A: The shack is a metaphor representing the heart and soul of a human. We all build the inner house where we hide our secrets, shame and addictions; lot of us don’t let anybody in and fake the house on the outside. We live in two worlds; the world of shame in the shack and the other world of façade.

Q: How do you respond to the criticism of some Christian leaders?

A: This is a work of fiction. There are people who try to turn it into a theological conversation and they are missing the point. They see what they are looking for and it supports their own baggage. The interesting thing is that some of the angriest people who are against the book haven’t even read it.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Megan Chance is an award-winning author who has been the recipient of the Romance Writers of America (RITA) Award. A former television news photographer, her latest release is The Spiritualist.

Q: Your new novel combines a Victorian setting and the paranormal and is strongly atmospheric. How did you choose New York City circa 1850 as the setting, and how important is the setting to any plot?

A: I chose New York City for two reasons: New York’s culture at the time had a strongly rational and materialistic heritage, and because society ruled it. Spiritualism was gaining sway in the mid 1850s, but it was still new enough that Knickerbocker society found it intensely disconcerting. Anyone involved in it was thought to be on the fringe and not quite respectable, which served my story purposes very well.

Because my research dictates so much of the plot, I tend to create a story that can only exist in a certain place or time, and I believe the best stories couldn’t be ripped from their settings without changing how the tale is told.

Q: Your book has been described as an erotically charged chiller. What is your response?

A: I meant for it to have a distinctly erotic element. I believe that for women, especially, sex can be a transforming experience. For upper class women of that period who were brought up to believe that good women did not enjoy sex, that they were supposed to be passionless and spiritually elevated “angels of the house,” and who were so uneducated about physiology that their own bodies were mysteries to them, sexual passion would have been very threatening, especially the first time it was experienced.

I felt that a woman like Evelyn would feel particularly vulnerable and off-balanced by eroticism, and that perhaps it was the one thing that could force her to look deeper into herself, and to accept aspects of her character that she would rather deny.

Q: What are the differences and similarities of portraying characters through the lens of a photographer vs. the pen of a writer?

A: In photography, you only have a few moments to try to capture the truth of someone’s character. In writing, you have the luxury of time to really explore a character’s innermost thoughts and feelings. What photography taught me, however, was how to distill character, how to capture someone’s essence in a few strokes – after all, it isn’t what a person says or thinks that tells who they are, but what they do, which is not a bad lesson for a fiction writer to learn.

Q: Why do you suppose the romance genre lacks male writer representation?

A: I don’t know that it does. There are men who write romance, just as there are those who read it. There was a time when conventional wisdom stated that readers wouldn’t buy a thriller or mystery by a woman author, and I think that same wisdom exists in the romance world – editors think women won’t buy a romance if they know it’s written by a man, I’m also not sure that, in the end, romance wants or needs male representation. It is women’s fantasy after all, and frankly, why the hell shouldn’t women have something of their own?

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Lisa Wingate is an inspirational speaker, magazine columnist and national bestselling author. Tending Roses was a selection of the Readers Club of America and is currently in its tenth printing.

Q: How important is getting a feel for writing in school?

A: It's tremendously important. By nature, children are writers. Documenting their “lets pretend” on paper just takes the process one step further. Writing isn't the thing you do with a pencil; it's the thing you do with your mind.

Q: How can aspiring writers delve into their treasure chests of memories to write a book?

A: The trick in mining real life experiences is sorting out which ones would be interesting to readers who don't have a personal connection and which are strictly of personal interest.

Q: What are the advantages/disadvantages of working on two series for two different publishers?

A: The disadvantages of working for two different publishers lie in the fact that publishing schedules, option clauses and deadlines can conflict. The advantages lie in the opportunity to spread your eggs into more than one basket. You benefit from acquiring ideas from two publishing houses, and you're less vulnerable to changes in the publishing program at a single house.

Q: What is the most difficult part of the writing process for you?

A: The most difficult part for me is probably just rear-in-chair. On any given day, life provides a million distractions. When I finally sit down and get started, I'm often lost in the story world for hours.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs

Laura Childs is the pen name of Gerry Schmitt who is the bestselling author of the “Tea Shop Mystery” series and the “Scrapbook Mystery series.”

Q: Why did you decide to write under a pen name?

A: When I started the “Tea Shop Mystery” series, I was still CEO of my marketing firm and my real name was quite familiar to the press. Using a pen name made things simpler.

Q: How do you develop secondary characters in a manner that doesn’t overshadow your main character?

A: The overall plot and story line always belong to my protagonist. But sometimes, the secondary characters do burst forth and overshadow the main character in a few scenes or chapters. I think this keeps things interesting and fluid, since one person’s perspective can sometimes get a little monotonous.

Q: You have said that you read the thriller/mystery/horror genre. How has it influenced your mystery writing?

A: It taught me how to build tensions and add small touches of humor when things get a little too scary. Also, some of our great thriller/mystery/horror writers are just awfully fine storytellers and wordsmiths.

Q: How did you come to write in the specific niche using the tea shop and scrapbook themes as settings in your mysteries?

A: I’m still a marketing person at heart, and tea shops are popping up like mushrooms and scrap-booking is the number one craft in America. So, I took a look at that existing audience and decided it was a lot easier to hook into a trend than start one!

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Brenda Novak

Brenda Novak is an award-winning The New York Times bestselling author of historical and contemporary romances.

Q: Your first career was as a loan officer. How did you “teach” yourself to write?

A: I taught myself how to writing by reading. I sifted out the books I liked and tried to figure out what they had in common. I trusted my intuition. Most importantly, I practiced. I approached writing a bit like sculpting. I put everything I had out on the table, and then I molded it until I was pleased with the result. The most crucial thing I learned while writing my first book is that you can't let all the how-to information overwhelm what comes naturally.

Q: With five children, what is your writing schedule like and how do you find time to properly promote your books?

A: I treat my writing like a full-time job. I get up every morning, go to my guest house (which is my office) and write. I try to do ten pages a day, but that's usually a stretch for me. E-mail and the business/promotion side of being an author take about half my time, which is why ten pages is now a stretch.

Q: What tips do you have for new writers?

A: One word: Believe. If you believe in your writing, you won't give up., you'll trust your intuition, you'll take advantage of every opportunity and you'll work your butt off. You get the picture. It all starts and stops with having faith in yourself and your dream.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Catherine Coulter

Catherine Coulter is a New York Times bestselling author whose success spans three decades. She writes in the historical romance and contemporary FBI suspense thriller genres.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face when you switch from writing historical romance to the contemporary thriller genre?

A: I wouldn’t call them challenges; in fact, I find it energizing to switch genres for the simple reason that I’m not writing in the same sort of format again and again.

Q: Which do you find the most demanding: Creating the concept, the first draft, revising or editing? Why?

A: It’s all simply part of the whole or the process. Since I don’t work with an outline, I simply begin. As for editing, that happens every single day when I’m reworking what I wrote the previous day. I do a full-book edit when the book is done. It’s all demanding and it’s all fun, and if you pull your hair out one day, you’ll be humming and fluffing your hair the next. The writer’s brain is never quiet.

Q: How do you cope with the pressure of having your books on the New York Times best seller list?

A: It is always very exciting to get the call on Wednesday, the week after publication of a new book, and hear that the book has made the Times and it’s at a high position. There’s always self-pressure for a book to perform well, but once it’s out of my hands there is simply nothing I can do about it.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Dr. Teena Cahill

Dr. Teena Cahill, author of The Cahill Factor: Turning Adversity into Advantage, holds a Doctorate in Psychology and speaks on leadership, resilience and skills to enhance peak performance at work and at home.

Q: Most authors begin with a book and then go on a speaking tour. You entered the literary world as an established speaker. What was that like?

A: I knew I could speak faster than I could write, so I went for it! I am a mom, grandma, wife, care giver and working professional, so I have a lot to say about life from both a personal and professional perspective.

Q: What advice would you give to professionals who want to share their knowledge and expertise with the world through a book?

A: Write everyday even if you decide to throw most of it out. This helps develop both your ideas and your skills. See yourself as a writer … own the label.

Q: How has relaying your personal experiences impacted your readers?

A: My book is an “instructional” memoir. I’m deeply moved when I hear my book was meaningful to someone.

Q: What have been the most memorable moments reader have shared with you after reading your book?

I get calls and e-mails telling me how the description of my husband made them just “love” him. Others have said they relate to the story, and some people even told me they keep the book handy to use as a reference.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

John Lutz

John Lutz is an award-winning author of 40 fiction books. His novel Single White Female was the basis for the 1992 film staring Bridget Fonda.

Q: What is your opinion of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.?

A: Holmes is a fine model for any PI writer. He’s thoroughly realized and consistent throughout. The stories also demonstrate the importance and effective use of satellite characters like Inspector Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson and of course Watson.

Q: How do you account for the increase in detective/crime novels currently on the market?

A: The popularity of mysteries is cyclical. For crime-writers like myself to not realize that it won’t last forever and enjoy it would be, in itself, a crime.

Q: What is the best way for new writers to improve their craft and polish their work?

A: By writing. I think the craft of writing is something you learn by doing.

Q: How did publishing short stories in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen’s mystery magazines impact your career?

A: Both have had an enormous impact on my career. Some of my early novels began as short stories in the magazines. During those times when I had difficulty selling novels, those magazines helped to keep my career lurching along.

Q: Describe the challenges of floating from one genre to another.

A: You have to keep your potential readers in mind. As I write, I’m always aware of a reader looking over my shoulder. You must never forget that your audience changes with each genre.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Michael Modzelewski

Michael Modzelewski is a naturalist, author and lecturer of ultra marathon running and metaphysics. His book, Inside Passage: Living with Killer Whales, Bald Eagles and Kwakiutl Indians chronicles his two year stay on a wilderness island in Alaska. His book, Wild Life, is based on his dating experience and is being made into a movie.

Q: Your books are described as a journey for the soul. What is your view?

A: I am a transcendentalist in my love for Nature like Thoreau yet I hope to inspire and encourage man to operate at full potential and tap into the wonders of the Oversoul like Emerson.

Q: What feedback have you received from readers?

A: The most profound reaction is how my books have inspired readers to go after their own dreams and minimize their lives. The real payment isn’t the money, but the many e-mails from readers that bring tears to my eyes from the transforming power of action-driven words.

Q: What advice do you have for authors who are shy about speaking before a group?

A: Speak with passion and a radiant heart, and suddenly the shy “you” disappears. When you are on fire with what you are speaking and writing about, people have no choice but to get closed doors out of your way!

Q: What kind of transition do you anticipate in writing fiction?

A: I anticipate a freeing sensation. The writer gets to play “God” by totally inventing complete and detailed worlds. This is perfect for someone like me who has always rebelled against limitations.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.