Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What seems to work for unleashing your creativity?

Writer’s block is a new experience for me with my current work, a romance of a couple separated twenty-eight years prior who are reunited by a third person for revenge. Music provides the best stimulant, if I can find a piece that feeds on the emotion I’m attempting to unveil in the story. And, when shut down, I retreat into Donald Maas’s workbook, Writing the Breakout Novel, to see if I’m attempting to force a situation that is implausible. Always, I tell my husband, dinner out and/or a good movie wakes up the creative juices.

How was your experience in looking for a publisher? What words of advice would you offer those novice authors who are in search of one?

I submitted to two high profile agents, received encouraging rejections--but rejections all the same. I was bummed and not willing to face that prospect again. A fellow author suggested Wings Press and I got a contract and am happy there. Not the route I would suggest to most writers, but all I want to do is write. I’m not interested in fame, and am too old for world tours, however, a five figure advance could certainly change that idea. Persistence, multiple submissions, perusing the markets for the proper publishing house or agent, spending as much time uncovering a distributor that will answer what you want is as important as the actual writing. Look at history, how long it took our most well-known authors to finally get published — 54, 79, 200+ submissions.

I’m not unhappy with my choice, and now I have agents who have contacted me requesting a “look see” at my next creation. We’ll see how seven years of work balances out with the next publication.

What type of book promotion seems to work the best for you?

Networking with friends and family sells the most and covers the greatest geography. With six children, fifteen grandchildren, and my husband and my membership in over twenty groups, we are blessed with some genuine promoters at a phone call. Personally, I do local book signings and talks with local groups. Our newspapers list them and a number as an invitation to join. I call and offer to speak for free if I can sell books. No one’s turned me down. The least profitable, definitely the three to four books sold at independent “fairs” that cost way more than earned. Reviews on high profile websites are invaluable and a number of emails hit my website that originate from these reviews. And interviews, like this one for Blogcritics, invite website hits on the internet.