Spooky! I was merely contemplating the idea of becoming a New York Times bestselling author and the perfect manual appeared. Surely God, his angels, and all the saints were trying to tell me something, right? I didn’t consider that maybe the devil and his deceivers were having a good laugh. The book listed 365 (give or take) secrets for writing and getting published. Perfect! It was an omen. In 365 days I’d be on the bestsellers list. I simply needed to master one little ol’ secret a day. The first one I came across was the key to a successful story. It was threefold: 1. Get your protagonist up a tree. 2. Put a tiger under the tree. 3. Get your protagonist out of the tree. I followed those steps and began to write.
What was your favorite book as a child?
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. It ignited a life-long passion for the written word. I believe I was twelve years old when a teacher suggested it for summer reading. A mature book for a twelve-year-old to be reading and my mother had her doubts as to what the teacher was thinking, but I loved it.
If you could trade places with another author who you have admired over the years, who would that be?
Hands down, Elizabeth Berg. I absolutely love her writing. She is almost lyrical with her prose and she is always right on when it comes to human emotion and motivation. One of my favorite books of hers is entitled True to Form. I loved it so much I am just now finishing my latest project All That’s True, which is very much an Elizabeth Berg type of story. It follows two years in the life of 13-year-old Andrea St. James, Andi for short, who discovers her father is having an affair with her best friend’s sexy new stepmother, her mother is having one with the bottle, her brother is killed in a freak hazing accident, and her sister ditches the family to become a missionary. It takes place during the first Desert Storm, when Bush, Sr. was president. Andi discovers the allusive nature of truth and the devastating consequences of deception on the way to young adulthood. The novel has equal joy and equal sorrow, so there are poignant moments, as well as laugh-out-loud situations. I truly enjoyed writing it.
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