Do you write full-time?
Yes, and every day I think how fortunate I am to get to make things up for a living. (Maybe I should amend that to ‘on those days when it’s going well!’)
At what point in your life did you make up your mind you were going to become a published author?
See above! I had a two-year-old and a newborn! I’m not sure what in the world I was thinking!
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
The Accidental Bestseller is about four writers who meet at a writers’ conference, support each other through the joy and pain of getting — and staying — published, and ten years later end up taking on the publishing industry to save one of their own.
Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose novels support her and her husband’s lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason juggles two jobs, two kids and a difficult mother. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of bestselling inspirational romances; no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims’s once promising career is on the skids - and so is her marriage. Her sales have fallen and her new editor can barely feign interest in her work.
What was the inspiration behind your book? Why did you feel a need to write it?
I had wanted to write about a group of writers, especially a critique group, for some time. No one understands what you’re going through like someone else who’s on the same path. Your family and non-writing friends may know and love you, but they don’t necessarily relate to the unique highs and lows that are a part of writing a novel and staying afloat in the publishing business.
The Accidental Bestseller is about that bond between writer friends. It’s also as true a look at what it is to be a writer in today’s publishing industry as it was possible for me to write without straying into nonfiction. (Which is something Mallory, Faye, Tanya, and Kendall have a slight problem with!)
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