Featured Book Trailer from COS Productions
|
| |
|
 Wendy talks about her release, No Holding Back.
What went Between the Sheets of this book? Either what was happening in your life when you wrote it, or what was happening with the book as you wrote it.
Since I’m a rabid NASCAR fan, and Liz Allison (my writing partner for this trilogy) makes her living reporting and writing about racing, we had a fantastic time bringing to life people, places and events that many racing fans have never had an opportunity to peek into. While writing, we went to a lot of races and talked to tons of people, but mostly we parked our butts in front of the laptop and dived into the world we’d created.
How long did it take to develop your characters for this book?
This is one of those times that working with a writing partner who knows your setting (the world of NASCAR) inside and out is really helpful. Liz and I brainstormed for a few weeks to come up with the characters and basic plot. We knew there would be three books, and we knew we wanted to do a family.
My strength is heroes, and Liz was married to a NASCAR driver, so two of the siblings in the family became drivers (one current and one former) Then we just had to add a bossy sister in the middle. Their love interests were created to balance and/or contrast with our main characters. It sounds simple when put like that, yes? Actually, the planning was simple. It’s the execution that will give a writer gray hairs. (Not that I have any of those either.)
What are your thoughts on First Person verses Third Person? Which is your preference?
I like both. All my published books have been third person, but I have an idea for a series of stories in first person that I’d like to do in the future. I do think first person is harder for a lot of inexperience writers (which I certainly was when I started), since you have to have a very defined voice that appeals somehow to readers to make the whole thing work.
What is your opinion of critique groups? Do you find them helpful?
I think critique groups are an excellent way to get feedback on your writing, provided everyone is honest and professional. My best friends today were members of my very first critique group when I started writing, ah…several years ago.
How is your family affected by your writing career?
They’re extremely supportive. But we’ve all made sacrifices (and still do) to make things work. To finance my first national conference, I worked at my gym’s nursery for nearly a year to raise the money. I changed diapers, folks. Worn by children not related to me. Still, I did what I had to do. I was a stay-at-home mom, and my husband worked long hours just to pay our bills. If you want to be a working writer, you’ll be faced with choices of time and budgets, just like any entrepreneur. Take yourself seriously and treat it like a business and your family will (hopefully) follow your lead.
What keeps you going and motivated when life throws you a curveball?
It’s certainly hard when something unexpected comes up to screw with your carefully planned writing schedule. When it’s something small, I deal with it, have a glass of wine, then go to bed and hope for a better day tomorrow. When it’s something big (and by big I mean something emotionally difficult, since that’s what cripples a writer more than anything else—except possibly a broken finger), I remind myself I’m a professional. My editor is counting on me to do my job, so she can do hers, and the art department can do theirs, and the marketing department can do theirs, and so on. It’s guilt motivation. But it works for me.
I’ve never had to ask for an extension, so I hope that if anything detrimental does happen (i.e. I fall into an unexpected coma from reading my own writing too often), I’ll have some respect from my publisher, so that I can get that time.
Were you an avid reader as a child? What did you like to read?
I LOVED reading. (Still do. A downfall of being a writer is that you wind up reading more of your stuff than anybody else’s at times.) The Nancy Drew series, plus Harlequin romances, were my favorites.
Who or what influenced you to write and what inspires your imagination?
I think as a species Southerners are raised to respect and even be in awe of storytelling. I’ve always admired smart, witty people. Louis Grizzard was always one of my favorite writers. My mom has a great, sarcastic sense of humor. My dad is an avid fiction reader and can be a deep thinker (Don’t get me started on having to listen to Neil Diamond’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull as a teenager. Frankly, I still don’t get it.)
These days, music inspires me (though nothing about seagulls so far). I listen to music when I write, and the concise themes in songs appeal to me. Plus, it puts my brain in a creative frame of mind.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on book two of my Garrison family trilogy with Liz Allison. I really hope everybody loves these characters as much as we do. Of course our heroine, Rachel, has quite a few problems she’s struggling to solve—her love life being the most prominent. We’re having a blast. It’s possible that’s a little sadistic.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers? And how did you keep your spirits up until the first book was published?
Keep writing and reading, of course. Also, really think about the critiques you get from people you respect. Are several people commenting on the same thing?
In the beginning of my trying-to-get-published days, I tried doing hard-edged romantic suspense that went nowhere in selling. After I sold a comedy as my first book, I remember looking back at my comments on those stories and seeing things like “nice, light touch”, “cute”, etc. Obviously, I should have been writing more comedy instead of banging my head against walls and trying to figure out how a Glock worked. Though I do still have dreams about that gritty suspense…
© Interview by BetweenYourSheets.com |
|
|
|
|
