And it all began rather serendipitously. Long
ago, as they say, in another time, when fast food hadn't reached our
area and the only shopping was what the feed mill offered, I was
reading a book that annoyed me . My husband was lying beside me
in bed, watching TV. Turning to him, I sort of petulantly said,
"How the hell did this book get published?"
If you think you're so smart," he replied, with one eye still on the
TV, "why don't you write a book?"
So I did. And very badly. I've since learned how to do, he said, she said,
and a great variety of other adverb heavy, sometimes lengthy
explanations of why my characters are saying what they're saying,
along with finally coming to an understanding of what things like POV
means. Point of View for you non-writers}. Although, I still
don't fully comprehend why it matters if you switch POV and I
cavalierly disregard it as much as possible. So while my technical
skills have hopefully improved, what hasn't changed is my great joy in
writing. There's as much pleasure today in listening to my
characters talk while I type as fast as I can, as there was the first
time I put dialogue to paper--in long-hand, then, in my leather
bound sketch-book.
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Used bookstores,
EBay or other auction services
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I first wrote a
contemporary very loosely based on some charming passion I'd
experienced. Then I purchased a copy of WRITERS MARKET, read the
introduction on query letters, etc,(I was a complete novice) selected
three publishers and mailed out the first three chapters. The
publishers all asked to see the complete manuscript, but none bought
it. Well, I thought,- no one wants that story .I decided to write
another-this one an historical based on my great-grandmother's unhappy
love affair that I'd just learned of. Being a romantic at heart, I
decided to give my great-grandmother a fictional happy ending to her
life instead of the suffering she endured. But this time, I had no
intention of writing an entire book that perhaps no one wanted. So I
wrote the first three chapters and an outline and mailed it out to
just one publisher this time. WRITERS MARKET suggested an author
select a publisher most likely to publish your style of book and at
the time Playboy Press was one of the biggest romance publishers. They
published a great range of romances, including the hot and steamy
stuff I wrote. I received a letter from Nancy Coffey asking to see the
rest of the manuscript. I took three weeks sick leave from the
University of Minnesota where I worked as an Art Curator and wrote a
rough draft. Once I was back at work, it took me another couple of
months to clean up the manuscript and then I sent it to Playboy Press.
They bought it, SEIZED BY LOVE was published about six months later,
and I've been very happily writing ever since.
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I
have a pretty good sized library at home( over 10,000 books) and I've
been an avid reader for years. Also, there's so much history
that interests me, I consider what kind of hero would fit into that
milieu and then find a woman who will make his life interesting in a
variety of ways.
I was raised in a small town in northern Minnesota
where the road literally ended just four miles past our house.
At that point the highway ran into the lake and across the water lay
Canada. So I know what boonies means. Now in my adult
life, I'm living in another kind of boondocks in central Minnesota,
this time in a forest of hardwoods surrounded by corn fields.
Inspired by this propensity to find myself in sparsely populated
areas, I've been forced to rely on my imagination for amusement.
And making up stories that I can people with gloriously handsome
men and clever, beautiful women who say and do whatever comes to my
mind is as close to heaven as any creative artist would wish.
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Yes, I am. Both my grandparents
were from Finland. My paternal grandparents were from an area
near Vasa and my maternal grandparents were from Viipuri. My
grandparents didn't speak English, so I understand it or at least
did-fairly well. My sister spoke Finnish as a child, but I never
learned. Now, I'm sorry I didn't.
Only Hot Streak by Jill Barkin
which has been reissued under Susan Johnson
How long does it take
to write a book?
It depends on the book and on how
much research I have to do before I begin writing. But generally, it
takes me about six moths to finish a story. The novellas, of course,
take less time, although Lulu's story kept getting longer and
longer-which is often the case. I never have a hard a fast plan
when I begin writing, so my characters tend to take me where they want
to go and I just follow.
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