My Writing Process: A Blog Tour Interview

My Writing Process: A Blog Tour Interview

A big thank you to my author friend Nancy Hartney, short story writer found at website: http://nancyhartney.com/ or her blog http://nancyhartney.wordpress.com/ .

Her collection of short stories, Washed in the Water, was released in June 2013. Described as "gritty," the stories meander through violence and beauty among her hardscrabble characters as they traverse their religious and social landscapes. Since release, Washed in the Water has garnered rave reviews on Amazon.com, GoodReads, and the Deep South Magazine http://deepsouthmag.com/2014/02/literary-friday-edition-92/ .

Rhett DeVane

The "Four Questions" (and my best-guess answers):

1) What am I working on?

I always have multiple projects in various stages of completion. Guess that helps stave off boredom. Like most writers, I relish creating that magical first draft: the time when I adore every word and I am the most amazing author to ever breathe life into characters. Ah, the blush of new love. Then I let a manuscript simmer, and the riff-raff floats to the top. But I am growing to like revisions. Might as well. Revisions are like that unbalanced aunt who shows up drunk for the family reunion, draped with a scarlet feather boa and ready to get down with her bad self. She’s part of the family and you have to learn to live with her. Besides, doesn’t she add interest?

The next in my middle grade fiction series, Dig Within, will pass through my critique group and into its third set of revisions. I plan to have it completed and in production by the fall. The next Southern fiction book, Secondhand Sister, idles in my files, awaiting a turn through the group, and my red pen. Not to mention my line editor, a patient, kind soul who has had more than a bucket of laughs from my errors.

Marketing my two latest books, Elsbeth and Sim (middle grade fiction) and Suicide Supper Club (Southern fiction novel), is further stretching my brain. If we buy dementia-free years by acquiring new skills, then learning to market has provided at least a few months’ reprieve. Thank goodness for my author friends. I watch what they do, then do my best to mirror.

2) How does my work differ from other of its genre?

Truly, there is nothing new, only an author’s unique spin on age-old human storylines. My twist comes from my Southern upbringing in a beloved North Florida town with a state mental institution on its main drag. I understand “colorful.” I descended from a long line of storytellers, and I have been writing since I was old enough to hold a fat pencil.

I have been told my humor is what sets me apart. Laughter flowed easily in my family of origin; still does. We look for the funny side, and this trait has buoyed me, and my characters, through some horrendous trials.

Though humor permeates my work—both the Southern fiction and middle grade pieces—I don’t shy from serious subject matter. My first novel, The Madhatter’s Guide to Chocolate, featured a hate crime. My fiction includes death of loved ones, child pornography rings, end-of-life issues, cancer, and suicide. The middle grade work features environmental issues, family ties, bullying, and self-subsistence.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Might as well ask why I breathe. To stay truly alive. To make sense of the things I perceive in my world. To add a little shimmer of light and humor into the universe. Heaven knows, we need all the light we can summon.

I don’t like to be corralled onto a certain “platform.” The experts want a writer to choose one direction, one genre, and run that into the ground. I suspect this is why many talented authors grow stale, why their novels start to sound identical after a few years. I enjoy the challenge of penning both Southern fiction and middle grade chapter books. Two collections of short fiction rest in my line-up. I don’t see myself writing non-fiction, but who knows?

As long as it makes me happy, and I do my best, who is to tell me what to write? The muses are in control. I shall follow their lead.

4) How does your writing process work?

When I am hot on the path, I write for a few hours each day. No set word count. I have tried using an outline. The muses chortled. Instead, I allow them to take my fingers to task, sit back, and let it flow. One of my Southern fiction novels generally takes about three months for a first draft. I allow it to sit for at least four weeks, then dig in for the word and scene kill.

After that, the manuscript falls under the scrutiny of my trusted critique group, the Wild Women Writers. More revisions, chasing the typos like sprayed cockroaches. Finally to my line editor. Then back for more culling for critters.

If I’m lucky, I have a published book. Then I find those last illusive typos that keep me from being perfect. No worries about remaining humble. Writing is the best way to never be full of yourself.

Well, gee, that was fun! Thank you, Nancy Hartney!

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Next week, April 7th, tune into these three talented author friends' blogs, where they will carry on this fun blog tour:

Malcolm Campbell:

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of paranormal and fantasy short stories, including “Emily’s Stories” and “The Lady of the Blue Hour,” and the comedy/mystery novel “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire.” He lives in northeast Georgia.

Website Link: www.malcolmrcampbell.com

Weblog for the blog hop: Malcolm’s Round Table: 

http://knightofswords.wordpress.com/

Melinda Clayton:

Melinda Clayton is the author of Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, Entangled Thorns, and Blessed Are the Wholly Broken, as well as the self-publishing guide Self-publishing Made Simple: A How-to Guide for the Non-tech-savvy Among Us.

Clayton has published numerous articles and short stories in various print and online magazines. In addition to writing, she has an Ed.D. in Special Education Administration and is a licensed psychotherapist in the states of Florida and Colorado.


Weblog for the blog hop: www.goodreads.com/author/show/4447391.Melinda_Clayton/blog

Susan Mary Malone:

Award-winning writer and editor Susan Mary Malone is the author of the novels, I Just Came Here to Dance and By the Book, as well as four co-authored nonfiction books, including What’s Wrong with My Family?, and many published short stories. A freelance book editor, forty-plus Malone-edited books have now sold to Traditional publishers.

Website link: www.maloneeditorial.com
Weblog for the blog hop:www.maloneeditorial.com/blog/editorial-tips/

Writers4Higher features Melinda Clayton

Welcome to Writers4Higher

 

 

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

 

 

This issue, Writers4Higher features

 

 

 

Hi, Melinda. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

 

 

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

Goodness, I’m not sure where to start. I’m the daughter of a preacher and a teacher, raised in the south with a strong disposition to give back. I remember clearly my mother taking shoes to school to give to a poor student who needed them. In their retirement, my parents continue to volunteer their time with their church, Habitat for Humanity, the local food bank, and other various causes.

I’m the oldest girl of five children. My younger brother was born with Down Syndrome in a time in which doctors routinely recommended institutionalization (which was met with a resounding “No” from not only my parents, but my siblings and me as well). Over the subsequent 32 years my brother has inspired all of us to do more and be more than we ever thought we could.

I graduated from the University of Memphis with a B.A. in Social Work in 1989, and a M.S. in Community Agency Counseling in 1993. My first years in the field were spent working with some of the poorest of the poor in Tennessee, providing case management to those discharged -sometimes after decades of institutionalization - from the local mental health institute. I worked with clients who had no electricity, no running water, and in some cases, not even a floor. I had clients who cooked over a fire in the front yard, who gathered water from the nearest pond, and who slept with a baseball bat in order to kill the snakes that slithered in during the night.

Eventually I moved to Colorado, where I spent a decade specializing in work with individuals diagnosed with both a developmental disability and a mental health disorder. I worked inpatient, outpatient, and in-home. In different jobs I served as behavior specialist, program manager, and director. I also had an ever-expanding private practice which my former business partner and forever dear friend continues to operate to this day. We moved to Florida about eight years ago, and I took time off to raise my children, complete my doctorate in Special Education Administration, and write a handful of novels.

My background heavily influences my writing. Both Appalachian Justice and Return to Crutcher Mountain, set in the fictional town of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia, follow the lives of women and children who have been abused and left to overcome the consequences. Return to Crutcher Mountain also introduces Robby, a young boy with Down Syndrome who is in desperate need of a home, complete with someone to love him. My maternal ancestors are from West Virginia, which is no doubt why I’m enamored with the area.

My third novel, Entangled Thorns, also set in Cedar Hollow, follows the life of the adult children of a moonshiner from Appalachia, chronicling the struggles they’ve had to escape the ravages of their childhood and make a life for themselves. 


2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?


That’s an interesting question, and one I’ve given a great deal of thought the past year or so, although I’m still not sure I know the answer. I enjoy writing, be it academic or for pleasure. I’ve had several mental health/relationship type articles published in various print and online newsletters and magazines, and I would like to pursue that. I also enjoy writing fiction. I have a very rough idea for a fourth novel, and also some ideas for a series of short stories. I suppose the short answer is that I would like to pursue all of the above. I don’t really think about where my writing will take me so much as I think about what I’d like to do with it, if that makes sense. I don’t ever really think about the end of the journey; instead, I focus on the steps I’d like to take along the way. Wherever I end up…well, that’s where I’ll be.


3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

I seem to be compelled to write stories about people struggling to overcome trauma. I believe in the power of hope, and in the power to overcome the challenges set before us.


When I worked directly with clients I was often amazed at the strength and tenacity displayed by people who had undergone tremendous challenges. I’m inspired by their courage. If there is a message to my novels, I suppose it’s that there’s always hope. No matter how dark the days, no matter how awful the circumstances, there’s the possibility of a second chance. Life often doesn’t turn out the way we expected it to, or even the way we wanted it to. Bad things happen to good people, and sometimes life throws us a curveball so outside the realm of what we’d expected that it may seem there’s no point in continuing. But as long as we can draw breath, we can choose to do the best we can with what we have at that moment. Sometimes we have to let go of what life was supposed to be in order to appreciate it for what it is.

On a less abstract note, my publisher, Vanilla Heart Publishing, and I worked together last year to raise money for the Tipton County Adult Development Center (TCADC) in Covington, Tennessee. For several months, a percentage of the proceeds from Return to Crutcher Mountain was donated to the center. This is the center my brother attends, and funding is a constant issue. More recently, Vanilla Heart Publishing and I have discussed the possibility of a book of short stories featuring the people of Cedar Hollow, written by not only me, but also my family. All of the profits from this book will be donated to TCADC, which is currently raising funds for a new building (the old one is consumed with black mold). As you can imagine, this is a cause very dear to my heart!   

 

Would you like to find Melinda?

Check out the links to this talented author:

 

 

Melinda on Twitter

 

 

Melinda's Goodreads Blog

 

 

 Melinda's Wordpress Blog

Appalachian Justice on Amazon.com

Return to Crutcher Mountain on Amazon.com


Entangled Lives on Amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Thanks for joining us, Melinda!

 

Be sure to visit the Writers4Higher Market! We have gear for the writer in you.

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Rhett DeVane

Fiction with a Southern Twist

Writers4Higher blog

Rhett's Website

Rhett's funny Southern Blog