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Meet Author Sandra Beasley

How long do you take to complete a book?

I don’t think there is any one timeline to write a book, and for me it has varied wildly. When I was circulating my first poetry collection under the title I’d used for my thesis, Human Compromise, it contained many MFA-era poems. Eventually it contained hardly any of those poems; it was always evolving. A year before winning the New Issues Poetry Prize, Theories of Falling had been a finalist for the same contest with a different TOC and the title of The Reveal—which is why I always encourage people to re-submit where they’ve come close previously, and not be discouraged by Bridesmaid Syndrome.

In contrast, my second collection of poetry (I Was the Jukebox) was essentially written in a few intense one-month periods of drafting scattered over the course of a year and a half. The Barnard Women Poets Prize was one of the very first places I submitted. By the time I heard I had won, six month had passed and the manuscript already looked different. Among other factors, I’d begun a series of sestinas. So I had to forge a compromise between the book they’d taken and the book in my mind’s eye.

The process was different again for my memoir, Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. The book was sold on proposal, using an annotated outline and a sample chapter, and was shaped by editorial feedback from Crown. I had about a year to research, write, and revise 60,000 words of prose. It was an exhilarating challenge. Putting together a poetry collection has always felt like polishing individual beads, then threading them on a string. Putting together this nonfiction book felt like gathering up the ropes of memoir, science, and cultural history, then braiding them together.

What’s one rule you’re dying to break?

I need to do more trespassing. I’ve had a lot of good nights that could have been great nights if I’d just ventured over the fence, through the gate, or up on the roof.

Is there a genre you avoid?

I’ve drafted a few short stories thanks to the prompt of workshops, but whatever praise they garnered was usually code for “you write like a poet.” So now I read novels and short stories and respond unabashedly as a reader. I’m not putting myself in the author’s shoes in terms of craft. I’m not looking for techniques to steal. As a writer, I avoid fiction. As a reader, I love it.

What advice would you give young writers?

Prioritize your writing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up against deadline for something ostensibly more important—a term paper, a meeting, something for my job—and instead I took that extra half-hour to fine-tune a draft, or put a submission into the mail, or jot down a memory that might be relevant to an essay. No one will ever give you permission to prioritize your creative work, especially when you are just starting out. You have to fight for it. You have to say, “This matters.”

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

When I was in sixth grade, our elementary school brought in a local high-schooler to lead a poetry workshop. Toward the end of the year, he told us with great solemnity, “Don’t lose your passion.” I proceeded to quote that in my yearbook entry, which looked pretty goofy coming out of the mouth of a preteen. But he was on to something.

What would you like your life to look like in ten years?

That’s an interesting question for me, because I’m at an age (31) when people start to think about balancing their professional ambitions with their desire to start a family and put down some roots. Ten years from now I do want a community—a place where I have true friends, people familiar and dear, people who I’d happily host for a Sunday meal. Whether that translates to a traditional nuclear family, I don’t know yet.

It has been great to travel so much in the past year giving readings for I Was the Jukebox; I expect that travel to continue for Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl. You glimpse new places, you meet new people, you become a road warrior. But I don’t romanticize the effect it has on me as a well-rounded person hoping to have a domestic foundation. I don’t have any pets, much less children. And my only houseplant just bit the dust.

When are you the most productive?

Depends on which genre I am working in. For poetry, I’d rather write late at night when the buzz of the outside world has died down and my inspirations have reached wild, unruly critical mass. For nonfiction, I like to jump in first thing in the morning; often my goal is to think in a focused way, not an expansive one. Either way, when I’m really in the groove the hours can pass without me thinking to eat, drink, or get out of my seat.

What element would you add to your writing space if money weren’t an issue?

My ideal writing space is always high off the ground—my studio apartment is on the seventh floor of an apartment building—and I’d love to amplify that view by having a high-powered telescope. Plus a couch. Plus a few long empty tables, open to projects in progress. It’s funny, I judge luxury in terms of space rather than costly items: wall space for my art, shelf space for my books, flexible seating. That’s the city girl in me.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

Read! The more I’m reading, the more I’m able to write. And I take long walks around my neighborhood in Northwest Washington, DC. Some days I’ll go in the direction of the National Cathedral and the Georgetown waterfront; some days I’ll go down to the National Zoo and spend quality time with the cheetahs and peacocks. I ask questions. I talk to people who have jobs far, far away from what I do. I plunge into quirky pools of science and trivia. To write is an extension of one’s love affair with the world around us.

Author Bio

Sandra Beasley is the author of Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a memoir and cultural history of food allergy; I Was the Jukebox: Poems, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Theories of Falling: Poems, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. Honors for her work include selection for the 2010 Best American Poetry, the University of Mississippi Summer Poet in Residence position, a DCCAH Individual Artist Fellowship, the Friends of Literature Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and the Maureen Egen Exchange Award from Poets & Writers. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Visit Sandra here.

Meet Bestselling Author Sonya Sones

Do you begin with character or plot?

I write novels in verse, a series of poems which when read all in order tell a story. So I’ve always noodle around and written a handful of poems, waiting until the character sort of walked up and introduced herself to me, allowing me to hear her voice.

That’s how I began my latest novel, The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus (HarperCollins). Soon after “meeting” my narrator, Holly, I discovered the plot—a coming of middle-age story about learning to grow old disgracefully. By the end of the book, Holly has decided to become the kind of old woman that all the young women hope that they will become when they grow older. “Spanx?” she says. “No thanx!”

What book was the easiest to write? Hardest?

The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus was the easiest (and the most fun!) book for me to write, because the main character, Holly, is a poet, like me, and I’ve always wanted to write about writing poetry. Holly’s problems were familiar to me, since I’d been through so many of the same ones myself: going through menopause, stressing over my body falling apart, dealing with having an empty nest, caring for a sick mother who lives far away, being behind on a book deadline…

So, because of that, The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus was the easiest book for me to write. But it was also the most difficult. It wasn’t easy to allow Holly to tell the whole truth—about her insecurities, fantasies and deepest yearnings—because I was painfully aware that people reading my book would assume that all the most humiliating parts were based on my feelings and experiences. And on my body! Even the most sophisticated readers fall into this trap…
But when I was writing this novel, it felt especially important for me to let Holly be totally honest about what it’s like to grow older. I wanted the women who discovered my novel to know that they weren’t in this thing alone, that someone else truly understood what they were going through.

What was the best thing that happened to you this weekend? Why?

I got a beautiful letter from a woman who had read The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus who said, “I am SO loving your book – I am headed to the hospital tomorrow because instead of fighting menopause, I am fighting cancer and having this book of yours makes me laugh, cry and forget all my troubles.” Receiving a letter like this one makes all the hard work more than worthwhile.

Describe your perfect day.

Write a few good pages, water the garden, take a bicycle ride on the bike path down at the beach, play some “Oh hell” or ping pong with the family, cook a rosemary garlic rack of lamb and a berry crumble with my daughter, for my husband and my son, and then…go contra dancing! (What is contra dancing? Here’s what it looks like.

What advice would you give young writers?

I would tell them to read. A lot! And don’t be discouraged if your first draft isn’t as brilliant as you hoped it would be. My first draft always stinks. But I just keep on working on it, revising it until it gets better, and better, and eventually I start to like it…Also, find some other people who are into writing, and form a critique group with them, so you can get some feedback on your work.

Do you let anyone read your work-in-progress? Or do you keep it a secret?

I share my work with two different critique groups on alternate weeks, so I get terrific feedback once a week. This is an invaluable part of my process. I’m so lucky to have such brilliant writers commenting on my work and helping me to make it better!

What element would you add to your writing space if money wasn’t an issue?

A wood-burning fireplace.

What do you consider to be the most valuable thing you own?

My family photo albums and my home movies. They would definitely be the first things tossed into the car if a fire was approaching my house. My computer would be right after that, or at least my external hard drive.

What one word describes you? Why?

Worrywart. But, oh dear, what if that’s actually two words? Is that cheating? (See? I’m even worrying about that!)

What would you like your life to look like in ten years?

I would like to be healthy, I would like my family to be healthy, I would like to have at least two grandchildren, and be in the middle of writing a fabulous novel, the words flowing out of me like lava from an active volcano…

What’s the first item on your bucket list?

The first item on my bucket list is:
Write a bucket list.

From idea to completion, how long does it take to write a book?

Too long—anywhere from a year and a half to two and half years. But I’m working on becoming the kind of author who writes a book a year. (That’s the second item on my bucket list.)

Easier to write before or after you were published?

It was hard to write before I got published and hard to write after I got published. Hard, but satisfying, and sometimes even thrilling!

If you could spend a vacation with three authors, who would they be?

Truman Capote, W. Somerset Maugham, and Colette—how fascinating it would be to see those three interact!

Tell us about the book you’re working on.

The novel I’m writing now, about a really big liar, has been a departure from my usual “character before plot” method. I’ve actually got the whole story mapped out ahead of time. And so far, at least, it seems to be making the writing go much more quickly. Which is a very good thing, since it is due in December!

Daily word count?

Not enough! Which is why I better get back to work—right now!

Author Bio

Sonya Sones was born in Boston and overprotected in the nearby suburb of Newton. Before becoming a poet, Sonya was a struggling poet. She was also an animator, a baby clothes mogul, and taught filmmaking at Harvard University. Then, she moved to L.A. to work as Martin Scorsese’s personal assistant—but was soon fired, because she was lousy at bringing coffee.

Sonya went on to work as the still photographer, a production assistant on a Woody Allen movie, and a film editor. But eventually, she gave up showbiz to become a young adult verse novelist. Her books have frequently been honored by the American Library Association, and have been highly successful, despite the fact that there are no vampires in them:

Her first novel, Stop Pretending, received a Christopher Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Visit Sonya here.

Meet Bestselling Author Sara Shepard

Do you begin with character or plot?

It depends. With Pretty Little Liars, I began with the kernel of an idea–girls stalked by an anonymous text-messager they think is their missing best friend. Quickly after that, though, I developed the characters and who they were about. When I work on my adult novels, I usually think about characters first and then put them in certain situations. Often, I think about themes first of all– for instance, in The Visibles, my first adult novel, I knew I wanted to write about mental illness. For The Lying Game, my second YA series, I knew I wanted to write about class differences. That isn’t plot, per se, but it gives me a framework and a direction to go in.

Tell us about the book you’re working on.

Well, I’m working on several things at once right now—revisions for Pretty Little Liars 10, Ruthless, The Lying Game #3, Two Truths and a Lie, and my adult novel, which is untitled. RUTHLESS picks up where the girls have discovered yet another new A who knows about the horrible thing they did in Jamaica. A fun fact about RUTHLESS is that Ezra, everyone’s favorite on the TV show, comes back into the mix as Aria’s romantic lead. My adult novel is about both young and older characters in a small town. An abortion clinic features prominently. It’s about love and loss and doing the right thing even if it’s against your principles.

What advice would you give young writers?

Everyone says “write what you know,” and although I think that’s important, I think it’s interesting to write what you DON’T know, too—it helps you expand as a writer. I’ve never investigated a murder or even known anyone was murdered (knock on wood), but it’s been fun to imagine how I would feel, emotionally, if I were in that situation. I think that writers, especially young writers, feel limited by “write what you know” because not much has happened to them yet! So write wherever your imagination takes you, but don’t forget to have life experiences as well. That can help your writing in the future.

Another piece of advice: imitate writers when you’re starting out. I didn’t have a “voice” for a long time, so I copied other’s voices. I especially loved Vladimir Nabokov and Tom Robbins when I was in high school. When I was younger, I imitated Judy Blume and Paula Danziger. By picking apart styles and the way writers you admire construct a story you’re actually gleaning a ton of knowledge about what makes a good book. I’m not saying go out there and plagiarize– not at all! But imitating voices is a great exercise to get you writing.

What’s the first item on your bucket list?

Actually, this is kind of weird, but when I was younger I really wanted to be on a TV show. Well, a soap opera, specifically. So I’ve achieved that by playing a tiny role on season one of “Pretty Little Liars.” I will never be an actress—I was kicked out of the school play in seventh grade for talking– but it was so much fun being on the set, going to hair and makeup, having a trailer, and even having lines to memorize!

Another item on my bucket list is a little strange though perhaps not unreachable anymore: I’d love to have livestock. Like goats, maybe, or alpacas or llamas. Something that has wool and likes people. My husband and I just bought seven acres of land, so maybe I can achieve this someday! (Of course, I’m not sure my husband is really keen on having animals besides dogs, so we’ll see.)

Do you let anyone read your work-in-progress? Or do you keep it a secret?

I generally don’t let people read my work-in-progress unless it’s at a place where I think there’s a good break. I let my mom read the first half of “The Visibles” and then we talked through the rest of the book. I’ve let my agent read other novels in progress, but it’s only after I’ve combed through the writing to make sure the sentences make sense. My husband sometimes reads my Pretty Little Liars outlines, but I usually don’t show him the manuscript until it’s in its second or third revision.

Outliner or seat-of-the-pantser?

I am an outliner of my YA books but a little more loose with adult. Outlining is definitely smarter and saves you a lot of time. My problem is that, especially with my adult novels, which follow less of a formula, for lack of a better word, than the PLL books, I can outline the book to its end and I still think of ways that I want to change it midway through. That happens with PLL too, I suppose, but for some reason it seems like more of an arduous and slow process with the adult books.

What element would you add to your writing space if money wasn’t an issue?

I would love a Herman Miller Aeron chair. Boring, I know, but I had one at a job I worked at and loved it. I’d also love a beautiful view. But I think once we moved I’ll get this– we’ll be nestled in the woods, so I’ll most likely be looking at a large tree.

In grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be all kinds of things when I grew up in grade school—a Lego designer, a soap opera star, an artist, a filmmaker, a biologist a doctor. I knew I wanted to write, too, but I never really thought, “I’m going to be a novelist.” My fourth grade teacher did tell my mom that she knew she’d see books on the shelves with my name on them someday, though. Who knew she’d be
right?

Easier to write before or after you were published?

It’s been easy both before and after. Now that I am published and have deadlines, I’m definitely motivated. Before, I was in an MFA program, which had deadlines, too, in a way—we had to write several short stories each semester. Before the MFA, I mostly wrote journal entries and very very short stories. I was always writing, though.

Daily word count?

I don’t do daily word count. If I’m on a deadline I often do daily chapter count—I try to work on at least a chapter and a half a day. In revisions, it’s much more than that, because some chapters need a lot less work. But generally I don’t pay much attention to word count.

About Sara

Sara Shepard has been writing for as long as she can remember, though when she was young, the things she wanted to be when she grew up were a soap opera star, a designer for LEGO, a filmmaker, a claymation artist, a geneticist, and a fashion magazine editor. She and her sister have been creating joint artistic and written projects for years, except they’re pretty sure they’re the only ones who find them funny. She got her MFA at Brooklyn College and now lives outside Philadelphia, PA with her husband and dogs. The Visibles/ All The Things We Didn’t Say is her first novel for adults. Pretty Little Liars, her bestselling young adult series, is loosely based on her experiences growing up on Philadelphia’s Main Line…although luckily she never had any serious stalkers.

Visit Sara here.

Meet Award-Winning Author Elizabeth Partridge

How many words do you write each day?
I’m a very irregular writer. I really believe it is important to write every day, but it’s a constant battle for me, even at this point in my career. The best help for me is a looming deadline. I suddenly get much more focused and prolific.

Are you an outliner or a seat-of-the-pants writer?
I toggle back and forth. I write for a bit, then try to sit back and look at what I am doing and where I am going, then I plunge back in. When I do nonfiction I am more organized, because there is a lot that can’t be changed: the facts are the facts. I have great admiration for people who are good at outlining.

How long do you take to complete a book?
This really varies for me. I’ve done a book in as short as nine months, and as long as three years. I usually start with research, and have to tear myself away at a certain point to get to the writing. My latest novel, Dogtag Summer, was years in the making. I overheard a Vietnam veteran talking about his experience during the war and it really stuck with me while I worked on other books.

Finally I felt ready to tackle the subject. I went to Vietnam to do research, read tons of books, interviewed people. Then I began writing. It took me many drafts while the characters and situations changed. Finally I was happy with it, and sent it to my editor. She had me do a fair amount of rewriting, and then I was really happy with it.

In grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
I don’t remember wanting to be anything in particular. What I do remember is what I didn’t want to be. I didn’t want to be self-employed because my father was a freelance photographer and he worked so hard to support and raise the five of us kids. When I got to high school, I was afraid of ending up doing some kind of meaningless work. I had to take typing in high school, but I flunked it on purpose. I was afraid that I would end up a secretary. Needless to say, I was sorry later that I didn’t learn to type then, given the amount of time I spend on a keyboard now.

After college I went to Great Britain and studied Chinese medicine. I became an acupuncturist (self-employed), which I did (and loved) for 22 years. I didn’t get interested in writing books until I was in my mid-thirties. Now I am am a full-time writer, self-employed. I wasn’t cut out to be an employee.

Do you begin with character or plot?
I always begin with character when I write a novel. The plot part is harder for me.

What was the best thing that happened to you this weekend? Why?
This weekend was incredible because my birding son discovered there is a pair of barn owls nesting in a huge palm tree about three houses away from where we live. After it got dark we lay on the sidewalk (we’re in the city, but it’s a quiet street) and watched the parents fly in and out of the tree feeding the noisy owlets.

What’s one rule you’re dying to break?
I’ve always wanted to write my name in fresh cement. When we had to patch our driveway I wrote my initials in the wet cement, but it wasn’t that thrilling, because it wasn’t a sidewalk. I don’t think you can mess up a beautiful, smooth, freshly poured sidewalk unless you are a kid, or the guilt would be a killer. I missed my chance.

What one word describes you? Why?
I think I need two: curious and stubborn. Both of them keep me going, and get me into trouble.

Author Bio
Elizabeth Partridge is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, including Dogtag Summer and Marching to Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary, as well as biographies of Dorothea Lange, Woody Guthrie, and John Lennon. Her books have received many honors, including National Book Award Finalist, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Michael L. Printz Honor, and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. Elizabeth is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults.

Visit Elizabeth here.

Meet Award-Winning Author Eileen Spinelli

If you could only write one more book what would it be about?

I’d like to explore the spiritual life of a kid. Even as a small child I had a sense that there was a grace to life…something “more”. But I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Do you begin with character or plot?

Most always character.

Describe your perfect day.

My favorite days are those that are most ordinary. Morning tea…a good writing session…reading on the porch…puttering in my small herb garden…watching a Netflix movie with my husband, Jerry…some time with family or friends…

What was the best thing that happened to you this weekend?

I got to ride the merry-go-round with our youngest grandchild, Lulu.

Who inspires you and how are you a bit like them?

My husband, Jerry, inspires me. We both love language. We both work whether we “feel like it” or not.

What advice would you give young writers?

Read. It’s the best way to learn how to write. Also… find your own voice and trust it.

What was the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?

Hmmmm…probably seaweed. Not that weird, really.

What was the best writing advice you ever received?

To focus more on the process…the work itself and to worry less about getting published.

What would you like your life to look like in ten years.

Peaceful. Content. Lots of time with family and friends. Lots of time to read…think. Still learning new things.

What’s the first item on your bucket list.

To see a whale in the wild.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

Read. Also watch documentaries about the other arts….painting, acting, directing films, dance etc.

Do you let anyone read your WIP?

Yes. My husband Jerry. And I read his in progress.

Outliner or seat-of-the-pantser?

A little of each.

What would you add to your writing space if money wasn’t an issue?

I would hire an organizer/architect to design my space so that I would have a good place for everything.

In grade school what did you want to be when you grew up?

From the time I was five or six I knew I wanted to become a writer. I simply fell in love with books and story. Spent lots of time at the town library. (No school libraries back then)

Earliest childhood memory?

I was four years old and over at my friend Mary Ann’s apartment. We were sitting on the living room sofa with our dolls and on the coffee table in front of us was a glass covered candy dish. Mary Ann and I ate every piece of candy in it and got in trouble.

What is your secret talent?

I know the words to lots of old Broadway songs.

If this were your last day on earth what would you do?

I would gather up as many of the people I love as possible and I would tell them how beautiful they are and I would make ice cream sundaes for us all.

If you could spend a vacation with three authors, who would they be?

Since I get to spend time with the authors I know and love anyway…I will choose three authors I don’t know personally. Who knows–maybe they will invite us to vacation with them sometime. Ha! Diane Ackerman…Ken Burns…Barbara Brown Taylor

About Eileen
Eileen Spinelli was born in Philadelphia. She grew up in small towns outside the city. As a kid she loved paper dolls and books and tea parties and playing dress up. Back then her dad was a welder who studied at night school to become an engineer. Her mom was a homemaker. On summer days she and her mom would walk down to Cobb’s Creek Park and pick dandelions to make salad. Eileen’s worst subject in school was math. It still is.

But—she won first prize—a fifty dollar savings bond– in a high school poetry contest. Immediately she cashed it in and bought a used typewriter and a pair of red high heels. She published in a “real” magazine when she was 18. She celebrated at the local donut shop. Along the way to becoming a full-time writer she worked as a waitress, a secretary, a deli clerk and a receptionist. She is mother to six children and “Granny” to 21 grandchildren. She is married to fellow author, Jerry Spinelli—whom she almost always beats at Scrabble.

Visit Eileen here.

Meet Award-Winning Author Steve Nedelton

What initially drew you to writing?

I started reading when I was ten, I believe. I received these birthday gifts, including Tom Sawyer, then a year later, The Three Musketeers, and so on. At first, it was hard for me to concentrate, in fact, I hated reading. But then, gradually, I began to love good novels. They were fun. Zane Grey became one of my favorite writers. I still remember how I got the lunch money from my grandmother and spent it on books about cowboys and Indians. And that’s how my interest in writing started too. I had a couple of friends who were real avid readers by thirteen, and so we started inventing stories and writing them, then reading our creations to our group and correcting each other.

Where do you get your ideas?

My ideas for books come mostly from the Online news. And from some research. For example, I found an interesting sentence about the supernatural in a ten-year-old newspaper, and that gave me the inspiration for Crossroads. Other times, the process is quite spontaneous, though that’s pretty rare. Also, such self-generated ideas are rarely good for a full novel but they can be quite useful in writing parts of a book. The beginning of my new novel I am presently writing, Tunnel, was based on a spontaneous thought.

Who is your favorite author?

I like Harlan Coben because I like thrillers, and I liked Grisham in some of his early novels too. I cannot say that I have a favorite author, it’s more like, I have great appreciation for any author of a well-written book.

Are your characters completely fictional? Or do you base them off real people?

My characters are only partly fictional. I always use someone I knew in the past to describe my hero or heroine. The physical description might not be exact but their way of thinking, or general behavior, might be close to what I remember. I can say that a totally factious personality is very difficult to use in a book. Very few writers can come up with a completely new character and make it believable to readers.

What advice would you give young writers?

I would say that anyone interested in becoming proficient in writing needs to read a lot. A variety of books. I believe the style and a vocabulary come from reading.

Tell us about the book you’re working on.

I am presently writing a suspense novel, another thriller. A book called Tunnel. It starts with a ten-year-old boy going into an abandoned coal mine entry/tunnel to find guns soldiers stole and hid inside the storage enclosures used for mine equipment. He gets caught by an AWOL officer who looted a nearby city bank and hid the coffers with gold in there. That’s how the story starts and then turns into a thriller. The first part of the book, the description of the entry into the tunnel leading into the abandoned coal mine, was truly quite spontaneous. All the rest of the events came to me by speculating on what would be interesting to readers of crime novels. So far, I have twenty five thousand words, so, I am still able to experiment with the content.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve ever received?

I think the most valuable advice was to have my books professionally edited before submitting them to a publisher. No matter how interesting the content might be, grammar and punctuation must be correct otherwise the submittal looks unprofessional.

What book was the easiest to write? Hardest?

Each book I wrote in the past five years was tough to write. It took a lot of time and new thinking. Ideas were the most difficult part, I guess. I believe that comes from trying to find the best ones and then fitting them into the general story.

When are you the most productive?

I believe I am the most productive late in the evening. Everything is quiet, naturally, and I am able to concentrate on my story. Mornings are sometimes good too.

Author Bio

Steven Nedelton is an accredited author writing super suspenseful hits loaded with intrigue. Included in his works are: “Crossroads,” “The Raven Affair,” “Fear!” and the new thriller novel, “Tunnel / The Lost Diary.” During the late fifties, he lived in Paris and London for three years. His familiarity with French customs and people are reflected in the “Crossroads” thriller (originally “Secrets of the house on Liberty Street”).

Visit Steve here.

Meet NY Bestselling Author Lisa McMann

Was it easier to write before or after you were published?
After. Learning how to write a novel is a new experience every time you start one. But I have to say that the more novels I write, the easier they are to write. That’s not to say the subject matters become easier, but just the act of sitting down and feeling confident that I can actually start something that will eventually take up 300 printed pages. And having a deadline is wonderful for me and the way I work. I thrive on a looming deadline. It’s one of the reasons I started writing two books a year (my spring teen thrillers, and my fall middle grade fantasy series).

Daily word count?
I don’t actually write every day. I go through writing periods, and when I’m in one of those periods I write probably between 2000 and 4000 words a day. When I’m not writing, I’m usually editing one of my upcoming teen or middle grade books, or I’m out touring.

What element would you add to your writing space if money wasn’t an issue?
I’d love one of those treadmill desks. I know you can make them if you already have a treadmill, but I don’t. I think I’d have better posture if I used one of these.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?
I go to the movies, or read a book for fun — sometimes one of the books I loved as a kid/teen. Other people’s creativity is very inspiring to me.

Is there a genre you avoid?
I thought I didn’t like sci-fi until I read Amy Kathleen Ryan’s GLOW (Sky Chasers series), which comes out Sept 27th, 2011. It’s amazing! Not sure if I’ll ever write anything like it, though. Other than that, I like most things unless they are super wordy. I don’t have a great attention span so the book has to really grab me.

What is your secret talent?
Ping pong. (Okay, I’m not that great at it, but I surprised the heck out of my son when I smucked him a couple years ago. He can beat me now.)

Do you write with music?
Not usually. I find it hard to concentrate. But I often have songs that I listen to before writing because they are inspiring, or they help me create the mood and tone of the piece I’m working on.

Author Bio
Lisa McMann is the New York Times bestselling author of the WAKE trilogy and CRYER’S CROSS. Her first book for middle grade is a suspenseful dystopian fantasy called THE UNWANTEDS (releases 8/30). It’s the first in a series. Lisa lives with her husband, two teenagers, and two cats (Big Kitty and Fat Princess) in the Phoenix area.

Visit Lisa here.

Meet NY Times Bestselling Author Diane Duane

What initially drew you to writing?
I think the realization, when I was very young, that nobody seemed to be writing exactly what I wanted to read. I wrote my first novel when I was about eight –I say “novel” advisedly: I thought of it as a book, though it was only about thirty pages long. (Don’t ask me what it was about… that I don’t remember.) But I illustrated it myself, and drew a cover for it, because I thought that was what you had to do if you wanted to write books. It makes me laugh a little, because now that I’m bringing out some of my own books in new editions, I’m doing the same thing… just with better tools.

What was your favorite book to write?
That’s a hard question to answer – it’s kind of like asking a parent which of their children is the favorite. In terms of work in other peoples’ universes, I think my favorite was probably SPOCK’S WORLD: I love Star Trek very much, and getting a chance to write a whole book about Vulcan (and Vulcans) was a lot of fun. In terms of my own original worlds, again it’s hard to choose – but I had a whole lot of fun just now with A WIZARD OF MARS, which was the ninth of the Young Wizards books. They seem to be getting more fun as I go along.

Who is your favorite author?
I have a lot of authors I read again and again – greats like Kipling and Twain and Dickens, and contemporaries like Tanith Lee, C. J. Cherryh: also Robert Heinlein, C. S. Lewis, Fletcher Pratt… so many others. But for sheer escapism, I always seem to turn to E. R. Eddison – especially the Zimiamvian Trilogy and THE WORM OUROBOROS. Eddison is one of those writers who deserves to be much better known. When Tolkien was just getting his first book published, Eddison was the hottest new name in fantasy, and Tolkien’s publisher asked him to write a blurb for THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. Someone like that is worth reading…

Where do you get your ideas?
A lot of them come from the news. In fact it’s kind of hard for me to go through a normal day without getting an idea for a novel or a short story or something similar. The problem is that it’s easy to have ideas: they’re a dime a dozen. Working out what to do with them, and then doing it well enough to be worth showing to other people – that’s what’s really hard.

Tell us about the book you’re working on.
I’ve just barely finished pulling together an anthology of some of my fantasy short stories, called UPTOWN LOCAL AND OTHER INTERVENTIONS, and now I’m busy with the tenth Young Wizards novel, which is called GAMES WIZARDS PLAY. (At least that’s the working title: if I find a better one while I’m working, I don’t mind changing it.) It has to do with a periodic meeting of the most talented young wizards on the planet as they compete to create spells powerful enough to change the world. But there’s a lot more than that going on around the edges.

The participants find themselves caught up into a completely different level of competition, first among themselves, and then against other powers that become involved in what’s called “the Invitational”. And as a result, some of the personal business that’s been set up in the last few books among the main characters starts to develop in some very unusual directions… I hope you’ll forgive me for being sort of vague about this, but the subject is strewn with possible spoilers and I want to avoid making the Young Wizards fandom crazy….

What advice would you give young writers?
To become a better writer, you need to read widely. Read not only things you like, but things you think you won’t be interested in. And especially, read outside of your main period of interest. Every literary time period has its own fads, mannerisms and blind spots: it also has kinds of writing it does better than any other time period. Learn from the mistakes (and virtues) of older writers and you can add the virtues to your own skill set while avoiding the errors.

As you start to improve your grasp of what constitutes good writing… write. Write every day. One of my mentors told me, “The first million words are for practice.” I would add a corollary to that: I don’t think it’s possible to write a million words – assuming you’re also seeking out good writers to read and learn from — without becoming at least a pretty fair writer. So get started.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve ever received?
A very senior writer once told me never to be satisfied with what I wrote yesterday – to always, while rereading and revising, look for ways to do it better the next time. Swing out further, be bolder thematically, try harder to craft the perfect sentence or paragraph, challenge your characters in ways you didn’t think to challenge them yesterday, deal with subjects that scare you or that feel like they’ll be difficult to handle. Don’t be afraid to fail at this. If you do fail, don’t be frustrated: try again, and next time, fail better. The only writer who’s failed is the one who’s stopped trying to surpass himself or herself.

When are you the most productive? (Morning, noon, or night?)
Afternoons, usually. Mornings around our place tend to get taken up with household stuff, for me at least. By early afternoon I can settle in and get serious work done. Normally I write for five or six hours at a clip before needing to knock off and get something to eat.

Are your characters completely fictional? Or do you base them off real people?
Characters I like are sometimes partially based on real people. In fact it would be safe to say that the only real people who make it into my books are friends of mine. People I don’t like in the real world never make it into my books, either as good guys or bad guys. Generally speaking, though, most of my characters are composites of many people that I’m acquainted with or just know about.

Dream vacation?
Two possible answers to this: a vacation that might happen in the medium-term future, and one that I’d really like to have but don’t know if I can find time or opportunity. In the first case: there’s a beautiful, isolated spa town in the Swiss Alps called Leukerbad. I’d love to go up there for about ten days and do nothing but soak in hot water and develop new story ideas. (The banner image in the left-hand column at DianeDuane.com was taken up there.) In the second case – I’d like to rent an RV and drive around central Europe for a few months with my husband, shopping in local food markets, cooking and eating the local foods, and blogging about it…. And then write a cookbook about it afterwards.

Author Bio
Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than thirty years. Besides the 1980′s creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she’s best known, the “Middle Kingdoms” epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a considerable amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

Diane is currently running a contest in conjunction with the announcement of her latest book title. If you’d like another chance to enter, click here.

Meet Award-Winning Author Donna Jo Napoli

Daily word count?
You know, I’m OCD (or anal or whatever other label people are using now) in lots of ways, but counting words isn’t one of them. I have no idea of an average, even. Some days I don’t get a chance to sit down and write and other days I get to write all day long. If I write a whole chapter in a day that’s a huge day.

Outliner or seat-of-the-pantser?
No outlines, that’s for sure. Once an editor and I were wrangling over a draft (maybe it was the 4th or 5th draft) and she asked me to outline it at that point. I tried. I swear I tried. But after working at it a while, I found it so very deadening that I threw up my hands in despair. Some people have the skill of outlining. I’m not one.

But I do a lot of research before I write even a single word. So it’s not really seat-of-the-pants, either. I start with the first sentence and keep going — but I know my character and I know my character’s world (time and place) — so that’s a foundation.

What element would you add to your writing space if money wasn’t an issue?
Water. I love the sea. I’d love to be able to write in a room with a view of the sea.

From idea to completion, how long does it take to write a book?
It varies a lot. but probably an average is around 2 and a half years. But I’m not working on only one book in that period. When I finish a draft of a book, I need to get away from it — find some distance. And I find that by working on a draft of a different book. Within a year’s period I’ll often have worked on three stories, sometimes four.

In grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
Alive. Because that seemed like a good thing. And it did not seem something to take for granted in the world I lived in. A mother. Because that’s what all the women I saw were — except the teachers — and everyone felt sorry for the teachers.

Easier to write before or after you were published?
No difference here. Writing is never easy for me. It’s natural — but like a compulsion — always (slightly if not greatly) uneasy.

Earliest childhood memory?
Sitting on the floor listening to my brother play the piano. He was brilliant. All my siblings were brilliant. The world seemed packed with brilliant people who simply knew how to do things.

Would you rather publish a string of mainstream books or one classic?
This is such a strange question to me. It is geared toward how books are received. I don’t write based on how things are received. I write because I have to, because I’d die if I didn’t. I write as often as I can. I don’t care whether I spent the rest of my life writing one book or dozens of books, so long as I always have something to write.

As for mainstream: I don’t care about getting rich (I have a salary — from my teaching linguistics job — and in my view of the world, a salary makes me automatically “rich”). As for classic: I don’t care about being remembered (I’ll be dead, then, so what’s with that?).

If you could only write one more book, what would it be about?
Maybe the book that’s in my head that I’m afraid to write because I think it will wash me away, out to sea. It’s set in 1945. That’s all I can say about it. And now that I have admitted this, I guess I have no choice but to start it. Good grief, what have you done to me, woman?

Do you begin with character or plot?
Character. Unless I’m doing a fairy tale — then the plot is handed to me at the outset.

Tell us about the book you’re working on.
It’s under a pseudonym, so if I tell, I’ll blow my cover. This is new for me. But I have some stories to tell that I wouldn’t want anyone with past expectations about my writing to wander into. And I wouldn’t want children to wander into them unprepared.

Describe your perfect day.
Get up early, with the birds. Write until my husband wakes up. Have breakfast together. Play. Go back to writing. Have lunch together. Play. Go back to writing. Make dinner together. Take a long walk together. Read. Go to bed.

Play = play with grandchildren (if it’s the luckiest of the perfect days — my grandchildren live far away), garden, do the laundry, wash the bathrooms and stairs, bake bread, chop vegetables, prepare classes, grade papers, do email, all those nice little tasks of daily life.

What was the best thing that happened to you this weekend? Why?
I was at the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference in Homer, Alaska. I saw a mother moose and her calf. I love animals. And seeing a wild moose up close with this spindly-legged calf behind her was just the best.

Who inspires you and how are you a bit like them?
Just being alive inspires me. I don’t think I’m like any of the authors I love.

Where do you get your ideas?
Just by living.

What advice would you give young writers?
Write all the time. Every sort of thing. Take something complex that you know how to do (making an origami frog, building a birdhouse, whatever) and write directions for doing it. Then have someone who has never done it try to do it following your directions. You’ll see what you left out, how you worded something in a confusing or vague way. It’s a great exercise for learning to write precisely what you mean.

What was the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?
Tripe (but it’s weird only from an American perspective — I hate it, by the way).

What do you consider to the most valuable thing you own?
A ring that was my mother-in-law’s.

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Write what only you can write.

What one word describes you? Why?
Frenetic. But it’s just that I’m a high energy person, so others think I’m frenetic.

What would you like your life to look like in ten years?
Much like today — only I hope I get to see my grandchildren more often.

Most embarrassing moment?
There have been so many. I’m always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

What’s the first item on your bucket list?
Is this the list of “to-do-before-I-die”? I don’t think I have such a list.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?
They never run out. Sometimes I get tired. Writing usually brings back my energy.

What book was the easiest to write? Hardest?
THE MAGIC CIRCLE just flowed out of me. NORTH — I had a very naturalistic first half of the book, then a very fantastical second half — and I couldn’t make them hold hands. Finally, I gave up and just made the whole book realistic.

Do you let anyone read your work-in-progress? Or do you keep it a secret?
I inflict my first drafts on my family.
I read my second drafts to school children.
I have no secrets.

What is your secret talent?
Like I said, I have no secrets.

What’s one rule you’re dying to break?
One of my biggest problems is that I’m unaware — so I rarely know there’s a rule out there — and so I wind up breaking them all the time. But I’m not happy about doing it. I don’t try to. It just happens.

If this was your last day on Earth, what would you do?
Gather my family and cook and eat together.

What initially drew you to writing?
A personal tragedy.

If you could spend a vacation with three authors, who would they be?
Jerry and Eileen Spinelli for two — since they are our best friends. And Rita Dove for a third, since I just met her in Alaska and I find her wonderful.

Author Bio
Donna Jo Napoli is professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, mother of five, grandmother of two, and author of more than seventy books for pre-K through high school. Her work ranges from gothic horror to contemporary humor, and she loves to swim in traditional tales — religious, folk, fairy, mythological.

She has three works coming out in summer 2011: LIGHTS ON THE NILE, a novel set in 2530 BC in Egypt; THE CROSSING, a picture book about the Lewis and Clark expedition from the point of view of the baby on Sacagawea’s back; TREASURY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY, a set of tales about gods, goddesses, and heroes, woven together in what she hopes is a coherent whole.

Visit Donna here.