If you’ve ever wanted to ask me a question about writing, my books, publishing, almost anything, here’s your chance!
Okay, I confess. The weeks since my last post here seems to have disappeared sooooo fast, I actually had no idea what to post about this time! Well, I DID get an idea, thought “Oh, great, that’s what I’ll do my Inspy post on,” then a couple of hours later had completely forgotten.
I guess that’s what juggling characters and settings and plots for three completely different stories can do to a girl. Especially one who’s something of a sieve brain at the best of times!
Must. Write. Everything. Down.
Then this morning during my quiet time when I asked what I should write about, I recalled not my idea from yesterday, but how much fun it was when other authors did these “Ask me anything” sessions.
So here goes. Ask me anything!
One comment made on this post by March 8 will be randomly chosen to win the reader’s choice of my paperback books, provided the winner has a mailing address in a country Amazon.com will post to!
USA Today bestselling author Autumn Macarthur writes romances full of faith and hope, celebrating God's love as well as a man and a woman finding their happily ever after. She prays they’ll warm your heart and make you smile. An Australian transplanted to Britain, Autumn lives just north of London with her lovely English husband and three demanding cats, in a very small house with a teensy tiny garden. She loves talking to readers, so please get in touch! And get a free Christian romance novella when you sign up for her reader newsletter at http://bit.ly/Autumnsubscribe
How much input do you have as regards cover design?
What’s your favorite character you have ever written?
Was it hard to move from Australia to England and did you know anyone there before you moved?
Whats the most unusual place you got inspiration for a book?
Hi Autumn, how much control do you have over your stories when you publish through Amazon? Do you get to choose price, marketing, if you want the story to not be available (please don’t do that btw!!) or if you want to make it part of a box set etc?
First day of Autumn here, was a scorcher! 2 more days till it cools down again!
Blessings:)
What a great idea….and looks like you will have your hands full answering all this questions, so I won’t add to the mix, lol. Sending prayers for you and your cast of characters!!❤️
Hi Autumn! What inspired you to write a series with a department store British setting? Are British stores different than Australian stores? Thanks for a fun informative blog. Best wishes.
My question isn’t exciting, but I always wonder how long you’ve been married to your husband.
What do you do when you feel like you’ve hit a mental block?
How do you relax and escape from all your hard work?
When did you first realize that you could make writing your career?
Wow, what a bunch of interesting questions already! I can’t wait to pop back later and read Autumn’s replies!
I think I might have read the answer to my question before, but I’m asking anyway because I can’t remember. LOL
How did you come to be published in the US? Maybe all authors are, and I just don’t realize it.
Who was your first publisher? Was it Heartsong Presents?
I agree, if I don’t write things down, well, things go into outer space. LOL
How do you feel about doing research?
I think I would get so involved into my research that I wouldn’t get to my writing. LOL
I know it happens when I quilt, I can get so engrossed in what I am researching for a specific thing, suddenly I realize that the day is gone and I haven’t started yet. LOL
Hi Autumn–Do you have a recurring theme that shows up in your books organically? Like best friends to wedding–reunited loves? Just curious! Thanks. :)
Hi!
I’m wondering how long does it take you from first draft to polished manuscript done and dusted?
What is one of your favourite memories from when you were young – let’s say under 12 years old?
LOL, I get total input, Mary! I make my own covers, mostly, with the exception of multi-author series, which are done by our talented Marion Ueckermann!
My early series have quite a different cover style to my newer series, reflecting that I learned better ways to do covers.
I just redid all the covers for my Scottish series, The Macleans, for that reason.
Oh, sorry, Cassandra, that’s an almost impossible question to answer. Like asking a mom which child is her favorite!
The true answer would be – the character I’m currently working with. Right now, that’s a whole bunch of different characters. Isabella Rossi and a former beau Giovanni Bartolini for a followup novelette in the A Tuscan Legacy series.
And for Chapel Cove, a three-author project to launch later this month, some really fun characters, especially eccentric Aunt Ivy!
Great question, Lori!
My dad is English, so I have dual citizenship, which made things a lot easier! I knew I’d always come here someday, because as a little girl, I promised my English grandfather I’d visit one day. Unfortunately by the time I made it here as an adult, he’d long since passed on and I’d never met any of my other English relatives, who live in the north while I was committed to working in the south.
At first, I’d only intended a one year working holiday, so I rented out my house in Australia, got a year’s leave from my job, and arrived with no idea I’d end up staying! Despite the same language, England and Australia are very different, so it was definitely something of an adventure.
Then by the end of the year, I’d fallen in love with a very English Englishman, which made staying longer a no-brainer. Almost twenty-three years later, I’m still here!
What’s your all time favorite book, and why?? Or, even, what was your favorite as a child, then on up??
Oh, wow! Great question, Jenny, and one I need to ponder!
It’s hard for me to say where specifically story ideas come from. They just come. LOL, far more than I can keep up with, I have a huge file of story ideas!
The only story I can currently dredge up any memory of what inspired it is His Father’s Son. I was watching Britain’s Got Talent at my mother-in-law’s, and one of the performers was a disabled teenager comedian. That made me keen to write a story with a similar character, though Josh is nothing like the comedian I saw. And then my hubby came home from a visit to the garden centre raving about the miniature pet pigs he’d seen and wouldn’t it be great if we could get one.
LOL, as we live in a tiny house with a tiny unfenced yard, and I’m pretty sure a pet pig wouldn’t be allowed anyway, the answer to that was “Great, but we really can’t!” So we have a fictional pig instead, in Patty Pork Pie, Josh’s beloved pet.
Hi Wendy! You have all had such a hot summer there! Praying it cools down soon and that your area isn’t too affected by bushfires.
And what a good question! The answer is – total control when we publish on Amazon by ourselves!
We choose covers, who we use to edit our books, content, pricing, launch date, whether we do free days or promo pricing, whether we want the book in Kindle Unlimited or available on all the main bookselling sites, whether to pull the book from sale.
Of course, with multi-author projects like a boxed set or series, the group needs to agree on all these things, but overall apart from that, it’s pretty much the same. As most authors who choose to publish their own books are independently minded types who enjoy that level of control over our books, that decision-making is sometimes interesting!.
LOL, well, you can ask me anything anytime, Paula! ;)
Thank you for your prayers, they’re appreciated!
Great question, Renate!
I’ll answer the easy question first – the main difference I noticed in stores when I moved to England was the the customer service was so much worse here! Waits to be attended that wouldn’t be accepted in Australia, and a “customer is always wrong” attitude. I think that’s improved a lot now, as stores have needed to up their game to compete with online retailers, but oh my, twenty years ago it was noticeable far worse.
What gave me the idea is a way tougher question! The first Love in Store book I wrote was Believe in Me, and it was originally a secular short novella written for a call for submissions from a publisher, who required that the story involved the Christmas song “Santa Baby”. At the time I worked in central London. Not in retail, but just off Oxford Street. Like Cara, I got off the Underground at Oxford Circus and walked past many department stores on my way to the office. That was the trigger to create a store for the story.
Then when God had called me to write for Him, I wanted a story to enter in a Harlequin contest, and decided to rewrite Believe in Me as a Christian novella, suitable for Heartsong Presents. The story semi-finaled, and the editor wanted to acquire it after revisions. I felt nudged to look at publishing the book myself instead.
As it happened, a very true leading. The story would never have been published by Heartsong, as sadly Harlequin stopped publishing new books for that line three months before the proposed publishing date!
That’s a fine question, Melynda. Sixteen years. We were both late starters, I was 43 and he was 40 when we married.
That is a really good question, and one that I have a lot of trouble with!
I can actually write quite fast, but the reason there are big gaps between my launches is that since getting this pesky chronic migraine, I’m experiencing long periods of feeling blocked with my writing. Ideas keep popping, but I just can’t write story. I never ever get blocked in revisions, and rarely in the second half for drafting a story. Once I get that far, the words tend to fly. But getting started and drafting those early “getting to know you” characters? Ugh. Dental treatment without novocaine is more fun.
One thing that helps a lot is journaling. I write a daily journal, usually two or three pages long, not specifically about writing, more like a conversation with God. Story ideas and snippets of story words often appear in my journal.
Sometimes the problem is simply that I’m tired and overwhelmed and I need to give myself some time out, rest, have time with God, stop pressuring myself to be productive. As my lovely editor says, “You are not a machine.”
The other question I need to ask myself is “Am I writing the story God wants me to?” Sometimes a block is a sign I’ve gone off track with a story. I often get attached to a specific idea of what I think should happen or what a character should do, and it’s not what’s best for the story. That requires being willing to admit I messed up and go back to rewrite a section.
The nothing-else-is-working answer is to write stuff for a completely different story. Could be I’m blocked on the story with a deadline, because… deadlines! But I can write something else. Often weirdly that will unblock me and I can progress on the story I should be writing.
Every author’s reply to this will be different, but those are what helps me.
LOL, Lelia, best answer is to stop beating myself up for not working harder! My husband is disabled and needs a lot of support, so being his caregiver is my main job, writing is my second job!
I would LOVE to be able to get away for a while, just have a vacation somewhere and some time on my own. I’m an introvert to the max and crave solitude! But for various reasons that’s not an option now. So reading, journaling, extra quiet time with God, doing something non-writing but creative like sewing or cooking. Those are my ways to relax.
Oh, I forgot to say, making book covers and other graphics. I love that and find it totally relaxing! Well, apart from that I recently set up a standing desk for my laptop (I write on a Kindle Fire with an external keyboard, which fits nicely on a lapdesk!) and my legs get really sore if I work on the laptop too long.
My number 1 extravagance is probably an equal tie between books, and image files or fonts from my favorite sites!
I always wanted to be a writer, right from when I realised the authors who wrote those books I loved go paid for it. Aged 15, I earned a whole $5 for an article I’d submitted to a church magazine. That was a big thing for me!
But the “sensible” answer prevailed and though I wrote intermittently and even did creative writing as a minor study in college, I never seriously thought I could make writing my career.
Fast forward to 48 or 49 when I realised 50 was just around the corner and wasn’t it time I did something like write more and start submitting stuff to publishers? So, I started writing more! At that time, I’d drifted a long way from God and was targeting Harlequin’s secular lines. Oh my, I am SOOOOOOO thankful not of those stories were accepted for publication, as they are totally not what I write now.
Then two things happened at once. My husband’s condition worsened and there were too many occasions where I came home from a day at work and a long commute to find him in a state because things had happened he couldn’t cope with. He really needed someone at home with him full-time.
And not long after, God called me back to Him and told me He wanted me to only write for Him from now on. That just seemed to unplug something in me that was blocked and stories flowed more easily. I entered two competitions for the Harlequin Christian romance series. Both times I got full requests (where the editor asks to see the entire story, something that was hard to get!). Both times, I got revision requests, one where the editor said she’d “consider” the story if I made changes, the other where the editor said she definitely intended to publish the story but I needed to make changes. Nothing at contract stage yet.
That boosted my confidence so much! Then I got nudges to self-publish one of the stories (Believe in Me) and make a whole series in the same setting. I knew zero about self-publishing, just that it was possible, and sites like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing made it easier. So I started learning, and on August 31st, 2014, I launched my first published book.
It’s been something of a rollercoaster ride since then! So many ups and downs! Nearly twenty books later, I’m still not earning enough from the books to support our household, but thankfully hubby has some income from a work pension and a disability payment.
So writing as a career – depends how that’s defined! If it’s earning enough to support a family, I’m not quite there yet. If it’s taking a professional approach to my work and doing all I can to make sure readers get the best books I can manage, yes, I am a career author.
LOL, bring coffee when you do! I’ve written some essays in reply!
Would you share how you came to know Christ?
I was my first publisher, Kimberly! But I did come very close to having a book contracted with Heartsong Presents. The editor pretty much promised me the story would be accepted after revisions for launch October the following year. I would have loved to work with that editor!
But, but, but… I kept getting nudges from God that all wasn’t well there after the Harlequin takeover. Little things like it being so hard to buy the books in the UK, and the way it seems that only a fraction of the new releases made it into ebook. Sadly, I let the editor know I was pulling the story from consideration. Only a few months later, Harlequin announced the line was closing.
I’m so glad that indie publishing allows authors to publish their books in whatever countries they want! The US is where the majority of my readers live, and if I could only reach UK readers, I’d have very few!
LOL, Lori! I love doing research! I learn so much about all sorts of different topics that way! But I need to set strict time limits and minimise how much research I do.
My worst even was when I spent three entire months researching convict ships to Australia for a historical series I intended to write. Everything down to how the toilets worked, the weather all through the six week voyage, what they ate, and a load more! This was before I actually started publishing books, so I didn’t have any sense of time pressure.
Oh my, that was fascinating research! And the first draft emerged so fast. Um, till I got to 70,000 works, realised the story wasn’t even half-way through, AND I had the wrong character as the hero, it should be the ship’s doctor, not the ship’s captain. Oops! Needless to say, that story still is waiting for rewrites!
Oh, and I forgot to say, the trigger for that story was an American quilter friend telling me about the convict quilts – how on the long trip to Australia, charity organisations provided female convicts with calico, thread, and needles, and they were taught how to sew by making a quilt square each. That way, they’d have a skill when they arrived, and hopefully would be able to support themselves as seamstresses rather than crime.
Very few of those old quilts remain, and those that do are treated as national treasures!
Although you aren’t American, your books definitely follow American English instead of British English (although I notice an occasional variation of spelling, as in “realise” instead of “realize”). Do you ever find yourself writing British terminology and then having to translate what you’ve written in order for the American reader to easily understand it?
Those are two themes I naturally seem to gravitate to, Lindi.
Just thinking what tropes I used (LOL, not that I knew what a trope WAS at that stage!):
– reunited loves (first love/ class differences)
– enemies to love
– opposites attract
– enemies to love, kinda
– boss and employee (forbidden love)
– friendship to love
– enemies to love/ opposites attract
– friendship to love
– friendship to love (forbidden love)
– lovers reunion (after divorce)
– secrets between them
– enemies to love
– first love reunited/ secret child
– nurse and patient (forbidden love)
– friends to love
– marriage of convenience
I don’t think I left any out! Stories in progress are first loves reunited, first loves reunited again, marriage of convenience.
This is so cool. as a family we went to a place that had really old quilts. It was fascinating, especially how some of them had been repaired. They had the approx. dates and who made them. The kids were bored to death, but I loved it.
Awesome question, Dalyn.
This REALLY varies! I wish I could have some consistency with this, but it’s all over the place. My fastest book was first idea to published book in 30 days. One of my longest books too 6 weeks.
Other books have taken months and even years to get completed, either because I started them, got stuck, and left them rest awhile; or because the story needed multiple rounds of revisions.
So no easy answer!
Love that question!
Being Dad’s little helper. Dad was that kind of guy who would take on almost everything and be good at it, from major car repairs to building a boat to making his own sound system (from scratch!). Plus, his dad owned a candy shop when he was in his early teens, and he used to make the most amazing candies! I learned so much helping him by handing tools, finding the part he wanted, holding timber while he sawed and drilled it. I grew up willing to have a go at a lot more than many girls my age would as a result.
My favorite as a child was one most Americans and Brits won’t have heard of, the Silver Brumby series by an Aussie author, Elyne Mitchell https://amzn.to/2ILXi0T I loved those books and borrowed them again and again from the library!
Then at 13 I discovered romance novels! Georgette Heyer’s wonderful Regencies, and another author many readers now won’t have heard of, Kiwi author Essie Summers, who wrote clean romances with faith elements for Harlequin. Oh my, those vintage paperbacks are so expensive now! I had almost the whole series, but I chose to sell almost all my books when I realised I probably wasn’t going back to Australia at the same time I sold my house there.
Along with that, one that is still a favorite and thankfully available in the public domain now – L M Montgomery. Not just the Anne of Green Gables series, but all her lesser known books, too. I especially love the Emily trilogy.
In your books, what’s the average of including a dog?! LOL Loved the one including a border collie. (I think my memory is correct on that)
Oh, that is such a long story, Lisa! The fuller version is here: http://amongthereads.net/songs-of-salvation-autumn-macarthur/
The short version is that though I grew up in an unbelieving household, I’d always been fascinated with God and Jesus and the concept that He loved us so much He even died for us. I wanted so badly to be loved! At 16 I committed my life to Him, but my faith stayed shallow. I was looking to receive love rather than being willing to GIVE love.
In my mid-20’s, I seriously backslid and lived far away from Him for many years. Then in my early fifties I listened to the gentle call He’d been making for some time, and made a truer and deeper commitment to the Lord. He makes such a difference, I can’t imagine I’ll ever stray from Him again!
Oops, there shouldn’t be any Brit spelling in my US-set books, and no US spelling in my British books!
I try to get my mindset into whichever version of English the story is supposed to be written in. British English comes more naturally to me, though there ARE differences to Australian English. US English tends to be fairly easy though, because I’ve read a LOAD of American books using American English, plus for several years I worked for an American multi-national company where we had to use US English in all our written communications.
I admit to not being quite sure what bits of what I write and say are Aussie English, British English, or US English!
To add more to the mix, my editor is an American living in Canada, and my critique partner is a Canadian living in the US! I rely on my beta readers to let me know if any mispellings, wrong usage, or incorrect grammar has snuck in!
Wow cool and good you could use the pig in a story too.
I guess in a book you can have things you can’t in real life.
While HP would have been good as I loved their books you sure did make the right decision about self publishing. So glad you didn’t write a book with All I want for Christmas is you.
Thanks for the response. I didn’t realize/realise (LOL) that you used spelling specific to the country it was written for. I will watch for that, now. All that to say, you might not have crossed over with spelling variances. I have only read one book set in the U.S. – His Father’s Son and wasn’t paying attention to the spelling as I read that one.
Wow, Lori! That would fascinate me, too. Every quilt has a story, and for old quilts, numerous stories as the quilt passes down the years. I think there might be a boxed set or a series where the authors did that, each wrote a story involving the quilt and a different generation.
LOL, or if there isn’t, there should be!
Hi Jackie! Fewer books than there ought to be, considering the important part pets play in so many of our lives and how much I love dogs.
More than Friends is the story with the border collie, and he plays quite a role in the story. He also pops up briefly in the other stories from that series, but doesn’t play an important role. In His Healing Touch, the hero’s family has an elderly black lab, but agian, he only has a minor role. The pet who played the largest part in any of my books so far is Patty Pork Pie, the pet pig in His Father’s Son.
I’m making up for the lack of pets in a story that will launch toward the end of April, God willing. One character is a sucker for rescue animals, and has two dogs, a cat, a parrot, and possibly more critters by the time the story is publish ready! I also hope to include a pet ferret in a book I hoped to have done by now but will now be finishing later this year.
Thankfully, the family who live with that pig have a big how, a very large yard, and their area is on the edge of town so semi-rural. Unlike our little suburban plot!
And yes, anything can happen in a story, though of course the challenge is to make it believable. Far stranger things happen in real life, but would be very hard to get away with in a book!
I would have loved to have books with HP, too, but yes, my decision to self-publish turned out for the best. At least authors with books there are now getting their rights reverted so they can republish their stories.
LOL, now of course I have the song in my head and am wondering how I can rise to the challenge to use it in a Christian Christmas story!
Good! If you didn’t notice, that means I got it right on the US English there!
It was a difficult decision whether to use UK English in my British books or not, because unfortunately it does look and feel wrong to American readers. It felt a more authentic choice at the time, but if readers are being pulled out to the story by noticing the spelling differences, that may not be a good thing!
Do reviews of your older books benefit you as much as reviews of newly published books?
Have you ever been to the United States? Where in the world us at the top of your to-visit list?
When I read the post and the earlier replies yesterday, I thought, I bet Autumn will spend more time writing replies than she would have hunting for and writing a different topic! It’s been fun to read, though, so thank you!
The Amazon publishing platform is open to authors all around the world, Kimberly. So are Kobo and Apple. Until recently, only Americans could publish directly on BN Nook, but we (Canadian here) could use an aggregator publisher like Draft2Digital to get into Nook. They’ve recently opened it to Canadians (and others? not sure) but my Canadian author acquaintances are having trouble getting paid without the addition of costly wire transfer fees, so I’m glad I just stayed with D2D. I get paid every month via PayPal and that works for me.
Like Autumn, I find that the majority of my readers are US-based. The UK is my second highest (but far behind) then Canada and Australia vie for third place. It’s fascinating!
That is really really interesting. Learned something new today, and it’s only 8:15 am.
What a great idea! So many thoughtful, interesting questionas. And awesome answers, Autumn!
I enjoy reading the British English in your English-set books and don’t find it distracting. I like seeing the differences between it and American English.
Hi Ellie! I think they do! I’m always happy to give members of my review team any older books of mine they haven’t yet read and would like to.
We tend to push for reviews of our new releases, but any review where a reader shares their honest opinion and the reason why is a good thing! Reviews help other readers decide if they’re likely to enjoy the story and increases the chance of the right readers choosing the book. I don’t want anyone to buy my book if it’s really something they’d hate!
I’m not sure how true this is because Amazon doesn’t share this information, though it sounds like it’s probably correct. I recently read a theory that the more reviews a book has, the more likely Amazon is to encourage readers to look at it. Things like including it in the “You may also be interested in” page they show after a reader buys a book, and the similar emails they send out to readers. So it’s possible a review even for a much older book may help more readers discover an new-to-them author and her books.
LOL, yes, I realised that when I chose to do the post. But I truly did not have ANYTHING else come to me, so I figured this was the post I was supposed to do. And though it’s taken a little more time than usual on replies, I’ve enjoyed it!
What is your favorite time of year and do you find it your most inspiring time to write or use in your stories ?
Nice to meet you!
Linda Marie Finn
Faithful Acres Books
D2D really are such a blessing for non-US authors wanting their books on multiple bookselling sites! And I’m grateful for how easy it is now to publish our books. I think I may have more Canadian readers than UK, or very close to as many, at least.
I love checking which countries my readers come from! Not just where I get book sales, but where newsletter subscribers are. My mailing service shows me which countries my newsletters get opened in. Places I never imagined I’d have readers!
Yes, isn’t it amazing! LOL, always happy to help with new facts! I really do hope I get to write those historicals some day!
Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker campaigner who pushed for reform in the truly horrendous women’s prisons of the early 1800’s, took part in the scheme to teach prisoners new skills on the journey and offer then a chance of rehabilitation. Respectable Christian women were employed as matrons to teach the convicts sewing and reading, as many were illiterate, and also to hopefully bring them to Christ.
Before that, the female convicts, many of whom had committed very minor crimes, were basically treated as subhuman and were at the mercy of the male crew and male convicts, with predictably terrible results.
Thank you, Jessica! I’m glad you enjoy the British English! I hoped it would kinda add to the Britishness of the experience!
Hi Mandy! I’ve only visited the United States once, and that was a 4 day city break in New York City back in 1997! I would love to visit again, especially to visit Texas, Colorado, and Oregon, and also to have the chance to meet some of my wonderful reader and author friends in person.
Unfortunately I developed travel-triggered complex migraine after a long-hai; flight a few years back, so travel is currently off the agenda for me. Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to travel again some day. :)
Thanks Alexa! Yes, I’ve loved the questions and it’s been great fun answering them!
Oh, good question, Linda! I love all year round. Each season has its own special gifts, so it’s impossible to choose one favorite. If I look at when I’ve set most books, that would have to be winter, probably because I love to write Christmas stories!
You could always take an ocean liner. LOL
Believe it or not, my family immigrated from the U.S. to Australia in 1969 via an ocean liner. We only stayed there a few weeks because my father’s new job didn’t work out. We spent more time on the round trip ride than we did there. We visited New Zealand, too. Wish I had been old enough to remember it more, as I was only five at the time. It was actually 50 years ago last month that we were there.
LOL, though I would love to do that, unfortunately a sea journey would probably stir up even worse symptoms than an air journey!
Goodness, a brave move for your parents to move a whole family, especially to turn around and go back again! I’m sorry things didn’t work out with your father’s job.
Great questions and answers!
Thank you for sharing Autumn!
I’m always fascinated how authors pick names for their characters :) some has interesting ways lol, do you?
Yay! Can’t wait for the pet ferret book. Bet it will be hilarious. Sneaky critters they are. Lol. Love your books Autumn. Never stop writing.
That’s funny, that a Canadian may have more UK than Canadian readers while a UK author may have more Canadian than UK. Now I’m really curious why!
And YES to the immensity of where our readers and subscribers come from. Like you, I never imagined the breadth and reach God would give me, definitely as humbling as it is exhilarating.
Yes, I thought the same! God has blessed us wonderfully by calling us to be authors!
Good question, Natalya! Ideally, I “just know”. The character just appears to me and I straight away know their name and a whole lot about them.
Other times it’s harder work, and I may need to consult baby name lists or similar. For the US it’s easier. The DSS posts lists of the 100 most popular baby names for the year, and those go back a long way so even for older secondary characters, I can find likely names.
And then there are the times that I really have no idea what this character’s name should be. One still-unpublished story, the hero changed his name pretty much every chapter, making my editor laugh! I got to chapter 7 before I realised the reason. This character from my heroine’s past was NOT the right hero for her now!
LOL, Chris! I’ll be coming to you for ferret advice for sure once I start that story!
Hi Autumn my question is Who Inspired You To Be a Writer? Or did you know from The time you was little that is what you wanted to do?
Hi Sarah! I always knew I wanted to be a writer, though it took till I was nearing 50 to actually get serious about it. Seeing that big milestone approaching gave me a nudge, then God telling me He wanted me writing for Him gave me an even bigger nudge!
One of the best blessings my parents gave me was to share their love of books and make sure we grew up in a home with lots of books. Mum taught me to read when I was three, so I started Kindergarten already a year ahead in reading. I read so fast as a kid I regularly ran out of stories to read. That was when I started writing my own!
Hi Autumn, what is your favorite aspect of writing (research, plotting, writing, revision, editing, cover design, marketing, etc.)?
Well, this is nice. So here’s something I don’t think someone asked so far: how do you avoid procrastination?
I love a lot of these things, Rachael! I’m probably different from many authors in loving best the stage many like least.
Brainstorming is such fun, when the ideas are pop pop popping and it’s all shiny and new.
I adore revising and working with my wonderful editor, especially when I hit that stage where it all starts coming together, the real story emerges from the messy first draft. That’s probably the best part of the writing process for me. I love making covers and other graphics, that’s just fun. The reader contact part of marketing is great, sending a newsletter and answering all the replies, replying to blog comments and Facebook comments.
The least fun part for me is drafting. My brain just refuses to cooperate like it used to and that stage is hard slog, painfully slow. Once the draft gets to a point though, sometimes half-way through, sometimes 2/3 or 3/4, it gets easier and things start to flow.
LOL, I wish I knew, Priscila. It is my worst problem, especially during first drafts which are my least favorite part of writing!
The only thing that works is setting a realistic goal for the day and making myself do that before I do much else. So get up, make breakfast, check hubby is okay, some quiet time, then work. No emails or FB till I get enough story words.