How can I get a signed copy of one of your books?
Email me with
your name and address, and I’ll send you a bookplate (a.k.a. a
glorified sticker personally signed by me) for your copy of
the book. If you want a signature on the actual page, contact
me and we’ll work out an arrangement involving SASE and exact
postage costs.
How did you
get your start?
Like so many
other things in my life, I fell ass-backward into fiction
writing. I always wanted to be a novelist, but I started to
believe all those things everyone tells you about how
impossible it is to make it in the commercial fiction market
and how I should wise up and get a “real job”.
So I sort of
gave up on writing…until an old boyfriend brought me as his
date to a wedding where there happened to be several novelists
present. They all assured me that writing was a delightful
career, that if they could do it, I could do it…
Of course, they were totally drunk at the time and probably
didn’t mean a word of it, but I was 22 and easily tricked, so
I believed them.
I signed up for
a writing course at the UCLA extension school where I met the
future members of my critique group, and the rest is history.
What advice can you give to someone trying to break
into fiction writing?
Don’t believe
the statistics! Just brazen it out! If I had known what I
know now when I was first starting out, I never would have
even bothered submitting a manuscript to an agent because the
odds were so stacked against me.
The hard part is
actually, you know, writing the book. It would great
if you could just skip that and go right to seeing your name on the
New York Times bestseller list, but sadly, it doesn’t work
that way. (At least, it doesn’t for me…let me know if you
figure out a way around that!)
Focus on what
could go right instead of what could go wrong. The key is to
do your research. Find out how to write for your target
market (word count, tone, etc.) and how to properly prepare a
query letter or manuscript for submission.
Also, and I
cannot stress this enough: Hang out with other writers.
Published or unpublished, it doesn’t matter. Writers are a
fun and eccentric breed. They can empathize when you say,
“These people I invented in my head just aren’t cooperating,
darn it!” All of my writer friends are certifiably insane. I
fit right in.
How
autobiographical are your books?
Short
answer—not very. I only wish my life were that
action-packed! A well-plotted storyline requires a lot of
structure and advance planning, but the process of creating
characters is more vague and organic. First, I get an idea of
my main characters, and then I try to flesh out backstories
that make sense in terms of their current personalities. For
example, in MY FAVORITE MISTAKE, Faith had a horrible
childhood in rural Minnesota, and this was a major influence
on her behavior as an adult.
My childhood was
nothing like Faith’s—I went to a Northeastern high
school so preppy it had an actual crew team. But it made
sense in terms of who her character was and where she was
going to end up at the conclusion of the book.
Do you base your characters on real people you know?
Again, the short
answer here is no. Real people and real-life situations don’t
fit into neat little storylines. I will admit, though, that I
sometimes imbue my fictional characters with idiosyncrasies I
see in people I meet. For example, I went to college in
Minnesota, and I knew a guy who had grown up in a very rural
area up by Duluth. He had his wardrobe pared down to only
“four essential pieces”: white T-shirts, gray T-shirts,
khakis, and jeans. And somehow he made this work and looked
good doing it. I thought that was so illustrative of the
prototypical no-frills, stoic, Midwestern male that I
incorporated it into Patrick Flynn’s character in
MY FAVORITE
MISTAKE.
Another example:
in my second book, EXES & OHS, the main character’s roommate is a
happy-go-lucky Lakers fan named Cesca DiSanto. She’s the wild
card in the story, always ready to take a risk. Cesca herself
is not based on anyone I know, nor are her adventures. But I
have a friend named Eliza who has a fascination with football
and basketball that borders on the obsessive. She is the kind
of girl I’ll meet for brunch, and then somehow, we end up
buzzed on mimosas, cruising around town, blasting old Donna
Summer tunes on the stereo (with our designated driver behind
the wheel, of course), singing along at the top of our lungs
and telling each other, “It’s Sunday morning and yet I feel
like it’s 10 o’clock on a Friday night!” Anyway, Eliza’s not
Italian and she’s not a psychologist who dates pothead losers
like Cesca, but I thought the sports fanaticism was a fun
twist for a female character.
Now, if only I
could include a Donna Summer soundtrack with every copy sold…
You’re a psychologist, right? Can I tell you about this
crazy dream I had last night?
You can, but I
really won’t be any help. First, I’m trained to be a
cognitive researcher (as opposed to a practicing clinician),
and second, my target subject group is preschoolers. Third,
most dream analysis is bunk, but don’t tell the Freudians I
said that.
Have a
burning question for Beth?
Email her and
maybe
she’ll expand the FAQ page in your honor!
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