sales « Robin Writes

I wanted to give a shout-out, first and foremost, to my good friend Melinda Clayton, author of the Appalachian Justice series. She invited me to participate is this linked blog thingy and I total dropped the ball – I’m trying to pick it up again, but I seem to be all thumbs. Or all carpal tunnel. Or something.

Anyway, here’s my contribution and, since I’m not all sweet and polite and stuff like Melinda, who actually asked me if I was interested before springing the trap (!), I’m just going to name a couple writers and pass the love along! Just answer the questions on your blog and tag/name/elect a few others to participate too.

And by the way, if you haven’t yet read Melinda’s book, you are MISSING OUT! You can order them here, just call or shoot us an email.

With no further ado:

1. What is the working title of your book?

My first book is REDUCED, so naturally the second one had to be REUSED. But the working title of REDUCED was originally “Abby.” I’m not good at titles, REDUCED stuck in my mind, and the change was made – under protest from a few people!

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Ha. The story has been passed around a bit, in several interviews, but in a nutshell: I got hungry late at night and chips and salsa sounded good. At my age, it may have tasted good – delicious, in fact – but my stomach disagreed and sent word to my brain. My brain responded with a very strange dream wherein my lead character, Abby, was having a shoot-out at a convenience store. (It’s okay, they were bad guys.) So when I woke up, I realized that Abby was running from/to something and very bad things were going to happen. As soon as she clued me in, I was off and running!

3. Under what genre does your book fall?

Dystopian, science fiction, apocalyptic. Somewhere in there. Not a genre to which I expected to write, it just kind of happened!

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Wow, that’s tough. I don’t think I know enough about any actors to pick them. [Note to readers – do YOU have any ideas? I mean, just in case!]

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Um, one sentence? One??

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Oh, I’d love for an agent to swoop in and take off some of the marketing pressure. It could happen. Maybe. At the moment, however, I’m self-published even though, like a lot of SP authors, I use a “publisher” imprint. It’s legit, though, it falls under the bookstore SAN.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

First draft? There are supposed to be more?? Oh, well, about six months in time; probably four in actual writing. The second book is taking about three, more or less.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Oh, I wouldn’t dare to make comparisons. Although one reviewer did mention Stephen King’s The Stand….

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Abby did. She told me what was going on, I wrote it down.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope the title and cover start the process – a little dark, a little mysterious, and just one word: REDUCED. Of course, the question is just what is “reduced?” Morals? Politics? People? Government? Hmmm.

Thought I’d talk a little today about the creative process – or rather, my own process because I imagine that everyone’s is different.

And there’s that word: imagine. Imagination, if you will. Writers seem to often be cursed with too much imagination. The constant “what ifs” of daily life can really wear you down, especially if it gets out of hand. Then, I suppose, you’re off to your friendly local shrink for a new Xanax prescription!

I’m not going to get on a soapbox, but having an active imagination doesn’t make you a writer – you also have to know/learn how to write. How to temper your dialogue to fit the conversation, how to pace the action, how to write love scenes without dying in agonies of embarrassment. Oh, and that last bit is exactly why I don’t write romance….

People joke about those “voices” in their heads, but it’s true – writers hear things. Don’t get me wrong, if your characters truly ARE arguing with each other in your mind, and ignoring you as a popular meme recently stated, you might have a problem. Seek help.

However, if your characters merely come to life inside your skull, and you can channel their personalities in order to write a more effective scene, that is imagination. And you need it, or your book will fall flat. For example, when you read a book, do you take on – temporarily – a habit or mannerism or way of speech of one of the characters? That’s imagination. That’s why people read. Well, that’s why I read. I’ve seen some pretty awful stuff that other people read and frankly, I just don’t get it. But it’s a personal choice, and heaven forbid if I discourage anyone from reading!

Now for the “process” part. You don’t just imagine a world, peopled by imaginary characters, and type them out into a readable form. I wish! It would make writing this next book so much easier! Why, I could knock out an 80K novel in, oh, about ten days – that’s spending just eight hours a day writing, like a full-time job. That could be – wait a minute – 26 books a year, assuming I didn’t take a vacation. Which I don’t. But hey, wouldn’t that be swell?

Here’s how it really works:

Thinkthinkthink. Typetypetypetypetypetype. Thinkthink. Backspacebackspace times 14. Think. Type…………typethink…….thinktype…..backspace times 10. Thinkthinkthink. Typetypetypetype.

Of course, I’m not counting the ringing of the phone, the ding of new email, the cute kitty pics and vids you MUST watch. Or the moaning and lamenting you do on Facebook, your page and those of all your writer friends. Or the kids. Or errands. Or housework. Or, you know, actually marketing and selling your book!

Pretty good summation, huh? Anyone? Is this how your day goes?