Interview with Heather Graham, New York Times Bestselling Author

 

This fourth Saturday of  June,  I had the pleasure of interviewing New York Times Bestselling Author, Heather Graham. Here is what the delightful Heather had to say.  

1/ So, tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey in one paragraph or less.

I was the typical reader-kid, always wanted a book, and my folks, my mom an Irish immigrant, the Graham clan from Scotland, had wonderful history books for me to read. But I majored in theater and worked in dinner theater and the occasional commercial for a few years before we had three of the five kids, and it just wasn't paying enough for me to keep going to work. Trial and error in writing, and then a book sold, and I remain grateful every day of my life that I have been privileged to do this for a living.

 

 2/ I’m intrigued by your heritage and your multi-cultural family. Can you share a bit about how you were brought up? Do you attribute such open mindedness to progressive parents?

 I'm sure. To this day, I remember special things about my folks. Two quotes from my dad are always with me--"Water has no color, neither does the human soul," and "There's nothing wrong with most religions, only the way that men have chosen to twist them." My mom was Google before Google--when she couldn't answer a question, she pointed to our encyclopedias and said, "Let's go find out!"  Her family regaled me a child with wonderful stories about leprechauns and banshees and the fairy folk and I loved being a kid and listening!

 3/What made you want to become a writer? 

I love books. They get us through the worst of times. They fascinate, and they teach. Maybe it's my way of continuing the oral tradition that was so much a part of my childhood!

 4/Who was your first sale with? 

Dell publishing. No! Ist was a short horror story to Twilight Zone magazine, now gone, in Canada. My proudest 15 dollars ever!

 5/ What have been some Highlights of your career? 

Being honored as a ThrillerMaster by ITW, definitely, and going on a USO tour with ITW and seeing our troops at the Kuwaiti border, and attending the Sharjah International Bookfair with ITW, too. I love my groups, ITW, MWA (Shout out to my incredible Florida Chapter!) HWA, and Sisters in Crime. People. Every conference is special. Fiction writers are the best, warm and generous. Just home from ITW. Also grateful for my Silver Bullet for giving endeavors, and my Distinguished Author Award from Southwest Florda Reading Festival and so many others. People are the biggest highlight--cons are places where you can meet your heroes. R.L. Stine isn't just amazing with all his wonderful story creations, he's an amazing, kind, and generous human being. Something true of so many of the "names" I've met, bigger and small!

6/ Tell us about what made you change genres? 

I always read anything out there. And still have ideas for different genres and, of course, today, we're mixing them, and I love it!

7/We’ve all been rejected at one point or another, any advice on how to handle rejection? 

Hm, either figure out how to fix a problem, swerve around . . . and keep going! Never, ever give up. Some people I know who struggled--even for years--are at the peak of the top now!

8/What’s your writing day like?

 I never know. I had kids, I watch grandkids sometimes . . . it's a bit like a Dr. Seuss novel. I will write on a plane, on a train, in a car, going far! Some writers have hours--I've always gone by a John Lennon quote--Life is what happens while we're busy making plans. So, no set schedule, just deadlines and discipline. 

9/ How did your conference Writers for New Orleans get started? Why do you continue to keep it in New Orleans?

Right after Katrina. I've been in love with New Orleans since I went with my dad on a business trip as a kid. I was in soon after Katrina and a friend owned one of the carriage companies at the time--she was worried sick, frustrated with government help, extremely grateful to the American people--but, like so many others in the city, desperate to get back to work, to give to charities again instead of trying to live on charity. She looked at me and said, "You can have a conference!" I explained that I wasn't at all sure how many people I could get into the city, and she told me, "Oh, please, get someone here, and it will be like a hair commercial, a friend will tell a friend will tell a friend . . ." So, with Connie Perry, we put it together at cost only so that people could go out and spend money in the city. It's still at cost only. Our first game and silent auction events gave to the NOLA libraries and now we'll sometimes do St. Judes, Shriners, or an animal rescue site. 

10/ You have a love for water, did I hear you’re a scuba diver? 

Yes, love, love, love the water! Soon enough, we'll be using our cell phones down under. But right now? Just you and a different world!

9/ If you weren’t a writer what would you be and why? 

I'm not at all sure! My other love was theater. Hm. LOL. Not sure I can do anything else now!

11/What are you working on currently? 

Ah, a couple of things in the fire! A crime novel on the use of AI to commit murders, a "Romantasy" using the Tuatha de Danann (from my Irish childhood!) and a sequel to a young adult series (The Rising, Blood Moon) with Jon Land. We also have another project going and I'm not even sure how to describe it, but also pushing the buttons of the times we're moving into.

12/ When it comes to publishing, what do you think is the next  big trend?

 I don't--figured out that if you're writing for the next big trend, there will probably be a new one by the time you finish your epic!

13/ How can we reach you?

 My web site! I love social media, but I can't guarantee I'm on it!

You can find out more about Heather here:  https://www.theoriginalheathergraham.com/

Creating Community as a Character in Our Books ... M. Lee Prescott

 

“Community is the single most important factor in learner-centered classrooms.” (Carol Avery)

Hello,

It’s Mary Lee (alias M. Lee Prescott) saying hello. The quote above is from my life as a teacher (retired in June 2021). Creating a community in one’s classroom is critical if a teacher wishes to build trust among all stakeholders – adults and children – and encourage the kind of risk taking that allows learning to thrive. You might be asking yourself—why in a writer’s blog, is she writing about teaching and classrooms? The answer is simple creating a supportive, nurturing community where my characters live is at the heart of most of my fiction. Certainly, community is, indeed, a main character in all four of my series. I thought in this post, I tell you a little about these communities. Perhaps you’ll come and visit someday?

The Morgan’s Run books are set in the southwestern United States in the fictional town of Saguaro Valley. An orographic effect characterized by unusual cloud formations and abundant moisture has created this extraordinary green valley that lies between two mountain ranges, vast deserts beyond.

Home to six thousand residents—ranchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and others – much of the land is owned by a few wealthy ranchers, Ben Morgan among them, who take their stewardship seriously, providing livelihoods and support to every resident. The undiscovered valley mostly remains isolated in its pristine beauty and agricultural abundance, except when the occasional movie star arranges a pack trip up into the mountains. Saguaro Valley is a place where everyone knows everyone and takes care of everyone. If you’re in danger, trouble or need, you are never alone. Many beloved characters leave home and return, to heal, to find love, and to raise their families. Others spread their wings and move east as do two of the Morgan sons, Sam, an architect to Maryland and Kyle, a veterinarian, to Horseshoe Crab Cove, a New England town that is home to the Morgan’s Fire community (see below!).

In this spin-off series to Morgan’s Run, readers come to the village of Horseshoe Crab Cove, home to Ben Morgan’s younger brother. Formerly a world traveler and longtime Maine resident, Richard purchases a five hundred acre property, where he builds an enormous farmhouse, barns, stables and eventually a winery. Richard is also an investor in Field and Field, a farm-to-table restaurant on the property, created and run by his son-in-law.

The community encompasses several small seaside towns, Horseshoe Crab Cove at its center. On tiny Main Street, with its shops and restaurants, is a garden space, Laura’s Community Garden, started by Richard’s daughter, Pam in memory of her mother. There in the four acre plot, residents come to plant, grow, and share the fruits of their collective labors. Horseshoe Crab Cove is also home to the Darn Yarners, a group of eight women in their sixties, friends for over four decades, who support each other, each other’s families, and the village proper. Over the years the Yarners have raised money for parks and other civic projects, their fellowship intricately woven into the fabric of village life. Like Saguaro Valley, no one in Horseshoe Crab Cove is alone and the close community provides a safe, loving place for longtime residents and newcomers like Kyle Morgan, who follows his wife Harriet, daughter on a Darn Yarner, to town. When, at age fifty, Joe O’Leary leaves the priesthood, he, too, comes to the village to learn how to live outside the confines of the church. 

Village of Old Harbor, a coastal village with a Quaker school at its center, seems like just another sleepy town, where murders happen a little too regularly! Born and raised in the area, Detective Roger Demaris, and his team, along with his former schoolmate and high school girlfriend, art teacher Bess Dore, explore the worlds beneath the town and school’s placid surfaces uncovering unimaginable evil. Despite its aura of tranquility, this is a sometimes fractured community, infiltrated by outsiders bent on dredging up the past, wreaking havoc on the present, and changing the course of the future for the residents of Old Harbor. There is, however, a core of community resilience that prevails and triumphs over the darkness—thank goodness!

Finally—there are the communities traversed by private investigator, Ricky Steele. When not chasing criminals at a snobby boarding school or helping a friend find her husband’s killer in the exclusive, coastal town of Windy Harbor, Ricky prowls the mean streets of Spindle City, trailing errant spouses, and mingling with sex workers and drug lords. All of these communities have an identity that shape Ricky’s often bumbling, but heartfelt investigating style. Her office is in one of the old granite mills that populate the landscape of Spindle City. These behemoths, left over from the city’s heyday as a thriving textile manufacturing hub, reflect the gritty strength of the community and its denizens.

The above notwithstanding, the community readers love more than those mentioned, is where Ricky lives—the Grove. There in her ticky-tacky beach cottage, she is surrounded by friends and neighbors like Maddie and Fulton, the deaf octogenarians to the east, who keep the canapes and cocktails coming, and Vinnie to the west, a dear friend who helps with carpentry, security, underworld information, and cat sitting. The Grove also draws to its community, Dr. Charlie Bowen, who renovates a waterfront property around the corner, while wooing the independent Ricky. Will love win out? Time will tell.

So… is “community” synonymous with setting? Are they the same? I would answer no, but I could be persuaded either way. As author, community unfolds in my stories as the living, breathing manifestation of setting. Community allows characters to take risks to dare to be themselves, to grow, to develop, to thrive. Is this the same as setting? Hmm… You be the judge!

Great blogging with you! I love to hear from readers and writers so please be in touch anytime.

Warm wishes,

Mary Lee

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What's in a pseudonym? Ask Stacey

I know the RtG plan was for the genre-istas to write about Christmas romances this month. I admit, after the turmoil 2020 has presented so far, many people really need something festive. But if you’ve read my posts before, you know I often find myself straying from the group. For this month, I knew I had to write about a writing queen, Selena Montgomery. 

Montgomery is an award-winning author of eight romance novels. Her tales include the love stories of a lawyer and sheriff, two undercover agents, and a sexy ethnobotanist. Her books share one goal, illustrating that Black women can be “as adventurous and attractive as any white woman” in fiction.

Have you ever heard of this prolific author? Maybe you don’t think you have. But unless you’ve spent 2020 in a cave, a place I have sometimes wanted to be, chances are high you've heard a lot about the accomplishments of Stacey Abrams from Georgia. Stacey and Selena are one and the same. 

 She's a politician, lawyer, voting rights activist who was instrumental in helping turn Georgia purple - and a successful author. She began her novel writing career in college by reading. Aristotle taught her story structure, Pearl Cleage showed her how to sustain tension, and she used the books of Nora Roberts as a master class in characterization. 

She wrote her first novel, Rules of Engagement, during her third year as a student at Yale University. Under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery. According to her website, her books have sold over 100,000 copies. She’s proud to place romance writer alongside her other accomplishments, and says,  

"Telling a well-crafted story is hard. Full stop. Regardless of genre, good writing is good writing. Romance is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and I’m honored to be in the company of extraordinary writers." 

She has also written a number of nonfiction books, including a 2018 memoir. 

In between writing, running for governor in Georgia, and working to get the state of Georgia to vote for a Democratic candidate, she founded Fair Fight. Fair Fight is a voting rights organization that has helped register 800,000 new voters. All that and somehow she found the time to write and sell her ninth novel, While Justice Sleeps. 

 Here’s what Stacey Abrams said about her new thriller: “Drawing on my own background as a lawyer and politician, While Justice Sleeps weaves between the Supreme Court, the White House, and international intrigue to see what happens when a lowly law clerk controls the fate of a nation.” 

While Justice Sleeps will be released under her own name in May, 2021. 

 Just thinking about all she accomplishes tires me out. "The act of writing is integral to who I am," she said a few years ago. "I’m a writer, a politician, a tax  attorney, a civic leader and an entrepreneur. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished."

And I am proud for her.

The Adventure in Writing Romantic Thrillers by Maggie Lynch

EXPENDABLE was my first traditionally published novel. I had published four nonfiction books with NY and London, and many SF short stories with magazines and anthologies over two decades. But this was my first published novel.

All my stories whether short or novel length, are written from my heart. That means it reflects my joys, concerns, and questions at that time in my life. When I wrote EXPENDABLE, two things were keeping me up at night. The first was my eldest son was in the Marine Corps and serving in Iraq on convoy duty. I was concerned if he would come home at all. If he did make it home alive, I was concerned about PTSD. Fortunately, he came home alive and well. The second thing keeping me up at night was all the protests and discussion around using fetal cells for research. I worked at Oregon Health & Science University then, and they were one of few research universities that had a research grant. (Now most medical universities have them). 

I’ve always loved reading thrillers. I love the complex puzzle of the plot, the character backgrounds, including the villain’s character (if he isn’t all bad). Of course, the excitement of turning pages to get to the next scene and the emotional investment in staying up all night to see if the hero and heroine survive have always made me think that was a great read. In spite of loving to read them, I had never written a thriller in my short stories (hard to get it into a short story format) and certainly not in a novel.  I’d written action scenes in an SF novel, and a villain or a nemesis in short stories. The thought of writing a thriller AND a romance was both exciting and very scary. In the end, it is my most challenging and rewarding writing experience.

On the surface, writing a thriller appears to be easier to write than my Women’s Fiction or Contemporary Romance novels. In a thriller the external plot keeps the pages turning. Once I had the inciting incident and the problem to be solved, I never had a problem with wondering what high stakes conflict I had to develop. The entire situation is a high stakes conflict where both the hero and heroine are in constant jeopardy, and in this series other people need saving too. However, the challenging part is to add in the romance and the emotional journey of the characters.

SHADOW FINDERS SERIES 

A romance requires equal time to exposing the inner journey, the romantic relationship, all while the hero and heroine are involved in this high stakes where they can barely take a breath. In my story, a twist that is different from the usual thriller relationship of violence begets violence mentality, is that the heroine is someone who hates guns and has never used one, nor does she want to even touch a gun. The hero is a former Marine who has used them expertly both in training and in war. He has guns in his home and he won’t think twice about killing to save a life. The heroine isn’t weak. She is strong and will fight to save a life, but killing someone in the process is not acceptable. These two different worldviews—non-violence vs. violence—was as interesting to explore as the action and getting the bad guy. The acceptance of those differences and being able to live with them is critical to these two people having a relationship and finding their HEA.

Romantic thrillers/suspense, as a genre, is still hot. I quickly learned that when readers love your story, you better have a series planned. When this book was initially released with a traditional publisher, I had a plan for three books. But I left the publisher, went indie, and then had to wait for my rights to be returned. The good news is during that time I conceived an ongoing series (more than three books originally planned). When I released the second edition of EXPENDABLE, I included the set up of the Shadow Finders ongoing series in the ending of the book. The three heroes and their wives will work together to find and save those who have been forgotten or abandoned—people doomed to the shadows. I hope to continue to write books in this ongoing series for as long as readers will buy them.

MAGGIE LYNCH

BIO:

Maggie Lynch is the author of 20+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction articles.  Her fiction tells stories of men and women making heroic choices one messy moment at a time. Maggie is also the founder of Windtree Press, an independent publishing cooperative with over 200 titles among 20 authors.

Maggie and her musician husband live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and are the slaves of two demanding cats. In 2013, after careers in counseling, the software industry, academia, and consulting worldwide, Maggie started writing full time. Her adult fiction spans romance, suspense, and SF titles under the name Maggie Jaimeson. She writes YA under the name Maggie Faire.  Her non-fiction titles are found under Maggie Lynch.

Visit Maggie on her Website: http://maggielynch.com/