Interview with Rachael Richey

 

I did a series of author interviews for another website long ago and I've decided to repost them now that the other site is no longer active so they'll continue to be accessible on the internet. I always found it reassuring to hear from different writers the way that there really isn't just one way to be a writer. I think that kind of reassurance is evergreen so please enjoy this one from 2018:

 

Rachael Richey is a romance writer I met in a critique group I’ve participated in for several years. (I highly recommend joining a group like this, for many reasons.) I’ve been able to read two of her novels, pre-publication, so far. I recently got her to answer a few questions about writing, publishing, and about her new book.

Tell me about your most recent novel. Who is your audience?

My most recent novel, Practising for Christmas, is a romantic comedy set at Christmas.  Olivia and her friends are spending Christmas in a remote coastal cottage, and before the others arrive, Olivia discovers an unconscious and very handsome stranger on the beach.  She takes him home to patch him up and it’s when her friends arrive the next day that things begin to spiral out of control due to a case of mistaken identity.  It’s basically a feel good seasonal romcom.  My audience will probably be mostly female, but I do have some stalwart male fans who read all my books.

What kind of writer are you? Do you insist on daily word counts? Do you edit as you go or force out a whole first draft first? Do you write in silence or with music? In the morning or at night? What do you do when you get stuck in the writing process?

Wow.  A lot of questions!  Right.  I write when and where the mood takes me.  At the moment I’m going through a bit of a dry patch, but when I’m in the zone (for example, nearing the end of a book), I have been known to write about 20k per week.  Definitely no insistence on a daily word count – that would put me off.  Sometimes it flows, sometimes it doesn’t and you just have to go with it.  I usually read back over my previous day’s work and do a quick edit, but save most of the editing until I’ve finished.  Sometimes I like music when I’m writing, but I’m equally happy writing in silence.  I have been known to do it with the TV on in the background if all the family are in.  I have to fit my writing in around everything else (I long for the day when it is my main job), so I write anytime.  I wrote a lot of my first book at night, between midnight and 4 am, but these days I don’t seem to stay awake so well, probably because I have more early mornings now.  If I get a bit stuck on a plot, the best way to sort it out is in the shower.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Daphne du Maurier, Kate Morton, Kate Atkinson, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Linda Fairstein, Barbara Erskine, David Baldacci, Sophie Kinsella, Elizabeth George

When did you decide you wanted to be published? How did you go about making it happen? What is the biggest challenge of being published? What’s the best part?

I’ve always wanted to write, right from when I was a small child.   I used to write stories all the time and just assumed that when I was grown-up I would be a published writer.  That didn’t happen for a very long time and I kind of got caught up in other things, then one day in early 2012 I resurrected a story idea I had had a few years earlier, and once I started I couldn’t stop!  As soon as I had finished that one, in about three months, I started a sequel, at the same time editing and then submitting the first one.  By the time I finally got an offer from a publisher (actually from three in one week), in early 2014, I was part the way through the fourth book in the series.  You really do have to be prepared for a lot of rejections though.  I must have had at least twenty, if not more, for the first book.  Don’t be put off.  It’s worth all the rejections when you hold your first published book in your hand, and realise that other people will be getting to know your characters, and hopefully getting to love them.

What are you working on next?

I’m currently working on another romantic comedy, but I have ideas for several other books all fighting for my attention as well.  I’m not sure which one will win yet, but it’ll be exciting finding out.

You can find out more about Rachael Richey here.

Interview with Dave Olner

 

 

I did a series of author interviews for another website long ago and I've decided to repost them now that the other site is no longer active so they'll continue to be accessible on the internet. I always found it reassuring to hear from different writers the way that there really isn't just one way to be a writer. I think that kind of reassurance is evergreen so please enjoy this one from 2018:

 

Years ago, I belonged to a now defunct writing site called Authonomy. There, I workshopped my writing, learned to critique others, and, ultimately, found my publisher. Dave Olner was one of the writers I met there and his book, The Baggage Carousel was one of my favorites. I was so glad to see he recently published it and I had a bunch of questions for him that he was nice enough to answer.

Since Authonomy closed, have you found a comparable writing group?

I haven’t frequented a writing site since Authonomy shut up shop. I feel like I found it at the right time: as a clueless fledgling taking their first crack at writing a book. Some of the feedback I received there helped shape the finished manuscript immeasurably and I’m thankful for it. It was a case of separating the wheat from the chaff, though, because some of of the feedback I received there was dogshit, from people who didn’t know what they were talking about. People just like me! I had found a virtual peer group and it was a sad day when the site closed.

 

When did you decide you wanted to pursue publication? How did you find your publisher?

After completing the book I embarked on the well-trodden road of queries, subs and rejections. I garnered some initial interest in the manuscript, but nothing that ever came to fruition. When I’d exhausted all options, when I couldn’t find anyone else who would even spare the time to dismiss my work, I set the MS to one side and started on a second book.

Years later, I was contacted by Nathan O’Hagan, one of the non-dogshit people from Authonomy. Now a big-shot published writer, he babbled excitedly about a new indie publisher, Obliterati Press, he was setting up with another author, Wayne Leeming. He told me he remembered my book fondly and asked if I’d ever managed to get it placed. The short answer to that was No. The two of them agreed to consider the MS and…well, here we are.

 

Describe your writing process. Do you keep a journal?

Much to my shame, I’m not currently writing at all. I’d like to write but after work, sleep, feeding and occasionally washing myself there doesn’t seem to be much time left. Although, sometimes I get an idea for a short story and it starts to rankle me so much that I’m eventually forced to write it down. It’s like lancing a boil and finding a homunculus within.

I don’t keep a journal in my grim everyday existence, but I have done them whilst away on backpacking trips. I’d like to say these journals contained in-depth reportage of the places I’d visited, but I found an old one recently and most of the pages were filled with doodles of robots.

 

In The Baggage Carousel, the main character’s traveling is motivated by rootlessness and restlessness. The places he travels to seem so real. How have you researched these places? Are you affected by a similar wanderlust?

All the places mentioned in The Baggage Carousel are ones I’ve visited. Some of the events featured in the book are based on actual occurrences. For the purpose of the narrative, I expunged myself from those events and transposed the central character, Dan Roberts, into them. He’s a bit more of an arsehole than I am but, hopefully, a little more entertaining. So it was like a Spacey/Plummer situation, except in reverse.

 

Is this really your first book? How long did it take to write and when can we expect another?

Yes, it’s really my first book. I would not intentionally deceive you. It’s hard to tot up how long it took to write The Baggage Carousel, because it’s something I would set aside for months on end and then return to periodically, a scab I had to keep picking at. So, maybe soup to nuts was something like five years, but it wasn’t five years of continual slog. If anything, the MS was something I would revisit when I had a little time away from the continual slog.

I wrote a second book, “Munger”, a character study based on a sex-tourist I met on a bus in Thailand. He was a hideous man, really, but his voice got stuck in my head. Even after the inherent darkness of my first novel, I somehow managed to plumb new depths of depravity with my sophomoric effort. I honestly do not know if the world will ever want or need this novel, but I do know it was something I needed to write.

My New Books

I'm so excited to share the covers for my new books. What do you think?

Jenna is a people pleaser. When her stepfather falls ill, she drops
out of college and moves home to care for him, but she ends up taking care of everyone: her twin sister who was born second and takes her role as baby in the family very seriously, her mother who has a case of Peter Pan syndrome. The only grown up to be found is Jenna.

While struggling to say goodbye to the only father she has ever known, she unearths a family secret that manages to disrupt her already complicated life. And at what seems like the worst possible time, Jenna falls in love with a man who turns out to be the first person in her life who doesn’t want anything from her, but her. .

As grief and betrayal threaten to tear her family apart, Jenna must
learn when it's time to put her own needs first.

Long widowed, newly retired, mother of three, Barbara is a liar. She
lies about making the mac salad for the pot luck and she lies about
her children’s paternity. She doesn’t really see the harm. Sometimes, lies are a matter of survival but more often, lies just smooth out life’s awkward moments.

Lately, her approach hasn’t been working out. She blames the increased popularity of DNA testing for the strained relationship with her adult children. They’re not as concerned with her judgement of them as she thinks they should be. Her oldest daughter announces intentions to be a surrogate for a friend. Barbara has nine months to convince her not
to give away her child.

In what seems at first like bad timing, Barbara begins a romance with Stewart, a recovered alcoholic who doesn’t lie about anything. Perhaps he has something to teach her; at her age, she wonders if she’s still capable of change. In order to keep her family together, she might have to try.

Would you like to be part of my review team? To get my books for free, before they’ve been released to the public, just sign up here. I’ll send you an email reminder on the book’s release date and you’ll leave an honest review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Shopping with Christmas Spirit

I believe Christmas gifts are for children. In my life, there are five qualifying persons. Shopping for the offspring of my two best friends in the world is the most fun I have during the holiday season.

This year, I've decided to do books. I was so busy working on my own edits that I wasn't sure I'd find the time, but I decided to go with some of my own favorite childhood reads from my local indie bookstore, Antigone Books.  It took less than an hour and feels so much better than shopping on Amazon. I try to buy local or stuff that was made in America for all my Christmas shopping. I've been doing it for over a decade.

For several years now, my family has decided to donate to charity in lieu of gifts to each other. We have given to Unicef, Heifer, CharityWater, and OxFam to name a few. Before selecting a charity, I always check them out at Charitynavigator.org to find out how much of donations go to services and how much they pay the CEO. (I can't stand charity CEOs who make millions.) I recommend checking out your charity here before donating. You can even look at their list of top-rated charities if you need ideas.

This year, I gave to the Arizona Friends of Foster Care Foundation, where I was able to specify which program to direct my donation.

Book Review: That Summer

 

This book surprised me.  I began reading it thinking it was going to be a lighthearted story about the friendship formed between two women with very little superficially in common: the homemaker and the career woman. I was on board for that story but after the first few chapters, it became suddenly clear that this is something much deeper.

I don't really want to give away the twist because I enjoyed it so much. It still is about the roles of women and how they confine, but it's also a bit of a domestic thriller that has you rooting for both women even as they start on seemingly opposite sides of the dilemma.

Daisy and Dianna are three-dimensional characters, as are a few of the ones on the periphery, and the ending manages to be quite satisfying while it is unable to bring complete closure to what remains a complex tragedy.

Book Review: The Last Memory of You

 

I've been listening to audiobooks pretty exclusively lately and I'd definitely suggest listening to this one. it takes about an hour and the voice actor really brings it to life. It felt like an episode of Black Mirror.

Have you ever wished you could erase all memory of an ex from your brain. I certainly have! In this story of the not so distant future, they have the technology and the main character faces an ethical dilemma when she runs into an ex who has no memory of her.  

Years ago, I read Cochran's novel Eddie and Sunny, which was a different genre, but had the same solid writing skills.

I highly recommend listening to this fast-paced, sexy sci-fi.

Book Review: Hello Beautiful

 

I read that this was a modern day Little Women, but beyond the four sisters being the focus, I didn't really catch the parallels.

I enjoyed the story more than the characters, who came across a little two-dimensional and made the story feel a bit like a fairy-tale.

The four sisters are close as they grow up, but when two of them have a falling out, the oldest sister moves away and has no contact with the others for twenty years. A sickness causes them to get back in touch and it's like no time has passed, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that so much time was wasted being angry.