"I Eat Words" Questions

Thank you to I Eat Words for having me over and asking such fun questions. (Isn't that the best name for a book blog???) Here's a copy of the post:

1. Where did the idea of having a famous father come from? 

I’m not sure, to be honest. It’s not so much that I wanted to write about a famous father, but more that I wanted to write about the sharp disconnect between a father and daughter. It was really the idea of exploring a new and complicated relationship that appealed to me. Dani’s father, Mark, is so initially narcissistic and rather unlikeable, that writing about his development as he begins to rediscover his former, more compassionate and appealing side was really the draw. I liked the dichotomy of the superficial Hollywood backdrop vs. the deeper, complex relationships and coming-of-age issues.

2. Do you see a lot of yourself in Dani?

Parts of her, yes. I think that we’re both pretty inclined to take people at face value initially. Dani, despite her reservations about her father (based on what she knows about him through tabloid news stories and rather crummy action movies), she is willing to give him a chance. She puts herself out there for him and allows herself to be vulnerable. I do the same thing. The hitch is that you can get hurt pretty deeply, the risks outweigh the reward of making a really great connection with someone.

3. Can we expect a sequel? 

I’d love to do a sequel. I have a ton of ideas for what might happen in the next book, but it really depends on sales. I’ll have to figure out if it makes financial sense to devote the time to another. It would be really fun to see what happens as Dani, Mark, and Leila settle into their new lives… So, I don’t know. We’ll see!

4. Do you have any tips or suggestions for other authors out there?

Write, write, write. It sounds obvious, but the more that you write, the better you’ll be. Show your work to people—lots of people—and ask for honest feedback. I always instruct my volunteer readers to please tell me what they don’t like, if a character does something “off,” if a scene is boring/too fast/not exciting/not funny/generally crummy. Hearing that your book is “perfect” is wonderful, but is not, frankly, all that helpful. Honesty is what helps. It can be very hard to see your story objectively, and sometimes scenes or characters don’t read the way that you’ve envisioned them in your head. A fresh perspective can make all the difference because others can see what you can’t. So be open to criticism. That’s how you learn.

The other key to writing is to learn how to use that DEL button. You just have to edit what you write. Nobody gets it right the first time. Cutting out paragraphs, or even chapters, that you’ve slaved over is brutal. I understand. You might cry. You might get heartburn. I can’t predict what will happen to you (I tend to fling myself across the bed and wail), but you still have to do it. Getting rid of unnecessary words and scenes, etc. will make your writing tighter and your story stronger. You don’t need thousands of adverbs and adjectives cluttering up your pages when clear and simple can do what you need. And just because you planned on having scene X doesn’t mean that you can’t just cut the whole thing out if it’s unnecessary. Everything that you write should be there for a reason. If you can’t find one, delete it.

5. What can we expect from you in the future?

My agent is shopping a manuscript for me right now, called Falling For Him. The main character is starting her freshman year of college in Boston, and when her dorm housing falls through, she moves in with family friends. She develops an online romance with the eldest brother, who is away traveling, and gets deeply enmeshed with the rest of the family, including the particularly complicated daughter and her parentified older brother. There is plenty of humor and a bit of a mystery thrown in, but mostly the story is a character study of this young woman and her relationship with a very dysfunctional (but loveable) family. Plus, there is a bang-up romance that has made all of my test-readers cry. Yay! I love making people cry. Kidding, kidding…

I’m just about to start outlining another book that I’ve been mentally tossing around for a few months. I tend to procrastinate getting my ideas down into something resembling organized thought, but I’m hoping that within the next few weeks an actual plot will appear in a file on my computer.