Having Coffee with Shawntelle Madison, Author of Coveted

This month, I am having coffee with Shawntelle Madison. Shawntelle is a debut novelist. I met her at Archon in St. Louis soon after she received word that her first book was going to be published.

Please grab a cup of coffee, or drink of your choice, and join me for a Coffee with David author interview.

David Alan Lucas: With so many books on vampires, what attracted you to choose to write an Urban Fantasy about a werewolf?

Shawntelle Madison:  Once I had the idea for Coveted, I actually made a personal decision to exclude vampires from the universe of my book. Not that I don’t like vampires, I just wanted my book to be different from the rest of the pack. Pun intended. ;)

Also, I just felt the book worked better with an OCD werewolf.

DAL: When you are starting to work on a new novel, what do you find brings the story into focus for you? A Character? A setting? Something else?

SM: For me all stories start with a character. The reader needs to be hopefully interested in their journey. Once in a while, an event is where I start, but character comes first the majority of the time.

DAL: How did you develop the voice used in Coveted?

SM:  Of all the books I’ve written, Nat’s voice is one I slipped into the easiest. Who hasn’t felt like the underdog? The one who is bullied and cast out? I just dug in deep and wrote how I felt. The book just flowed out from there.

DAL: What was the hardest part of writing Coveted?

SM:  The hardest part of writing the book was the feelings it brought up. Who doesn’t want to feel left out or abandoned? They are quite painful. In order to convey my heroine’s true feelings, I had to feel the same emotions—which meant a lot of crying while writing. ;)

DAL: What themes in your fiction writing seem to drive you the most?

SM:  For me, I love writing about characters who overcome adversity. I love when a character is beat down, but they are driven to stand up and do the right thing for the people they love.

DAL: Do you work on multiple novels at once? If so, how many?

SM:  I’ve tried working on multiple books at once, and I can, but I prefer to be deep in one person’s head. So I’d say I spend the majority of the time writing one book at a time.

DAL: What do you find focuses your writing?

SM: I get distracted very easily. I focus best when I’m at the library with some good music. If I write at home and I need to focus I use Write or Die. It has forced me to focus so many times.

DAL: How easy was it to take the leap of faith to become a serious writer and chase this career? What did you find that you had to do to take the step?

SM:  I actually found it quite easy to take that step. I knew I wanted to write books. I was hungry to write and that was all I needed to take the process seriously.

DAL: What was your biggest fear when you decided to be published?

SM:  My biggest fear is uncertainty. (This comes from someone who tries to keep track of everything and schedule stuff.) You just never know what will come at you and when it will come. I got no warning from my agent when he called to offer rep. And I was actually in the middle of a phone call with my crit partner when my agent called me with an offer from my publisher for Coveted.

DAL: Who was the most influential person or persons in your writing career?

SM:  I’d say the most influential persons would be my first critique partner, Sarah Bromley and one of my favorite science fiction authors , Octavia Butler. Sarah has been with me since the beginning and has really helped me learn the craft.

DAL: If there was some advice that you could give to a fellow writer, what would it be?

SM:  Never give up that hunger to write and to be published. Whenever I finished a book, I immediately started thinking about the next project. (I’m still that way.) It’s way too easy to give up these days. When people say it’s easier to edit a finished page instead of a blank one, they’re not kidding!

DAL: What advice would you give a fellow writer about pitching a story either face to face or in a query letter?

SM:  Starting working on your pitch as soon as possible before you actually need to give it. Try to whittle your pitch down to a few sentences or even one if possible.

When it comes to query letters I highly suggest you check literary agency websites for samples. There are many on the internet to give you great ideas. Also, don’t be afraid to ask crit partners or critique groups for feedback on your query. You’d be surprised what your own eyes miss.

DAL: When you plot your novels, from whose point of view do you plot from? The protagonist’s? The antagonist’s? The narrator’s? Someone else?

SM: Since I write first person I plot primarily from the protagonist.

DAL: What is your writing schedule like?

SM: You mean people have one? Just kidding. I’m one of those writers who doesn’t write every day—unless I am on deadline. I tend to write in bursts like a sprinter. I will go crazy and write thousands of words per day for weeks, then rest for a few weeks to months. Most books take me four to five months to write.

DAL: If you could have coffee (or drink of your choice) with four other authors from any time period, who would you choose and why?

SM: I’d have coffee with Octavia Butler, Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. I have so many other authors, but I think I’d enjoy lunch with them first. :)

DAL: How could my readers learn more about you?

SM: If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on Twitter as Shawntelle, on Facebook and through my website. I also do blog posts on Wicked Authors (Mondays) and Magic & Mayhem Writers (Wednesdays).

To win a free copy of Coveted, please see: First of the Month Book Giveaway: Coveted  http://davidalanlucas.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-of-month-book-giveaway-coveted.html

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

Having Coffee with Award Winning Author Rick Skwiot

This week, it is my pleasure to present an interview with award winning author Rick Skwiot.  Rick has won the Hemingway First Novel award, was a Willa Cather Fiction Prize finalist and is an acclaimed memoir writer.   His latest novel, Key West Story (which you have a chance to win a free copy of) was just released.

Please grab a cup of coffee, or drink of your choice, and join me for a Coffee with David author interview.

David Alan Lucas: Your latest novel, Key West Story, has just been released.  While, my readers can learn more about your novel at www.keyweststory.com, what was the idea behind this novel?

Rick Skwiot: Key West is a surreal place that serves as an ark and sanctuary for people escaping various ills: outstanding warrants, crappy weather, dysfunctional families, repressive governments, bad marriages, bad mortgages, etc. It’s the most culturally diverse place I know and the most insane. For those who don’t know the island’s underside, I wanted to show it to them. Think of Key West Story as a guidebook to its emotional life and soul.

DAL: What was the hardest part of writing Key West Story?

RS: The first 15 drafts. The next 15 were lots easier. What made the difference—and made it a lot more fun to write and, I hope, to read—was my conjuring up the ghost of a young Ernest Hemingway to act as a mentor and foil to my protagonist, a rudderless writer washed up in Key West. But actually trying to figure out what should happen in the novel you’re writing is sweet agony—the hardest part.

DAL: You are a veteran journalist. Do you approach your novel writing with a different mindset than you approach a journalistic story?

RS:  My mindset is entirely different. In journalism you strive to keep yourself and your opinions out of the story. In fiction you work to put the deepest parts of yourself into the story in order to arrive at some emotional truth. Journalism is more a matter of researching the facts of a story and then arranging those facts in an entertaining and/or informative way. In a novel, before you can arrange the facts, you have to make them all up, and that usually means digging deep into yourself and your experience. 

DAL: What themes in your fiction writing seem to drive you the most?

RS:  The search for home seems to dominate—which often includes a search for identity. In Key West Story, most of the characters are searching for home—Con, Cat, Eva, Aurora, Ricardo, Rebecca Hemingway, Marta, etc. And because it is a comedy and not a tragedy, most all of them succeed. 

DAL:  How easy was it to take the leap of faith to become a serious writer and chase this career? What did you find that you had to do to take the step?

RS:  “Leap of faith” nails it—but there was a lot of tip-toeing around the precipice trying to build some faith in oneself before making the jump. Coming from a working-class background, I never knew any writers, and working as serious novelist and memoirist wasn’t on my radar. But I built some self-confidence as a journalist and freelance writer (which I still am) that enabled me to entertain the possibility. Finally I was able to flee to Mexico and immerse myself in literature, creative writing craft and the artist’s life—that was the leap. I had to change who I was, to metamorphose from an aimless hedonist into an artist, in order to create art. A frightening step into nothingness, since I wasn’t sure who would emerge on the other side. I have chronicled that period of my life in my book San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Memoir of a Sensual Quest for Spiritual Healing. I recommend it to anyone contemplating such a leap.

DAL: In your journalistic career, is there any story that stands out as the most interesting or compelling to you that you wrote?

RS: No one story stands out, but my cumulative work as a journalist—much of it interviewing scientists, academic researchers, doctors and other driven, accomplished, and passionate people—has made me more optimistic about the world’s future. If you read the daily news you get the impression that the world’s going to hell. But the reality is that over the long-term things are getting better—the world is becoming safer, healthier, better educated (we’re talking globally, here) and smarter. The big story is the explosion of computer science and technology over the past 30 years, which is changing the ways in which we do most everything and expanding our knowledge exponentially.

DAL: What was your biggest fear when you decided to first be published as a novelist?  Do you still have those fears with each new book or are there other fears that come up?

RS:  My biggest fear is making a public ass of myself, that is, the fear of putting out pretentious, overwritten, dishonest or unintentionally laughable stuff. Thank God for advance readers and editors! Luckily, I have here in Key West good friends who are accomplished novelists or editors and who save me from myself by reading early drafts and making good suggestions for revision. Of course, the only defense when some really inept work slips into print is, “If you think that’s bad, you should have seen the early drafts!” 

DAL: If you could have coffee (or drink of your choice) with four other authors from any time period, who would you choose and why?

RS: First and foremost, Colette—Champagne at her place. See why here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ColetteReveEgypte1907.JPG... But perhaps you mean from a more literary viewpoint. Then number one would be Georges Simenon. His lean, pointillist approach greatly influenced my prose style. Plus he was a great man about town in Paris and loved to carouse…Mark Twain would be a hoot to have a drink with, and he liked to drink. As did H.L. Mencken, perhaps our greatest journalist, critic and man of letters. Henry Miller would be lots of fun as well—a man who had many instructive things to say about the creative process and with whom I share a transcendentalist bent. All three Americans were very funny guys, great writers and seemingly great companions. (And in Key West Story my protagonist Con Martens has such a dream come true: He gets to hang out with Ernest Hemingway sent from Writers Heaven to help him find himself again--fishing, drinking and sailing to Havana.)

DAL: You have been a professor teaching young writers creative writing and you are the co-founder of Key West Writers Lab, which is dedicated to coaching serious writers.  I can only imagine that you have a treasure trove of information that could be shared with other writers.  If there was one piece of advice that you could give to any fellow writer, what would it be?

RS: One boozy Mexican night circa 1988, my late and lamented friend Peter Kosovic—a former director and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting System—told me: “Work to perfect your vision, Rick, grasp it with all your might and shove it up their ass!” (I can picture his accompanying gestures.) Excellent advice: Be true to yourself and follow your heart; work with determination and intensity; and never ever give up.

DAL: How could my readers learn more about you?

RS: Read my books—memoirs and novels alike, but particularly the novels. A writer reveals more about himself or herself in fiction than in autobiography. Which is why it’s so scary publishing it. The deepest parts of you creep into the work—what’s really in your soul—particularly the stuff you’re trying to hide.   

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.