Author interview: Overcoming Writers Block & Other Obstacles Wk 3

What inspired you to write your first book?

I've been asked this many times, and I can't really say. I'd been creating stories for my sister even as an adolescent, and one day, I realized the story I was working on was getting so complicated in my head it needed to be written down. It was supposed to be a short story. It grew. I was reading a lot of romance at the time, some great, some unbelievably bad. Like many authors, I thought I could do better.

How long did it take you to write it?

STARCROSSED HEARTS was my first book. It took about a year to write it, and another year to re-write it, and another six months to polish it. It's a very long book, actually two books in one, at 144K words.

Have you written any other books, and is there any common theme, thread, or concept behind your books?

STARCROSSED HEARTS is a contemporary romance, with lots of plot and a variety of locales. The characters are entertainers, there is a love triangle, some crime, some world travel, heartache, adventure. Its ending is a sort of non-ending, with the reader wondering just what will happen to the characters after the last page. A sequel, A HERO'S PROMISE, picks up a few years later. A third book, THE GYPSY IN ME (in progress,) culminates the trilogy ten years later.

This year, I ventured onto a different path with my first paranormal mystery, POINT SURRENDER. I've always been a lighthouse nut, and it seemed a natural location for a romantic mystery with a few ghosts hanging about. POINT SURRENDER is a fictional California lighthouse with a past filled with love, hate, jealousy and... murder. Fans began asking for more of this genre, so I am working on CAPE SEDUCTION, a story that will tie together events occuring at a lighthouse in both 1948 and 2008. The research for this book is a lot of fun!

How did you accomplish the writing of the books?  Did they just flow out of you without any effort, or did you have to work at it, or something else?

Almost all of my books have been the free-flowing kind. Given the free time to write, I'd be able to complete books fairly quickly. The more I write, the more complete my ideas have become. They seem to come to me as total concepts now. In the early days, I sort of rambled through them, which created headaches later as I tried to pull the stories together. I actually did some real outlining on POINT SURRENDER.

What kind of obstacles have you encountered in writing and publishing your book(s)?

Personally, having time to write is my biggest obstacle. I do not include writing time in my daily routine. I have a family and a business to run. I tend to rip off chunks of time here and there to write. When I am really on a roll, I will cancel all appointments and just write all day.

Professionally, my biggest obstacle had been finding an honest, fair and stable publisher to work with. Publishing is a tremendously difficult business, so full of Catch-22's I don't know how they manage to stay afloat. Many don't. There is a fine line between making it and disappearing. I am thrilled to be working with Karen Syed of Echelon Press. She is professional, hard-working and she goes the distance to support her authors. We understand each other and the business in general.

Today, the challenge has evolved. You think, as an author, that getting published at all is the best. You've made it. Then reality sets in, because you still have so much to learn. Does your publisher provide quality editing, cover art, formatting? Is your publisher recognized as a stable, professional entity? Is their product attractive and durable?

All that given, a new list appears: does the publisher have good distribution? Can people find your books at Amazon? Can bookstores order the books once they are printed? Ah, good. At this point, you are sure you have it all. Good story, good cover, good reviews, nice books, a warehouse full of them as a matter of fact, and distribution availability to any store who wants them. Now the challenge is - getting them sold! So the obstacles continue. As authors, we must continue to push.

What one or two key pieces of advice do you have for people who want to write?

Hate to sound cliche, but "just do it" comes to mind. Write a lot, read a lot, read more. Always maintain your integrity, don't let the set-backs get you down--there will be many. The first publisher I ever worked with was an ebook-only pub. I was floating on air that he wanted to publish my book, IN TOO DEEP. I waited on needles and pins for him to edit it; I should have been tipped off when he said it was great the way it was, with one or two typo corrections. Not long after this book was published on CD, it made an internet bestseller list of ebooks. My head was so swelled I could barely hold it up! I printed up all kinds of promo items displaying my bestseller status. Told everyone I knew. Put it on my website. Then, my first royalty statement came. With it, an attachment I wasn't supposed to see, which clearly indicated that the publisher, under a different name, had purchased a large number of downloads of my book. Enough to place it squarely at the top of the aforementioned list.

I was heartbroken. Embarrassed, mortified and humbled. I quietly removed all mention of the bestseller list. The publisher was disappointed in me for not taking advantage of his little scheme. I took my rights back at the first opportunity. I've worked with a number of publishers since then. Two of them went under, and one of them was a great stepping stone for me. Right now, Echelon is my home.

Tell us a little more about your books - genres, titles, storylines, interesting tidbits:

Tidbits. Hmmm. While writing POINT SURRENDER, I had the exquisite opportunity to stay in a Washington State lighthouse for several days. Talk about inspiration! I was all alone there with my laptop, and that is where I finished the last four chapters of the book. It was an awesome experience, one I'll never forget. There were no ghosts present, but I like to say that the muse was defininately in residence. 

Can you share with us what you are working on now, and when will it be published?

CAPE SEDUCTION is in the works and will hopefully be contracted next year. I truly believe it will be my best work yet. I also write young adult mysteries under the name Pam Ripling, and LOCKER SHOCK! will be published by Echelon Press this fall. LOCKER SHOCK! is about a middle school boy who discovers a gun in his school locker, and the challenges he encounters trying to find out who put it there. A timely issue.

Where can we learn more about you and buy your books?

www.BeaconStreetBooks.com is my website. I can also be "experienced" at www.myspace.com/starcrsdone, and my blog address is www.beacon-street.blogspot.

All of my books are available for download at Fictionwise: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/annecarterebooks.htm

POINT SURRENDER is available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Point-Surrender-Anne-Carter/dp/1590805143/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4608012-3020657?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173981999&sr=8-1

and a myriad of other places online!