Susan Andersen on Settings:
An Interview

©Lucy Monroe

Q:  Susan, the strong regional flavor of your books and attention to detail make you the Queen of Setting Research in my opinion.  I’d heard you wrote one of your books without ever having been to the locale.  Could you tell me a little about that?

 A:  I'm, um, probably not the Queen of setting research (much as I adore the title, and really, really want the crown that goes with it) because I actually do try to spend at least a modicum of time where I locate my stories. I find it tough to get the true feel of a place without visiting it. This is not to say it can't be done, but the one book with a setting I'd never visited, Be My Baby, was a real bugaboo to get right. I felt like I was floundering around, trying to establish a local flavor for a place I'd never even seen, and it was the book that pushed me into deciding never to set a story anywhere again without going there in person.

 Q:  How did you do the research for the setting of that book?

 A:  I gathered information on that book by talking to a New Orleans cop on the phone for the police information and by pouring over photos taken for me by a journalist friend on assignment there and brochures that my brainstorming partner Caroline Cross had gathered on a family vacation. I also picked the brain of Skye Moody, a mystery writer formerly from the Pacific Northwest who was living there at the time. She was particularly great, and if BMB has any authenticity at all, I owe it to her. She sent me local papers and answered email after email full of questions for me.

 Q:  Do you find the internet useful in researching your settings?

 A:  Even when I visit a place, I make constant use of the internet. I love it. You can find facts quick, you can always find an expert on any given subject, and you can use it to refresh your memory for places you have been but about which you don't have total recall.

 Q:  Do you have favorite links you visit for this type of research?

 A:  I don't have favorite links that are used for every book, but I do make research files for individual books.  I use Internet research for virtually everything. From dolls little girls would probably like to a specific restaurant in my chosen setting to antique guns. You name it, I'll try to look it up on the 'net.

Q:  Can you give me an example of the process you go through for a specific book?

A:  For Getting Lucky, for instance, (my upcoming March release) I spent a long weekend on Orcas Island, in Washington state, where the majority of the book is set. I took copious notes, got ideas for the story from places I visited, and STILL spent hours on The San Juan Island sites and the Washington State ferry site in the following months, checking my facts and looking up stuff I hadn't thought to research when I was there, or for scenes that didn't occur to me until I was deeper into the book. I also used military sites for various the Marine info for both this book and the one preceding it, Head Over Heels.

 Q:  Do you have a favorite search engine?

 A:  One of the search engines I particularly like is alltheweb.com.

 Q:  What about the library?

 A:  I use the library to a lesser extent these days, but it should never be discounted. I used the America The Beautiful books in the children's section when I wrote Baby, I'm Yours, because each state has its own individual volume, and Baby, I'm Yours was a 'road' romance that covered a number of states I had been to at one time or another in my life but didn't have any real knowledge of. Books written for kids are great sources because they give you a lot of basic information in an easily understandable format. Plus they have pictures, which as a not particularly visual person I find extremely helpful.

Thanks so much, Susan, for sharing your insights into researching setting with us.

To visit Susan at her website, go to:  www.susanandersen.com

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It's Not A Dream - It's Who I Am

©Lucy Monroe

I wrote this article four months before I sold my first book to Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd.

I woke up this morning feeling like a writer.  Something inside me has changed and the term “romance author” is no longer a dream I pursue, but part of the definition of who I am.  It’s not a goal on the far horizon, but the reality of my present.

No, I didn’t publish while I was sleeping.  I didn’t get “the call” upon waking.  I’m not sure what changed my perspective.

Is it the over one-million words of romantic fiction I’ve typed so earnestly into my computer and presented to others for critique, acceptance or rejection? Is it the two hanging files bulging with contest comments, scores, finalist notifications, placement announcements and that one win? Is it the not so bulging, but just as impacting file full of editorial comment and/or rejection? Or the identical one for agents? Is it the industry knowledge stored on my computer and in my brain that I’ve eagerly sought while learning my craft over the past few years? Or is the knowledge that yesterday I sent a certified letter severing the business relationship with my agent?

I think maybe that was the final thread in the weave that resulted in me waking up this morning no longer feeling like a wannabe, but an I am.   I made that decision based on what was best for my career.  A career that does not yet include a sale, but is real nonetheless, with a future – a future I could not afford to see stymied by attaching myself to an agent who didn’t share my vision for it, or my writing.

I’ll sell one day, maybe even one day soon.  Maybe not.  But I won’t give up trying, because this person...this romance author...she’s me.  She’s part of who I am.  I’ll always be a writer and the unpublished tag doesn’t make it any less real...not anymore.

I woke up this morning feeling like a writer and it felt good.

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On good writing...

By Lucy Monroe

I’ve recently been privy to some discussion regarding what constitutes good writing.  MR James (a highly respected English writer) is quoted as saying:

"Dots are believed by many writers of our day to be a good substitute for effective writing. They are certainly an easy one. Let us have a few more..."

The implication being that ellipses are bad writing.  I’ve heard the same said of the exclamation point, the question mark and the use of italics.  I’m sure there are many more “writer don’ts” in grammar and style usage of which I am unaware.

I have to admit that when anyone makes a statement that implies there is only one way to write a good book, I immediately question the value of their advice...all their advice.

You see, I simply cannot agree.  Charlotte Bronte and Pearl S. Buck have very little in common, certainly not their writing styles or even their preferred method of grammar usage.  And yet both writers are lifted up as examples of the best literature has to offer.

I once heard a romance author who hits the NYT bestsellers list with each new release say that she would write in the dog’s POV if she could.  She is an unashamed head hopper.  So, why is it we hear that the use of multiple POVs in a scene is lazy and bad writing?  It certainly can’t be because the convention of multiple POVs has been proven to be ineffective writing.

And what of the maligned ellipsis?  Used effectively, that small bit of punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence, the tone of a scene, the impact to a reader’s heart.  Does anyone else find the lack of exclamation points in a scene between two screaming combatants as disconcerting as I do?  For me, the lack of proper (in this case exclamation points) punctuation flattens the emotional impact of the scene.

I would postulate that there is indeed one way to write a good book – in a way that will touch your readers.

The effective use of any grammar or style convention is good writing.

Am I proposing we use an exclamation point every other sentence?  Or perhaps end every scene with an ellipsis?  No.  In my opinion, the use of an exclamation point is not lazy writing, but the incorrect or excessive use of any method of punctuation is sloppy writing.

I am proposing that we write our books to the best of our ability, using punctuation and literary style to effectively communicate our stories to our readers.  We should not waste our time worrying whether or not those who suggest the use of certain grammar and style conventions are lazy and/or bad writing would consider us good writers.

I’m much more concerned with my reader’s perceptions.  I hope I always will be.

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Facing Down the Doubt Devils

by Lucy Monroe
(c) 2005
I was recently asked during one of the classes on my online writing class group what to do when the doubt devils that plague most writers are validated. Like when you're doubting your ability to ever write a publishable book and get three rejections from different publishers in one day. I'm very familiar with that scenario because it's one I experienced.

My first and automatic answer was to submit somewhere else. You have no choice if *you* believe in your work.

There is no easy answer to the rejection side of our business. Because as objective as agents and editors would like to be, they aren't always. That's fact. A rejection from one does not mean your work is "unpublishable". But that does not mean that every book written is going to eventually find its way into the hearts of readers either. Not even 
every good book written. There are poorly written manuscripts gathering dust all over this planet...a few of them in my storage room, but the fact is that not every book that gets turned down is a book that should not be published. 

Let me give you a few examples from my own rocky road to publication...the first book I sold to Kensington (The Real Deal) was rejected by two other publishers. Not only that, but several agents told me it was not saleable. One well known New York agent told me that is *was* saleable...as a category novel. Kensington bought that book for Brava - without revisions. It received tons of stellar reviews and has recently been re-released as a mass market paperback.

Then there was the first single title I wrote period. My former agent hated it, tearing it apart in a six page revision letter. I actually made very few changes in that book, got rid of that agent and sold it via my current agent to Kensington Zebra...again without revisions. It came out in May, 2005. However, prior to its sale to Kensington it was rejected by HQN, Harlequin's new single title imprint and I was already writing for Harlequin Presents at the time. In other words, it got no cache for being by an in-house writer. I could have given up on that book, but I didn't...and it sold.

Then there is my first historical sale to Berkley...a book that got turned down by every publishing house in New York, once again...that included both HQN and Kensington (both of whom I was writing for at the time). I did do revisions on that book both before and after the sale, but what it really took to sell was having an editor read it who appreciated the unique flavor of my brand of historical storytelling.

And none of this even begins to include the numerous rejections I received from all sorts of agents on both my category and single title work, not to mention bunches of editors...my point? If I had believed any one of those agents or editors and given up on any of those books...they would never have found a publishing home. What is one, or even ten editor or agent's dross *can* be another editor's gold!

It isn't always the book. Believe it. I'm not saying never. There are bad books written all the time, poorly executed and lacking enough focus to sell in the competitive marketplace, but rejection does not necessarily mean you wrote one of them. Success in this business takes believing in yourself. No one else can tell you that you've got what it takes and have that message stick. *You* have to believe in your stories. You have to believe in your talent and you have to keep writing and submitting, keep trying to improve your craft and understanding of the marketplace...for you to achieve your goals and dreams.

Most recently, my editor at Kensington turned down a werewolf novella I wrote and my editor at Berkley wants to buy it for the exact reasons my editor at Kensington doesn't like it. I know I'm really blessed to have three editors and therefore a market for the many different types of writing I want to do, but the fact that they don't all buy everything I write is a great case for my belief that a book isn't necessarily unsaleable because it hasn't sold...many times, it just hasn't found the right home yet.

It might surprise you to hear that the question that spawned this article was asked by a published author. You wouldn't believe how many published authors end up orphaned, let go or are finding their next book a hard sell.  Many stick with the old and familiar out of fear of striking out on a new path, fear their naysayers are right and hope that the next book proposal will be the one. I say, don't be one of them...it's very possible for an author's work to lose some of its magic because of the awful self-doubt that plagues her creative process because she begins to see her work through the rejecting agent or editor's eyes. We all need to stop doing that.

Published and unpublished alike, we need to look at our stories with our own eyes...look at them with enthusiasm and belief. We need to stand firm on that belief and not let one, two, ten or even twenty rejections stop us from submitting our work. Over and over and over again if that's what it takes.

There are so many examples of authors who are now NYT bestsellers who were rejected by everybody and their brother, wife, second-cousin and agent! The reason they're on the NYT list is because they didn't give up believing in their work and didn't accept the naysayers view. Someday...maybe your name and my name will be there too...because we didn't give up on our stories or our dreams.

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