Bio:
College and graduate studies
in literary research and linguistics. 15 years in marketing as an
editor and typesetter/photocompositor.
Retired/disabled.
Leanne, you asked me
lots of questions about writing, but to me, writing is not the issue, nor is it
the goal. My goal is to be an
interesting story-teller. A person can
write beautifully, but if you have no story, it’s pointless.
My method of writing a
novel is to have a good story in mind.
Then I just start. I let the
story and the characters surprise me along the way. If I’m surprised, so might a reader be. This is contrary to the conventional wisdom
that you should work with an outline and have your characters’ growths fleshed
out in advance. In the book I just
finished writing, a minor character became a major character, and one that I
thought would be a major character became a minor one. Ultimately, the story is the way it’s
supposed to be, with the help of my characters.
I try to include places
and things that I know well. I’ve
traveled through many states in the U.S., and I incorporate those places. I’m a car nut, and I love choosing the cars
that my characters drive. I’ve had a
variety of jobs over the years, and my characters are often employed in those
occupations. I also like to have at
least one of my characters be Jewish, throwing my own faith into the mix. In my latest book, however, I wasn’t able to
work in a Jewish character.
For three years after I
wrote my first novel, I kept it a secret from all family and friends. It was important to me that they be spared
from giving me their candid opinions. If
they hated my work, they would feel terrible giving me the bad news. Eventually, I opened up to family and
friends, including my husband. That was
a big hoop to jump through, for his sake.
Only my sister had a poor opinion that she was scared to express, but she
reads books on astrophysics for fun, so my simple stories have nothing to offer
her. And that’s OK.
Meeting other
independent authors and their readers online is a huge part of the process. I adore them all! Creative, fun, enthusiastic, and anxious to
please! I try to be as supportive as
possible to fellow authors and am grateful when they do the same. A few of them are way too sensitive to
criticism. They’re in love with every
word they write. That’s just not
practical. Criticism comes with the job,
and not every book is for every person.
Marketing is often the equivalent of bashing your head into a brick
wall. The wall doesn’t give, and your
head gets bloody. I wish I had a magic
bullet for the marketing part of independent authorship.
-- Java Davis,
2013
