I've been gong through my hard drive attempting to clean it up and have stumbled across a lot of old interview questions. Over the next little while I thought I'd post some of them here.
Please finish this sentence: The best thing about being an
author is…
You get to pick your own ending!
(which is something I like to think happens, but I suspect my characters
have more say than I do)
What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a writer?
That not everyone that reads what I write is going to like
it. I think that was the hardest thing
to swallow.
I had to start thinking of it in terms that simplified it so much
that I was able to shake it off and keep going. Some people like Coca-cola,
some like Pepsi and some like plain ‘ol water.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced with a publisher?
At the start, I accepted what they said and did it, even when I
have to grit my teeth to do it.
It was somewhere around my fourth book I realized that I did not
have to give into everything they wanted.
One publisher wanted me to add more sex to my stories. I have nothing against erotica at all, but
the story they wanted me to ‘spice up’ would have lost a lot if I’d given
in.
It was a hard choice to walk away from them and seek out new
publishers that were happy with my stories lines as they were but I’m much a
happier now that I have.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I don’t think it hit me until I was going through the editing
process on probably my third book. It
was one of those odd moments where everything settles and fades into the
background and I looked down at the manuscript and realized what I was
doing.
What can I say, I’m a little slow sometimes. lol
Has
any other writer online had a big effect on you, or your writing?
All of them! I have met so
many writers that I couldn’t even begin to narrow it down to one or two. At first I couldn’t believe the moral support
they toss at you each step of the way.
It’s amazing and wonderful to know that there is a large body of people
doing what you do that will cheer you on each step of the way. I can’t say that would be true for a lot of
other professions out there.
How much of real life do
you put in your writing?
Even though I write paranormal, I try to put enough real moments
into my stories that people can relate and if I do research if I’m going to be
mentioning a certain place. In the Magic
Seasons the women work at a recycling plant, so I did a lot of research there
to describe it to the readers.
What inspired you to
write this story?
I actually didn’t
have plans to write a fifth book in the series but it nagged at me that I’d
left Patrick and Rhonda just hanging at the end of Autumn Dance, so I sat down
and dug a little deeper into their personalities to see if they had something
to share.
How long did it take
you to write?
This one took quite a
bit longer than the rest of the series. The first four books took me six months
in total, I thought my hands were going to swell up from typing so much. Winter Mist was a little harder to unravel
and put onto paper so it was probably six to eight months in the works.
What is your least
favorite thing about writing?
Proofreading/editing. Not the actual editing part, just the reading
the same words over and over part. From
the writing process to publication I think I’ve read the story at least twenty
times, maybe more.
I will dig out some more for next time.
Jacqueline Paige
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