I was invited to do an interview for Christine Henderson. She reached out to me by Goodreads. Are you on Goodreads?
Anywhoo…I wanted y’all to get a first hand look before it goes live here
http://thewritechris.blogspot.com./
You’ve now written over 80 books. At the beginning, how many books did it take before you felt you could make writing a full-time career? It wasn’t the amount of books. It was the income that I needed to make in order to quit my job as a child therapist so I could still have a roof over our heads and food on the table for a family of six.
How long does it take to write one of your books? How many rewrites do you do? Who helps you with editing? My word count from HarperCollins was 50k words. That’s the total I’ve held to since. I write at least 4k words a day, five days a week. I can get a book written in about three weeks. After that I have an editing service I pay that does three rounds of edits. I also have one hundred people who read the novels before they go to publication.
I don’t see a publisher on your books. Are you indie-published? If so, what’s the hardest part about publishing your own books? How did you find your cover illustrators? I am with three traditional publishers; HarperCollins, Henery Press, & Crooked Lane. I am also indie-published for over 11 years.
There is no hard part about self publishing my books. I started from the beginning and enjoy every single part of having my hand in the entire process. It’s the traditional publishing that’s hard for me to give up control.
I’ve always said, no one can do my books better than me.
What made you use a camper as a focal point for our stories? I wanted to come up with a new cozy mystery with a different occupation for the sleuth. I didn’t want to do the typical baking, yarn, etc shop.
Now you use a camper for your writing. How do you have it set up as an office? I use the kitchen table for my desk. If we aren’t camping in our camper and it’s sitting on our property, I do go there every morning to write. I bring my laptop and all the things I need for that book with me and carry it back and forth.
When you’re stuck on a scene or a plot point, how do you get back on track? I see that as a sign of the characters not going in the direction they want me to. I know that sound weird, but I can take a walk in my woods on our property or just around our pond and my juices get flowing again for me to continue the story.
What is the hardest part of writing for you? Starting? Creating a scene? Dialog? Tension, etc?
The hardest part…none of those. Actually I love writing. I love all aspects of it.
What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing? Author Anne Perry bought my book and she told me, “you’re going places.”
We have all experienced rejection. Give me an example of one you’ve had, and how you learned to write past it. Honestly, I was rejected by the author community when I decided to self publish so many years ago. They told me I was vain publishing. My success and determination was how I got past it.
What has surprised you the most in writing/publishing? What frustrated you the most? I was pleasantly surprised at how much I love my job. What frustrates me most is not enough time in the day to write more.
What do you know now about writing you wished you had known sooner? The one thing I’ve said for the past couple of years was I’d not written so many series at once. I’d focus on one series and continued it until the readers no longer wanted to read it.
What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give? Write one series and focus on it.
Are there any other points about writing you would like to add? Nope.
What is the next book coming out? Can you give me a short synopsis?
Eggnog, Extortion, & Evergreen
Welcome to Normal, Kentucky~ where nothing is normal. A Campers and Criminal Mystery Series is another brainchild of USA Today Bestselling Author Tonya Kappes. If you love her quirky southern characters and small town charm with a mystery to solve, you’re going to love her new cozy mystery series!
Mae West is busy this Christmas season. She’s running around Normal getting the town ready for the first Winter Festival, which she hopes will become an annual event for the tourist town.
The freshly fallen snow sure does make the Daniel Boone National Park beautiful and ready for Santa’s arrival, but it also makes the curvy roads through the forest very slick. Unfortunately, Mae finds out just how slick the roads are after her car slides off the road and hits a tree, putting Mae into a deep coma.
Mae is one of the lucky patients who does wake up and happy to celebrate Christmas with family and friends.
One of the patients in the emergency room with Mae didn’t die that night of natural causes, and Hank Sharp has himself a new homicide case on his hands.
Mae starts having memories about the fire that took her family and a memory of a murder plot that she thinks happened when she was in her coma. Only, she’s having a hard time distinguishing between the two memories and the clues seem to have blurred lines. There’s one thing she does know for sure, both incidents come with clues that neither were accidents.
Once again, Mae West with the help of the Laundry Club Ladies put on their ameatur sleuth cap to help solve the mystery of the murders before the killer sends her Christmas gift she can’t return.
Lastly, what links would you like to be added at the end? Thank you for having me! I loved it.
Thanks for your time and insight. I look forward to reading your responses.
