Grab your beverage of choice (Mimosas for me, of course!), roll up to or flip open a screen and let some talented writers talk to you about their writing process.
This week: Katherine Garbera is in the spotlight!
Katherine Garbera is the USA Today best-selling author of more than 50 books. Readers have flocked to her Miami Nights and new Matchmakers, Inc. series. So let me get out of the way and cede the stage, stool and microphone to Lauren:
1. Have you always written stories?
I started making up stories when I was on the swim team at practice. Swimming up and down the pool for two hours every day left me a lot of time to think and for me that was when I first started making up stories. I really enjoyed it and thought it was an interesting hobby. When I was 20 a woman I was working with said to me why aren’t you a writer, after we’d been talking about stories and writing. And I said I didn’t know I could be, how silly is that? The idea was planted that I could be a writer.
I like to write Mon-Fri from 9-3. I will write on the weekends if I have to but that’s family time for me. I do email and social networking in the morning while my kids are eating breakfast and watching TV and then when I get home I start writing. I try to write three scenes a day.
I write-revise-write and then move on. I don’t know why I do it that way, its just the way that works for me.
I don’t think I get writer’s block. I have gotten stuck in a story and I always send it to Eve Gaddy and she tells me what the problem is. Not story wise but reader wise, i.e. its boring! I have a list of affirmations I keep next to my computer and I read them every day before I get started. The first one is why I think writer’s block hasn’t been a problem, it is: Writing is fun and easy for me. I believe that and feel it so writing is a natural part of my day.
Starting an idea is always lots of fun because you are sort of writing and seeing what will develop. Another part I love is the ending when I’m pulling all the threads together and weaving the conclusion.
8. Where were you when you got “The Call?”
I was at home. I’d taken the day off from work because my agent had left me a message saying that she had a voicemail from Silhouette with an offer for me. So I waited at home until they called. Then I called my husband, parents and grandparents. And we all went to dinner at my parents house that night to celebrate.
9. If you could go back in time and tell your younger self one thing you have since learned about the business of writing, what would you tell them (you)?
The thing I’d really like to tell my younger self is don’t eat a Quarter Pounder with Cheese every day for lunch when you were 21! But I would tell myself to let go of my fears that I’m not meant to be a writer. I would tell her that the stories she has to tell are worthwhile.
Wine is my favorite and I like something dry and white. I also like a Corona now and then and Guinness when we go to the pub.
Jayne Ann Krentz, Christine Feehan & Barbara O’Neal
I love Big Bang Theory and any cooking show Top Chef, Master Chef, Chopped… Oh and Once Upon A Time. Love fairy tales!
Hmm…I don’t know that I have one.
New York professional Gail Little goes from reserved to stunning in time for their first date. But when she meets Russell, she knows the matchmaker made a big mistake. The camera may see their instant chemistry, but will Gail allow the perpetual playboy to transform her into his very own plaything…forever?
