Meet the Member Anna Crespo

Today, Kathie Scrimgeour (aka KJ Scrim), Meet the Member and Sweet Success editor, shares her recent interview with member Matt Ana Crespo.  We’re pleased to share successes and highlight our diverse membership.  Kathie can be reached at  ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com.

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KJ Scrim: What inspired you to write children’s books?
Ana Crespo: When I had my first child, I couldn’t find any books featuring Brazilian characters or culture.  At the time, that was okay, because English is not my first language, so I was learning new words everyday by reading to my daughter. We did have Brazilian books sent to us from relatives. However, by the time my second child was born, about seven years later, it started to bother me. I wanted my kids to be able to share some of their cultural background with their friends. I wanted them to see themselves in books, to feel they were represented. I was always very creative and decided to give writing for children a try. My first book in English, THE SOCK THIEF: A SOCCER STORY, was inspired by my father’s childhood memories.
KJ: What is the general process for getting a children’s book from your desk to publication?
Ana: First and foremost, you have to write it.  It is amazing the number of people who tell me they have an idea for a book, it is a great idea, and etcetera, but they never sit down to write it. And, as with any other project, you must revise it, share it with critique partners, revise it more, and repeat the process as many times as necessary. Then, ideally, you find an agent who will submit your book to the many publishers that, currently, do not accept unagented submissions. In my case, however, with THE SOCK THIEF: A SOCCER STORY, and the MY EMOTIONS AND ME series, I didn’t have an agent. I met my editor during a conference, very much like the one offered by PPW. I had a paid critique with her. She enjoyed THE SOCK THIEF, although she had a variety of concerns and comments about it. I made most of the changes she suggested, cut a lot of words, and a month after submission, I had an offer.
KJ: What are a few of the challenges you face when writing children’s books?
Ana: When you only write picture books and don’t illustrate them, you face a variety of challenges. First, you have to write with illustrations in mind, even though you are not going to be the person illustrating the book. That means that you must leave out detailed descriptions, as they will usually be depicted by the pictures that do not exist yet. On that same page, there may be key information for the plot that will be relayed to the reader only via the illustrations.  Illustration notes can be a tricky subject in picture book writing, because not all editors like seeing them. You must save them for those times in which they are extremely necessary. As an example, JP AND THE GIANT OCTOPUS is told in first person. The boy, JP, imagines the octopus, but the octopus is really a car wash. Of course, in order to explain to the editor what the story was about, illustration notes were necessary. In sum, the way I see it, picture books are the product of a team. As the writer, I am just the first step in that collaboration. And that in itself, might be a challenge for some writers.
KJ: You were born in Brazil. How does this influence J.P. and Felipe, the two main characters of your books?
Ana: I don’t think my Brazilian roots influenced the JP character. However, Felipe’s story is based on my father’s childhood memories. My father and uncle used to take my grandmother’s stockings to make soccer balls. They weren’t poor, but it was the early 60s, cheap soccer balls weren’t common, and they were a family of seven. They stuffed my grandmother’s stockings with newspaper and spent a long time playing soccer in the backyard or on the streets of Rio. This was a widespread practice. Even Pelé, Brazil’s most famous player, played with newspaper-stuffed soccer balls when he was a child in the 40s. So, Felipe’s resourcefulness is something I find to be very characteristic of Brazilians.
KJ: One of your book series is about J.P. who says, “I am fast. I am strong. I am brave. But sometimes I feel afraid.” What inspired this as his mantra?
Ana: The JP books were inspired by a trip to the car wash with my son. He was terrified of it, partially because his mom (guilty!) pretended they were going into a monster’s cave. The beginning of the story is basically the same in every book of the series. JP is learning how to deal with his feelings. In JP AND THE GIANT OCTOPUS, he learns how to deal with fear. In the next book, JP AND THE POLKA-DOTTED ALIENS, he learns how to deal with anger, so the character says, “Sometimes I feel angry,” a line that will lead into what causes him to be angry and how he will deal with it.
KJ: What advice would you give a writer who was just getting started in writing children’s books?
Ana: If you plan to write picture books, I’d say the most important thing to do is to find an organization that focuses on them. That will help you understand the industry, lead you to like-minded people and, hopefully, connect you to critique partners. We often hear people say, “Oh, I could have written this,” but writing picture books is a bit more complicated than it looks like, and you will need all the help you can get.

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Ana Crespo is the winner of the 2016 International Latino Book Award for The Sock Thief in the category, Best Latino Focused Children’s Picture Books. She is also a member of Pikes Peak Writers for about five years and last year she attended the conference for the first time. She enjoyed volunteering and loved meeting some of the agents and editors.
Website: https://www.anacrespobooks.com/
Social media: www.facebook.com/AnaCrespoBooks, www.twitter.com/AnaCrespoBooks, www.pinterest.com/AnaCrespoBooks

Meet the Member Matt Bille

Today, Kathie Scrimgeour (aka KJ Scrim), Meet the Member and Sweet Success editor, shares her recent interview with member Matt Bille.  We’re pleased to share successes and highlight our diverse membership.  Kathie can be reached at  ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com.

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KJ Scrim: You newest book, Raven’s Quest was just released in December 2017. How does it feel to see a project come to fruition?
Matt Bille: This always feels great to a writer because it means you can start the next project or turn full attention to one you’ve left in limbo.  I and my wife/coauthor Deb tried to bring back C.S. Lewis-style fantasy adventure with an underlying Christian/family theme, and I think we nailed it. Readers will let us know.
KJ Scrim: You write both fiction as well as non-fiction. In your creative process, how are they different? Similar?
Matt Bille: That’s an interesting question because I write science and history, both of which require that you research from the origins of idea on through the latest developments or, in the case of space history, the most recent declassifications of documents that may have lain in government vaults for decades.  With nonfiction, I’ll craft each chapter as a go along, with all documented information included or reference.  With fiction, I do some research at the start to know what’s possible, but then what matters is getting a whole, coherent story down. If I need to know what brand of snowmobile is most popular around Lake Iliamna, I don’t need that right now, I can use a generic name and fill it in later.
Characters are different because you have to invent them instead of borrowing them from history, but there’s still an overlap.  The antagonist in Apex borrows a lot from wealthy adventurer Steve Fossett, only with no ethics.
KJ Scrim: You have been a former Air Force Titan II ICBM commander, an extra in the film 1941, along with many other endeavors. How have these influenced your writing? (feel free to use any other examples).
Matt Bille: Everything in life helps you write. My most acclaimed nonfiction, The First Space Race, wouldn’t have been possible without the time in the Air Force. I’ve always been a space geek, but Titan training included learning, in painstaking detail, all the components of a rocket and its support infrastructure.  When it was time to write the history of the first satellites, I could look at a diagram of an old rocket and explain its features to non-engineers like myself. A film or TV extra doesn’t learn much about the production process, but it does teach you to think of the whole scene, the way the director must, and not just the actors in the foreground.
KJ Scrim: Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? How do they help? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.
Matt Bille: For novelists, find an old one called How to Write Best-Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz. The industry has changed, but the principles haven’t.  Maas’ The Fire in Fiction is the best of his many books, or so it seems to me. If you are not by nature a strict grammarian, you need Elements of Style.  You can break grammatical rules in fiction, but you must know what they are. King’s On Writing is valuable for King’s discussions of how to focus on the basics of your story and minimize the “fluff.”

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Matt Bille has been writing since he was 16 when he sold a little humor piece to his local newspaper, then went on to publish his first book, Rumors of Exsitence,  in 1996. Matt has been with PPW since the 90’s and has only missed two conferences since he became a member. He had his great moment in nonfiction, when he offered Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson a copy of The First Space Race at a symposium and Tyson replied, “I have that.”

Meet the Member Mike Torreano

Today, Kathie Scrimgeour (aka KJ Scrim), Meet the Member and Sweet Success editor, shares her recent interview with member Mike Torreano.  We’re pleased to share successes and highlight our diverse membership.  Kathie can be reached at  ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com.

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KJ Scrim: How long have you been writing and what is the genre you prefer to write?
Mike Torreano: I started writing when I retired about six years ago. I seem to be inescapably drawn to mid-to-late 19^th century America. I have two traditional western mysteries out (The Reckoning and in a couple months The Renewal), both set in South Park 1868 and 1872. Also, my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, just brought out The Renewal as an audio book as well.
KJ Scrim: Do you have anything in particular you are working on right now? Tell us a little about it.
M.T.: I’m writing another western, but it’s not the third in the trilogy, it’s set in 1871 New Mexico territory, and my hero travels north during a cattle drive. He has a mysterious background that is slowly revealed as he rides. For a long time he doesn’t even realize someone is hunting him. I’m a pantser, so the rest will come together as I go.
KJ Scrim: On your website, you say that you consumed Zane Grey’s work. Of the vast array of his writing, are there any that stood out for you? Why?
M.T.: Riders of the Purple Sage is probably his most enduring work and contains several story line threads which add complexity and heighten interest as the reader waits to see them all come together. I’ve more or less structured my storylines with the same multiple threads.
KJ Scrim: What other authors influenced your writing?
M.T.: Certainly Louis L’Amour and Larry McMurtry, but also the poet Robert Service and novelist Jack London. My stories seem to be set in the Old West or in the northlands. I tend to gravitate to descriptive, but sparse writers.
KJ Scrim: Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of the new writer's experiences (and more experienced writers too!). How have they helped you?
M.T.: I always come away with a stack of conference notes, but honestly, if I can come away from a conference with one or two good ideas it’s been a success. The trick then is to force myself to apply those ideas in my writing, so those gems don’t just gather dust.
KJ Scrim: Do you attend the events outside PPW’s conference and, if so, which ones are your favorite?
M.T.: I’ve always enjoyed the Write Brain sessions and Open Critiques.
KJ Scrim: Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? How do they help? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.
M.T.: I would recommend everyone writing historicals use a period reference book or two. They’re available online and will give you a clearer picture of what life was like during a particular time.
I’ve found The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, to be very helpful, along with Donald Maas’ Fire In Fiction.
KJ Scrim: If you met someone who was thinking about starting to write, what advice would you give them?
M.T.: Whether you’re a pantser like me, or a plotter, take time to think in detail about your main characters. Once you know them well, their scenes will likely spill off the page.
The second thing I would recommend is to find a compatible critique group of similar genre if possible. Mine is very valuable in helping polish my manuscripts.
KJ Scrim: Is there anything you would like to add that we haven’t discussed?
M.T.: Craft your storylines with care. Pick something you just have to tell so you’ll be able to finish what you start.

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Mike Torreano is a western mystery writer. He joined PPW about six years ago. Mike devoured Zane Grey which sparked a lifelong love of American West of the 19^th century. He has one book published, The Reckoning, with two more in the works, The Renewal, Fireflies at Dusk.  Website: miketorreano.com. Email: mtorr4650@comcast.net

Meet the Member Maria Melendez Kelson

Today, Kathie Scrimegour, Meet the Member and Sweet Success editor, shares her recent interview with member Maria Melendez Kelson.   We're pleased to share successes and highlight our diverse membership.  Kathie can be reached at  ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com.

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On Writing In Diverse Genre

KJ Scrim - I read that you are a poet and a mystery writer. Does one help with writing the other? How?
Maria Melendez Kelson - Both poetry writing and mystery writing involve a dance between fulfilling and subverting a reader’s expectations about form and structure.

• Poetry taught me to look for opportunities to use unexpected phrasing, and to appreciate the potential for patterning in the physical sounds of language.
• Fiction teaches me to look for opportunities for unexpected emotions or events, and to appreciate the potential for patterning in symbols and motifs.

Each genre adds to my understanding of the other. I wouldn’t go so far as to say one helps, or doesn’t help, the other. Who knows?

Current Work in Progress

KJ - What are you working on right now?
Maria - I’m writing a contemporary mystery set in the redwood country of northern California. The lead character, Boots Montoya, is a multiracial single mother of an adopted teen son. She’s an education reformer with a lot of do-gooder self-righteousness. But when her son is accused of the murder of an undocumented boy, she becomes a liar, a prowler, and a thief in her struggle to find the real killer and exonerate her kid. Clues lead her deeper into the area’s Spanish-speaking immigrant community, out to the wild Pacific coast, and into the ancient forest backcountry of Humboldt County, where she discovers a clandestine camp for teenaged domestic spies. If she fails to find the threads connecting these worlds, it could cost her son his freedom. When the killer learns Boots has come too near the truth, her search for answers becomes a fight for her very life.

Santa Fe Art Residency

KJ - You were recently selected for a writing residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute. What did you have to do to secure this residency, and what does this mean to you as a writer?
Maria - The Santa Fe Art Institute has a theme each year for what they call their “sponsored residencies.” These are residencies for which the cost of housing is underwritten by sponsors, and residents need only pay for food and personal needs while living on-site.

Apogee Journal, a literary magazine I follow, tweeted out the SFAI call for residency applications, where I learned the theme for the upcoming residency year was “Equal Justice.” I thought—isn’t this a concern of many crime writers? It’s a concept that raises driving questions for the characters I’m writing about.

The application requested a current work sample and a proposal for work to be done at SFAI. So I sent sample chapters from the work-in-progress, and … *gulp* … a brief outline of a “Book 2” with these characters. This felt like a huge leap of faith, since I’m still revising Book 1.
I submitted the application in February of this year. When I found out in July that I’d been selected for a residency, it meant a panel of strangers that included writers, residency staff, and other artists had seen value in what I am doing. This was a significant affirmation, and a handy little oar for (what feels like) my solitary writing raft. I’m not really going a whole lot faster with one oar, but it’s something to hold onto, and I might be able to beat back a shark with it.
The residency itself, I imagine, will be a big fireworks show of inspiration! I’ll be living at the Art Institute for the month of July 2018, which is a month the brilliant SFAI staff have designated for artists who are parents. I’ll have my family with me, and I’ll be living with seven other residents from multiple disciplines and their families. SFAI provides an apartment and a separate studio workspace. I’m so excited to learn about the other artists’ creative processes, and to see what kinds of unpredictable things come of our time with each other. The only thing I’m tasked with doing, as a resident, is my own writing, but residents are encouraged to interact and collaborate if their muses move them to do so.
For writers who are starting to build a record of publication, or for established writers who could benefit from a concentrated period of time in the company of other working writers or artists, applying for residencies is a great way to validate that your work, and the time needed for your work, are things to be taken seriously.

Beating Procrastination

KJ - What do you do when procrastination is winning over writing?
Maria - I’ve gotten better at measuring when I am truly procrastinating and when I am simply living my life. I used to think that ANYTHING I did that wasn’t writing was a way of procrastinating from writing. For this reason, I could feel guilty brushing my teeth, guilty about taking my car in for an oil change. Who can live like that? Now I make a weekly writing schedule at the start of the week, and set the expectation that I’ll be at my desk during those times. When it’s not those times, I consciously let go of guilt or anxiety about whatever it is I might currently be working on. Something that helps me do this is physically putting the work back in a drawer after each session.
When it comes to maintaining focus during a scheduled writing session, I have a couple of tricks: tracking my focused time in 25-minute increments (aka “the Pomodoro method”), leaving the home modem off, and keeping my writing desk generally free of non-writing related stuff.

Conferences, Workshops, Critique Groups

KJ - Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of the new writer's experiences (and more experienced writers too!). How have they helped you?
Maria – Pikes Peak Writers Conference and SleuthFest (a mystery writers’ conference in Florida) have both been great for how-to sessions and for unparalleled opportunities to network with agents and editors.
Although I’ve only attended one or two events in each case, I should also mention that I’ve learned quite a bit from periodic free or low-cost workshops run through Pikes Peak Writers Write Brains, Pikes Peak Writers Critique Group, Romance Writers of America, and Colorado Sisters in Crime. The volunteer person-power that goes into running these public events year-round is staggering, and every one of these organizations’ board members and volunteers deserve a room of their own with unlimited chocolate, coffee, and craft beer in that great writer’s retreat in the sky.
Sisters in Crime runs a wonderful workshop the day before the annual mystery fiction fan-con (aka “Bouchercon”) that I’ve attend a couple of times. It’s for Sisters and Misters!

My local anchor for professional development as a writer has been the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America. I attended their monthly dinners, where there’s always a generous and free-flowing exchange of information, heartaches, and triumphs. Members range from newbie writers to established bestsellers with 30+ books in print.
Because it’s the largest writers’ conference in North America, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference is a wonderful place to meet other writers of color from around the country for fellowship and mutual support. In fact, writers of many stripes can find their tribe there. There are panels for and about writers with disabilities, writers who’ve lived abroad, veterans who write, etc. As a poet, I’ve presented at AWP a number of times over the years, and two years ago I put together a panel of women of color who write crime novels. The chance to connect these novelists I admire with potential new readers in the audience was a real high, for me.
As far as critique groups go ... over the last 20+ years I have lived in Wyoming, South Carolina, California, Indiana, Utah, and (now) Colorado. In four of those six states, I’ve participated in critique groups. Some writers do fine without them, and in the two states I lived where I didn’t have a critique group, I still produced a fair amount of work, but I simply enjoy my own process more when I have regular meetings with peers to provide understanding, challenge, and … deadlines!

Go to Books for Writers

KJ - Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? How do they help? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.
Maria - Around the Writer’s Block, by Roseanne Bane, helps with organizing time and understanding the neurological conditions under which creativity can/can’t flourish.
Plot Whisperer, by Martha Alderson, helps with fictional structure and with seeing a sense of purpose in the highs and lows of the process of writing.
7 Secrets of the Highly Prolific, by Hillary Rettig, helps writers understand and improve their own processes and mindsets.
KJ - What is one (or a few) of the most important lessons you have learned so far?
Maria - Learn to love your process, not someone else’s process. And if learning to love your process is too much to ask, then learn to accept that feeling confident is desirable but not required. Only showing up and working is a must. In the words of an 80s candy bar commercial: “Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.”

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Maria Melendez Kelson is a poet and mystery writer. These very different genres lend a dynamic approach in writing. She has been accepted to a month-long writing residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute beginning in July of 2018.  

Visit Maria Melendez Kelson’s website at: www.mariakelson.com

Email: maria@mariakelson.com 

Twitter @mkelsonauthor

Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Wes Redfield

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Wes Redfield fell in love with New Mexico when he taught at the University of New

Mexico. He was drawn to [the state’s] old, deep, and sometimes tragic history, which resulted in his series of historical fiction novels. In researching for these, he found books published in the 1840s provided more information on the time period than in modern books and articles. 

KJ Scrim:  Your debut novel, Sangre de Cristo: The Blood of Christ will soon be followed by Santa Fe:  Holy Faith, and the final installment, Santa Cruz:  Holy Cross.  Tell us a little bit about these.

Wes Redfield: My first novel, Sangre De Cristo: The Blood of Christ, is a coming-of-age story about a young American in Spanish New Mexico who must come face-to-face with the slave trade in Indians. It is raw, because I believe that is the only way to treat slavery.  My second is Santa Fe:  Holy Faith.  It has the same characters and deals with abuse of debt peonage, persecution of Crypto-Jews (Jews who faked being Catholic to escape the Mexican Inquisition), and the origins of Penitentes, a secretive religious sect. The third in the series, Santa Cruz:  Holy Cross, is about a short, brutal civil war between Hispanics in New Mexico. Few scholars or fiction authors write about it.

KJ:  What part of this series did you enjoy writing the most?

Wes:  So far, Santa Fe: Holy Faith because of the intrigue and risks taken by Crypto-Jews against the Mexican Inquisition. I also enjoyed debunking myths about Penitentes.  I am one of the few writers to treat them sympathetically.

PPW:  What is the biggest challenge you faced when writing and researching for these, and how did you resolve it?

Wes:  Finding information on the civil war between Hispanics was the most challenging.  Little has been written in modern times about it, perhaps, a big perhaps, because certain groups don’t want the public to know about it. But several books published in the 1840s contain valuable information. One, Josiah Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies published in 1844, is still in print. Also until the last twenty years little was written about the slave trade in Indians or the plight of Crypto-Jews.

KJ: Do you set daily, weekly, or monthly writing goals? 

Wes:  Yes, absolutely.  Writing is hard work.  At least for me I need a disciplined schedule. I start writing about 8:30 in the morning and go until noon when my brain gives out. Then in the late afternoon I begin revisions of the first draft. I try to not write on weekends. Writing is my new job. I wrote Santa Fe in a year. I think I can maintain that pace.

KJ:  I noticed you used Createspace to publish your first novel. Is this a platform that could be easily used by anyone?  What were the advantages for you to self-publish?

Wes:  I have found CreateSpace to be easy to work with. Self-publishing is worthwhile in my opinion to establish a platform. But the big problem for some people is marketing.  Fortunately, I worked in marketing and sales (they are different) in telecom, computing, and medicine. Initially, I did not market Sangre de Cristo because I knew my writing would improve. Now that I have a series, I will kick off an aggressive marketing campaign. We shall see how it works.

KJ:  Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of all writer’s growth. What have been a few of your favorite experiences?

Wes:  All three have been beneficial, particularly critique groups.  When I first attempted writing, I attended the Capitol Hill critique group in Denver headed by Terry Wright. I had a long way to go, and still do, but several published authors were members. I have attended numerous workshops in Denver and Boulder, and I won first place in a nationwide contest for historical fiction sponsored by the Southwest Writers Group in Albuquerque by submitting an early draft of Sangre de Cristo. Attending the awards banquet was a thrill.

KJ:  Do you have any “self-help for writers” books that you use regularly? Please share your list of your top two or three.

Wes:  I bought many of the usual books until I realized that most of the authors had never written successful fiction. The best book I’ve found is John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. Several people have excellent series of videos on the Internet. They include John Truby, Robert McKee (of “Write the truth.”), and Stephen King and John Grisham have a series of two videos together. What a powerful team! I also subscribe to Robert McKee’s and Steven Pressfield’s newsletters/blogs. An excellent blog is edittorrent, http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/  The producers of it, Alicia and Theresa, are working editors, and lately their workload has been heavy, and they have made fewer posts.  However their index contains many valuable posts. Alicia has recently begun a newsletter for writing fiction. One can subscribe to it from the edittorrent blog.

PPW:  Does your reading influence your writing? How?

Wes:  Absolutely!  The most influential writing for me is a series set in the West by A.B. Guthrie, Jr. He won a Pulitzer for his second novel The Way West, but his debut novel The Big Sky is his best in my opinion. I have tried to write in his style, which is in deep point of view, in the vernacular, and sudden--danger and risks appear suddenly. I also studied, I mean really studied, John Grisham’s novels to try to understand why they are so popular. My conclusion is that they have conflict and tension on nearly every page. I read a lot of historical fiction such as works by Margaret George, Robert Graves, Michener, Leon Uris, and Anita Dianant’s great little novel The Red Tent. Also works by Steinbeck and Hemingway. Hopefully, I learned something about economy of words from Hemingway. Willa Cather and Cormac McCarthy wrote the two best novels about New Mexico in my opinion. Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop is sweet and McCarty’s Blood Meridian is brutal. I’ve tried to split the difference. 

KJ:  If you met someone who was thinking about starting to write, what advice would you give them?

Wes:  Write, write, write. Learn by doing. And read critically. Try to analyze what authors are doing to gain their objectives. Understand that conflict and tension are the essence of fiction. I am amazed at how many people don’t understand that. And definitely join a critique group.

Contact Wes Redfield at:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Wesley-Redfield-763053273809317/

LinkedIn - Wes Redfield

Email – wes_redfield@hotmail.com


Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers and interested in being interviewed? Contact Kathie Scrimgeour at K.J. Scrim

Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Darby Karchut

   

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Darby Karchut’s writing career began in 2010 and, today, her debut novel, Griffin Rising (Copper Square Studios, 2014 re-release), has been optioned for film. She has been a member of PPW since 2010 and frequently contributes to Writing from the Peak. Darby has also been spotted around her home riding her bike in blizzards and braving lightning storms while jogging.

A little about your books:

Kathie: You have published 2 books with a new one on the way (Del Toro Moon, Owl Hollow Press). What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned that would be important for a new writer?

Darby: When you are finished with your first book, write another one and another and another. Repeat until you die.

Kathie: Your YA debut novel, Griffin Rising (Copper Square Studios, 2014 re-release) has been optioned for film. How did this exciting step come about?

Darby: A local teen residency had used my series as part of their reading program. They invited me to come spend a morning with the students. In the audience was Geoff Stults, a TV/movie actor from California. His mom was one of the administrators of the residency, and he was in town visiting. He and producer, Carmella Casinelli (Bonne Aire Productions) called me a few weeks later and offered to option the series. Carmella is currently pitching the books to various studios. This is a long process and it may take years or nothing at all may come of it. That’s okay – it’s just fun to be in the game.

  

Kathie: Do you have a favorite among your publications? Why?

Darby: Del Toro Moon. And, no, not because it’s my latest book, but because it’s the book of my heart.

All about Writing:

Kathie: Do you set daily, weekly, or monthly writing goals? If yes, what are they? What do you do to insure you meet these goals?

Darby: I try to write every day, even if it’s only a few thousand words, a couple of pages, or even just scene, plodding along like a mule. I treat my writing career as a business, and in business, you have to produce. Better to write badly than to write nothing at all. You can fix bad writing; you cannot fix a blank page.

Kathie: With all your successful publications, I am sure you also wade through the rejections. Do you have any fun ways you deal with rejection (i.e. wallpaper closets with the rejects)? Do rejections help you be a better writer? If so, how?

Darby: Honestly, rejections don’t bother me all that much because I know it is part of the journey. If I have a strong manuscript, then it’s simply a number’s game. This industry is incredibly subjective, so keep querying.  

Kathie: Rejection letters are one end of the spectrum in writing, the other end could be called success. What does success mean to you? Does success scare you or motivate you?

Darby: Success means I am always improving. I owe that to the children and teens who pick up my books, and hopefully, enjoy them enough to read other books, not just mine. Because children and teens who read become adults who think and feel. Also, over the past three years, I’ve focused on creating stories with diverse characters. Like so many middle grade and YA authors, this is something I’m passionate about—that books are both “mirrors and windows.” That’s why I’m so excited about Del Toro Moon.

Writing Conferences and Reading:

Kathie: Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of all writer’s growth. What have been a few of your favorite experiences?

Darby: Critique groups are not my thing. When I first started, I had a beta reader whom I trusted, and she was amazing, but I outgrew her. I believe art is not created by committee, and writers need to move to a place where they can self-critique. That said, I enjoy workshops and writer conferences, and try to attend them when possible. I always pick up useful tools, but more importantly, it’s a lovely chance to spend time with my tribe.

Kathie: Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.

Darby: Well, Stephen King’s On Writing is my favorite. Actually, it’s the only one I’ve read.

Kathie: Does your reading influence your writing? How?

Darby: I call it Karchut University. I like to learn a new skill by examining how others do it. Centuries ago, painters and sculptors would learn their craft by copying the masters in museums. I do the same thing by reading favorite authors and figuring out how they solve various problems. I read all the time; sometimes I read to learn and sometimes I read for pleasure. When I visit schools, I tell the students that when I was growing up, I devoured books, gorging myself on the written word, until one day, I threw up my own book. There’s a famous quote from Pam Allyn: “Reading is like breathing in; writing is like breathing out.”

Kathie: If you met someone who was thinking about starting to write, what advice would you give them?

Darby: Read a billion books in the genre you wish to write. Then, write. Nothing will teach you about writing a book more than writing a book.

Thank you, Kathie, for talking with me about books and writing, and for asking such great questions. Writery folks are the best folks. People, if you have questions, fire away.

Website: www.darbykarchut.com

Email: darbykarchut@gmail.com

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Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4558016.Darby_Karchut

Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers and interested in being interviewed? Contact Kathie Scrimgeour at kjscrimwriter@gmail.com 

Meet PPW Member Patrick Hester

Today we take a quick peek into Patrick Hester’s busy universe. He is not only a writer, but an avid reader, and a teacher as well.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  What is a book that you read that you couldn’t put down, and why? What is a book that you will reread more than once?

PATRICK HESTER: Most recently, any of the Miles Vorkosigan books from Lois McMaster Bujold. Once I got into them, I fell hard and couldn’t stop until I’d read them all. Bujold is a master of storytelling and great characters and worldbuilding.

The Lord of the Rings or Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World are books I have read and reread multiple times. Both are cherished by me and for very different reasons. Tolkein is who most fantasy authors look to as foundational and a deep influence, kinda like how bands in the 70’s would say The Beatles inspired and influenced them. I was introduced to Tolkein at a young age and was blown away by the world and characters he created.

Jordan did the same, but on such a scale! His Wheel of Time series is massive and dense, full of mythology and worldbuilding, and characters! Oh, I love the characters. When a new book was coming out, I would reread the entire series (think about that for a second, cuz there are 14 of them plus a prequel!) Now that it’s finished, I reread just the first book – Eye of the World – when I can, or when I need a reminder of the kind of author I aspire to be.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR: What author inspired you to write?

PATRICK HESTER: As mentioned above, Jordan and Tolkein were both huge influences on me. I’ll add to that all of the Star Trek novels published in the 70’s and 80’s by great authors like Diane Duane, D.C. Fontana, Peter David and Vonda McIntyre.

More recently, I’ve been inspired by Jim Butcher, Gail Carriger, Lois McMaster Bujold, Brandon Sanderson and James SA Corey, all of whom approach writing and storytelling in different ways.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  You teach workshops on Scrivener, and many writers are unfamiliar with this powerful program. If it is possible, can you tell us why this is a “must use” program for writers? How will it help them be better writers?

PATRICK HESTER: The first thing I always tell people is this: Scrivener is not Word. Word is a word processing software that has been enhanced by its developers to offer bells and whistles specifically for people working in offices. Need to send a fax? You can do that from Word. Want a simple brochure? Word has one. So on and etc.

Scrivener is project management for writers that includes, as part of a powerful suite of tools, a word processor.

If you want to write out of order as ideas come to you for chapter 36, Scrivener makes it easy to do that. Word, you basically need separate docs for each chapter to do that. Want to outline your novel and have that outline visible as you work on each chapter? In Word, you have to have multiple docs open, totally doable. In Scrivener, you split your screen and have your outline on the right, manuscript on the left. You can also have all your research, character descriptions, notes, etc.

Scrivener is designed to make it easier for you to draft your manuscript quickly and in the way that makes the most sense to you and how you write.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  How can people find out about your upcoming classes?

PATRICK HESTER: Usually my website, www.atfmb.com but I can clue your readers in right now to my next class – it’ll be at the 2017 Pikes Peak Writers Conference as part of the Thursday Prequel on April 27th. You can actually take only the Thursday Prequel if you like, and pair my half-day afternoon workshop with one of our awesome morning classes. For information about cost, visit PikesPeakWriters.com.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR: What are you are working on right now? Tell us a little about it.

PATRICK HESTER: I’ve had a space opera percolating for a couple years now – I’ve described it as the hunt for Red October in space. I’ve written, rewritten and shredded it a few times. The most recent draft takes it down from five point of view characters to two. This has allowed me to focus much more on those two characters and the world I’m building, which takes place just a couple hundred years in the future. Humans have discovered space travel and have taken the first steps out into the galaxy only to find they’re still alone. They’ve colonized worlds and gotten into a routine of exploration and exploitation of resources. The same petty political issues we see now still exist, just on a broader scale between not only countries, but country-sized corporations and independent colony planets. When a new technology is discovered and deployed by one country, it threatens to incite a war like we have never seen before – a space based war. Everything is riding on a naval intelligence officer, and a gateship captain, neither of whom are aware of just how much is riding on them or what will happen if they fail.

Patrick Hester is an author, blogger and two-time Hugo Award Winner. He lives in Colorado, writes science fiction and fantasy, and can usually be found hanging out on his Twitter feed - @atfmb. His novel, SAMANTHA KANE: INTO THE FIRE is available at all major retailers. His short fiction can be found in the anthologies Space Battles: Full-Throttle Space Tales #6 and An Uncommon Collection, as well as the eBooks Conversations with my Cat, Witchcraft & Satyrs, Consumption, Cahill's Homecoming and Cahill's Unfinished Business. His Functional Nerds and SF Signal weekly podcasts have both been nominated for Parsec awards, and the SF Signal podcast was nominated for a 2012, 2013, and 2014 Hugo Award. His Scrivener Quick Tips articles exploded on social media and the web in 2012, and he’s been teaching writers how to use the software ever since.

Meet PIkes Peak Writers Member Barbara Nickless

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Barbara Nickless, author and PPW member, talks with us about going to the museum, her

upcoming thriller, along with the class she will be teaching at PPWC 2017.

Kathie: I saw on your website that you were “…made in Japan, born in Guam.” It sounds that, from birth, you have traveled the world over. Is there any one place you that has influenced you the most creatively? How?

Barbara: Much of my traveling happened when I was young (Air Force brat). But as an adult, I have to say one of the greatest pleasures of travel is visiting museums. There is always something new to discover, an idea to be had. It’s hard to argue with the Guggenheim or the Musée du Louvre. But we are fortunate to have the incredible Denver Museum of Nature and Science in our own backyard. I love their traveling exhibits and enjoy attending the lectures—it’s a chance to learn something new, and a great opportunity to talk to an expert.

Kathie: What are you are working on right now? Tell us a little about it.

Barbara: I’m in the middle of developmental edits on the second book in my Sydney Parnell mystery/thriller series. Sydney and her K9 partner Clyde return, along with Denver homicide detective Michael Cohen. They’re joined by FBI agent Mac McConnell as they work to track down a violent killer and save a little girl before time runs out. DEAD STOP comes out October 3, 2017.

Kathie: What is one (or a few) of the most important lessons you have learned as a writer?

Barbara: I think the single most important thing you should do as a writer is ask yourself if you feel fulfilled when you’re working. Writing is a tough job, and if it doesn’t bring you joy, there are easier and more efficient ways to make money.

Also, remember that each of us is on our own path. And trust that path! Comparing ourselves to others, whether it’s our writing style or where we are on the journey, is a losing game.

Kathie: You will be facilitating a workshop at the Pikes Peak Writer’s conference. Please fill us in with the details.

Barbara: I’ll be talking about dialogue! Well written dialogue is one of the best ways to reveal character and enhance the plot. What your characters say and how they say it provides all kinds of fascinating information about them while also moving the story forward. I’m excited about the workshop and I’m especially excited to meet people at the conference.

Kathie: On a personal note, what is the craziest thing that has happened to you?

Barbara: All of us have crazy stories, right? I’d say one of the most bizarre things I’ve experienced was losing my home in a wildfire. A sudden catastrophe forces you to reevaluate your place in the world and your sense of security. But some wonderful things came out of the ashes of that fire, and one of the best was learning what an incredible community we have in Pikes Peak Writers. PPW members took us in, got us back on our feet and proved to be life-long friends. I love you guys!

Barbara Nickless can be found at:

http://www.barbaranickless.com/

Her book, Blood on the Tracks (Sydney Rose Parnell Series Book 1), is available on Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, other online retailers, or at your local bookstore.

Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers and interested in being interviewed? Contact Kathie Scrimgeour at kjscrimwriter@gmail.com 

Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Shannon Lawrence

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Horrors! It is one of Shannon Lawrence’s favorite words. She has been writing horror for a long time and has a lot of fun with it. She also dabbles in fantasy and elsewhere. Shannon is a short story expert, and has two novels in the editing phase. There is a third novel in the works about killer squirrels. A horror comedy. As a short story author, she is constantly juggling rejections, acceptances, resubmissions, and releases. She shares some of her tools of the trade with us.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  Do you set daily, weekly, or monthly writing goals? If yes, what are they? What do you do to insure you meet these goals?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I don't, because I've found I'm naturally a sprinter. I can go days without writing, then knock out a ton of progress in one day or a succession of days. Forcing it just stresses me out and lowers the quality of what I'm trying to write. I used to have some guilt over this, feeling like a failure, but I've finally realized I'm getting things done my way, and that's okay.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  If you have a completed manuscript/story/poem/flash have you submitted it yet? What have the results been? How do you get past the "No's"? What do your reject letters say? What best advice, or lessons learned, have you gotten from them?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I'm not currently submitting any novels, but I have a bunch of short story submissions out right now. My goal is to have twenty out at one time, but, of course, I'd rather they get placed. I get more rejections than acceptances, but that's the world of short stories. I keep track of them on a spreadsheet and keep every rejection I get. The more I submit, the easier "no" gets, unless it's a publication I really wanted into or thought I had a good chance of getting into. Rejection letters are usually form letters due to the sheer number of rejections, but one thing I've collectively learned from rejections is not to hold back in your submissions. And if you have a strong opening, make sure the rest of the story follows.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  What does success mean to you?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: Success is always morphing for me. I kept saying "When I'm a multi-published author, I'll…" until a friend corrected and me and said, "You realize you ARE a multi-published author, right?" Originally, success to me was getting a novel published, and nothing else counted. But every step of the way is a success. I keep mini-goals along the way, such as having twenty stories on submission at once, getting a story into one of Ellen Datlow's anthologies, and more. Each one of these mini-goals met means another success. However, I would also like to be a published novelist, so that will be another type of success.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  Does success scare or motivate you?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: Both. I go through ups and downs. Sometimes the thought of having deadlines and having more expected from me is terrifying. As a short story author, I set my own pace. No one gets to require anything of me. But once I get into Novel World, there will be deadlines, possibly multi-book contracts where they have to be delivered by a specific time. And that will change the game. At the same time, I WANT to be there. It's just a scary concept.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  What do you do when procrastination is winning over writing?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I try to figure out why. What is it that's distracting me. What do I need. I suffer from depression and anxiety, and those are most often the cause of my procrastination. Maybe I'm doubting my work. Or maybe it's just an off week for me, period, not just in writing, and I need to take a step back and focus on something else for a while.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR: Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of the new writer's experiences (and more experienced writers too!). How have they helped you?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I'm not sure where I'd be if I hadn't found both Pikes Peak Pen Women and Pikes Peak Writers. Plus, my critique groups. Pikes Peak Pen Women was the first writer's group I joined. They were also the first ones to give me the opportunity to be a presenter, giving me the confidence to keep doing that and to branch out. It was far less scary having them reach out to me and say, "Hey, can you speak on this topic?" than to suck it up and submit a workshop proposal without ever having given a workshop. Pikes Peak Writers helped me join the writing community at large, making it a place of comfort instead of fear. They were the second ones to give me the opportunity to speak, which was at AuthorFest in Manitou Springs. And the workshops, both at conference and in the Write Brains, are what gave me the encouragement and knowledge I needed to go forward and improve my writing. As far as critique groups, my first in-person one taught me a lot about critique, and helped me learn what needed to be changed in my writing.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  How long have you been a member of Pikes Peak Writers?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I believe I've been a member for five or six years now.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  Do you attend the events, and, if so, which ones are your favorites?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I attend PPWC each year, and have held some manner of conference position every one of those years. There's a lot of energy to be soaked up at PPWC, and so many opportunities. I also ran the non-conference events, including Write Brains for about two years, so I'm taking a bit of a break from attending, but I still go to one occasionally. I've only attended one Open Critique, but it was a great program, and I go to Writer's Nights when I can. I would attend more of these if I just had more time, but I have to balance my evenings like I'm sure everyone does.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? How do they help? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.

SHANNON LAWRENCE: King's "On Writing" is an excellent craft book for authors, whether they write horror or something else. It's often cited as a favorite by other folks I've spoken with. I don't use any regularly, but a couple other good ones I've read are "The Art of Character," by David Corbett, "Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict," by Cheryl St. John, and Stuart Horwitz's "Book Architecture" series.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  Does your reading influence your writing? How?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I'm sure it does, but I don't know to what extent. I read a lot; I write a lot. I try to read in all different genres. There is no genre I can say I have not read in some way, shape, or form. I want to read all different types of stories and voices.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  If you met someone who was thinking about writing, what advice would you give them?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I'd tell them to write. Don't think about starting, just write. Until you do, you're not a writer. Figure out what works for you and do it. Set a schedule or don't. Set goals or don't. Just write.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  What is one (or a few) of the most important lessons you have learned so far?

SHANNON LAWRENCE: Be resilient. Understand a rejection is not about you, and isn't even typically a judgment of your work. It's simply saying that particular story didn't jive with one particular editor or agent. Turn around and resubmit. Take in any and all feedback, mull it over, and then decide what you'll listen to and what you'll dismiss. If you don't believe what they said, you won't be true to your writing if you change it to what they want. So don't change something just because someone told you to. Change it because what they said struck a chord with you. Weather the lows so you can move forward and find the success you want for yourself.

KATHIE SCRIMGEOUR:  What expertise in your background do you draw on in your writing? (ie were you a photographer, chef, court reporter, FBI agent?)

SHANNON LAWRENCE: I wouldn't say I have job expertise I bring to my writing, but knowing kids has come into play, and personal experiences have informed my writing.

About the Author:  A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes in her dungeon when her minions allow, often accompanied by her familiars. She writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in several anthologies and magazines, including Once Upon a Scream, The Literary Hatchet, and Dark Moon Digest. She serves on the board of Pikes Peak Writers as treasurer. When she's not writing or volunteering, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings. Though she often misses the ocean, the majestic and rugged Rockies are a sight she could never part with. Besides, in Colorado there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. What more could she ask for?

Website: http://thewarriormuse.com

Email: thewarriormuse@gmail.com

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