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FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
Where
do you get your ideas from?
I buy them at writers'
conferences--two for a dollar. Don't all authors?
Actually, my ideas come
from a thousand different places, but mostly from real life.
When I hear the account of an unusual situation, my first thought is
about how the people involved must have felt. Then my mind
jumps to what if this happened and off I go.
Frequently, an interesting premise or daydream sparks my
imagination, and soon I find myself creating characters and building
a complex plot around the scenario.
What are the best and worst aspects of being an author?
Naturally, the best is getting paid for doing what I enjoy. But for the most
part, the best and the worst are one in the same. I love that
I can set my own pace and don't have to answer to anyone else or
deal with the distraction of temperamental coworkers all day.
If I decide I want to work until two in the morning and take a nap
the next afternoon, I can. I get to wear comfortable clothes I
wouldn't dare wear in public.
On the other hand, working
alone provides no structure in my life, and I tend to isolate.
My body never has to budge from my desk chair, so while I'm working
I get practically no exercise except for a few short strolls to the
refrigerator. Also, those comfortable clothes do nothing to
remind me not to make those trips. The fact that I work at
home means I get interrupted frequently when my family is around.
How long
does it take you to write a book?
As long as it takes.
I wrote my single title, The Memory of You a/k/a Something
Worth Remembering, in about two months. But that was
working around the clock. Then again, I've written other books
that have taken me more than a year. It really depends on
what's going on in my life, how long the book is, and how much
revising I do along the way, and how much I let myself get
sidetracked by other projects. On the average if I write it
straight through, it takes about four months.
Doesn't
it embarrass you to write descriptive love scenes?
When a person asks
this I want to look them in the eye and say, ‘Why should it?
Are you asking because you, personally, have an aversion to sex? Or
is it possible you prefer the blood and gore in thrillers or the
violence and treachery in mystery and suspense novels? Or maybe
your first choice of literature are dramas that dwell on deeper
issues like, infidelity, domestic violence, and child abuse.‘
I don’t experience
any embarrassment writing explicit sex scenes. It’s really no
different than writing a fight scene. There’s lots of action,
reaction, and the five senses. What makes me uncomfortable is having
uptight, repressed people (who think making love is shameful) READ
them. The romances I write always involve a healthy monogamous
relationship between a man and a woman with a happy ending. A lot
more goes on in the bedroom between a couple than just the joining of
body parts. Without portraying the physical intimacy involved in the
emotional journey toward falling in love, the reader would only get
half the story. Sexual tension is what defines romantic love.
Without it, the feelings involved would be no different from familial
or platonic love.
Does anyone ask
mystery and suspense authors if they’re embarrassed by the gruesome
twisted acts committed between the covers of their books? Which is
more offensive, a loving heterosexual love scene or a blood-chilling
account of a serial killer severing body parts? I would much rather
spend my leisure time with Rhett Butler than Hannibal Lechter.
Are your love scenes
from personal experience?
Rolling on the floor
laughing. Quick, someone get me some oxygen.
Does anyone believe
Stephen King is secretly committing the heinous acts depicted in his
books? My hubby and I both suffer from a serious case of middle-age
spread. In answer to that ridiculous question, I lift one eyebrow and
say, “Look at my husband–now look at me. You figure it
out.“
Copyright 2011 Laurie Kellogg
Contact
Laurie
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