What are you waiting for? Just do it!

I’ve spoken to a number of book clubs lately and the same questions seem to come up at each one. How did you get the idea for ???  Do you put parts of yourself in the book? Have you had those experiences? How do you do your research? Did you always want to be a writer?

If you’re a reader, you’ve probably thought about becoming a writer. If you’re like me, you probably thought you didn’t have the necessary credentials. I’d never been to a writing school. I wasn’t part of a critique group. I’d always heard you should write about what you know. I didn’t think anything I’d done was worthy of being written about. I was wrong, and I owe my writing career to Stephen King. Thanks Stephen! Sorry I don’t read you because the one time I did I barely slept for weeks afterward. What gave me the confidence to become a writer was his book, On Writing. He more or less says, “Just Do It” a la Nike! I did and I’ve never looked back.

Do I put parts of myself in a book? Probably. If you’re writing in fantasy or dystopian genres, you might not recognize much of the author, but when you write a contemporary novel, it’s kind of hard not to put parts of ourselves in there, because that’s what we know! For example, in the Coyote series, I had trekked in Nepal and attended the Mani Rimdu Festival. In Tea Party Teddy, I did have a woman tell me it was so nice that a politician didn’t have a trophy wife and she was glad I wore the same outfit to the event I’d worn the year before. Swell! I’ve spent time in Provence, however, I’ve never been to Afghanistan and part of Coyote in Provence deals with young Afghan girls who are orphans as well as female genital mutilation which is still practiced in several countries.

Research? Lots and lots. I honestly don’t know what writers did before the Internet. Everything we want to put in a book is there from A to Z. There’s really no reason for sloppy research these days and I’m sure you’ve read a book and thought, did they even do any research? I recently read a book that was advertised as being a wonderful novel about Carmel, California. Well, it’s one of my favorite places, but I honestly don’t think the author ha ever been there or even researched it. The only thing in the book that even alluded to it being on the California coast was “the sound of the ocean.” I was hoping for some restaurants and places I knew. Not so. If the author wasn’t willing to spend the time to research a work properly, I’m not willing to spend my time reading anything else by her!

As far as idea? They are all around us. The Coyote series came about because we were staying at hotel in Palm Springs and I made the comment to my husband, “What if someone put something in the air-conditioning system and everyone felt good all the time?” Tea Party Teddy came about because I happened to sit next to the most biased, conservative politician I’d ever met two nights in a row at political functions. I wondered about his wife, his family, how did he get that way? I’m in the finishing stages of  a new book, The Dinner Diva and the Red Cedar Spa, which will be published shortly. My daughter-in-law and I took a vacation at a spa in British Columbia where one of the treatments I had was a facial. My skin looked great weeks later, but for several days after it I looked like a beet that was peeling. The story of a facialist who takes out her problems on her spa clients stemmed from that.

Just start writing. You don’t need permission. I did and it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever done. People ask if I wish I’d done it thirty years ago and I tell them, no, I wouldn’t have had the life experiences that help me to write my novels. So no matter what your age, to paraphrase Stephen, Do It!

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