Loving The Drama!

My guest is contemporary fiction author, Lisa Dale. She says about herself, "My fiancé and I are getting married this July 2 in New Jersey. Between the new books and the wedding, I’m insanely busy. And that’s just how I like it! Writing is a great excuse for me to follow my fascinations, so you’ll find lots of interesting little factoids scattered through my work. What I want... is to tell romantic stories that challenge, inspire, astonish, and enchant." 

Lisa's one of those New Jersey larger than life residents--in her books--but in life?

If you were to make a reality TV show out of this writer’s life, here’s what you’d see. 

• Scene of me sitting in my pajamas, bleary-eyed but intensely writing.
• Scene of me getting up for a glass of water.
• Scene of me getting up to hug my fiancé when he comes home.
• Scene of me knitting, talking with friends. 

Yep—exciting stuff! TV producers like to do shows about us New Jersey folks because they think we’re larger than life, over the top, good entertainment.

But in the opinion of this Jersey girl, drama is meant for novels. Not real life!

The other day, a reporter asked me if the characters in my new book, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, were based on real people or real-life situations. I told her: Thank God, no!

You see, even though I don’t believe that we’re put on this earth to make trouble for each other, I LOVE a book that puts it all on the line. I love when characters risk everything important to them for love. My characters have to work for their happy endings.

By the time a reader gets to the end of one of my books, I want her to be breathless with anticipation of an HEA—absolutely invested in the action. And for me, half-measures don’t cut it. I push my characters to their limits before they find a way to transcend their own tragic flaws, overcome deadlocked and impossible problems, and find their happily ever afters.

So you would think, in my real life, that I’m the kind of person who likes a little drama. That my characters, as the reporter implied, are born of real life events.

But in fact, I’m a very quiet person. I have a few close friends whom I love dearly. I have a wonderful family, a fiancé who warms my heart. I like knitting, reading, and evenings filled with laughter and intimate conversation. When the occasional bit of real-life drama happens, I try to let it roll off my back. Real life is precious, and I think we’re put here on earth to be peacemakers for each other.

But in my stories…look out! All bets are off. Drama reigns! As a writer, if you’re gonna do drama—you’ve got to make it as intense as can be, because that’s what makes for a big, emotional payoff in the end. It’s go big or go home!

In my new novel, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, the heroine is the owner of a Newport, RI, coffee shop (coffee is absolutely fascinating! And each chapter behind with a little interesting history about the seed/bean that is so easy to take for granted!).

There are actually two loves stories in one—two stories that run parallel with each other. The first story is about when the characters fell in love with each other for the first time in high school—a head-over-heels, wild kind of love.

But then, weaving in and out of that story, there’s the story of the present. The characters are no longer in love (something really bad happened between them, I won’t say what). In fact, the hero outright hates the heroine when the book opens.

But as echoes of that first love begin to resurface, his feelings change. Their loves story as adults parallels, contradicts, and overlaps with their love story from when they were teenagers. I wanted to explore the similarities and differences between adult love and young love—and I also wanted to give readers a LOT of bang for their buck. You don’t just get one love story here. You get two.

So far—it’s paid off. Slow Dancing is a TOP PICK for both Barnes & Noble and BookPage magazine. Can I even begin to tell you how cool it is to see my book on a page with some of the bestsellers that I’ve been admiring for years? Kinda surreal.

As for my own real-life romance, I’m getting married in July (the Saturday after RWA national!). My sweetheart and I have been together for a long time now. It’s been a lot of fun planning the wedding! We’ve got most of the big things done.

And luckily, my real-life wedding planning has been mostly drama-free.

• Question: When real-life drama starts to get to you, what do you do? Take a long bath? Grab some chocolate? Or read a book?
• Does this work? 

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 Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier 

Thea Celik has devoted herself to running her Newport coffee shop, to parenting her daughter, and to being a meaningful part of her in-law’s loving family. Her life is mild but satisfying—she’s sure of her place in the community and in her family. But when her childhood friend and husband Jonathan uncharacteristically cheats on her, her certainty about her role in the world is shaken.

Now as Thea strives to rediscover herself and remain close with the only family she knows, Jonathan’s brother Garret vows to exile her from their lives once and for all. Garret has never forgotten his history with Thea, and he hopes Jonathan’s divorce from her will mean he can reconnect with his brother at last. But his increasingly frequent encounters with Thea—and his unresolved feelings for her—threaten his relationship with his family now more than ever before.

SLOW DANCING ON PRICE’S PIER is the story of one woman’s determination to rediscover a new life while trying to maintain the old. When the bonds of friendship, family, and love are tested, how long will they hold? Excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound

A lifelong bookworm, Lisa Dale is a firm believer that there are few things in life better than curling up with a novel and a cup of tea. Lisa Dale grew up in rural Northwestern New Jersey before attending McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. She worked briefly in publishing before going back to school to get an MFA in fiction at Fairleigh Dickinson University. A nominee for Best New American Voices and the Pushcart Prize, her writing appears in many literary magazines, such as The Writer, Fourth Genre, Flyway, Fugue, Sou’wester, The Southeast Review, The MacGuffin, Many Mountains Moving, and more.


Lisa's: Website, Blog


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Gary Alexander--The Writer's Life--Interview

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Gary Alexander says he’s been “abusing mystery readers for over thirty years” with various short stories and two series. As a writer he knows all about writing because it’s a burning desire within and the hit and miss vagaries of getting published.

His latest book isn’t a mystery but uses his experiences and knowledge of Vietnam to create, Dragon Lady, his first literary novel.  

Gary stopped by to chat with us a bit about a writer’s life.   






 When did you decide or know you wanted to be an author, to get your works published?

I think it’d been in my subconscious since I was a kid. I was a voracious reader and really appreciated good writing. In my early 30s, I finished reading an anthology of published stories, very disappointed with most of them. I told my wife, Shari, that I could do better than this guano. She said, well, why you don’t try? Six or seven years later I sold a story to the late Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, $25 on publication.

What other kinds of jobs have you held?

Mostly in the insurance industry. I worked in the field and could set my own hours. I carried around a tape recorder and often plumped out a story idea while stuck in gridlock.

Dragon Lady is obviously based on some personal experiences. Was it difficult to write about these?

Difficult and cathartic, more of the latter. Over the years, Dragon Lady evolved, all versions rejected or (mostly) ignored by editors and agents. Ones who responded said they weren’t interested in a Vietnam War story. It isn’t a war story, it’s an anti-war story. I emphasized humor to highlight the absurdity of it. The parallels to Afghanistan are stunning. I could go on and on---

How did writing this novel differ from writing other books/stories where the characters and plot were so far-removed from your personal life?

When I’d drop the manuscript into the mailbox, the character went with it. The exception to that were my series characters. They became friends.

Like a lot of authors, you’ve suffered your fair share of rejections. Do you think a writer’s life is difficult?

I was thinking about that the other day while taking a walk. Passed a garbage man unloading our Dumpster. Walked by a convenience store as the clerk cleaned up trash in the lot. Stopped by a bar for a beer; the bartender was running her butt off because the waitress didn’t show up for work. On the way home, a police car and fire truck zoomed by, sirens on, headed for who knows where. I’d say there might be a few jobs more difficult.

But the rejection is tough. Do you have a low opinion of the editors and agents who rejected you in the past?

I used to. But then I’d set manuscripts aside that the “idiots” had rejected. When I’d completely forgotten what they were about, I’d read them again. Guess who the idiot was? Almost half the 150+ short stories and 12 novels I’ve sold have been repair jobs after I’d let the works ripen.

What was the oddest/worst rejection you ever received?

What hasn’t been the worst? The uniformity of the comments makes me want to tear what remains of my hair out. “Not what we’re looking for.” “Not quite right for us.” “Not what we need.” Ad nauseam.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

In the old days, I’d pace around the office, sharpen pencils, and mutter obscenities.

And in today’s electronic era?

I pace around the office, sharpen pencils, and mutter obscenities.

How do you know if you’re a writer?

Easy question. A writer is one who cannot not write. Would-be writers have told me that they plan to take up writing after they have time, after the kids are grown and out of the house or after they retire from their day jobs, after after after ─

I believe it was Ross Macdonald who said that nothing ever got written because the writer had time to write it.

We’ve all read stories about 28-year-old first novelists who write bestsellers. How do you react to that?

Homicidal thoughts.

Seriously, have you ever read a bestseller and wondered, “How did this get published and become so popular?” How do you deal with those negative feelings? Do those feelings have an impact on your own work?

Many, many times. Just makes me work harder. I try not to dwell on anything over which I have no control.

Gary, thank you for taking time from your writing schedule to visit us today. What about you?

• As a reader or a writer, have YOU read a bestseller you wondered how in the world became published much less a bestseller?
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• As a writer, how do you deal with your rejections?

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Dragon Lady synopsis

  

In 1965 Saigon, Joe, a young draftee, becomes obsessed with a Vietnam girl named Mai, his own "Dragon Lady" from his beloved Terry and the Pirates cartoon strips that his mother still sends him. As he pursues a relationship with her, Saigon churns with intrigue and rumors--will the U.S. become more involved with the Vietnamese struggle? What's going on with a special unit that's bringing in all sorts of (for the time) high tech equipment? Will the U.S. make Vietnam the 51st state and bomb aggressors to oblivion?

But for Joe, the big question is--does Mai love him or will she betray more than just his heart? Excerpt

Gary Alexander’s intelligent voice, filled with dry wit, and his own experiences give this story a sharp sense of truth, recounting the horror and absurdity of war. Reminiscent of books such as Catch-22, Dragon Lady serves up equal measures of outrageous humor and poignant remembrance. Gary Alexander was one of 17,000 US soldiers in Vietnam that spring. When he left in the fall, there were 75,000 troops in-country.

Buy: Available as an e-book: Amazon, Smashwords, Istoria Books

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Gary R. Alexander enlisted in the Army in 1964 and served in Saigon. When he arrived in country, there were 17,000 GIs. When he left, 75,000. Dragon Lady is Gary’s first literary novel. He is the author of several mysteries featuring stand-up comic Buster Hightower--Disappeared, Zillionaire and Interlock--published in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage. He has had short stories published in several mystery publications, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. He resides in Seattle.


His website can be found here: http://garyralexander.com/

Istoria Books is giving away free copy using a 100 percent discount code from Smashwords.com that will allow a reader to "purchase" the book for free in a variety of ebook formats.
 

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