At what point do you think someone should call themselves a writer?
There are a lot of people in the world who say they want to be a writer when what they really want is to have written. By that I mean they want to stand around at cocktail parties (does anybody still have cocktail parties?) and talk about their writing. I think that, in order to call yourself a writer, you need to have actually finished something.
Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
Not in a published book, but one of my works-in-progress I had a teenaged girl start a revolution and become an early casualty. My writer’s group was Not Happy! Having said that, sometimes killing off a key character is good for a story, in that it makes the other characters have to step up.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
For my latest work, Strawberry Gold, key parts of the story happen alongside Strawberry Creek. That was the working title for a long time, but one of the rules of titles is that it needs to give the reader a hint of what the story is about. For example, my previous book was called One of Our Spaceships is Missing, which is pretty darn descriptive.
For this book, just before sending it to the publisher I changed the title to Strawberry Gold, since finding the gold is the reason for the story.
How do you process and deal with negative book reviews?
There are two kinds of negative reviews. The first kind is that you didn’t write the story that the reader wanted. Those you just have to ignore. The second kind is that you did something that the reader found questionable. Those, you need to look at and decide whether or not they have a valid point – which you can decide to address (or not) in a subsequent work.
How important was professional editing to your book’s development? For this book, not very important. My editor had very few changes. This is unusual for me – in my previous four works, the editorial process resulted in a lot of changes.
I think this book was so clean was because it got extensive reviews from my writer’s group. All books need editors – the question is merely when in the process that happens.
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve written eight books (one of which will never leave my hard drive) and published five. Asking me which one is my favorite is like asking a parent who their favorite child is. I like them all and recognize each one has different strengths and weaknesses.
How many hours a day do you write?
Ha! I’m actually lucky to write once a week! Writing is not my day job so I end up banking a lot of writing into a 2 to 3 hour weekend session.
What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?
Finish the book! Many writers start a book and abandon it or get stuck in a revision loop.
What book (or books) are you currently reading?
Two mysteries. The first one is Death Casts a Shadow by Patricia Skalka which is the conclusion of a long-running series set in Door County, Wisconsin. The second one is Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson. This is a very British book which gently pokes fun at Agatha-Christie style murder mysteries.
What inspired the idea for your book?
I visited the one-room historical museum in the small town I grew up in. They had listed the first time the larger world media took notice of the town, which was a railroad strike in 1896. Strawberry Gold is a story about people trying to find gold and I used the railroad strike as a reason for it to have been hidden.
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