Tag Archives: Rivers of Ink

“Wednesday Writer” – Candi L. Norman

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Candi L. Norman, who writes under the pen name C.L. Norman, definitely has a love of books and is fortunate enough to work in our local bookstore. But I wanted to get to know the how and why of her fantasy writing.

Candi L. NormanME:  What was the first book you ever remember reading on your own, and which book gave you the idea of some day writing your own books?

CANDI:  Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish although my mom always said it was Green Eggs & Ham. I remember being fascinated by the guys who had to get their hair cut every day. (It’s so funny what particular detail in a story will capture a kid’s interest. Haircuts. Who knew?)

The book that gave me the idea of some day writing my own was never published. I loved books but I was intimidated by the idea of writing one. I mean only exotic people with lots of worldly experience can write these wonderful inventions called books, right? (Yes, that’s pretty much how we all regarded authors until we got published ourselves.)

Then my close friend in middle school showed me the rough draft of the first book in a trilogy she’d written. Wow! It was as good as anything I could pick up in the library and it was written by a girl in middle school. A girl like me. She wasn’t “old” or from some far off place where exciting things happened. That was when I knew I could write a book too.

(Now that you’re published, I hope you get her to see her own project through.)

ME:  Have you always lived here in the Tri-Cities? Please describe your childhood and the role that books played in your life. (I would love to post a picture of you as a child.)

CANDI:  I was born and raised here in the Tri-Cities, as were both of my parents. I come from a family described as ‘his, hers, and ours’ by my mother. I have five sisters and two brothers and I am the third oldest. I was also the reader in the family. Everyone made fun of me because I had my nose in a book at family gatherings and vacations. (Sounds familiar.) My uncles made a point of teasing me (and tickling me) just so that I would surface long enough to say hi.

My big brother loved to grab the book I was currently reading and remove the bookmark or close it, hoping I would lose my place in it. I learned to memorize the page number. As I grew older, I found that two of my grandmothers and my dad were readers too.  At that point, I loved to listen to them talk about books. They read different genres than I do but I adore listening to people I love talk about the books they love. It provides a glimpse into their soul that nothing else does. (Very true.)

CandiAge2(Candi at 2 and already looking at books)

ME:  How old were you when you first realized you were good at writing, and which individual(s) in your life provided your strongest encouragement?

CANDI:  I am still waiting to realize I am good at writing. I am still shocked when someone gushes about my stories. I keep working at it and hoping to get better with every word I write. (And that is exactly what will make you better and better.)

My big brother, Brian, was one of the first to encourage me to write. He said, “You should write a book. You read enough books you ought to know how to write a good one.” That might not seem like much but if Brian saw potential in you and pointed it out, you paid attention.

Brian Picture(Candi’s older brother Brian)

All of my friends are very encouraging, in particular my friends Shairylann and Veronica. (Hmm…I wonder if this is the Veronica I know.) They are both so very honest with me that when they admire my writing I can’t help but believe it. They are also very analytical and questioning which helps a ton when it comes to filling in the blanks in my stories.

Finally, the first time I shared my writing professionally was at a writer’s workshop at MisCon in Missoula, MT. I wrote a short story, Dragonslayers Anonymous, and turned it in to be critiqued by professional authors. Patricia Briggs was one of the authors who read my short story and she had a lot of good things to say about it. Since then she has encouraged me in my writing every time she sees me. Her husband even promised to build me a display case for my first print book. (How generous and what a terrific idea!)

ME:  Why fantasy?

CANDI:  Why not fantasy? I look at the fantasy genre as a door to almost every other genre out there. I can set a romance or a mystery or a horror story against a backdrop of the mystical. There are so many things I can do within the fantasy genre that I get excited at the possibilities.

ME:  Have you pursued any degrees having to do with writing? How important is the formal study of literature or writing, in your opinion, in an author’s career?

CANDI:  I have a degree in Social Sciences with an emphasis on English and History. Before I pursued that degree I was a drama major. (Now that’s key, in my opinion. I’ve found that so many great writers have a background in theatre.) While neither are directly for writing both have given me some insight into the process of creating characters and plot. (Agreed!)

In my opinion, a formal study of literature or writing is not necessary. Reading is where it’s at. Reading in your genre, reading other genres, reading non-fiction; this is how one learns about writing. I think that a degree in anything else will give a writer a sandbox to build ideas from. A college education gives you a lot of opportunity to people watch and exposure to new ideas which are also great things for a writer. But reading and reading a lot is where it’s at.

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ME:  Tell us a bit about the short stories that make up your anthology, IN DREAMS. How do they differ and how are they alike? Is there a common or recurring theme in your writing and, if so, how would you describe it?

CANDI:  Oh no, I’m back in English class. (LOL. I had to include at least one uncomfortable question to keep you on your toes.) I don’t write with a look to theme or mood or any of those words they use in literature classes. I write about characters in bad situations and then I kick them when they are down. IN DREAMS is a collection of the first five short stories I have shared with the world.

Dragonslayers Anonymous is the result of a writing prompt; describe your last day on the job. From that I came up with John St. George, an aging dragonslayer located in the Pacific Northwest, who is ready to retire but when a dragon attacks he can’t turn his back. Survive to Eat is a result of an open call for an anthology. It is my attempt at a gladiator story. It also covers the back story of a major character in a novel I am working on.

(Oh, goody. You are working on a novel. But these stories sound great too!)

Most of the stories in the anthology were inspired by nightmares I’ve had. Wolves in the Mist features a monster from a recurring nightmare I had as a young child. It is also the most horrific of my stories. Off the Path is about a young boy whose only influence is a man of extremely questionable morals and unusual appetites. Finally, Empty is about a character who is so lonely that it begins to affect his sanity.

The one similarity between the short stories in this collection is in the ending. None of them have happy endings with no strings attached. Every one of these endings is costly and the characters are scarred from what has happened.

ME:  Please tell us about your writing process in some detail and describe your favorite place to write. (I must have a picture of that place, whether it’s out in nature or inside your home.)

CANDI:  For me, it starts with a character in a situation. Once I have that, I sit down and start to write from the beginning. As I move through the story, I can see further and further ahead. When I pass the halfway point I begin to get an idea of the end. I keep pushing forward until I reach the end. Once the first draft is done, I make one more quick sweep through and then send it out to my beta readers to read. Once I hear back from them, I fix problems they point out if I strongly agree that it is a problem that needs fixed. Once that pass is done, the story is done.

I write in a recliner in my living room with a laptop. (I believe you’re the second author I’ve interviewed who writes in a recliner.) I frequently have music on or the TV running some background noise while I write. While I like the idea of an office, I hate being cut off from the rest of the family, stuck in a room away from everyone else. I prefer to write where I can listen to the rest of the family as they go about their day.

 photo

(Candi’s recliner in the family room)

ME:  Tell us about your full-length novel. Does this mean you’re leaving short stories behind, or are you sticking to the form and why? Now that Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, do you think the short story will become more popular again?

Unknown(Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro)

CANDI:  I definitely have plans for a full-length novel. I started with short stories to teach myself things about writing and about the business of writing. I will most likely continue to produce short fiction on occasion but I have always aimed to write novels.

I think the short story is already on the rise. Ebooks allow for more variety in the length of stories. I think really cool things are happening in fiction because of that and readers are responding. (I definitely agree.)

ME:  Finally, tell us about Rivers of Ink and how you came to be involved in this annual local writing conference?

CANDI:  Rivers of Ink is a local conference for writers that started off as a means to connect local writers with readers. Over the years, due to feedback from participants, it has become a venue for writers to learn from writers about the craft and business. It has no genre or format boundaries either. Poetry, fiction, and non-fiction of various lengths are all a part of this conference.

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I became involved by volunteering to set up chairs and show people to their seats. By the time that first conference rolled around, I was scheduled as a panelist and things rolled on from there. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate this year but I hope to again be a part of it in 2014.

(Me too, as long as I’m still living here.)

If you want to know more about Candi and her writing, check out her website and her FB page. Her anthology of short stories, IN DREAMS, is available in ebook form on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords.

Next Wednesday I’ll be talking with time travel author, Jeanette Bennett. Let’s hope you’re all on time!

Jeanette Bennett

Originally posted 2013-10-16 06:00:04.

“Wednesday Writer” – NYT Bestselling Author Robert Dugoni

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A little over a month ago, I took part in a local conference for readers and writers called “Rivers of Ink” here in Richland, Washington. I was there to participate on a panel regarding self publishing, but it gave me the opportunity to meet our keynote speaker, New York Times bestselling legal thriller author Robert Dugoni. I’ll never forget his tale of struggle and eventual success as a writer…nor his description of his first writer’s space. He very graciously said “Yes” when I asked if I might feature him in one of my interviews.

Me:  You’ve said that at age 13 you knew you wanted to be a writer. What made you decide that, and, before that point, what career(s) had you hoped to pursue, if any?

Bob:  I just loved stories. It was as simple as that. I loved to read them. Loved to write them and loved to tell them. I had a 13-year-old baseball team convinced I was a descendant of British Royalty. I had this elaborate story and they all sat in that dugout mesmerized until the end when I told them I’d made the whole thing up. They thought that was even better than the real thing. After that they’d ask me to make up something else.

(Definitely some of your earliest fans!)

Me:  Why thrillers? What makes you write suspense, and, in your opinion, why do readers crave it?

Bob:  In all honesty, I chose thrillers because I was a lawyer and Grisham and Turow had just started the legal thriller genre. It seemed a natural and the easiest fit. Unfortunately, my first book came out just as the genre had really died down. But I really just love to write. I don’t consider myself a genre writer. Often people have trouble classifying me because I don’t write your traditional thrillers with all action and dialogue. I have a lot of character development and that throws some people off. My books, I’m told, are more cerebral than a lot of thrillers. (Just my kind of thriller.) I try to write honest characters, people who have self-regard for their own well-being. I figure if my character cares about him or herself, then my readers will care about them. If I can get my readers to care, I can get them invested, and once I do that, then I can put my character in peril. People love suspense. It’s why surprise parties are a big hit. People want to not know. They want someone to outsmart them. They want to try to figure things out.

(Exactly.)

Me:  What has each of your previous occupations–gas attendant, hospital janitor, journalist, and lawyer–taught you about people? Have any of those lessons come out in your novels?

Bob:  Every lesson has come out in my novels. Everything I learned at home and every person I have encountered in my life has provided me with some material. I learned a lot pumping gas. Back then there was no self-serve. I worked alone at night on one of the busiest streets on the San Francisco Peninsula. I had all kinds of things happen. What I remember were the people who would sympathize with me when I was working so hard. And I remember the people who didn’t. It was great insight into human compassion. I couldn’t get to a pump one time and the guy had only asked for $5 of gas. It turned out to be over $8. He just stood there and watched the numbers tick by. Didn’t even try to turn off the pump. Stood there saying, “Oh I’m loving this.” Then he handed me a ten and said he wanted his five back. The mistake was mine and he didn’t care what my boss said when he couldn’t balance the books. The guy was in a suit and driving a Mercedes. Honest.

(Hmm…gas prices have changed but human nature can still be pretty low, eh?)

Me:  I know you spent several years working on learning your craft in order to write well enough to become a best-selling author. What are some of your favorite books on the craft of writing?

Bob:  Christopher Vogler’s book, THE WRITER’S JOURNEY; Sol Stein, ON WRITING; ELEMENTS OF FICTION by Writer’s Digest, all of them; and SELF EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS.

Me:  You’ve said you’re obsessive compulsive. How does this hinder or help your writing process?

Bob:  It helps in that I have to write and once I get going I am very fast. I can write thirty pages a day when I’m going. The hard part is shutting down and letting things go. Sometimes I’m on overload and have to go and exercise just so I’m tired enough to focus.

Me:  I imagine that, as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and then a law partner later in Seattle, you’ve seen a wide variety of offices. Please compare them to the office you set up for yourself when you gave up the law and decided to write full-time. Are you still writing there, or do you use a different office now? (I’d love to post a picture of either that first small windowless office or your current writing space.)

Bob:  I don’t have a picture of that windowless 8X8 foot office. I wish I did. I never was one for a big office. To me it was always just a place to work, get as much done and then go home. I guess it’s that old adage about not living to work but working to live. I never wanted to make my office so comfortable that I wanted to stay there. I guess I also was never comfortable with the thought that any office I would be in would be my last, that I would be an attorney forever and forty years later I’d retire and pack up and leave.  I now have an office at home that I have cluttered with knickknacks from all my travels, framed photos of my books, a picture of me running my one and only marathon, the cover of Time Magazine when the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit and my Giants World Series Ticket Stub. I also have a poster of Elvis Presley at 22 years of age that I put on a grape crate. I’ve had that poster since I was 16 and its been on a wall in my home ever since.

(Nice! I don’t even need a photo to visualize all that.)

Me:  Tell us about your experience getting an agent . . . and what finally made the difference.

Bob:  It was difficult. My first agent died and no one bothered to even tell me. (He told this story at the conference…he’d been waiting for the contract for almost a month and finally called. That’s when he got the news.) I finally got an agent when I had a product people felt worthy of representing and trying to sell. That was the bottom line. I needed a product that was good, a story that held together. I had something someone believed in.

Me:  Okay, bear with me for a minute. Let’s say they’ve arrested the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (your favorite fictional villain). She’s being tried by the people of Oz for kidnapping, dognapping, and disturbing the peace. How would your protagonist, defense attorney David Sloane, successfully defend her when faced with a jury full of Munchkins? (A few lines of courtroom dialogue will do.)

Bob: (Cross-examining Dorothy)

“Is it true that you dropped a house on my client’s sister?”

“Oh my. I didn’t mean to.”

“Nevertheless that is a picture of your house, is it not?”

“Yes, that’s our home in Kansas.”

“But this isn’t Kansas and that isn’t Aunt Em whose legs are sticking out from under that house is it.”

“No it isn’t.”

“And my client’s sister was in possession of a pair of ruby slippers, wasn’t she?”

“I had nothing to do with that. You see, I was trying to make it home to Aunt Em when this tornado hit – ”

“Could you answer my question Ms. Gale? Those ruby slippers were on my client’s dead sister’s feet, weren’t they?”

“I guess they were.”

“And then they were on your feet, weren’t they?”

“I didn’t –”

“Ms. Gale?”

“Yes, they were on my feet.”

“So you can see, can’t you why my client would be upset, can’t you?’

“I suppose I can.”

“And she asked for those slippers back, didn’t she?”

“But Glynda the Good Witch of the South told me not to.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘Good Witch of the South’?”

“Yes.”

“And I presume this ‘Good Witch of the South’ rode in on a broomstick?”

“Oh no, she floated inside of a bubble.”

“A bubble, you say?”

“Yes, a bubble.”

“Ms. Gale, did you happen to ingest any hallucinogenic drugs prior to your landing in OZ and stealing a pair of shoes off of a dead corpse?”

“Heavens, no.”

“Have a little bump on the head did we?”

“Yes, the window frame came loose and hit me.”

“And you blacked out?”

“I did.”

“Are you a vivid dreamer, Ms. Gale?”

“Oh yes, I have some wonderful dreams.”

“I don’t doubt it. The defense rests, Your Honor.”

(Well done! Case closed.)

Me:  Where do you see Publishing going in the next five years, given the growth of e-books? Are agents and publishers nervous or are they adapting, and, if so, how?

Bob:  I think we will see fewer and fewer hardbacks and fewer and fewer authors published in hardbacks. I think the successful authors at the top of the food chain will also shrink. I see publishers investing less money in new authors and giving them less time to be successful. It’s cheaper and the odds improve if the publisher invests in many authors with the hope that one of them hits it big.

Me:  Finally, did you ever get a chance to meet Scott Turow and tell him how he’d impacted your life? Or does his writing (as well as that of John Grisham) hit too close to your own to make such a meeting possible or comfortable?

Bob:  I met Scott Turow at a conference in South Carolina. He was the keynote speaker. Afterward, he was in the green room with the rest of us presenting at that conference. I walked up and told him that I’d really disliked him. He looked shocked and I told him the story. He smiled. Turned out to be a really nice guy.

(You see, Bob went to law school thinking he could write a book during his second year just like Scott Turow did. Of course, he found out he couldn’t. Then he thought he’d try and write while practicing law just like Turow did. Again, he found it impossible. So Turow had become a sticky point for him. :D)

Here’s Bob’s official website where you can find out more about him and his writing. He’s authored seven books, including his latest, THE CONVICTION.

Another thriller, MURDER ONE, just came out in paperback. But if you want to get to know David Sloane from the beginning, I recommend THE JURYMASTER. Great read!

Originally posted 2012-11-28 06:00:42.