Interview focused on “Past
Suspicion”
How
long did it take you to write Past Suspicion?
The
first draft took about four months, from May to September of 1999, but I didn’t
write every day. Some days I’d write
for hours, some days I didn’t write a word.
Many
authors draw on real life experiences when writing, even for fiction. Did you find this true in writing Past
Suspicion?
Yes. Directly and indirectly, I drew material
from familiar places, situations, and characters. That’s not to say I used people I know for my characters. (My dad insists he’s Uncle Peter, though
those who know him will beg to differ).
But certain qualities, conversations, quirks, or descriptions can be
picked up, consciously or subconsciously, from people you know or meet, and
emerge in your writing. The setting
came from my own hometown, and some events were taken directly from things that
occurred that spring and summer, such as a storm, a power outage, attending a
Memorial Day parade, and roaming a graveyard.
From here, fictional elements suited to the story developed and moved
the plot forward. As I lived with the
story, everything became possible material, but I only used it if it had a
valid reason for being included, propelling the story to its climax. I will definitely say that the emotions are
real; anger, resentment, pity, love, fright, hope -- everyone experiences these at
some point in their life. And for a teenager,
it’s not unusual to experience them all in one day!
How
did you find a publisher for your book?
Was it difficult?
I
feel it was a long, tedious journey, but I remind myself it could have been
much longer than the two years it took.
Most twenty-two-year-olds don’t publish books; and, as my dad told me,
most eighteen-year-olds don’t spend their summer before college writing
one. After completing the manuscript, I
followed guidelines, studied writers’ markets, and sent off query letters,
proposals, sample chapters . . . and got rejection letters. Sometimes they came with encouraging
notes. I kept trying because I believed
in my novel. I knew persistence was
key. I reminded myself that a rejection
from one house does not mean the work is unpublishable. One editor’s opinion is not the whole
world’s. However, many of the houses
that “rejected” my novel never even read the manuscript because they were not
open to receiving unsolicited works. If
my one-page query letter did not motivate them to request the manuscript, I had
to cross that house of my list. Many
houses are afraid to take risks on new authors. Since I wrote the kind of book I like to read, I knew that plenty
of young adults who eagerly read romantic suspense would welcome Past
Suspicion. Yet many times I felt as
if I would never find a home for it, and that made me sad because I wanted so
much to share it with others, instead of letting it sit in a corner of my room,
collecting dust. Still, I felt shy
about letting relatives read the manuscript because I felt, until it was
accepted, it hadn’t proven itself. I
didn’t even let my dad read it until it had been accepted -- then I was eager for
his reaction and suggestions. When I
learned that PublishAmerica, after six months in the consideration process,
wanted to publish Past Suspicion, I was almost afraid to believe
it. My dream was coming true! I’ll be forever grateful that PublishAmerica
was willing to give me, an unproven new writer, a chance to prove myself.
How
many drafts did it take to get “Past Suspicion” to its final version?
I
couldn’t even say. All I know is, every
time I read through the manuscript, I made changes; sometimes minor, sometimes
major: a word here, a scene here;
delete, rearrange, rewrite . . . It got
to the point where I had to leave the manuscript sit for months, then return to
it with a fresh eye. Judging from the
stack of manuscript papers in the corner of my room, I worked on it
considerably. I realized the best I
could do for my book was send it out and stop tinkering. Then, when it was finally accepted for
publication, I was back to revising -- but this time I was propelled by the
thought that Past Suspicion was becoming “reality.”
Why
did you write this book?
I
had a story to tell, one I felt strongly enough about to devote years to. To make it real and suitable to share with
others I had to go through the time-consuming process of telling it the best
way possible. It’s rather daunting to
have this wonderful vision of events in your mind, and to try to get it all
down on paper so it creates the same image, for no matter how hard you try it’s
still going to be different . . . that’s the challenge of writing. But it also means you surprise
yourself. I wanted the finished story
to be preserved on paper in the most compelling way possible. The more I thought about the situation and
characters, the more real they became in my mind, and I had to get them out on
paper before I lost them.
How
did you write this book? Did you work
from an outline?
Actually,
Past Suspicion began as a short story, but the plot kept growing, twisting
and turning with possibilities.
Suddenly, I realized I had the potential for a book. This thrilled me! I read everything I could about writing novels and writing for
young adults. Yet I went my own way, as
every writer must, to find what works best for him or her on a particular
project. My writing method was free and
unstructured, and consequently I derived a lot of excitement (and frustration)
from it. I made no formal outline, but
jotted down notes for scenes as they came to me. I thought about the story every day, and most nights, so I always
had some idea where it was heading.
While I had the basic concept ever in my mind, I had to work at building
the climax. It was a journey of
discovery.
How
did you come up with the title?
After
much thought. Yet I didn’t dwell
worriedly on it, and consequently it presented itself in its own good
time. It didn’t come to me till months
after the first draft was completed, perhaps because the first draft was an
exploratory journey and I didn’t know exactly how it would end. I tried titles such as Echoes from the
Past and Twenty Years Later, but these didn’t have the memorable
quality I desired. One day I thought of
Suspicious Past. It was simple,
but I liked how it held the heart of the story. Then I discovered that by simply inverting the order of the
words, I had a unique title with a double meaning. I’ve never doubted this title, so I know it is the one.
Is
this the first book you’ve ever written?
It’s
the first book I ever completed, but not the first book I ever began. When I was in my “Nancy Drew stage” I began
a novel called The Grand Canyon Plot, a book I intended to be the first
of a series involving (big surprise!) a teen girl as an amateur sleuth. I got considerably far for an eleven-year-old,
but never completed it. My sisters used
to beg me to! At sixteen I wrote 141
pages of a historical novel called Sabela’s Story. I now look back on these projects as
valuable writing experience -- but I won’t be sending them out for others to laugh
at!