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FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
Where
do you get your ideas from?
I buy them at writers'
conferences--two for a dollar. Don't all authors?
Actually, my ideas come
from a thousand different places, but mostly from real life.
When I hear the account of an unusual situation, my first thought is
about how the people involved must have felt. Then my mind
jumps to what if this happened and off I go.
Frequently, an interesting premise or daydream sparks my
imagination, and soon I find myself creating characters and building
a complex plot around the scenario.
What are the best and worst aspects of being an author?
Naturally, the best is the
dream of getting paid for doing what I enjoy. But for the most
part, the best and the worst are one in the same. I love that
I can set my own pace and don't have to answer to anyone else or
deal with the distraction of temperamental coworkers all day.
If I decide I want to work until two in the morning and take a nap
the next afternoon, I can. I get to wear comfortable clothes I
wouldn't dare wear in public.
On the other hand, working
alone provides no structure in my life, and I tend to isolate.
My body never has to budge from my desk chair, so while I'm working
I get practically no exercise except for a few short strolls to the
refrigerator. Also, those comfortable clothes do nothing to
remind me not to make those trips. The fact that I work at
home means I get interrupted frequently when my family is around.
How long
does it take you to write a book?
As long as it takes.
I wrote my single title, The Memory of You aka Something
Worth Remembering, in about two months. But that was
working around the clock. Then again, I've written other books
that have taken me more than a year. It really depends on
what's going on in my life, how long the book is, and how much
revising I do along the way, and how much I let myself get
sidetracked by other projects. On the average if I write it
straight through, it takes about four months.
You've
written so many books and won so many awards--why are you an Indie
author?
Many people don't realize
how competitive the publishing industry has become. Back in
the 1980's it was fairly easy to sell a novel as compared to today.
With the advent of home computers people started reading less and
less, and the number of individuals submitting to publishers
exploded. According to RWA's statistics, in 2003 there were
2,093 romance novels released, and 113 of those were reprints,
leaving only 1,980 new titles, written by 1200 authors. Out of
those, only 86 books (less than 5 percent) were the work of
previously unpublished writers.
Getting published requires
talent, skill, perseverance, and most of all--luck. I was born
with the talent, it took several years to develop my writing skills
to showcase that talent, and a few more years of perseverance before
I became a double finalist in the Golden Heart and won. The
problem is my work can't easily be pigeon-hold, so now that the
e-book market has become profitable and self-publishing has evolved,
I'm going to make my books available to the public on my own.
As a
Christian, how do you rationalize including premarital sex and
explicit lovemaking in your romances.
I don't believe there is
anything sinful or dirty about making love. Song of Solomon is
the ultimate love scene. No one censored the Bible's story of
David watching Bathsheba bathe on the roof top because it might be
titillating to someone reading about it. It happened. It was real.
Lust is part of being human, and I don't feel our Creator would have
given us sexual desire if it was wrong to feel it or revel in it. I believe
the only way to produce a truly compelling story is to write reality. In today's world, more often than
not, couples who are in a serious love relationship share their
feelings in the bedroom (Christians and non-Christians alike).
I don't advocate
premarital sex, but I also don't condemn it.
I also believe it's healthier for a single individuals to deal with
their desires and fulfill their passion vicariously through reading
than in actually participating in a promiscuous lifestyle.
Copyright 2011 Laurie Kellogg
Contact
Laurie
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