Friday, June 29, 2012

Getting to Know The Author of The Color of Evil and Your Chance To Snag The Book

I was recently given the opportunity to review The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson.  I had been asked if I was interested in a guest post and if I had a question for the author.  I have always wondered what each author loves about what they do.  We all know there are certain things we like and love in life.  Though if someone asks us why, it might be hard for us to explain.  Writers clearly can write and I always find when I learn about someones passion I in turn learn a bit about myself.  Check out the guest post below and if you haven't had a chance yet be sure to check out my review for The Color Of Evil and enter below for your own copy.

Ask the author:  "What do you love about writing?"


Author:
Writing is cathartic for me and always has been. When my mother would become angry
with me, rather than yell back at her, I'd sometimes lock myself in my room or in the
bathroom and write out my thoughts and feelings.

I have always found writing came naturally to me. It was my highest score on the Iowa
Tests of Basic Skills, the highest the test went. It was my highest score on the Law
School Aptitude Test (which I took 3 times) where I scored in the top 1/2 of 1% who took
the language portion. I'm a bit of a stickler for spelling things correctly and punctuating
them properly, and I've spent most of my life teaching others how to do those things.

I have never understood how or when writing became this onerous task for so many. To
me, it has always been joyous. My biggest problem is writing TOO much and, to that
end, I took a screenwriting class in Chicago from the Chicago Screenwriters' Group (no
longer extant) primarily to learn to "write short." I actually cut over 300 words from this
story at the suggestion of William F. Nolan (Logan's Run) and Jonathan Maberry, who
warned that I must have a "resolution" of sorts at the end of Book One, so that it could
stand alone or as part of the trilogy.

I had been primarily a journalist up until 2003, writing for newspapers (5) and blogs (9). I
had done interviews, feature stories, scholarly books, but I had not tried fiction. I decided
I would attempt to write "one of everything," which has turned out to be a not-very-good
strategy for making your name known and identified with a certain kind of writing.

I still want to write across genres, but, after putting out close to 20 books (and uncounted
articles...[I have over 800 on Yahoo, alone, and was named Content Producer of the
Year in Jan., 2009, for politics], I think I am going to stick to writing books where
something happens. I have never been a big fan of books where you read hundreds of
pages of description and, at the end of the description, nothing has happened.

There is nothing that feels better than finding inspiration for a story, executing it well and
having others appreciate your efforts.

Of course, sometimes they do not appreciate your story or your efforts, so you had better
do the best job you can to please yourself, because, as Ricky Nelson once sang, "You
can't please everybody. You've got to please yourself."



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2 comments:

rhonda said...

Little. Women.reading it made me want to join the march family have loved the book ever sconce.

Anita Yancey said...

My favorite book is Gone With The Wind, because it is so good and a great classic.
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net