1.  How did you know you wanted to be a writer?  And at what age?
I never really sat down and decided I wanted to be a writer.  I was a reader.  As a kid I read everything.  I lived in the library.  I used to make up stories in my head.  When I moved to the Orient after getting off active duty in the army to study martial arts, I had some time on my hands and the original 512K Mac.  So I just started writing.

2.  When you started writing how long was it before you sold your first novel?
I didn’t even think of selling my first manuscript.  I was well into my second when someone read my first and said “Hey, this is like a real book.”  The light bulb went on, I peddled my bike down to the local US Army post and got an old copy of the Writers Market in the library.  I then proceeded to do everything wrong.  Also, submitting from the Far East is a little difficult.  It took three years.  And breaking the rules.  I didn’t even know agents existed.  I got so frustrated I sent my query to everyone and got a call from an editor about my novel—except he worked at a non-fiction publisher.  But he liked it and he knew an agent and yada yada yada.

This steep learning curve I’ve experienced as an author over 20 years is a big reason I’m doing my Warrior Writer workshops.  I want to teach writers how to be authors, using the strategies and tactics of the Special Forces and my experiences.  I really see a big gap in the publishing paradigm, where publishers and agents expect a new author to somehow ‘absorb’ what it takes to be successful and Warrior Writer fills that gap.  It also focuses on those psychological and practical blocks that may keep you from being the best writer you could be.  In essence, I focus on the writer during this workshop, not the writing.

3.  Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?
I used to be a plotter. Working with Jennifer Crusie really helped me a lot.  Elizabeth George has been beating me up for years about character—just got an email from her this morning reference that.  And she lives two miles away.  Now, I’m a bit of both, but I think the key to a great book is intriguing characters.  I’m rewriting a manuscript right now and my mantra is to go from “Big plot/little characters” to “Big characters/little plot”.  I’m cutting the hell out of my favorite parts of the book—ie info-dump—and focusing on the characters.  Scaling back the plot tremendously.

4.  What genre do you write?   How did you choose it?  Is there only one you write in? I’ve written in a lot of genres.  Started in military thriller.  Slid into science thriller.  Then science fiction.  Then my own invented genre of techno-myth, mixing technology and mythology.  Non-fiction with Novel Writers Toolkit, Hunting Al Qaeda and Who Dares Wins.  Romantic Suspense with Jennifer.  I’m back to thriller now.

5.  I’m assuming you were an avid reader too.  Is that correct?  What did you like to read?   Was there an author who inspired you?
I think to be a decent writer you have to be a voracious reader.  I remember being very young and finding this hardcover, tattered book in the library titled The Hobbit.  I was so thrilled when I went back and saw there were three more books by the same author.  I read about 50-50 fiction/non-fiction now.  I tend not to read in the genres I write in to avoid subconscious problems.  Off the top of my head:  Richard Russo, Dennis Lehane, Larry McMurtry, Pat Conroy come to mind.  I love watching some TV series and following the writing:  Battlestar Gallactica was brilliant; as was Rome, Deadwood, Sopranos.  The Wire was great over seven seasons.  I search for the subtle stuff—the character development and foreshadowing that most viewers don’t consciously see.

6.  Did you ever start a book – then abandoned it or never finished it?  Why?
I’ve got a completed manuscript sitting in a drawer that I think is great, but it isn’t the right time.  I only stopped halfway through once—Random House wanted a big hardcover to follow my Area 51 series and I started a book titled I, JUDAS.  An Armageddon type story with Judas still alive in the Amazon.  It got rejected on the half-finished version, and well, it’s half-finished.  I will finish it some day.

And just today the work in progress I mentioned above– I took the trusty .45 and shot it.  I wrote it over the course of two years of great grief and the inconsistency of my emotions showed up in the writing.  So that’s another 116,000 words stuffed in a drawer, but you have to put out the best possible material, especially in today’s market.

7.  Do any events or instants from your real life show up in your books?  I mean it may have started that way – but then you’d fictionalize them?
My first manuscript, Dragon Sim-13 was based on a real mission my Special Forces A-Team had conducted.    Because I knew the story, I could focus on writing the book.  A lot of my heroes tend to be ex-Special Forces guys for some reason.  Then there were all the times I was abducted by aliens and was on the mothership– that showed up in my Area 51 series.

8.  What kind of writing schedule do you have?   If you have a set number of pages or words a day – have there been any days you’ve missed the set number? What happened? No.  Elizabeth George does five pages a day.  Every day.  That’s her routine.  Nora Roberts does 8 hours a day, every day.  I used to be  a burst writer.  But I’ve decided that the discipline those writers show is something I am going to emulate.  I think you have to sit down every day and force yourself to do it no matter what you feel.

9.  What advice would you give a beginning writer? Learn the craft.  Too many people want to be artists before they learn the craft.  Be open-minded to learning and to changing what you’re doing.  It isn’t going to write itself.

10.  How long have you been an RWA member? How has the association helped you?  That’s the other piece of advice I would give:  I’ve been in RWA for about six years now and it’s the most professional writing organization out there and I’ve been a member of most.  I didn’t network enough early in my career.  I actually used to boast I’d never my agent or any of my editors face to face.  That’s incredibly stupid looking back on it.  It is a people business.  I’ve been through three agents and am on my fourth.  It’s an emotional relationship as well as a business one.

11.    Tell us something about yourself that would surprise your readers?
I’m not as bad as people think I am.  I’m only drawn that way.

12.    Can you share with us an inspiring story or event that’s helped make you the successful Author you are today?
I think persistence counts a lot.  Many talented people quit and go home.  When my A-Team would be making an overland movement, carrying rucksacks weighing well over a hundred pounds along with our weapons and other gear, I would want to just keep going forever.  My team sergeant had to force me to stop and take five-minute breaks every hour for the rest of the guys.  That determination has defined my writing career and that of many successful authors in RWA:  they’ve failed, picked themselves up, re-invented themselves, and kept going.

And as always: Some Cool Gus.  Except this is studious Gus.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall..”

” So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

Hi, Colleen Thompson here. Jessica, who’s on her way home from Iraq (can we have three BIG cheers here?) asked me to fill in for her today and talk about my latest romantic thriller, Beneath Bone Lake (Lovespell, 5/09).

Every American working in the war zone dreams of coming home to a joyful reunion. But for contract worker Ruby Monroe, the dream turns to a nightmare when she arrives to find her young daughter and her sister missing, her house in flames, and no one to turn to but the handsome convicted hacker she’s been warned not to trust.

I was inspired to write this book after reading about Americans working for big contractors overseas, some of which seem to be a law unto themselves, with their ties to people in power and their immunity from many U.S. laws. The deeper I dug, the more questions arose… along with a fascinating premise for an emotion-packed suspense chock full of action, danger, romance, and a conspiracy that reaches from the Middle East to East Texas bayou country.

But at its heart, Beneath Bone Lake centers on every woman’s primal fear: a child missing and in danger — and the incredible risks a mother’s love will push her to take to make things right again. But then, I’ve always believed the key to a great thriller (a great story, really) is to make the extraordinary relatable by connecting a character’s unique circumstances to emotions shared by nearly every reader.

Here’s hoping and praying the Jessica’s reunion with her family will be the joyous event SHE dreams of and that all of our soldiers and contract civilians will come home to their families safely very soon.

(Please clink the link to watch a very brief video Beneath Bone Lake preview)

Before I discuss rejections, I had to look up Merriam-Webster’s definition:
Rejection: 1 a: to refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use

I found it interesting that Merriam-Webster’s first reference was at the heart of a writer’s issue. But, remember, the impact of the rejection is that of our choosing.

I’m an extreme optimist. I believe everything happens for a reason, and I believe, however tragic, good can be found in any situation. It’s up to us to look past the hurt, to find the lessons within the challenging situation which will make us better, and will make us stronger.

Lets face it, if you decide to write and submit your stories, rejections are part of the process. Instead of focusing on the negativity of a rejection, let’s breakdown some of the many reasons why an agent or an editor doesn’t accept your work:

1. Their client list or book slots for a certain period is full – a pure business circumstance – not a rejection.

2. The agent or editor doesn’t connect with your voice. As an author, we want the person who is marketing our novel to not only believe in our work, but to be passionate about it as well. Anything less and they won’t market your work to booksellers and other venues to the fullest extent. So, a pass by an agent or an editor allows you to connect with another business professional who totally believes in your writing.

3. Your work is sub par – [show vs. tell.] less is more. I’ve always thought the amazing thing about writing is that each of us believes our current work-in-progress is the most amazing, well-written story. This belief, however realistic, is necessary for us to dedicate the months necessary to finish the novel. However brilliant your work, until it’s strong, emotionally evocative writing, it won’t be competitive in today’s market. Use the rejection as a tool to let you really focus on your story, to ensure it’s your strongest writing.

If you are fortunate enough to receive feedback from an agent or editor,
review it. Does the feedback make sense to you? Do you think it will strengthen
your novel? If so, use their comments as a base to tighten your work further for
future submissions.
The bottom line is, once your novel is completed, it’s a marketable
resource. If you don’t sell your book at this moment, don’t despair. Down the
road, pull it out, tighten it to a target market, then resubmit it.

4. Something about your story doesn’t fit their guidelines. It’s really important before you decide to submit your work to a line, that you’ve done your research. If your novel is about a shape shifter and you submit it to a line seeking inspirational stories, odds are you are going to receive a thanks but no thanks. Okay, so I used an extreme example, but I hope you see my point. It’s imperative to ensure your story is targeted at the correct market venue. Otherwise, it’s not a rejection, but a letter stating that your work doesn’t fit their line, which makes sense.

Rejections are tough to receive. When I hit 100, I quit counting them. I figured that I’d learned how to acquire them. But, I also learned the value of a rejection, that they’re far more than a slip of paper dismissing my work. Rejections are proof that I’m a dedicated professional, that I’m a writer who dares to believe in myself enough to submit my work, and most of all, a person who follows their dreams. Adversity tests if we truly want to write. Nothing worth anything is ever easy. Never give up – perseverance is the key. My sincere best to each of you as you follow your heart.

Thank you for stopping by!

Diana Cosby
www.dianacosby.com

U.S. Navy Chief Meteorologist/Oceanographer, Diana Cosby, an award-winning international author, began her last tour in the military by re-enlisting on the back of a camel in Tangier, Africa. With 32 moves and an incredible career, she decided to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met over the years. Her years of living in Europe influenced her decision to write in the medieval time frame, hence the MacGruder brothers were born.

Her second novel in the MacGruder Brothers series, “His Woman,” is available now:
Amazon.com
B&N.com
Amazon.com in Canada
His Woman – 4 Stars – HOT

“Former lovers find each other again in book two of Cosby’s Scottish trilogy. She deftly combines historical accuracy, well-rounded characters and continuous action in this sweeping romance, which should keep readers engaged until the last page.”
- Romantic Times