A Slice of Orange

An Interview with Author and RWA® 2017 PRO Mentor of the Year Maggie Marr

We’re here today with Maggie Marr—a woman who wears many hats. A woman who is also the 2017 Romance Writers of America® PRO Mentor of the Year. She will be honored during the PRO Retreat at the RWA® National Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida this July.

Maggie Marr is the author of twenty-plus books including the best-selling Hollywood Girls Club series. She is the past president of Los Angeles Romance Authors (LARA) and legal advisor to WFWA. When she isn’t writing, reading, practicing law, or chasing her kids, you can find her binge watching her favorite shows. For more information about Maggie and her novels please visit her website-www.maggiemarr.net or follow her on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Jann: Maggie, welcome to A Slice of Orange. Why be a mentor?

Maggie: There are so many reasons and first among them, for me, is that mentoring is fun. I love writing and I love writers (my tribe!) and being helpful to other writers gives me so much joy and fulfillment. Plus, I’m an introvert by nature, so mentoring allows me to build a relationship based on a mutual love for writing, which really takes the pressure off my introvert-nature.

Jann: Tell us about the mentor programs at LARA that you are involved with.

Maggie: LARA has great programs and many of them offer authors the opportunity to reach back and help. First among them is the mentor-mentee program which matches published authors with newer writers so that writers can utilize their mentors as a resource. We also have book-in-year, 20k in 2 weeks, published author chat, the write-in, and the LARA anthology. Each program intends to help make writing a well-formed habit.

Jann: Do you have any writing rituals? Schedule?

Maggie: I prefer to write first thing. When I accomplish my writing-goal for the day I feel good because I can check that off my list for the day.

Jann: What kind of writer are you? A page a day or a burst writer?

Maggie: My goal is to write every day, but I don’t always achieve that goal. When I’m in my first draft I try for 3 thousand words a day. Lately when I revise I dedicate 2 hours a day because that’s what my schedule allows

Jann: Do you ever run out of ideas? If so, how did you get past that?

Maggie: I don’t run out of ideas, because there are couples lined up in my head, like airplanes on a tarmac waiting for take off, simply waiting for me to look at them and say, ‘you’re up tell me your story.’ What I do struggle with is scene location. I’m on book 25 and I don’t want the location of my scenes to feel tired or over-used so I’m constantly trying to think of new and unusual places to set scenes.

Jann: What’s the best writing advice you ever received?

Maggie: Never quit, never give up. Also, with every book try to write a better book than the one you just finished writing.

Jann: Author Maria Powers says: “Maggie Marr is a mentor, an inspiration, a motivator and a friend. She lives her belief that success for one is success for all, and her determination and tenacity always bring me back to the knowledge that I can do this. I am a better writer for having Maggie in my corner, but more importantly, I am a better person for having Maggie in my life.”

Thank you Maggie Marr for taking the time to be with us today to answer our questions. If you have comments or questions for Maggie, please use the comment form below.

Jann Ryan

Jann Ryan grew up with the smell of orange blossoms in Orange County in sunny Southern California, where she has lived her entire life and dreamed up stories since she was a young girl. Never an avid reader, she was in her thirties when she picked up her first romance quite by accident. She fell in love with happily ever after and has been reading romances ever since.

Wanting to put pen to paper, Jann joined of Romance Writers of America®. Currently, she is working on a romantic suspense series set in Stellar Bay, a fictitious town along the California central coast to fulfill her publishing dream.

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June Traditions

June 1, 2017 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley tagged as June, Kids, Summer, writing

Apples & Oranges | Marianne H. Donley | A Slice of Orange

June Traditions

Graduations and wedding. Strawberry stands close. Corn on the cob stands open.

June bugs attempt suicide by flying into a patio door. News programs announce grunion runs. Janet Evanovich’s new novel is sure to be on the book store shelf soon. June gloom weather patterns make it impossible to know what to wear each day. Pick shorts and a tee, the clouds never burn off. Jeans and a pullover guarantee it will be ninety by ten fifteen. The significant other always announces that the air conditioner will not be turned on until after the Fourth of July. The kids get out of school.

June Traditions | Marianne H. Donley | A Slice of Orange
Ah, no school. For me, that was always both a blessing and a curse. I loved the slower pace of summer days, kids making mud pies, decorating the driveway with sidewalk chalk, back yard sleep–overs, and the wide-eyed wonder of a child blowing bubbles. I was less thrilled with sibling squirt gun fights that degenerated into all out bloody warfare in thirty seconds or less, other parents who assumed that because I was a teacher and therefore home during the summer I would leap at the chance to entertain their little darlings twelve hours a day five days a week for free, and those heartfelt words, “Mom, I’m so bored.”

No school for my kids rarely translated into no other commitments for me. I taught summer school classes, took graduate math classes and always had a novel on which I was working. So how did I carve out time for writing with a job, graduate school, three kids, and a husband who traveled?

First, I insisted both my sons and my daughter did housework. They made their beds. They vacuumed. They washed dishes. They scrubbed toilets. Few of their chores were completed as well as if I had done them myself, but I learned to turn a blind eye to what I didn’t have time to fix and to ignore snippy comments from other adults.

Next, I let my children join inexpensive summer time activities. The PTA arranged a summer movie series for children, a juice-box, a small bag of popcorn and the movie all for a dollar. Park and Recreation always offered swimming lessons, art lessons, piano lessons, gym classes. I traded play days with other mothers. But rather than drop my kids off and return to pick them up, I packed a lawn chair, a clipboard, sun screen and stayed. I graded papers during swim team practice, completed non-Euclidean geometry homework during gym class and edited chapters of my very first book while my kids played in the sand.

I arranged my desk and computer so that I could see the back yard while I worked. If they needed me closer, I handed them their own paper and pencils, pulled chairs up to my desk and had them write with me. I got wild stickers and made a refrigerator chart. They earned a sticker for each book they read and could redeem the chart for a small prize from the junk store. I bought books on tape like Treasure Island, The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, cheap tape players with head phones and handed them out when I needed quiet time. If I was truly desperate and they were truly bored, I let them watch videos, a huge treat at my house where the TV never turned on unless it was dark outside. I set my alarm for four and wrote all morning, something I still do today even though my children are out of the house and have children of their own.

So if your children are home for the summer, cherish them and those mud pies drying in the sun, but plan on carving out time for your writing. You are creative, and if you really want to write, you will find a way.

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How Much Reality?

May 31, 2017 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as H.O. Charles, Jenny Jensen, Reality, Rebecca Forster, Robin Blakely, The Extra Squeeze

Ever wonder what industry professionals think about the issues that can really impact our careers? Each month The Extra Squeeze features a fresh topic related to books and publishing.

Amazon mover and shaker Rebecca Forster and her handpicked team of book professionals offer frank responses from the POV of each of their specialties — Writing, Editing, PR/Biz Development, and Cover Design.

During an online ‘ask an author’ a first time author lamented that he could not have his characters fall in love because in real life there were social barriers. The question this month is:

Should reality be restrictive when we write? How much reality is too much?

Jenny Jensen

Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.

How much reality is too much? Noon on April 15, midnight looming -‐ that’s too much reality for me.

But my demands of reality in fiction are less fearful and far more forgiving. Authors create a world for the reader to happily visit; a world ruled by its own inner reality. As long as the actions of the characters stay within the boundaries of that inner reality, I say anything goes.

If you’re writing a Steampunk tale with clocks that speak and mechanical jeweled birds and a hero with an ocular implant that sees the soul, then it would make no story sense to have him checking YouTube. If fantasy is your genre and the fairy queen the hero, you wouldn’t put her in Louboutins. Suspension of belief demands adherence to the story’s inner reality; then the reader can freely let go of her own beliefs and join in the author’s world.

When your genre is set in the world of shared reality, the real world, bending that reality gets tricky. Whatever action might boarder on unbelievable may work perfectly if it has been set up correctly, allowing the story sense to stay intact. After all, when characters break the rules, that’s what spurs the tension—as long as it makes good story sense.

The unforgivable distortions of reality are anachronisms. I see that often when I work story development with historical fiction. Nothing jars you out of a tale of medieval court life faster than a character saying, “hey, chill out” or “no way!” An author needs to be aware of their story’s own internal logic and respect that logic; and that includes dialogue. It’s your creation and I’m willing to travel into your world, as long as that reality makes its own, consistent sense.

Robin Blakely

PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.

As a reader, I implore you to write the story that will fascinate and thrill me–move my soul and ignite my imagination. Please, use your writer’s magic. Make me believe that your bigger-than-life characters and more-incredible-than-life circumstances are real. I just want to escape into an extraordinary tale no matter how fantastic the elements are.

BUT…from a promotional perspective, I warn you: proceed with caution. Your story won’t likely be your biggest problem. Your hidden landmine will more likely be buried in the promotional territory. Quite simply, your story content must match your book description. Don’t pretend your work is something it’s not.

As a PR professional, I am much less concerned about what you did in your story and much more concerned about how you characterize the work. Make sure the content and description align seamlessly. If you say you wrote a historical romance, you better be historically accurate and romantically mesmerizing. If you aren’t those things, re-package the description accurately. Imagine if you bought a box of Cheerios and opened the box and found oatmeal. Nothing is intrinsically wrong with oatmeal unless you thought you were getting Cheerios. The same thing happens with books.

Do what it takes to get your promotional alignment right…Then, defend your story choices with substance and panache. Be aware that many things you write would not likely happen in real life. It’s okay to say: “I chose to explore it anyway…writers do that.” But the oatmeal-in-a-cheerio-box thing…steer completely clear of that nonsense.

Rebecca Forster

USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.

I write legal and police thrillers sprinkled with political elements. Being neither a cop, lawyer, or politician, I do get anxious about crossing professional lines, disrespecting procedures or, frankly, just looking like I don’t know what I’m talking about. No author who tackles a fact-based subject wants to look dumb. When I get nervous about such things I remind myself that I am not writing about real life, I am being inspired by it.

If procedural writers told literal stories, our novels would be the best sleep aid in history. Frankly, most trials and investigations are tedious and boring. My job is to identify the part of reality that is exciting, thought provoking, or suspenseful so that I can build upon it, not be slave to it. When I write, I start by finding a concept within the framework of the justice system that intrigues me. For instance, my husband presided over one of the first trials in which a child was tried as an adult. I was inspired to write Hostile Witness. The plot was about of a young girl caught up in our legal system; the story was about her fight for survival in life. I do research to make sure that I stay within procedural bounds, but I am the author and I must choose which of those boundaries to adhere to, which to ignore and which to use to enhance my story.

So be inspired by reality not hobbled by it. Be inquisitive and smart. Understand the reality of your universe and then bend it.

H.O. Charles

Cover designer and author of the fantasy series, The Fireblade Array is on deadline this month. She’ll join The Extra Squeeze team again next month.