Interview: Lyda Phillips author of Mr. Touchdown and Peace I Ask of Thee Oh River

Molly I've just read/reviewed your Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River. Please will you tell us why you chose this particular setting/genre for this work? Lyda Phillips The setting is similar to a camp I attended as a girl and teenager, although it was in Arkansas rather than North Carolina. I find myself writing young-adult novels because so many of my most basic issues that I'm still working out in my life and in my writing are those same issues teenagers grapple with: peer pressure, identity and finding the courage and wisdom to take a stand. Molly I see, knowing some background helps to flesh out the story. Lyda, this is not the first book of yours that I have reviewed. Please if you will, tell us which of your books you are most happy with. And why. Lyda Phillips That's a little like asking which of my children I love the most. They are both dear to me. Mr. Touchdown has the characters I love the most. But I think Peace is a more sophisticated story. Molly Chuckle, I understand perfectly. Now, turning to another direction: I find your books are filled with rich details, how much time do you usually spend doing background research before you begin a new book and what does your research involve? Lyda Phillips Because these two novels grew out of my own experiences, that shaped a lot of the narrative. With Mr. Touchdown I did a tremendous amount of research on the Civil Rights movement--reading, Internet searches and conversations over the course of years with many individuals who'd grown up in the segregated South, both black and white. For Peace, I did research--again oral and literature searches--on abnormal psychology, suicide, and girl bullying. For the settings I draw on personal experience. I've hiked in the mountains and done white-water canoeing, so I know what I'm writing about there. Molly Most interesting, I see you must have done a good bit of work before beginning to do the actual writing. Now, Lyda, writers new to the field may not realize how difficult it is to get a book together. How long would you say it takes on average for you to write a book from start to finish? Lyda Phillips Both these novels started as short stories and unfolded into novels. In both cases, there was a time lapse of several years after I wrote the stories before I came back to them. After that Mr. Touchdown took about five years off and on to write, rewrite, rewrite again, leave aside, take up again and rewrite. Peace went much quicker, but even it took a couple of years. Molly You sound like a dedicated writer! Lyda, I find that I particularly enjoy writing series because when one book is finished I don't have to say goodbye to the characters I know as friends, rather I follow them as they enter their next adventure. Have you considered writing a series? Lyda Phillips People have often asked me what happens to the Mr. Touchdown characters. But I have no interest in continuing that story. I am working on two novels for adults right now where the second takes up the story of a secondary character in the first, although that's not really a series or even a sequel. But I do have the beginning of an idea for a fantasy/SF novel that could easily turn into a series. I think a series would be fun. Molly I see, now please tell us what do you attend to first? Do you write your book first or seek out an agent or a publisher? And, if you will, please tell us of trials or successes you may have had in trying to find agent or publisher. Lyda Phillips You have to have a finished project before you begin to look for either an agent or a publisher. And if I started on my trials and tribulations in that search, we'd be here until next year sometime. I have had two agents over the course of my career. One retired on me and the other became too ill to keep working. I'm currently looking for an agent for the first of the novels for adults that I mentioned above. I cannot tell you how many rejections I've had in my career. I've never had the heart to count them, but it's in the hundreds for sure. Molly Every writer I have spoken to tells me the same thing. Writing is not a task for the faint of heart or thin skinned, now, please tell us something about yourself, Lyda, something about your life. Lyda Phillips I have been writing since I was about nine or ten years old. I was born in Texas, moved to Tennessee and started school there, moved my senior year to Chicago, which was incredibly awful. Went to Northwestern, then moved to New York. Got an MA from Columbia in Middle East history, moved to Connecticut, finished my first two novels there, started working as a journalist, moved to Washington, D.C. for UPI, got pregnant and married, moved to Tennessee, where I finally found the perfect combination of time, stability and an incredibly supportive and hard-working writers group. As well as a small art school where I took screenwriting classes. At that point my writing really became consuming, even though I uprooted my family back to D.C. to take a job in political polling that did not work out. We've stayed here for my son to finish school although we may move back to Tennessee when he goes off to college. When I published Mr. Touchdown and Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River, I was taking a big leap of faith in my work and it has been validated by the awards both books have won. My first screenplay, which I've been working on for about 10 years (that's right!) just made the semi-finals in the Writers on the Storm contest, top 50 of more than 950 entries. So I feel really good about that. I'm also collaborating with one of my best friends from college on a romantic comedy screenplay. Writing is definitely my life these days. Saves my soul alive. Molly Congratulations that your screenplay has made the semi-finals, I’ve got my fingers crossed for you. What rewards do you find from being a writer Lyda? Lyda Phillips It's hard to describe the mixed joy and pain that comes with being a writer. When I'm really on a roll, I am in another world and come back both exhausted and exhilarated. Then the rush of having someone else read and react to your work is the payoff. Very sweet. But the rejections are tough, the frustrations endless and the emotional roller-coaster of loving what you've written one minute and thinking it stinks the next is tiresome. Molly Rejections are tough, aren’t they? Lyda, now lets look in another direction, do you plan to do book signings within the next few weeks? Do you enjoy signings? Lyda Phillips I am doing a reading from Mr. Touchdown June 30 in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum and will probably sign books afterward. I love signings and readings and school visits. It's satisfying to the part of me that wants to be a teacher or an actress. Molly I understand that! Now what one bit of advice do you have for beginning writers? Lyda Phillips Keep writing. That's the whole game. Write, revise, write, revise. Find a crit group. But the one thing that makes the most difference is just keep writing, no matter what the discouragement, frustration and pain. Keep writing. Molly You bet. Is there anything else you would like to add? Lyda Phillips Do not rush to self-publish. I am pretty comfortable with my decision to self-publish Mr. Touchdown. Less so about Peace. I think I did not get quite enough rejections on that one before I self-pubbed it but I really did it for a big camp reunion that was coming up and then was stunned when it won the Writers Digest contest. No one should self-publish who hasn't really worked on their craft unless they are publishing simply to have a book to give their grandchildren or something like that. Molly Excellent discussion, and excellent advice for beginning writers. Thank you Lyda Phillips for a most enjoyable and informative interview.