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Sell Writing Online Author Interviews 7/6/2003 6:27:49 AM
We're often intrigued with other writers and the many aspects that inspired and keep them writing. My blog will share with you my Author Interviews. You'll discover revealing interviews by authors who are living their dream. They share valuable insights and information to help all writers discover how to succeed.
Below you will find the list of questions asked of Carolyn Howard Johnson.
Her bio follows the interview.
Enjoy!
1. Writers are encouraged to write daily and find their voice. Do you feel you have more than one voice in your writing?
CHJ: I believe we all have more than one voice in life. We have a funny side, a serious side, and really ticked-off side (Maybe that's our political voice!)I think if we listen to ourselves talk, we'll be able to record all those voices when we write.
2. When did your passion for writing begin?
CHJ:Around about high school. I remember taking on a quill and ink pot as a sort of logo for my art projects.
3. What inspired you to keep writing while collecting rejection letters or struggling with writers block?
CHJ:Actually, I have been quoted on that subject: "Writers live with the perpetual misapprehension that the world needs to hear what we have to say. The truth is, we need to say it."
4. How do you come up with ideas for your writings and why do you feel you choose some over others?
CHJ:Everything I write is based on memory and experience, including what I read. Something just clicks, sometimes long after the event. It's a little voice that says, "That would make a good article (or story)." Actually, it's a little voice that says "You have to write than down whether it will be a good story or not."
5. Are you a daily disciplined writer? Do you find it difficult to stick to your schedule? Do you have certain tricks you use so that you don't stray from your writing?
CHJ: I travel. I go away alone with a note pad. I sit down and write one word. Others follow.
6. How much time do you devote to marketing your book/s and what kind of marketing do you recommend?
CHJ:Way, too much! Marketing can be danger to writing. Still it needs to be done. I like the "FREE" kind, a lesson I learned after a very expensive trial and error period after "This is the Place" was published.
7. How do you prepare for a writing idea for fiction? Do you outline the characters, setting, plot, etc. before you begin to write?
CHJ:I had a wonderful teacher at UCLA, Phyllis Gebauer, who suggested that my characters would tell their own story if I gave them a chance. My characters are always mixes of people I really know, so it is easy to hear them talk and think! So to answer your question, no synopsis or outline. Although I did collaborate on a screen play and we did an outline with index cards. It was amazingly easy that way!
8. How many rewrites do you usually write before submitting to a publisher?
CHJ:Two or more. Then I have a fellow writer who is good at critique/editing read it and I correct again. Trust me, typos and grammatical errors still come out of nowhere on the printed page!
9. Have you had any bad experiences in working with a publisher/agent or failed publication/payment of writings done? If so, how did you handle it?
CHJ:Not really. I think I am a pretty accepting sort.
10. Who are your favorite authors, and why do they inspire you?
CHJ:They change every time I am interviewed. But a modern author who is a favorite is Harper Lee. I also love the classics.
About The Author:
I was born writing and talking-or very nearly. That explains my love of the speaking circuit and of writing everything from poetry to my latest novel.
When I was accepted as a writer for the Olympus High School Thunderbolt in Salt Lake City, I thought of it as my first professional job. In art class I made myself a wallet with an inkpot and quill carefully incised into cowhide, kept scrapbooks of everything I wrote and everything that was published whether it was good bad or indifferent. I dreamed writing and lived writing.
I was the youngest person ever hired as a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune--"A Great Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper." After that my infatuation only became more intense.
Later, in New York, I was an editorial assistant at Good Housekeeping Magazine. I also was a publicity writer for Eleanor Lambert (fashion) in that city. I wrote releases for celebrity designers of the time including Pauline Trigere, Rudy Gernreich and Christian Dior.
Other early writing experience included the Oak Park Press (a weekly in the Chicago area) where I helped institute a Sunday edition and published self-help articles in magazines such as Ingenue and humorous features in magazines like Stereo.
I did the publicity and advertising for my own small chain of retail gift stores and was a a member of the advisory board of Giftbeat, a gift industry newsletter. I served on boards of advisors for industry catalog groups and the California Gift Show, one of the largest in the industry. I also speak at gift shows, a kind of lecture circuit for the gift industry and am contributing editor for Home Décor Buyer.
I enjoy writing for other authors, too. I do a column for Authors' Almanac, edited by Leslie King. It is called Affecting Words and is meant to remind writers of techniques they may have forgotten or just to jolt them into using writing tools they haven't used for awhile. A sample is available by sending an e-mail to: Authors_Almanac.sendfree.com.
I graduated from USC and have done postgraduate work in writing at UCLA's Extension Division. I found the UCLA and San Diego State Writers Conferences extremely valuable. I write a regular freelance fashion column and occasional society pieces for the Pasadena Star News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and movie reviews for The Glendale News-Press.
My proudest achievements are the completion of my first novel, This Is The Place, and my first screenplay, The Killing Ground. A chapter from the novel has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Masters Literary Award and the novel won the Sime-Gen Reviewers' Choice Award in the mainstream category this spring. One of my short stories from my next book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, won the Red Sky Writing Competition and is included in an anthology called Pass Fail.
Since 9/11 headlines have been full of the results of intolerant thinking. 'This is the Place' by Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a novel that explores subtle prejudices. It has been honored by its publisher for exceptional sales, was given the NUW Award of Excellence, and the Sime-Gen Reviewers' Choice Award last spring. It was also voted among the top 10 novels by readers in the Preditor and Editor's Poll. Learn more at
