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Writer to Writer Guest Interview
 Spotlight: Stella Cameron
“Stand on your own two feet.”
That’s the advice Stella Cameron gives to anyone starting out on a writing career.
“It’s fun to have friends who are also writing, but they can’t write for you ...”
A best selling author with over twenty-five years experience, Stella Cameron knows what she is talking about when asked about writing. She has enough books out. She gets asked to be a key note speaker at conferences. She is the type of author everyone can strive to be.
However, when this native Brit came to America, she was the mother of three and writing had not yet come into focus on her horizon. She opened a day care center but knew deep down that she wanted to do something else.
“Early on a summer evening, the drapes blew and billowed in a warm breeze through the window behind me. I sat in the bedroom to talk to my husband after he got home from work. I’d stored up what I wanted, kept it to myself. I said ‘I’m going to be a professional writer. That’s what I’ll do for a living’. And with speaking those words aloud, I’d applied the seal. I don’t go back on my word.” 
She has a routine. Starting when it is dark out with her heater on, she turns on her music (jazz, zydeco, light tenor or opera, depending on her mood) and makes her tea and starts the day at her computer. She doesn’t look at world news – a passion of hers. She doesn’t check her e-mail, not until she has several hours of writing under her belt for the day. She has written in the dining room, she has written in the bedroom. And through all this, even after a number of rejections on other novels, proposals and short fiction, she just kept writing.
“There was an unspoken rule [in our family],” she says, “When the door was closed, it wasn’t to be opened unless it was an emergency.”
“I was a winner in the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Contest. Through this I got my first agent and some publisher invitations to submit my work. Eventually this led to my first sale.” She says “I remained stunned throughout because I kept expecting everything to blow up.”
What did she do when a rejection arrived? She wrote. “Music, coffee and the computer were my best friends when the evil dragon Doubt arrives. Writing is like this. It’s up and down, and you only make it if you keep going.”
What advice does she give writers? She has this story to share:
“Yesterday I was at the Northwest Bookfest. At the end of my day I spent time at the RWA booth where our intrepid member/bookseller had been holding down the fort all day. A woman came to drizzle her perfect fingernails through all the materials on the counters. She was looking for information.
“Hi,” Stella said. “It’s a good thing for writers to join RWA.”
“Uh huh,” said my admittedly gorgeous visitor.
“Which of the books, the types, particularly appeal to you?” Stella asked.
“Huh?” the woman said.
“Which romances do you prefer to read?”
“I don’t read them,” (the gum pops) “Heh, heh, I live romance.”
It makes a good story, but it’s not going to get the books written. You have to read if you want to write. “Read, Read, Read,” says Stella. She can’t emphasize that enough. And then, when you’ve read, you sit down at the computer to produce your pages. And if you keep at it and never give up, you might follow in the foot steps of this inspirational author.
You can contact Stella at: www.stellacameron.com
Past Guest Writers
» Suzanne Brockmann
» Stella Cameron
» Denise Domning
» Christine Janssen
» Pauline Jones
» Donna Kauffman
» Kay LeGrand
Body Count Productions and Jacqui Jacoby share many opinions with our guest writers, however all of the opinions found in the interview are not necessarily those of the company or Ms. Jacoby herself.
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