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Writer to Writer Guest Interview
 Spotlight: Denise Domning
“If you’re driven to write, write”, says Denise Domning when asked what she would tell a newbie just starting out. “It’s an obsession, but more than that, the more you write the better you get at writing.”
But how many books did she write before that first sale? “Um,” she answers. “One,” she says, “the one I sold.” She quickly adds, “Okay, one book and a practice contemporary romance that my mother made me write to teach me plotting.”
Some people might let this kind of instant success go straight to their heads. But not Denise. She is still kind, still easy to talk to when you meet her at conferences. She treats the ‘newbie’ with the same respect she treats the established author.
All these years later, she now says, AI did send that practice book to Harlequin--got back a postcard that said, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’--and to an agent who replied with, ‘I love your style, now write me something I can sell.’”
“At the time I wasn’t very serious about writing, being the full time mother of an autistic son, and tossed the agent’s letter, Harlequin’s postcard and the manuscript--which I subsequently threw into the garbage--into a drawer. I did, however send the manuscript for the book that became Winter’s Heat to that [same] agent and she subsequently sold it to the second house who looked at it.”
As to how she writes her books, she says “I absolutely loved Shakespeare in Love. It wasn’t the story that captivated me, although it was cute, but the way Shakespeare rolled his quill between his palms and spit over his shoulder before he began his writing day. I believe all writers have a ‘magical’ ritual they do as they try to make certain the coming day will be a productive one. My particular ritual has to do with playing computer games until I feel myself sinking into an altered state. Someone told me that this is a sort of self-hypnosis. Whatever it is, if I don’t reach it, I don’t write nearly as well that day.”
Do you keep a kind of schedule for writing, I asked. “I have an office,” she says, “and I do keep regular writing hours. I do a regular eight hour day which swells to an eighteen hour day (or more) when the deadline looms.”
But it’s not all work for Denise. She recognizes the importance of family and fun. “Personally, I’m a stay at home mom, working part time (in writing) with an office that is right off the living room with no door.”
And for the fun part? “I have done a lot of sewing ... but at the moment, I’m making lamps and lamp shades for fun and, hopefully, profit. I’m painting, collaging and beading.”
“In my life I’ve been a seamstress, a tarot reader, a house cleaner, a secretary, an escrow manager, a property manager (several times), a bookkeeper, an entrepreneur (I was the CEO of the company making the electrical lock my husband and I invented), but always behind them B a writer.”
“If you feel you’re not progressing the way you should,” she says, “seek out ways to get feedback--contests, critique groups, editors--and listen to what they have to say, no matter how painful. Then, listen to yourself and sort out that feedback into what YOU feel you can use while discarding the rest--at least for now.”
You can contact Denise at: www.denisedomning.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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