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Writer to Writer Guest Interview
 Spotlight: Pauline Jones
“Reject rejection.” That is the advice from author Pauline Jones. “If you believe in what you write, then don't let anyone stop you. If New York says no to you, find a way around, through, over or another way in.” This New Orleans resident has been writing since she was twelve. “I remember I used to rewrite the endings of stories I didn't like or continue on with ones that I really did like, but I didn't consider writing to sell until I had been married for a few years.”
Now, a working mom, she has found a format to her writing schedule. She sets priorities, putting family first, followed closely by her writing. Then she says “the writing goes better ... I don't set page limits, because I immediately don't meet them.”
“When I first started writing, my kids were small so I wrote in the evening, between eight and midnight. When my kids started school, I had to adjust to writing in the mornings. Now that the last son is getting ready to leave, I found I have shifted my prime writing time to the middle of the day.”
Right after she finishes playing solitaire. She lists it as one of her main obstacles to overcome in getting her work done. “I delete it from my computer by it's too easy to put back.”
So she gives herself a little ... just enough to get herself going.
“I have a routine of sorts. I read my email, play some Solitaire, drink either Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Vanilla Coke, maybe do some promotion-anything to avoid the actual moment of getting to work. Then, after circling like a buzzard, I finally attack–usually just before lunch.” With her latest book, Missing You now out, it's a system that seems to be working.
Contests? “I did enter some contests not long after I wrote Pig in the Park. It was actually a RWA Golden Heart Finalist.” But she felt they didn't really help. “I found that one judge would love my book, while the other would hate it. Almost invariably, it would go to a third judge who would weigh somewhere in the middle ....”
“I did enter some screen writing contests and won one of those, which was nice. That script was optioned ....” But as for “the call” for her first book? Never happened. She got “the e-mail” instead. And that was only after suffering through “enough rejections to wallpaper her office ...” “I'd written three books. My first contract was for my first book and I quickly contracted the other two, which was nice.”
But rejection is a part of the business every writer must face and every writer has their way of dealing with it. Pauline admits she would “definitely go into a lick my wounds mode. But then my stubbornness rises again and I vow to press forward.”
 Stubbornness has gotten more then one writer onto a shelf. Stubbornness and the ability to believe in oneself. Says Pauline “No one is going to get you there but yourself.”
Wise advice from someone who has traveled the road. Missing You: Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Nominee for Best Small Press Romance!!!! In this last book in the Lonesome Lawmen series, Denver Homicide detective Luke Kirby tries to help a beautiful, mysterious woman remember her past before killers wipe out her future.
You can contact Pauline at: www.paulinebjones.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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