|
: : Past Guests : : Guest Writer's Recommended Writing Books : :
: : Guest Writer's Favorite Quotes : : Jacqui's Recommended Writing Books : :
Writer to Writer Guest Interview
 Spotlight: Kay LeGrand
“In the fourth grade our teacher, Mrs. Shafer had a standing assignment. She had a basket on her desk, and every week each of us was required to turn in one one-page story we had made up. It could be about anything. Most of the kids could barely fill their page. But I filled the basket ....” And so, Kay LeGrand’s career was born.
And it’s a road she has traveled with the best of them, with up and downs, rejections and acceptance. She made a path for herself when other doors were closed, establishing herself as an e-published romance writer.
“I’m very proud to be e-published. There is a lot of negativity about this going around. Some people look down on us, and sadly RWA refuses to recognize our efforts. But I really believe e-publishing is the wave of the future, and I know for a fact that so many people get chances there that they can’t get in the print publishing world.”
“The e-publishers are willing to take on new and unknown names, and books that are too ‘different’ for New York. There’s a lot of exciting new work out there, and after a couple of bad false starts, I think the public is becoming aware of it. I think once the price of e-book readers comes down a little more, it’s really going to catch on like wildfire.”
That doesn’t mean it was always easy. The worst rejection she ever received? “It’s the form letter every writer has gotten – ‘I’m sorry, this is not right for us at this time. Good luck placing your work elsewhere.’ I got so many of those, and they just drove me crazy. It’s bad enough to be rejected time and time again, but couldn’t they take half a second to give some clue what the problem is?”
But, as in all writers who realize rejection is just part of the business, she picked herself up and kept on going. “In any moment of joy or crisis, I can be counted upon to buy shoes. That always helps.”
“I have so many ideas that sometimes I start to dither about which one to work on next. I just have to sit myself down at the computer and decide I’m going to finish one before I start on the next. I also have a tendency to shove one aside if it gets ‘difficult.’ I have one right now, a ghost-story gothic that I really love that’s an absolute mess of 459 pages. Wading through it to decide what to throw out and how to organize it is a task I dread, but I’m really determined to do it because it’s a dynamite story.”
Her records, of course, help. And I don’t mean statistics. Says Kay “I have a collection of something like 5,000 RPM records – mostly Viet Nam era rock & roll. It seems that every book has one of these records associated with it. I usually tape it onto cassette so I can play it whenever the story starts to sag. Otherwise, my routine is just to sit down and write. I’m a big believer in the Book In A Week method, and find that my best stuff comes when I’m not planning, but just typing.”
She tells newbies: “Don’t give up. I know that’s easier said than done. I gave up about a hundred times. But then I always started writing again, and eventually I would try to publish again. I got my first rejection in about 1975, and didn’t sell a thing until 2001.”
See ... it can be done!!
Kay LeGrand can be reached at: www.geocities.com/kaylegrand
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.
|
