Naughty Nikki
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INTERVIEW WITH AWARD WINNING CHARLENE TEGLIA
We will be interviewing Charli in August to celebrate her latest releases. Charli is quite a talent and her writing has garnered many awards.
Charli is one of my new favorite authors and people. You don't want to miss this chance to get to know her, or the characters in her mind.
So, post your questions for Charli and learn what goes on in her daily life, or as much as she'll confess to.
www.charleneteglia.com
Last edited by Naughty Nikki, 8/20/2007, 4:06 pm
--- Naughty Nikki Duncan
The sensuous side of suspense and magic.
www.nikkiduncan.com |
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7/5/2007, 1:27 pm
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Naughty Nikki
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Re: INTERVIEW WITH AWARD WINNING CHARLENE TEGLIA
The Realm You’ve said the trick to being a productive writer is to use the time you have. Use a timer and set it for 15 minutes if that’s what it takes. How long did you writer before you found this secret and were able to make it work for you? Have you found any other tips for time management?
Charli I learned to write with the timer after I had my first daughter. I knew my days of having hours and hours to sink into a story were gone and if I was going to keep writing, I needed to learn some new techniques. Since I started writing daily at age 12, I wrote for a looonnnggg time before I made the timer my new BFF. It was hard to change, but worth it.
Other tips for time management: do it now. Whatever it is. If you have an email to answer, do it now instead of saving it for later (unless it requires research or whatever). Efficiency experts say “handle a thing once”. If somebody asks you for a bookplate, get it ready to send out on the next trip to the post office. If you get an email about an important date, calendar it. Don’t tell yourself you’ll remember to come back and deal with these things later. As much as possible, handle a thing once and do it now. And then delete the email or throw away the envelope or whatever. Complete the task, toss the rubble, move on.
The Ream You wrote for 8 years before your first novel sale. How did you keep going all that time? How did your family handle it? Did they ever give you well-meaning advice that you should just give it up?
Charli I actually started writing daily at age 12, but it took 8 years to make my first novel sale after writing my first novel (Catalyst). During junior high and high school I had a short story published, placed in a national essay contest, wrote for the school paper, took creative writing classes and produced masses of stuff. In my 20s I sold greeting cards to Oatmeal Studios, had more short stories and poems published in small periodicals, and then got hired into software and technology for my writing skills. At one point, if you emailed HP about a particular printer, the email response was probably written by me. I wrote and wrote and a lot of those words showed up in installation instructions, in an employee manual, in the repair manual used by printer techs. So I was a pro with the pen long before I sold a novel. That just made me a novelist. *g*
I don’t think anybody’s ever suggested I quit. I was, however, strongly encouraged to have an alternate career plan by my parents when I announced my intention at 12. (I think the exact words were, “If you’re going to be a writer, you’d better have some way to make a living.”) I’m not sure my parents ever realized how many jobs there are for writers until I started doing some of them, how useful and employable a skill it is. Very few writers have the stature or income of Stephen King, but you can make a living with the pen if you’re determined and flexible.
The Realm You’ve sold more than 15 books. Which was the hardest for you to write? Which was the most fun?
Charli The hardest? Hands down, Miss Lonely Hearts. What a beast, but I nailed that sucker in the end. *maniacal laughter* The most fun? I think maybe Earth Girls Aren’t Easy.
The Realm Your recent release WILD, WILD WEST has received great feedback and reviews. Where did you get the idea of tying the three stories about six friends and one night of fun together the way you did in a single book?
The idea of a new Montana vs. old Montana romance had been kicking around for a while. Originally it had two cowboys, one the best friend of the hero. When I took another look at it, I realized that if I added another cowboy and fleshed out the setting of Lemon Espresso with two more women, I had the perfect setup for a linked three novella anthology. So I proposed it that way and voila, an idea that had been laying around in my files got a new spin and became my first sale to St. Martin’s Press.
The Realm Obviously between your little ones and writing you stay quite busy. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process?
Charli Juggling kids and books makes life very busy, yes. My writing process is basically the result of years and years of habit. I made a habit of writing. You do that long enough and all the other little habits get built in. The habit of correct word usage, all the rules that make writing readable. Voice develops. I learned to trust my story instincts, to follow my voice, and every time I was sure that I’d never get away with it, that “you can’t DO that in a romance”, I’d just tell myself I’d deal with it in edits. It really is better to go too far than to not go far enough. You can tone a scene down, soften action or dialog with a few easy tweaks, but it’s pretty hard to fix a timid story.
Process beyond habit? I get an idea. I write it down. I might write a scene or two. Then I put it away for a while. When I come back, I might write a bit more before I develop a synopsis, do whatever research it needs. At that point, the story is ready to be written and the actual writing is a fairly painless process. I write. When I feel like something is wandering off or drowning in backstory I cut and keep going. When I feel the story is going soft, I look for my antagonist. And so on, until the end. I generally rewrite the first act after I finish it, then again after I finish the second act, and again when I write the third act. I follow a basic three-act structure and I always have to go back and add layers or tweak things because the story develops as I write. I’ll find out the character’s motivation isn’t quite what I thought at first, or the arc needs to be brought out more clearly.
The Realm EARTH GIRLS AREN”T EASY is your latest release. Can you tell us a little about that? What’s it like for you to write such a broad range of stories?
Charli What’s it like to write a range of stories? Fun! Seriously, a change of pace is as good as a vacation. Earth Girls Aren’t Easy is a very fun, campy space opera romance about a telepathic alien in search of his mate. Who, as it turns out, doesn’t believe in aliens or telepathy or that a stranger could be her true love.
The Realm So far in your career, what has been your highest point? Can you also tell us about your lowest point and how you moved past it?
Charli I think my highest point so far has been seeing Wild Wild West on the cover of Complete Woman and seeing it listed under “hot books” on the Rhapsody bookclub’s website (where it is for sale in hardcover, squee!). Winning the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award in 05 was pretty high, too. It’s a series of highs, which makes up for the lows, which tend to hit around the time I’m doing edits. Editing is a very difficult thing to do because you have to think creatively and analytically at the same time. Not easy. I generally separate those activities, write, and then fix things, and keep writing. But I don’t try to do both together. In editing, you have to do both together. Argh. Pass the chocolate, please.
The Realm We all write stories for a reason. What do you hope your readers will take away from your stories?
Charli Well, I hope they’ll be entertained and amused and that the story gives them a little mental vacation so that they can go on with the business of life feeling recharged. I also have noticed that all of my stories tend to deal with self-actualization, which I hope leaves a sneaky subliminal urge to go forth and self-actualize, become more fully and truly themselves. And of course I hope readers come away from my stories with a warm happy glow and a strong desire to read more books by me. *g*
The Realm What’s in store for you next? What stories do we have to look forward to?
Charli Ellora’s Cavemen Seasons of Seduction will be in print and in ebook Sept. 21, and contains I Was An Alien’s Love Slave, the companion to Earth Girls, although both stand alone. Miss Lonely Hearts releases from Samhain Oct. 30, the story of a man who lays a trap for a con artist and gets a bride from the classifieds instead. Night Rhythm will re-release from Samhain in spring 2008 in an expanded version.
My next St. Martin’s book coming in Feb. 08 is Satisfaction Guaranteed, the story of three Seattle women in search of, well, satisfaction. They all find what they’re looking for plus plenty of surprises and of course happy endings. Wicked Hot, St. Martin’s Aug. 08, is the story of a succubus sent to tempt the incorruptible male who is waging war on demons and has the power to end her afterlife forever.
The Realm Last question, can you share with us the hardest thing you had to learn about writing and being published? Craft or business related.
Charli Heh. How to write a synopsis and proposal. How to write a good blurb. These are skills that I think just take a lot of practice and a lot of learning to get good at. I’m proof that if you work at it you *can* get better.
To learn more about Charli and her books visit her at www.charleneteglia.com.
--- Naughty Nikki Duncan
The sensuous side of suspense and magic.
www.nikkiduncan.com |
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8/20/2007, 4:05 pm
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