Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! This week Jeanne McDonald https://authorjeannemcdonald.wordpress.com/ wants us to answer a few questions for you. So I guess I should get right to it J
Describe that moment you first felt like a true author (not just an aspiring one).
Hmmmm, let’s see. I could say the day I received my first contract. Or I could say signing three contracts in the same year. But really, those were just highlight moments for me in this business.
I guess you could say I felt like a true author when people I didn’t know started recognizing my books and talking about them in front of me to a fellow author, who of course introduced them to me immediately.
For me, slaving over a computer, pounding out the words to a story, getting the story contracted, then published out into the world, is all pretty amazing stuff. But I always just feel like that ordinary person who gets up each day, hangs out on facebook a bit, gets the grandchildren off to school, clean house, go to work, sit down and write more stories. Then to have people you’ve never met either come up to you, email you, or facebook you and talk about how much they enjoyed your works, it really puts a twist on this every day woman’s life. I call this time my fifteen minutes of fame J
Hmmmm, let’s see. I could say the day I received my first contract. Or I could say signing three contracts in the same year. But really, those were just highlight moments for me in this business.
I guess you could say I felt like a true author when people I didn’t know started recognizing my books and talking about them in front of me to a fellow author, who of course introduced them to me immediately.
For me, slaving over a computer, pounding out the words to a story, getting the story contracted, then published out into the world, is all pretty amazing stuff. But I always just feel like that ordinary person who gets up each day, hangs out on facebook a bit, gets the grandchildren off to school, clean house, go to work, sit down and write more stories. Then to have people you’ve never met either come up to you, email you, or facebook you and talk about how much they enjoyed your works, it really puts a twist on this every day woman’s life. I call this time my fifteen minutes of fame J
Name three authors who inspire you.
I have so many who inspire me but I will try to pick just three. I will say first would be LaNora Mangano. There are many reasons this lady inspires me, her dedication, her drive, and her ability to get me off my ass. She’s a personal friend and fellow author and for all she’s gone through and how she keeps pushing the mark forward I am always in awe of her.
Second, I would say would be the author who wrote the very first romance novel I ever read, A Warrior’s Heart by Margaret Moore. I fell in love with her warrior’s series and from the first moment I picked up her book and lost an entire afternoon reading it from beginning to end, I was hooked on historical romance. It was Margaret’s style as well as Suzanne Barclay’s that inspired me to write series novels. I read every book either of these two ladies wrote all the while my own novels were brewing in my head J
Third, would have to be Morgan Wyatt. This woman is also a personal friend who is so dedicated to her writing that it is just inspiring. She pushes the mark each and every day and continues producing books in the manner in which I hope to one day do. She gets herself out there both online and in the real world and still finds time to write some amazing novels.
Describe your favorite fan moment (either you as the fan or one of your readers approaching you as a fan).
Of course every author loves to hear someone else talk about their books J I think my very first time will always be something I will remember. I was at a First Friday event and on the table with a collection of the different authors’ books I had placed some of my postcards with my book cover on them. As we were meeting and greeting different people as they walked by, a couple of ladies were walking through, seen my postcards, and stopped. They started talking to an author friend of mine, who said something along the lines of, “This right here is J.J. Devine.”
They went on and on about how much their mother loved The Cheyenne Bride and of course this made me feel fabulous J It was just so cool to have people recognize my cover and even though they hadn’t read it, they knew all about it J I’m hopeful that they went home and picked up a copy J
Of course every author loves to hear someone else talk about their books J I think my very first time will always be something I will remember. I was at a First Friday event and on the table with a collection of the different authors’ books I had placed some of my postcards with my book cover on them. As we were meeting and greeting different people as they walked by, a couple of ladies were walking through, seen my postcards, and stopped. They started talking to an author friend of mine, who said something along the lines of, “This right here is J.J. Devine.”
They went on and on about how much their mother loved The Cheyenne Bride and of course this made me feel fabulous J It was just so cool to have people recognize my cover and even though they hadn’t read it, they knew all about it J I’m hopeful that they went home and picked up a copy J
Well that’s it for me today, let’s hop on over and see what Victoria Barbour has in store for us.
http://victoriabarbour.com/blog
http://victoriabarbour.com/blog