Author Interview ~ Carolyne Aarsen

Since selling her first book in 1997, Carolyne Aarsen has published numerous mass market titles with Steeple Hill and has more coming. Her stories reflect a love of God, family, and rural life. When not writing, she enjoys knitting, scrapbooking, and eating chocolate (who doesn't?). She lives in Alberta, Canada, with her husband and children.







What new book or project would you like to tell us about?

I’m very excited about my book coming out this month, The Only Best Place. This is my first Women’s fiction book and my editor, Anne Goldsmith, and all the other people at Warner Faith have done a fantastic job with it.





Tell us about your publishing journey. How long had you been writing before you got a contract? How did you find out and what went through your mind?

I started my writing journey with reading, like most writers do. As a child, I remember leaving the library clutching my own box of books and reading in the car on the way home. As I got older and I started making mental changes to the stories I read, I wondered if I could do this myself. Seemed a strange thought for someone living in Northern Alberta, Canada, so far from New York where all things publishing seemed to come from, so I put the idea aside while I got married and raised children.

One day when my youngest was five, an ad for a writing correspondence course caught my eye. One of the assignments for this course gave me my first writing job, a weekly humor column for a number of Northern Alberta newspapers which paid for my second writing course, a romance writing course which helped me craft my first book, Homecoming, which I worked on for five years. Deep breath.

This book went through many transformations and rejections while I wrote my second book. Then, one life-changing day while I was feeling sorry for myself because I had bruised my ribs the day before, the phone rang and I shuffled over to answer. When I heard the sweet voice of Anne Canadeo offering to buy Homecoming, I had to sit down. My hands shook, my voice shook, and when I hung up, the whole house shook as I celebrated. I still smile remembering that phone call.

Do you still have self-doubts about your writing?

Self-doubt is my constant companion. She sits beside me telling me that whatever I’m writing is a waste of time and my editor is going to drop her head on her keyboard in frustration when she gets my latest book.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Usually about the middle of every book I’m writing. That’s when Self-doubt shows up for coffee. I indulge her a little as I imagine minus 30 weather and blowing snow and I’m hunched over my steering wheel, freezing, peering out of a single peephole in the windshield of my car so I can get to my job, bagging groceries at the local IGA. Then I get back to work.

What mistakes did you make while seeking a publisher or agent?

Letting one publisher hold onto a story for eighteen months that I sold later on to another house. I should have sent that baby out to every single publisher out there, all at once.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

Get Karen Solem as an agent. She has done wonders for me.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

I’ve been trying to think about this one – I’ve gotten bad bits and pieces along the way, but overall, I tend to filter advice through my own experiences and through my husband who has been self-employed for most of our married life.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

That I don’t get to lay on a chaise lounge, sipping hot chocolate and dictating my book as it comes effortlessly to me while I flip my feather boa around. I actually have to work. Myself. Every day.

What do you wish you’d known early in your career that might have saved you some time and/or frustration in writing? In publishing?

There is no right or wrong way to write a book. And each book might require a different ‘method’.

Was there ever a difficult set back that you went through in your writing career?

I have a royalty cheque hanging on my wall for a grand total of $3.60. It’s a reminder to me of my ‘dark’ period when I was toying with the IGA job. I wasn’t coming up with saleable ideas and even though I’d sold about six books, I was getting a lot of rejections on proposals I was submitting. I took some time off and did some sewing and reading, prayed for direction and slowly got things back on track.

What are a few of your favorite books?

“The Moonflower Vine” by Jetta Carleton, “Lake Wobegon Days” by Garrison Keillor, “The Bible” you know the author, “I Don’t Know How She Does It” by Allison Pearson, “Wishful Thinking” by Frederick Buechner, “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver, “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, “Range of Motion” by Elizabeth Berg and so many more.

What work have you done that you’re especially proud of and why?

Actually, The Only Best Place. My agent challenged me to write a mom-lit/women’s fiction type book. I toyed with it awhile, struggling to find the story and the best way to tell it. The book was a challenge and a frustration and I poured a lot of myself into it. Having Warner buy it was my second most exciting day as an author.

Can you give us a look into a typical day for you?

Every morning my husband and I have breakfast, I do my devotions, exercises, then the minimum of housework I can get away with. In the wintertime I go outside every morning except Sunday and feed our cows and then get myself in front of my computer by 9:00. I write, get stuck, get up and stick my head in the pantry, sigh because I try not to put any good stuff in the pantry, then get back to the computer. Repeat previous sentence throughout the day and quit by 5:00. Sometimes I’ll have lunch on the couch and have a nap if I’m feeling on top of the writing. I only work on Saturdays from November to March when my husband works his crazy 6 day, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. workdays.

Do you have a word or page goal you set for each day?

I try to write between 5 – 7 pages a day when I’m on writing mode. I always take time off between books and over the holidays.

Are you an SOTP (seat of the pants) writer or a plotter?

I have to plot because I’m the kind of person who can’t focus on one thing . . . oh look, a bird . . . at a time. Consequently, I get distracted from my original goals and will head down any rabbit trail that might possibly, perhaps look WAY more interesting than the original story idea. An outline helps me stay focused and organized.

What author do you especially admire and why?

Elizabeth Berg because she has such a way of wrapping honest emotions in words that make you look at things in a new and fresh way.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

My favourite part is that I can work in a stained t-shirt and sloppy pants (now there’s a lovely visual) and not have to try to start my car when it’s minus 30. My least favourite is that I’m my own boss and my own employee. I have to motivate myself to do the work and, as I said before, I get distracted very easily.

How much marketing do you do? What's your favorite part of marketing?

To my surprise, I discovered that I enjoy doing the web-based stuff once I got a few things figured out. I have a web-site that I now maintain myself and a blog that I’m learning to play around with. For The Only Best Place I took out an ad in RWR and Romance Sells which is the most marketing I’ve done for any of my books. I live too far away from any major center to spend much time on speaking or book-signings so I focus on the things I can do from my home.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

Read a variety of books, fiction and non-fiction. Yes, if you’re targeting a specific line for a specific publisher, read the kind of books they publish so you are aware of the tone and flavor of the line or genre. But you won’t find what editors are looking for in the future by ONLY reading what they’ve bought in the past.

Thanks for this opportunity!