Author Interview with Julie Compton

Attorney-turned-author Julie Compton is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, the setting for her internationally published debut, TELL NO LIES, a legal thriller that earned a starred review from Kirkus. In 2003, she moved to Florida, and her new home became the setting for her second novel, RESCUING OLIVIA, which Kirkus called "a pleasing hybrid of fairy tale and contemporary thriller" and Publisher's Weekly said was an "intense, entertaining second novel" with a "super-satisfying resolution." Julie lives in Longwood, Florida with her husband and two daughters.

What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us

My second novel, Rescuing Olivia, was just released on February 2 by St. Martin's Minotaur. It's a psychological thriller about a Florida biker who sets out on a journey to find his girlfriend when she mysteriously disappears from the hospital after a suspicious motorcycle accident. Kirkus Reviews described it as a "modern-day fairy tale about a princely Florida lawn guy who must rescue his princess from a clutch of monsters" and "a pleasing hybrid of fairy tale and contemporary thriller," and I thought these descriptions were so perfect. It's a thriller, but it's also the story of a guy who will do anything to save the one he loves from demons both past and present. In the process, he must confront his own past and "save" himself as well. It definitely has a fairy tale quality about it.

If you have any UK readers, Rescuing Olivia will be out across the pond on May 7, 2010.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head. (be as specific as possible)

I've always loved writing, in one form or another. One of my oldest girlfriends told me that she remembers me writing stories when we played together as little girls. Even when I wasn't writing, I remember lying in bed at night and making up stories in my head. It was my way of entertaining myself until I fell asleep. (I confess, I still do this!)

But I didn't really take my writing seriously until I stayed home with my children and joined a writing workshop. It took me about three years to write the first draft of my first novel, Tell No Lies, and then another three or four editing (and that doesn’t include the time spent editing it even more with my editors at the publishing houses). But I didn’t think of myself as a “writer” back when I started my first book; I was just someone who liked to write and was “working on” a novel.

My journey to publication was a long one, as many are, but it's a bit unusual compared to most. After I finished my first novel, I approached many agents, but I did so before the manuscript was really ready – a common rookie's mistake. I knew I was heading in the right direction, though, when I started to get personalized rejections and constructive criticism. At some point I started approaching smaller publishers directly as I continued my search for an agent, and I was eventually offered a contract by a small publisher. I remember screaming, and my kids wondered what was wrong with me! But it gets better. The novel had been released (with a different title) for only a short time when an acquaintance staying at a rental property we owned found a copy left in a drawer, read it, liked it and gave it to someone she knew at Macmillan in the UK. They expressed interest, and fortunately, I was able to get my rights back from the first publisher. Macmillan offered me a two-book contract. (And yes, I screamed again the second time around, probably much louder!) Macmillan went on to publish Tell No Lies in the UK and Australia, and St. Martin's Minotaur published here in the US. It's also been translated to Dutch and Spanish and published in the Netherlands and Spain.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

Absolutely. I suspect the self-doubt will never go away. I think I've become better at recognizing when I've wrote something strong, but this is a strange business. So many things can discourage you if you let them. I try to stay focused on the writing. It's really the only thing over which the writer has control.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

I had an unusual journey to publication, as mentioned above, therefore I didn't have an agent at the time I was offered a contract. I should have stopped right then and there and taken the time to find and hire one. I put pressure on myself to sign right away, for fear if I didn't, they'd withdraw the offer. Of course, looking back, that was silly, but when you're an aspiring writer and you're offered a two-book deal, it feels like a dream and you're afraid you might wake up from it at any time. I did put out a few quick feelers for an agent, but I wanted someone to represent me because they loved my writing, not because they saw a quick buck, and unfortunately, it's hard to discern the difference once you have the contract in hand. I eventually hired a UK lawyer who specialized in UK publishing contracts, but it would have been nice to have had an agent shepherd me through my first experience with publishing. An agent does so much more than getting and negotiating the deal.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Don't give up. That's not to say that you should be stubborn about recognizing when you need to work harder to improve your writing, but whatever you do, if you love writing enough, don't give up.

It's a tough industry; you have to grow a thick skin and believe in yourself when no one else does. Find a mentor who believes in you, also, for those times when you don’t believe in yourself. And don't send anything out until you are absolutely sure it's ready. Just because you finished the first draft doesn't mean it's ready. Moreover, don't trust your friends and family members to tell you when something is ready. Find someone who will give you brutally honest feedback and don't get mad at them when they give it to you. Be willing to learn.

But no matter how many rejections you receive (and you will get rejections), just don't give up. Keep writing, keep revising, keep reading, keep learning.

How do you craft a plot?

It beats me! If someone has the magic answer, I wish they'd share it. Seriously, I'm not much of a plotter. I am what some call an "organic" writer. Usually, when I begin a story, I have no idea what the story will be. I might have a character in my head, or a scene, but that's about it. The story grows as I write, and I have no qualms about taking detours along the way.

Do you begin writing with a synopsis in hand, or do you write as the ideas come to you?

No, no synopsis for me. As I mentioned above, I very rarely know my plot, even loosely, when I begin a novel. Half the time, I don't even realize I'm beginning a novel. Usually I'm just writing a scene that came to me for one reason or another. For Rescuing Olivia, the seed for the story came from a prompt given by the leader in my writing workshop. She asked us to write something about a character being in possession of a box that he or she wasn't supposed to have. I wrote a scene that later became a small but important part of the larger story, though at the time, I didn't know it. I didn't even know the character's name, but he eventually became Anders, my protagonist.

In terms of the larger plot of a guy "rescuing" someone, that began to grow in my head when I driving down the highway listening to a particular song on the radio. The lyrics of the song (and it's so cheesy, I won't even mention its name) sparked some ideas. The domestic violence thread arose, in part, from my volunteer work as a guardian ad litem. It's an issue I've wanted to write about for a while, and this novel only skims the surface. I think it will reappear in future work, though in much different ways.

Finally, the aspect of Anders being a biker arose from my living in Florida for the past six and a half years. Until we moved here, I had always lived in more northern climates. You just don't see so many motorcycles up north the way you do down here. They're everywhere! It seemed right to have my main character – who hadn't completely "grown up" and who felt a bit trapped by life, even if he didn't admit it to himself – ride a motorcycle. (Of course, there's a bit of kid in anyone who rides, I think. Once I began to write him as a biker, I decided to learn how to ride. I took lessons with the idea that it would help the writing, but I became hooked. Needless to say, I now have a bike!)

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

I didn't know much at all about the marketing and promotion side of the business. I didn't realize how vitally important those first few months – weeks, really – are after a novel's release. I started my promotional engines, if you will, long after the starting gun had been fired.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

I can't really think of one in particular. It's a tough business, no doubt, so you simply have to continue to forge ahead despite the set backs you might experience.

How do you think reading the work of others helps you as a writer?

Now that I write regularly, I find that I don't read books in quite the same way that I used to. If I think a book is particularly well-written, I'm constantly analyzing what the author did to determine why I think that, and what makes it different from others that didn't engage me so much. But I think I also learn even from books that I don't believe are well-written. I’m able to notice what I don't like, and take care to avoid similar mistakes in my own writing. Of course, this is easier said than done. J

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

I'm proud not only that I have written two full-length novels, but that I've published both of them. If you had told me fifteen years ago that this would happen, I wouldn't have believed you. At the time, I was lucky if I finished a short story. But I think my favorite piece of writing is an essay I wrote just before Tell No Lies was released in the United States. My release date was shortly before Mother's Day, almost two years to the day after I took my mother to the hospital, where she died a few weeks later. My dad died six months after that. I wrote an essay about how bittersweet it was to finally have my book published but not have my parents alive to see it. That's probably the most heartfelt piece of writing I ever created.

What is your best advice on maintaining a good editor-author relationship?

No whining. Listen to your editor's advice. He or she is usually right, even if you don't want to believe it.

How many drafts do you edit before submitting to your editor?

It's sort of a rolling process. I'm an "edit as I go" writer, so I don't know that I could give a number. But I edit over and over and over, until I'm so sick of the manuscript I can't look at it without my eyes crossing. I do many, many read-throughs of the full manuscript.

We often hear how important it is to write a good query letter to whet the appetite of an editor. What tips can you offer to help other writers pen a good query?

Don't tell the editor or agent how much your Aunt Jane liked your novel. Don't say your novel is going to hit the bestseller list. Don't say you're better than [insert name of any well-known, bestselling author here]. No "Dear Agent" salutations – know the name of the person you're writing and tell him why you think he's the right agent for you (this requires research – do your research). No typos. After all, if you're sloppy in your letter, why should anyone believe you won't be sloppy with your writing? Above all, be professional.

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

I've never considered quitting the act of writing – I will always write because I simply get so much joy from it – but there have been times when I wondered why I was putting myself through everything an author must go through nowadays to sell books. It feels like pushing a boulder up a steep hill. You heave and ho and sweat and grunt, and just when you think you're getting somewhere, the thing starts to roll back on you. Publishers don't market authors like they used to. Writers not must be not only writers, but marketing specialists, publicists, and salespeople. Some do it well, many don't, but I think if you asked confidentially, most would tell you that it's difficult for them. Writers tend to be introverts.

But having said all this, I truly believe all of the marketing hard work is worth it. There's nothing quite like opening my inbox to find a really fabulous email from a reader.

How much marketing/publicity do you do? Any advice in this area?

As much as I reasonably can. It's hard to quantify. For Rescuing Olivia, I have a bit more knowledge about how things work, so I'm approaching the marketing differently than I did for Tell No Lies. With Tell No Lies, I did many of my promotional events spread out over a longer period of time, and that includes book signings, blogging, library talks, conferences, etc. I travelled a lot, and even when I didn't, I felt as if I was working on promo activities more than writing. That can be exhausting and make concentration difficult. For Rescuing Olivia, I did a lot of pre-planning so that most of my events, especially the ones for which I have to travel, are contained in a several month time frame.

Have you received a particularly memorable reader response?

I have received so many wonderful emails from readers, and interestingly enough, some who wrote later developed into close friends. There are two responses that always stick out in my mind, though. The first was from a woman who read Tell No Lies and wrote to tell me that she'd had a lot of trouble forgiving her ex-husband for cheating on her, but after reading the novel, she was better able to understand what might have been happening in his head. The other was in response to the essay mentioned above. The writer read the essay (in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper) while eating her lunch at work, and she wrote to tell me that she was "literally wiping away tears and trying to collect myself enough to work for the rest of the day." It was pretty special to know I moved someone to tears.

Parting words?

If readers want to learn more about my books, they can visit my website at www.julie-compton.com.

Most of all, thank you for offering me this opportunity to tell your readers a little bit about myself and my writing! It's been a lot of fun!

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James Scott Bell ~ The Q Factor

James Scott Bell is the bestselling author, most recently, of the thriller Deceived, which was called "a heart-whamming read" by Publishers Weekly. He's also written two popular books on fiction for Writers Digest Books: Plot & Structure and Revision & Self-Editing.

The Q Factor

When I teach fiction writing at a conference, I usually spend a few minutes talking about something I call the Q Factor. It comes from the character in the James Bond movies, the one who is always giving Bond his gadgets and telling him not to play with them. There is a very important reason this character exists.

Let's cut ahead to the inevitable James Bond ending. Bond has been hung by his ankles over a school of piranha . The bad guy grins and says something like, "Enjoy your swim, Mr. Bond." Then he sets the timer to lower James Bond into the pool of piranha and, of course, leaves. (An interesting existential question is why villains so often leave before their adversaries are dispatched).

As Bond is lowered toward his doom, he manages to get his thumb on one of his cufflinks. The cufflink turns into a small, rotating saw. He uses that saw to cut through the restraints on his hands.

Now he is able to reach into his jacket pocket and pull out a fountain pen. The fountain pen is, in reality, a device that holds a compressed nitrogen charge and shoots a small grappling hook and line across the piranha pond, enabling Bond to cut his leg restraints and swing to safety on the other side of the pool.

Now, if we had been reading along in the story and gotten to this point, and Bond simply produced those items for the first time, we'd all be groaning. How convenient! What a cheat!

But of course, it was all set up by the Q scene. Because we saw these items before, we are perfectly accepting of them when they come out at the right time.

In fiction, the Lead character should reach a point near the end when everything looks lost. This can be something outside or inside the character, or both. But he is, in figurative terms, dangling over a pool of piranha.

What he needs is courage for the final battle, to face the ultimate test. This is where the Q Factor can help. It is something that is set up early in the story which will provide the necessary inspiration or instruction for the character when he needs it most.

Sometimes the Q Factor is an icon of some sort, a physical object. Sometimes it is the memory of a beloved mentor. It may simply be the character digging down into his moral reservoir. Whatever it may be, it is the storyteller's job is to give it life on the page.

Here is an example. In the great Frank Capra movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the naïve young senator played by James Stewart arrives in Washington D.C. for the first time. He is mesmerized by the city which represents everything he loves about America. So he slips away from his handlers and goes on a sightseeing tour, which is rendered in a wonderful montage. The montage ends at the Lincoln Memorial. Here, young Jefferson Smith is deeply moved by what he sees. He reads the words inscribed on the wall. He sees a young boy holding his grandfather's hand, trying to say the words aloud. He observes an African-American gentleman removing his hat. And then Smith looks back up at the face of Lincoln.

We now have a very emotional object embedded in our minds.

At the end of Act 2, Mr. Smith knows he is a political puppet of a corrupt machine, and has no way of fighting back. He has even been betrayed by the senior senator, who had been a good friend of his own father. Smith takes this as the final knife in his back and decides to leave town.

It's nighttime, and he is passing the Lincoln Memorial, but this time defeated and downcast. He sits heavily on the steps.

Along comes the political operative played by Jean Arthur. Originally she thought of Smith as a dumb oaf too, but she has come to respect his integrity in this sea of cynicism. She says, "I thought I'd find you here." And then she says, "Remember the day you got here? Remember what you said about Mr. Lincoln? You said he was sitting up there waiting for someone to come along. You were right. He was waiting for man who could see his job and sail into it, that's what he was waiting for. A man who could tear into the Taylors and root 'em out into the open. I think he was waiting for you, Jeff. He knows you can do that, and so do I."

Smith gets inspired and as they walk away he pauses to wave at Lincoln.

Now, when Mr. Smith undertakes impossible task of a single-man filibuster, we understand and accept how he could do that. That's the Q Factor.

Another example. When Luke Skywalker is engaged in a final battle in Star Wars, he hears the voice of Obi-Wan, telling him to remember to use the Force. Inspiration.

In a lot of old movies, you'll have the Lead character reaching the dark point, and hearing, in echoing tones, the voice of something his father or mother told him a long time ago. A moral sentiment that inspires the Lead once more.

Sometimes, the Q Factor can be a negative emotion. In High Noon, the classic western starring Gary Cooper as Will Kane, Kane finds himself as one man against four killers. The townspeople have all come up with excuses not to help him. He knows he will probably die. And the real bummer is that he has just married Grace Kelly!

There comes a point just before the climax when Kane is considering getting a horse and riding out of town. He will get together with his wife again and go somewhere and try to live without being found. He's in a livery stable, considering this.

Enter the character of Harvey, played by Lloyd Bridges. Harvey is a coward, and hates being in the shadow of the great Will Kane. He sees Kane and knows that if he can get him to ride out of town, in effect showing the town that Kane is really a coward after all, then he, Harvey, will look good in comparison.

As Harvey tries to get Kane to do this, Kane realizes that if he does go, he will in fact be no better than Harvey. And that's when he makes the decision to stay. Harvey, who was introduced early in the film, is the negative Q Factor for Kane's decision.

Think of it this way. So many stories are about the overcoming of fear. The fear manifests itself most when all the forces are marshaled against the Lead. Fear and common sense tell her to give up, run away.

She knows she can't. So give her a Q Factor, an emotional element that comes in when she needs it. To do that:

1. Select what the element will be (item, mentor, moral sentiment, negative character, etc.)

2. Write a scene early in the narrative that anchors this element emotionally to the Lead.

3. Refer to the Q Factor once in the middle section, as a reminder.
You should do this subtly, almost as a throwaway.

4. Find a trigger point in the Lead's darkest hour where the Q Factor can be reintroduced.

5. Show the Lead taking new action based on the Q Factor. If you've embedded the Q well enough up front, the readers will pick up what's happening without you having to explain it to them. Just let it happen naturally.

The Q Factor is just another tool to add to your technique box. I like collecting these and having them at the read. I hope you do, too.

She thinks she knows who she is and what she wants, but when the web gets terribly tangled, is her game of deception a clever lie or a deadly trap?

Two bodies in an isolated canyon on the edge of L.A. One with saddlebags filled with diamonds.

That's how it begins for Liz Towne, a stunning blonde with a devout husband who has given up a prime job for reasons Liz cannot understand—for "Mac" MacDonald, a Gulf War vet who's done time in prison and is just now finding his way back to normal life—and for Roxanne "Rocky" Towne, Liz's sister-in-law, who suspects things she cannot prove. All three are thrown together after a tragedy in Pack Canyon.

After finding the stolen diamonds, Liz is faced with an escalating set of choices: Truth or lies? Stop or keep moving? All in or played out?

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Portal to another dimension?

Brandt Dodson was born and raised in Indianapolis and comes from a line of police officers spanning several generations. A writer and a board–certified podiatrist specializing in peripheral nerve surgery, Dr. Dodson, his wife, and their two sons live in Newburgh, Indiana, where he serves as an elder at the First Christian Church. Daniel's Den is his latest novel.

This past weekend I had my first signing for my newly released novel, Daniel’s Den. It was a local signing so I expected turnout to be good. It was. I signed for two and a half hours and had very little downtime. Dozens of books were moved and I got a chance to meet old friends and many new readers.

This, I thought, is what it’s all about.

Wrong.

During one of the few lulls of the afternoon, a very pleasant lady approached my table. I had noticed her earlier, buzzing about, eyes locked on me as she pretended to peruse the many overstocked shelves, so is was no surprise when she finally approached the table behind which I stood. This is not all that uncommon at a book signing as many people are either too shy or too reticent to approach an author.

She asked me how I got published. This is also a rather common question to hear during a book signing, or other author venue, and so I told her my own story and then proceeded to give her advice on how to break in. (Write the best book you can.)
She listened intently then asked me the mother of all questions; a question that no reader has ever asked.

“Do you believe that Evansville (Indiana – the location of the book signing) is a portal to another dimension?”

Unsure if I had heard her correctly, I asked her to repeat the question.

She did, confirming that my hearing was intact.

“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.”

She lowered her voice, leaned across the table and said, “Oh, I do. I think the muse is up there and just beams ideas into our minds.”

After a few more minutes of conversation – in which she told one reader to leave because I was talking to her – she smiled and moved on. When I told my wife about this later that evening, she asked if I wanted to watch “Misery”, the movie starring James Caan and based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. (If you’re a writer, you need to watch it. But read the book, too.)

But as bizarre as the lady’s question may seem, I had to ask myself, “Is Evansville the portal to another dimension?”

Absolutely! In a literary sense, that is.

Our writing – and I’m talking novels, now – should transport our readers to places and times they could not obtain on their own. We should take them to the rain-soaked, wind-swept cliffs of a Gothic romance, to the bowels of the jungle in a military thriller, or to an old man’s cabin by the sea, as Hemingway did in his award-winning classic.

The best novels I’ve read – and I dare say, that you’ve read – are those that take us out of our world and into another. That gives us the chance to live vicariously through characters that are as palpably real as those who share our lives; novels that show us a side of life – or of ourselves - we’ve never seen.

As a writer, that’s the challenge; the brass ring for any novelist.

It’s not about meeting old friends or new readers at a book signing. It’s about the craft. It’s about the writing.

Is Evansville the portal to another dimension?

You bet. And so is the town in which you live, if you’ll settle down, put words to paper, and make it so.

Win a copy of Daniel's Den by leaving a comment on this post. Winner will be chosen and announced on Tuesday.

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