Posts from — August 2008

I’m back to writing and books for this blog post, and I don’t know about you, but there have definitely been times in my life when I would have loved a second chance to make a first impression.

In a sense that’s what happens in Trish Perry’s Beach Dreams, when Tiffany LeBoeuf meets the charming Brit Jeremy Beckett for the second time. Tiffany, once a bit of a selfish diva who wielded her cutting sense of humor at the expense of others, has changed, but her attraction to Jeremy hasn’t, even though he still remembers the old Tiffany. After the death of her mother and the loss of her job, Tiffany seeks rest for her body and soul at a cozy beach house in San Diego. A scheduling mix-up causes a double booking, and Tiffany ends up sharing the house with a woman named Eve. And who is Eve’s boyfriend? Jeremy, of course. He arrives to surprise Eve and settles in at the beach house next door. What happens after that surprises them all.

I’m always curious about a writer’s childhood, because I think that influences the stories we choose to tell–or maybe the stories that choose us. So tll me a little bit about your background and your family.

I’m the middle child; middle girl. I was raised as one of five kids by my British mum and my WWII Air Force vet dad. I lived in Newfoundland (Canada), California, Colorado, and finally Virginia, which I’ve called home for the greater part of my life. I love it here. Most of my family still resides in Virginia, which is a bonus.

My late sister lived a rough lifetime of medical problems, which had a distinct bearing on our family lifestyle and our sensibilities toward the hardships of others. Her eventual death may have been a blessed relief for her, but it was a huge loss for us. The loss is what brought me to the Lord.

Both of my children are believers, which brings me such peace. I have a 29-year-old daughter, who is one of the coolest, smartest, most intuitive women I know. She’s blessed me with a remarkable grandson, now five. And my 16-year-old son is brilliant and funny, and he tells me daily that I’m weird (but I can hear the “I love you” in there when he says it).

So when you were a child, did you want to be a writer when you grew up, or did that dream come later?

I think I probably wanted to be an actor when I was a child. I memorized dialogue, imagined scenes, and studied actresses I admired. But I never went out for Drama in school. I was horribly shy and couldn’t imagine auditioning for anything. Still, I was well served by my obsession with dialogue and the visual exercises of creating scenes in my mind. Sometimes I still come up with my scenes and dialogue by simply visualizing them on screen or acting them out with imaginary characters. I try to keep these antics private, of course. I’d be in big trouble on one of those Big Brother type of reality shows.

I dabbled with writing on and off when I was a kid, but I didn’t feel the great calling I hear other novelists describe. I didn’t get the itch until I went back to school as an adult. I planned to become a psychological counselor, but my English professors kept giving me wonderful feedback on the writing exercises I did for them, and I realized I liked opening up that right hemisphere and pouring out the ideas. By the time I got my B.A., I decided to skip the doctorate program and focus on writing and getting published.

What would you say is the most difficult part of the writing process for you?

Being disciplined enough, especially at the beginning of a project, to just sit here at the computer and do it. I’m always amazed, once I’ve put something up there, how easy it is to make it better. If you have something to work with, you’re halfway there. So I’m trying to be better about the beginning of a project-not to over think it before I start.

What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most?

I love writing dialogue. What a control freak’s dream, to have control over what everyone says, including the antagonist. If only life were that easy, LOL! But truly, sometimes a scene simply shapes itself right before my eyes when the characters are engaged in dialogue. I don’t know quite what will be expressed sometimes, and I love it when it flows even faster than I seem to be able to think it.

Here’s the age-old question. Do you plan things out ahead of time, or do you write where the story takes you? Do your characters surprise you?

I was just talking with my editor about that the other day, the fact that the initial summary I write might change a bit as events unfold around my protagonist. I think that’s happened with every book I’ve written. I typically write a summary, which tells me generally where the story will go, and then I write a sentence or two per chapter idea, and then I start hammering away on Chapter One. As I write actual chapters, the events between “Once upon a time” and “The End” evolve in more significant ways than I expected in the first place. It’s an exciting process!

Everyone who’s written or considered writing a book wants to know how others get published. Tell me about your road to publication.

I didn’t know what kind of writing I wanted to pursue when I first started to write seriously. So I read Writer’s Digest and The Writer magazines and joined the Writer’s Digest Book Club. I bought a ridiculous number of books about writing and poured over them. I took creative writing courses while I worked on my Psych degree-the workshopping alone was excellent training for skin thickening. I joined a local writing organization and hung out with other writers. I started submitting poetry and personal essays to small publications. I experienced plenty of rejection and kept trying. I wrote several short stories and eventually realized I wanted to write a novel. So I read several books about novel writing. And I read a lot of novels! While I worked on my first novel, I continued to submit to smaller pieces, and I started publishing. I joined a small critique group.

The above actions took me years, and I still hadn’t submitted a novel for publication (or rejection). This is a long road, but it’s best to just put one foot in front of the other and not worry about the length of the journey.

I entered writing contests, and one of them led to my finding representation by my fantastic agent, Tamela Hancock Murray. Mind you, this was representation for my second novel. Once Tamela started representing me, it was a matter of months before she got me a two-book contract. The contract did not include my first manuscript-that baby still sits at home and may never see publication. But it was all part of the journey. 

I certainly understand those books that sit at home never to see the light of day. LOL I found out Beach Dreams is actually part of a series begun by author Sally John, who wrote The Beach House and Castles in the Sand. Was it difficult to write a book in a series, following someone else?

It was a new challenge, but Harvest House was clear with me that I had significant leeway in my approach. We didn’t want the book to disappoint Sally John’s readers by being wildly different from her style, but we also wanted to maintain a style my readers had come to expect. I think we accomplished a happy medium.

Thanks so much, Trish!

Trish’s Website and Blog

Beach Dreams on Amazon

Read an excerpt

List of all participating bloggers

Last night my husband and I, along with our daughter and her boyfriend, attended a gallery show at Oso Art in Capitan, NM. This show featured a group of artists, and several of my pieces were included! My first group gallery exhibition. Quite a few people turned out, and it was a lot of fun, with finger foods, drinks of all sorts, and plenty of mingling and visiting. The chosen theme was “Zen,” and the manager had asked to display my polymer clay dragon pieces because she wanted pieces featuring dragons and dragonflies. Inspired, I finished three more pieces in addition to those already at the gallery. Here are pictures of the three latest polymer clay/wire wrap combo pieces that were part of the exhibition.

“Azura” — The stylized Celtic knot dragon that adorns this blue fan with its subtle chatoyant snail designs was originally one of my watercolor paintings. The dragon design was reduced and transferred to a thin sliver of translucent clay, then fused to the fan design.  A blue kyanite briolette dangles from the fan, and the necklace features kyanite ovals and pale blue freshwater pearls.

 ”Freya’s Mask” — This one-of-a-kind Art Nouveau polymer clay pendant  was influenced by some ideas in one of Donna Kato’s polymer clay books. This pendant and necklace features a dragonfly woman I’ve named Freya. Freya was the Nordic goddess of love associated with dragonflies, and this piece has subtle Nordic influences in the wire knotwork of the dragonfly’s body. Above Freya’s face is a faceted amethyst solitaire embedded in a foiled polymer clay bezel. Amethyst, dyed blue aventurine, and tiger eye beads, along with handcrafted twisted brass beads, complete the necklace.

 ”Akitsushima” — Japanese for “Land of the Dragonfly,” or possibly “The Dragonfly Island.” I’m not exactly sure, but both possibilities were mentioned in the research I did on dragonflies in Asian culture. In any case, Akitsushima is supposedly another name for Japan. This golden polymer clay pendant features iridescent green dragonflies against a background of chatoyant snail designs, which are echoed in the coiled wire embellishments. The replica Chinese coin serves as an escutcheon to protect the hole in the polymer clay, where a textured bronze-like polymer clay  bead connects to a handwoven brass wire bail. The woven bail is decorated with small peridot beads and tiger eye beads. The wire-wrapped necklace features tiger eye, etched yellow jade, and carved green jade.

It seems ages since I’ve posted! I’ve been busy getting some polymer clay wire wrap combo pieces done for a gallery show at Oso Arts Gallery in Capitan August 9. The theme is “Zen,” with dragons and dragonflies abounding–right up my alley. Finished the pieces, delivered them with the help of my daughter, so now I will be one of the artists whose work will be featured in the show. Yay!

And so I’ve been falling behind everywhere else, including my email. But today I was reading the July issue of Ann Kullberg’s online magazine (Ann Kullberg is a fabulous colored pencil artist who also has several books published on her technique), and she provided a link to a fun interactive website called The Color Test. Want to have some fun with the struggle between the right and left brain? The first time I took the test I bombed. And then I read the instructions more closely and did better. Ahem. Did I ever mention I don’t always do so well reading instructions? I seem to remember a certain report card in grade school with the teacher’s comment “Doesn’t follow instructions.” LOL Anyway, have some fun with this test. I did! It’s more difficult than you might think.