Lucynda Storey-Erotic Romance Writer

Today I’m posting an interview with author Kelley Heckart.  Kelley is a true western author having lived in the real west a good part of her life.  Kelley presents a picture of her writing life.  You’ll note it is a little different from some of the other interviews I’ve posted.   Some of you may despair that you can’t possibly do everything everyone else is doing AND be prolific, professional and proficient.

Don’t stress on it.  Everyone finds their own way through the writing maze to publication.  Some of the journeys are remarkably similar while others seem as if they can be in no way related to what you are going through.  But, within each interview you just may find a golden nugget that helps you across the next hurdle in your path.

These interviews are to show readers that there are many different avenues to a successful career as a fiction author!  Someday, maybe you’ll be interviewed here!

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Hi Lucynda,

Thanks for interviewing me. I was born in Wyoming, but have lived all over the U.S. and now call Arizona my home. My writing name is Kelley Heckart.

1.) How long have you been seriously writing?

I have been serious about my writing for about eight years.

2.) How many hours a day do you spend working on your stories?

I usually spend eight hours a day working on writing, but most of it seems to be promotional stuff and not actual writing.

3.) What is your self-editing process?

I usually go through at least five drafts of a manuscript before I decide it’s ready. Then do searches on common overused words and on words I feel I might have overused. The main searches I do are on ‘was’ and ‘were’ and try to eliminate some of these to make the story more showing rather than telling. I have a list of things I look at-checking for compelling openings, strong verbs, use of five senses, showing vs. telling, unnecessary words, varied sentence structure and expanded moments.

4.) What happened when you found out your first story was being contracted?

I was really excited that someone thought my book was worthy of publication.

5.) What was the best piece of advice you were given in regards to your writing?

Someone pointed out that a good way to find telling/passive sentences is to search for ‘was’ and ‘were.’ That was very helpful advice for me.

6.) Are you a plotter or a pantser?  Why?

I tried to be a plotter, but the stories always ended up changing so I kind of do a little of both. Before I start a book I have a general idea of the story and I write up character sheets on my main characters. This helps me decide which direction the story can go.

7.) What author would you like to be most like?

Nora Roberts. She has a knack for writing a lot of books in a short period of time. I write slow and wish I could be faster.

8.)  What’s your favorite genre to write in? Why?

I write Celtic historical/fantasy romances because that is what inspires me and where I have the most knowledge.

How do you avoid interruptions?

My problem isn’t avoiding interruptions–it’s staying motivated. Music always helps me to stay motivated. I listen to anything from Icelandic metal to Celtic music.

9.) What organizations are you a part of and how have they helped you?

I belong to EPIC and they have some helpful advice for ebook authors, but I find some of the Yahoo groups to be really helpful with marketing, writing tips and the epub business.

10.) What have you found to be your most effective form of marketing?

I do so many different types of online marketing that I’m not sure what is working the best. I am finding out that Facebook seems to be working better for me than myspace. I write for some different blogs that I think are good marketing tools. I twitter and I’m not sure if that is working or not. I have my own website and I do see that on days when I send out promos to Yahoo groups I get a lot of traffic. I recently decided to add a new monthly feature to my blog to try to revive it called Long Hair Hotties. This new feature is drawing more traffic to my blog. While promoting is necessary, I think the key is to not over promote because that can turn people off.

11.) If you could do one thing different in regards to your writing career, what would it be?

At this point I don’t think I would do anything different. I am happy with my publishers and where I am right now as a writer. I am toying with the idea of leaning more toward fantasy with fewer romantic elements, but I’m sure about this yet.

12.) What is one problematic area you have with your writing and how do you fix it?

I have a bad habit of overusing certain words and they change for each story. After the fourth draft I start noticing this and I will do a search on the offenders and change some of them to a different word. I can’t imagine what writers did before computers. I guess they had fewer bad habits.

13.) Do you have critique partners or beta readers? Why?

I have a critique group, but not a critique partner or beta reader. I wish I did. It would probably make my life a lot easier.

14.) Were you always a writer?  What did you do before you started earning money as an author?  Do you still do this?

I wrote songs/lyrics before I decided to tackle short stories and then novels. I worked in accounting and now I work part of the year during tax season doing e filing.

15.) What would your ideal day be like?

If this is a writing question then I wish I could crank out a novel in one day. But if this is a general question then my ideal day would be spent on a remote island in some warm place just enjoying the view and some hot sex (I hope I can say that. LOL)

16.) Who has given you the most support along this creative path?

My husband totally supports what I do. I think because he is a musician so we share that creative link. The rest of my family is supportive too.

17.) What piece of advice would You give to aspiring writers?

Learn the craft of writing and write from your heart.

18.) What do you do to refill your creative well?

I read either fiction or non-fiction related to my genre to find inspiration.

19.)What place would you love to vacation in if money, politics, and health were not an issue?

I would love to go to the Greek islands, Britain, Ireland and Scotland. Oh, and Alaska would be cool to see.

20.) Who do you model your heroes after?

My heroes are always tall and have long hair. I think some of them are modeled after my husband, but sometimes I look to celebrities for inspiration. I saw this picture of an unknown male model in a magazine and cut his picture out for inspiration.

21.) Do you have any tricks for keeping your heroes separate from one another or for remembering their attributes in your stories?

I keep character charts on all my main characters otherwise I would forget things like eye color. One trick I like to use is giving them Zodiac signs to help develop their personalities.

And just for fun, what or who is your favorite:

Drink: Buttery Nipples
Movie: Braveheart
Actor: Adrian Paul
Actress: Angelina Jolie
Book: Mists of Avalon
Color: Purple
Holiday: Halloween
Season: Fall
Saying ‘Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.’ Leo Tolstoy
Historical person King Arthur (I think he really existed)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 1:16 pm and is filed under Interviews, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.