Lucynda Storey-Erotic Romance Writer

Next up on the interview tour is Lizzie T. Leaf.  Lizzie has the unusual honor of being one of my earliest critique partners.  She’s certainly enhanced my life with her funny outlook on life.

1) Where are you from? What is your writing name?
I’m Lizzie T. Leaf and I grew up in NC and currently live in Colorado.  

2) How long have you been seriously writing?
Approximately 4 or 5 years.

3) How many hours a day do you spend working on your stories?
My goal is 4-5 hours a day.  Some days I achieve more, other days I don’t come close.

4) What is your self-editing process?
Let the work set for a day or two and then read over, deleting and adding as needed.

5) What happened when you found out your first story was being contracted?
In addition to being in excited, I was in shock.  My husband popped a cork on a bottle of bubbly and the next morning I had a headache.

6) What was the best piece of advice you were given in regards to your writing?
You can do it, don’t give up.

7) Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

A combo…I start with a rough outline, but go with the flow of where the story takes me.  Once the book is done, I bullet point the scenes in color codes to check POVs and flow.   Why?  It’s what works for me.

What’s your favorite genre to write in? Why?
Right now, I enjoy paranormal.  It’s fun to create the different worlds and characters.  But, I have several mainstream/women’s fiction projects on the planning board.  A couple of them will require digging deep to pull the emotion.

9) How do you avoid interruptions?

ROFL…avoid interruptions! 

10) What organizations are you a part of and how have they helped you?
RWA, Colorado Romance Writers, and Heart of Denver Romance Writers.  CRW is where I connected with my first critique partners.  Our journey together taught me a lot, not only about the craft, but also how important it is to be able to share the ups and downs of a writing career with someone who experiences the same thing.

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

Start sooner.  Not listen to the ‘nay sayers’ who told me I needed a real job.

12) Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

Most definitely. 

Why? A good critique partner is invaluable and a beta reader may catch something missed in critique. 

13) Were you always a writer?  I always dreamed of writing.

14) What did you do before you started earning money as an author? 

Lots of things, the most recent j.o.b. was as the finance manager in a small telecommunications company. Do you still do this?  Not no, but hell no!

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

My husband is at the top of the list!

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

Keep at it!  Ignore the nay-sayers who tell you to give up on your dreams, no matter what age the calendar says you are.  Dreams don’t know age.

17) What do you do to refill your creative well?
Travel, spend time with family and sometimes, just listen to the sound of silence.

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

I’d love to spend several months touring Great Britain.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 10:35 am and is filed under Lucynda Storey, Interviews, Writing, Contests. 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.