What was the inspiration for writing On Silent Wings? I’m fascinated with the Restoration period. Reading about the Great Fire of London gave me the idea of a heroine who loses her voice from hot smoke—a larynx issue discovered and healed by a Jewish doctor the hero takes her to see. Writing a mute heroine was a special challenge as I had to learn deep point of view and imagine her frustration at suddenly not being able to speak.
For the future, do you see yourself continuing to write historicals or is there another genre you'd like to try? I like historicals for the opportunity to portray rich history around my characters. The time period itself is a wonderful setting—almost a character in itself. My second manuscript was a contemporary romantic suspense, and I may dig it out from under the mattress someday to revise it.
Why do you write? I began writing three years ago when I was an eighth grade teacher as a way to relieve the stresses of teaching. I sat down over the holiday break and began pounding out a book from a scene I’d had going in my head for awhile. Three months later, I’d written 400 pages. These days I write because I found out I’m pretty good at it. Getting deep within a story is relaxing to me if I can keep my internal editor from tweaking the words as soon as I write a sentence or paragraph. Sometimes I miss the early days when I wrote that 400-page manuscript with no knowledge as to goal, motivation, or conflict. I had no idea what point of view meant or that the heroine really shouldn’t beat the crap out of the hero. I didn’t know the “rules” back then. I just wrote because I had a story to tell. I’d like to find a happy medium where I still write for the joy, but the story is good enough to sell.
Who are some of your favorite authors? Lauren Royal writes in my time period, and she is a major inspiration for me. Cathy Maxwell’s characters are wonderful and her stories are warm and exciting. Mary Balogh’s novel, Silent Melody, helped give me the courage to write about a mute heroine. Outside of romance, Terry Brooks and John Grisham are two of my favorite authors. I really like Stephen King—he packs a plot with splendid, hair-curling details. I used to read some of those details to my class as examples of descriptive writing until a student informed me that her mother said he’s the devil. So I thought I’d better stop reading before the principal got a phone call. But I think Mr. King is great. If he and Nora Roberts got together to write a horror-romance novel, I’d be first in line to buy it.
Who would your books appeal to? Adult women who love a strong but wounded hero, and who relate to a heroine who exceeds what she thinks she can accomplish and discovers she’s pretty darn strong.
How did you learn how to write romance fiction? After I wrote my first manuscript and discovered that maybe it wasn’t quite (well, not at all) ready for the New York Times best seller lists, I bought Leslie Wainger’s Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies. After that, I read Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel and went to his workshop. Other books that have helped me learn to write are Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation & Conflict and Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey 2nd Edition. I also attended conferences and workshops and took online classes, and read romance novels with a critical eye. During this time I wrote my second and third manuscripts, because the best way to learn to write is to write.
How did you make your first sale? I sent a synopsis and query to The Wild Rose Press. An editor there requested a partial, then a full, and then offered me a contract. It was all pretty quick compared to New York publishers because The Wild Rose Press is an epublisher. They are a great bunch of people who really know their stuff.
Do you have a writing routine? Not really. I write whenever I can. I keep an AlphaSmart with me as well as paper and pen handy.
How many pages per day are you able to turn out? Sometimes two or three, sometimes a fraction of a page. Depends on the time and energy I have to write.
How much research goes into your books? A great deal of research goes into my files, which is then filtered into my story. I try to be historically accurate, although I took liberties with the idea of a doctor in the seventeenth century being able to see a person’s larynx. The Jewish doctor in my book has a contraption he and his brother invented, a tapering brass tube with tiny mirrors and a special bright candle to send light deep within the throat. The truth is that the equipment needed to look as the larynx wasn’t invented until the 1800’s.
When you start a new book, which comes first - the characters or the plot? Both. The characters drive the plot, but they need to know where they’re going.
Do you plot everything out in advance, or just let it flow? I do a little of both. When I try to plot the whole story, or do a scene and sequence, or fill in a spreadsheet of chapters and scenes and whose point of view to be in for each scene, it all usually falls apart when the characters take over and propel the story based on their personalities and motivations. I do have a basic idea of what I want to happen at the beginning, middle, and end, because if I don’t I’ll end up writing far more than I need to. The characters are the drivers, but they need a GPS (me) to get them there.
What's the downside of success that is rarely discussed? I haven’t gotten to the success part yet (LOL), but I imagine that once I’m writing to constant deadlines, pressure and anxiety will replace some of the joy. Also, maintaining a readership is probably a source of stress; keeping up with success by writing fresh, strong stories and not fading into obscurity.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? I was at one of Nora Roberts’s book signing events at her Turn the Page Bookstore, and I asked that same question. She said to write what you love, and love what you write. Writing what I love keeps me enthusiastic about the craft. I’m not writing to a market, but hoping what I write is what others would like to read.
Bob Mayer said to read first novels by new authors. The stories are fresh and fabulous; they have to be to make that first sale in this crowded market.
My own advice: Write the entire manuscript (better yet—write several manuscripts) before pursuing publication, whether through agencies, editors, or contests. A writer will learn a great deal about herself and how she writes just by writing the book. Read, listen, learn, ask questions. Always be writing. Pick the brains of the greats; they were once aspiring authors, too.
Get opinions from readers who will give honest critiques. Rejection hurts, as does criticism, but in the end the writing will be stronger and better than before. That thick skin writers talk about developing is integral to a writing career. Keep writing. And don’t ever, ever quit.
Write not because you want to get published, or get rich, or win contests. Write because you have a story to tell and you’ll go crazy if you don’t get it out.
How can readers find out more about you? Readers can visit my official web site:
http://www.pamelaroller.com/
©by Pamela Roller
