|
||||||||||
|
Subscribe to the Absolute Write Newsletter and get the Agents! Agents! Agents! report free! Click here.
|
Win a 1-year subscription to Writer's Digest by subscribing to Absolute Markets-- all paying markets for your writing. Click here. |
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|
Interview with Pauline
Jones
Pauline Jones has experienced an extreme of cultures. She was born and raised in Wyoming, spent eighteen years in New Orleans, and is currently living with her husband in Houston. Pauline wrote a humor column for her hometown paper for four years about the culture shock she experienced. Her latest book, A Dangerous Dance (Five Star, 2004), "is as dark and sinister as a French Quarter alley." Pauline takes great joy in killing off her characters. To lighten her mind from all that death and darkness she loves movies, reading, going horseback riding with her Dad and, of course, eating chocolate.
What is your specialty?
Cookies. Oh, you mean in writing? I've been told my characters are my strength. It doesn't come easy, mind you. I have to push and push-- that sounds like labor, doesn't it? Feels like labor, too, sometimes.
Do you write full-time?
Well, I tell people I write full-time, but actually, I procrastinate. A lot. Then I get behind and have to write longer than full-time to catch up.
What was your last job?
Well, my last job was a bouncer in an elementary school cafeteria. It was my job to make the kids eat their vegetables and not let them damage each other. I also had to clean up after them. The pay wasn't great, but I got all the cinnamon rolls I could eat and since I was pregnant with our first child, it was a lot. Since then I've been a stay-at-home mom and writer.
When do you do your writing? Do you get dressed to go "to work?
No, well, I don't write in my pj's, but I only dress up for book signings or conferences. My legs hate panty hose. I get on my computer after the last of my family is out the door, but I don't usually start writing until after lunch. My "work" before lunch is answering e-mails, deleting spam, website updates and promotion efforts, and taking care of the family's affairs.
Describe your office.
Picture a house after an earthquake. Now add cats. That would be my office. I used to be very neat. I'm not sure what happened. I clean it up about four times a year and it takes about a week for it to re-enter the disaster zone. I think my stuff is alive, so I just try to get along with it. But if I should disappear, look under the pile of paper in the corner. The stuff waiting to be shredded....
Where is the setting of most of your novels? Do you base them on your own locale?
I like to set my books where I am because it makes the research easier, but then my husband got transferred. Sometimes other considerations dictate setting. For instance, The Last Enemy (Hard Shell Word Factory, 2001) and the other books in my Lonesome Lawmen series, are set in and around Denver, Colorado. I originally picked that area because my heroine was afraid of heights and Denver is really high up. It turned out to be the perfect setting for this book, because Long's Peak, near Denver, is the only "teener" (more than thirteen thousand feet) that you can hike up without climbing gear.
What kind of research do you do to make your novels realistic?
I try to set my books in real places and find out as much about an area as I can. When I was writing The Last Enemy, my husband had to go to Denver for business, so he took video of some of my locations-- and almost got arrested for filming the federal courthouse. With Pig in a Park (Hard Shell Word Factory, 1999), I couldn't afford to travel to Arlington, so I wrote the chamber of commerce and just didn't include anything I wasn't sure about.
Right now I'm working on a World War II novel and it's really been a challenge to find out what I need to know to write realistically. I'm currently trying to figure out where I can find out about Occupied France in the winter of 1942. Anyone?
Do your books have a particular theme? If so why is this important to your books?
I find I write a lot about identity. I think this is because I matured during the ‘70s and ‘80s when women's roles were changing a whole lot. Or maybe it's just because I've changed a lot and I find it interesting.
Tell us about your current release.
A Dangerous Dance is much darker than my previous novels. It's a psychological thriller about power and politics in Louisiana. I wrote this book just after we moved and during a personally challenging time in my life. It was a great release for all my tension, but that resulted in a pretty scary story.
What ways have you found effective for promoting your books? How do you find time to write, promote, and take care of everything else in your life?
I do most of my promoting online, but I also find it helpful to join writers' organizations and try to participate in group promotions. This last month I participated in Texas Mystery Week. We did mystery panels at four bookstores. It was great fun.
I'm always dropping something. Luckily there are breaks, or I have to take breaks, and pick that stuff up, but it is a challenge. I dream of a time when I can shift the bulk of the promotion onto someone else and just write.
Visit Pauline Jones' website: http://www.paulinebjones.com. M. E. Wood lives
in Eastern Ontario. Visit
http://www.m-e-wood.com.
|
Sponsored links 
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer! How to find a book publisher |
Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007
Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
|
