Interview with writer Cynthia Reese

The following interview with Cynthia Reese first appeared on the Erica Writes blog on Friday, April 27, 2007

Is this your first manuscript? How many manuscripts did you write before you sold?

The novel this started out as, was my SECOND completed novel (first one's tucked safely under the bed), but I did have to do massive revisions on the book twice before it sold. So ... um, I don't know. Between the time I finished the first draft of THE BABY WAIT and the time it sold, I wrote three more novels and started on a fourth.

Did you target the market before you started writing or did you write and then look for a publisher?

I targeted Harlequin/Silhouette because I knew they took unagented material and I'd read beaucoups of their books.

Did you target your manuscript to a specific line at Harlequin before or after you began writing the book that sold?

Actually, I started writing THE BABY WAIT as a Harlequin NEXT. It was only after a major revision and a decision from NEXT that it was good, but a Super instead of a NEXT that THE BABY WAIT ended up on the desk of my lovely and talented editor Laura Shin, who's the head honcho for Super.

What do you do, exactly, to plot? Physical storyboard? Outlining? Collages? Spreadsheets? A combo of some or all of the above?

You're going to die laughing, but I, um, start with a synopsis. I kid you not. I write what I call a "movie synopsis," and tell the story the same way you'd tell a friend about a movie. I usually start with a basic idea of the characters and their jobs and their lots in life - and their conflict, of course, and then I just ... make it all up as I go in the "movie synopsis." Once I get the broad strokes down on paper (and it's very broad and very rough, mind you), I go back and do a chapter-by-chapter outline, sort of a how-do-I-get-there-from-here list.

On the outline, I do a paragraph summary of each chapter. It may or may not stay that way through the course of my writing, but that's how I do it.

The good thing about writing the synopsis before you start writing is two-fold: (a) you don't know all the twists and turns and it's easier to lay out a clear character arc (which I think editors are really looking for) and write a short synopsis, and (b) plot holes SHINE big time - my CPs are great at showing me what plot holes I need to plug.

What was your foot in the door? (Query letter, conference pitch, contest win, agent submission, etc.)

My foot in the door was two-pronged ... I was lucky enough to be able to pitch to the NEXT acquiring editor at my local RWA chapter, which is how I got a request for a partial. But I actually came to the attention of my current editor through Harlequin's EVERLASTING contest. I'd written a book that I THOUGHT was for EVERLASTING and was bummed when I didn't win, place or show.

But then I got the letter back from the editorial assistant who worked for both EVERLASTING and for Super, and she asked me to revise and resubmit the story to Super. I did, and Laura Shin regretfully had to pass on that story because of marketing reasons. But I was on her radar, and when THE BABY WAIT showed up on her desk, she knew my name. So I highly recommend both approaches!

I would love to hear the story of your road to publication, just to affirm once again that it really can happen.

I'd started a jillion novels and callously abandoned them all at Chapter Three, but in Dec. 2004, I decided that my New Year's resolution for 2005 would be to finish the dang book. I finished that one, sent it to a CP who kindly told me that I had NO romance in it (a bit of a problem when you are targeting Harlequin, LOL), and I decided that I'd try my hand at women's fiction - Harlequin's NEXT line. I finished my second book (an earlier incarnation of THE BABY WAIT) and pitched it to NEXT's then editor Jen Green at my GRW meeting in May of 2005.

In July of 2005, she called me and told me she liked my voice and liked the premise, but "the conflict is too predictable." She offered to read the full if I would revise. I did - yanking out the last two-thirds of the book and rewriting. I sent it in the first of October 2005, and then a bit later found Jen Green had been transferred to Harlequin American.

At that point, I lost hope. But in December of 2005, Ann Leslie Tuttle e-mailed me that she was recommending the book as a buy to her boss. I was over the moon! I thought for sure I'd sold.

In March of 2006, though, my dreams came crashing down when her boss said, "You know, I think this is a Super." So Ann Leslie, lovely lady that she is, sent it to Laura Shin, who read it, liked it, but said, "Eh ... too women's fiction. Can you revise?"

Of course! So I did. I sent it in not long before Nationals at RWA. But a few days after Nationals, I was feeling blue and down - I was writing a tough book, and my characters weren't cooperating. I also thought that I'd made a mistake not to change the POV in THE BABY WAIT to third - I'd left it at first. It was like a big "please reject me" sign on the project.

But about a week after Nationals, I saw a strange number on my cell phone caller ID, and after business hours, realized it was Harlequin's number. I spent a sleepless night trying to prepare myself for more revisions ... screwed up my courage and called Laura the next morning, where she said in the calmest voice imaginable, "I'd like to buy your book."

What did you do when you got the call that your book was being published?

I shrieked. That's it. I just shrieked. Then called everybody I knew and shrieked some more.

What's your least favorite part of writing?

Hmmm ... least favorite part - the middle, like everybody else, although the first hundred pp are really tough for me - it just feels like I'm getting nowhere.

What's the most important advice you can give about opening pages?

Start in the middle of the action - characters don't need to be sleeping, talking, driving, or thinking - they need to be doing - and doing something that's going to be the equivalent of a six-car-pileup on a major interstate - something that will make people (readers) rubberneck, slow down and not want to leave the scene.

I hear a lot of people saying a book has a category feel. What exactly does that mean?

I have no clue. I know what it used to mean to me - that a book uses the more traditional hooks and that (sometimes) the author doesn't take the chances on premise or characters. But I think that's unfair in a sense - because I've read so many really great category novels that felt big and deep and complex - better than some STs I've read. I think that category writers have to fit a more compact story arc in a shorter number of words, so naturally the premises and conflict might not be as complex as a ST. I guess it would be like saying sit-com versus drama - but who could say that FRIENDS was inferior to ER just because ER was an hour long and FRIENDS was thirty minutes? They were different animals, right? Apples and oranges, and all that.

I hear you have two book signings this weekend. How did you set them up? Are they your first? Were you given any advice (or do you have any advice) on how to make the most of book signings?

First, DON'T do it like I did, newbie that I am. I sort of fell into these. I'd approached my area district manager of Wal-Mart to get permission to sign in-stock books, and he was so excited that he asked if I'd be willing to do in-store signings. So then he put me in touch with Anderson's - Wal-Mart's book supplier, who very gently told me I should have contacted Harlequin first. Who knew? So I would suggest asking your publisher first, then setting it up through the book supplier who actually provides the books for your store. And I highly encourage talking to bookstore managers directly - they're usually thrilled to have an author come in. I know I've had to turn down offers to sign because I couldn't balance it with my very busy day-job.

Can you tell us a little bit about THE BABY WAIT?

I can't sum it up any better than the blurb on the back of my novel:

Sara Tennyson has it all planned. In two months she'll travel to China to adopt the baby girl she's always wanted. Even after a mountain of setbacks, she has the faith that one day she'll hold her daughter. But that's before the man she loves begins to doubt.

Joe is Mr. Fixit. The only thing he can't do is get Sara her baby. Now, after all the disappointment they've faced, he's beginning to wonder if their little family was really meant to be.

Sara can't give up her dream, but what if waiting for her baby wait means losing Joe?

The only other thing that I might add is that a portion of the royalties of this book will go toward two different charities benefiting Chinese orphans. One is Love Without Boundaries and the other is Our Chinese Daughters Foundation.

What are the next book(s) we'll see from you? When will they be coming out?

My next Super, WHERE LOVE GROWS, will come out in October of this year. I'm working on proposals for more Supers, and I'm revising a ST women's fiction project.

Any last words of advice/encouragement/etc?

Be open to revisions! I truly believe my willingness to revise multiple times helped me in my pursuit of publication. And persist in writing and submitting, even in the face of rejections -- after all, as Charles Spurgeon said, "Perseverance is what got the snail to the ark!"

The previous interview with Cynthia Reese first appeared on the Erica Writes blog on Friday, April 27, 2007

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