Author Interview: Lois Lewandowski

Today I’m chatting with my Indies Unlimited buddy, L.A. (Lois) Lewandowski. I’ve recently read her first novel, Born to Die: The Montauk Murders, which I found extremely engrossing. Here’s the description:

Born to Die – The Montauk Murders is set amongst the glitz and glamour of the Beau Monde. The 80th birthday of Miranda Richards, an art-world icon, boasts the party of the summer at her exclusive mansion on Long Island. Old resentments and convoluted relationships bubble to the surface as an eclectic, A-list cast of characters celebrate at a Masked Ball. The luxurious trappings of success, however, don't hinder the agenda of an invited guest with a score to settle. Friends and family are left to wonder--- Will I be next?

Lois, what inspired you to take on this multi-character who-done-it?

Hi, Melissa. Thank you for having me on your blog. I have always loved murder mysteries, particularly those of P.D.James. One evening after watching the movie Gosford Park I decided to write an Americanized version of the story. I created the character of Miranda Richards, an homage to art and fashion icon Iris Apfel. I think older women are much more interesting to develop as a character.

More interesting all around, I’d say! ;-)Did you have to keep copious notes to remember who did what, and when? I’d think you’d need a scorecard with this book!

You’re right — the timeline must be perfect or the reader gets confused. A person who reads murder mysteries will look for clues from page one. The author needs to plant enough clues without giving away the murderer. There are always a few red herrings along the way.

It was obvious to me that you loved many of the characters in the book. Which one was your favorite?

Miranda Richards is my favorite character. At eighty years old she still has it all together. She has had a colorful life, with several husbands and lovers. She lives elegantly, the way only the privileged live, but she is not a snob. She shares her joie de vivre. And, she entertains with fabulous food. Scrumptious food and experimenting in the kitchen is a hobby of mine.

I have to ask; did you do research into the lifestyle of the glitterati, or is that your normal environment?

I live on a budget, unlike most of my characters. At one of my book club meetings a women asked me if I was rich! That is not the case. I do appreciate the finer things in life. For me, to be able to cook and present a wonderful meal to friends with a carefully chosen wine is a gift. I have always enjoyed reading books about elegant living, music, art, fashion… I decided to write what I enjoyed reading.

A surefire prescription for a good book. I also write what I want to read. That way, we at least are never disappointed! And then you completely switched gears with your second novel, My Gentleman Vampire: The Undead Have Style. Can you describe the differences in the writing processes? Which book was easier to write? Why? 

I had already started on the sequel to Born to Die when, unfortunately, I had a bout of health problems that required bed rest and — oxycodone. One day while recuperating in bed I had a crazy idea. What would happen if a heart-broken writer became best friends with a gay, tango dancing vampire? I put the other manuscript to the side. The vampire story, in first draft form, was done in a matter of weeks. It is an odd story, but I guess drugs will do that. Look at Edgar Allen Poe.

LOL! That’s a great story, and totally understandable. Sometimes you just have to follow the muse, even if it means shelving the latest work. I’m not quite sure why, but vampires and the tango do seem to have a natural resonance. How did these two things come together in your mind? 

Tango is extremely sexy and requires strength and style. My vampire and human share a passion for ballroom dancing, and they enter a member guest competition at a local vampire nightclub. As I said, the story presented itself and I wrote it. I followed the characters through this adventure, rather than dictating their exploits. 

On Amazon, it says Volume 1. How many books do you have planned for the series? 

While I was writing the latest murder mystery I kept a file on my desk for the second book in the vampire series. When an idea occurred to me I wrote it and saved it. I have recently begun the second book. I feel the story will go darker. Dragos, the vampire warlord, is not a lighthearted vampire. I think I am going to write shorter pieces, almost in a serial form. Readers have been patiently waiting… By the way, while traveling in the Caribbean I met a man from Transylvania named Dragos. The description of Dragos in the first book is his likeness. Since he is Romanian he has been an incredible resource and a muse. The characters will end up in Romania, at Dragos’ castle. That I know. 

What pressure do you feel from your readers to write the next book in a series? 

I realize I disappointed the women who loved Born to Die when I didn’t immediately work on the sequel. In January they will be pleased when I release A Gourmet Demise. The funny thing is that now I am receiving complaints from women who want the next installment of the vamps. That is why I may serialize the stories. I want them to be happy, and I also don’t want to lose their attention. 

What advice do you have for aspiring authors? 

First, don’t rush to publish. Educate yourself by reading the top writer’s blogs like Indies Unlimited. Build your network carefully with supportive writers and readers. Don’t spam your network. When you are ready to publish, hire a professional editor and formatter. Always present yourself as a professional. You are your brand.

Lois, thanks so much for sharing with us. I have a feeling we may add to your troops of readers waiting for those next installments. Congratulations in advance on the January release.

For more information about Lois, you can visit her author page here: http://www.amazon.com/L.A.-Lewandowski/e/B006F8BY9W/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Lois’ blog is where she shares recipes and lifestyle tips here: http://cultureandcuisineclub.com/

The Artist's Process

Recently at my “day job,” I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a documentary filmmaker who was researching for a new film project. Like most of us, I am somewhat in awe of the film industry, probably because they are able to tell their stories in the most impressive, emotionally-charged way. A quiet, thoughtful book seems a pale second to all the CGI-created fantasy that flashes across the big screen. Granted, a book can have so much more in the way of plot―more complexity, more nuance―and can round out the characters with back story much better than a 90-minute movie can. They really do seem like two very different things, and yet … they both tell stories.

Wondering about this balance of similarities vs. differences, I asked her about her process. Did she story-board her ideas? Did she do an outline? Did she do most of her own filming?

Her answers surprised me. She filmed some on her own but if, funding permitting, she could hire a cinematographer, that person would do a good share of the filming as well. She talked about the importance of having someone else filming, seeing the subject through another’s eyes, having another person to bounce ideas off of. I realized the cinematographer for her would be much like an editor is for a writer: fresh eyes to see if the story flowed, if the characters played true, if the plot unfolded in a believable, unforced way. Authors, of course, are very isolated and insular story-tellers; having someone else look at our work is a good way to test if we are getting as much information out of our heads and onto the paper as we need to communicate the story. (I actually think that’s one of the hardest things about writing: knowing how much of the story is on paper and how much is still in my head, how much I know about my characters and how much my reader may or may not gather from the writing.) So this was definitely an area where, although the medium was different, the process was very similar.

The filmmaker said she did not story-board. She said she knew some filmmakers who scripted their entire film before starting, but she found that if she did that, she had a tendency to lock herself into the details and lost the openness that allowed the living, organic quality to infuse the work. If she set herself on a schedule, she found she was more worried about whether or not the sun was shining that day, whether the light was right for the filming she had planned. I could definitely relate to that. As I’ve written before about the dynamism of writing, I use a loose process that allows the story to grow and evolve, sometimes to my chagrin! I will set down a few descriptors of my characters (age, physical build, personality traits, main emotional drivers), then jot down maybe five bullet points that are the main development ideas and/or plot turns. I tweak those things a bit as I go just so I have a very brief outline of where I’ve been and where I’m going, but beyond that, I just open the gates and see where the story wants to go. 

I’ve been told I’m very undisciplined (which works for me), so it was nice to hear that this filmmaker did something very similar. Obviously there are a zillion ways to go about this, probably as many ways as there are story-tellers.

What’s your process?

(And now the lead character in my latest is dragging me back by the throat. Gotta write!)

Editors and Editing

I’m guessing we’ve all seen movies about writers where they are best buddies with their editors and often sit down with a cup of coffee to go over the latest pages and discuss the progress of the book. I can’t imagine any process being as homey and nurturing and encouraging, and I think it’s complete hogwash. I can’t speak for mega-writers like Stephen King or Danielle Steel, but for the other 99.9% of us, that scenario is nothing but a fairy tale.

My first book was published in 1984 by a New York house. Their communications with me were probably as diametrically opposed to the above as they could be. Granted, the book was already complete when they optioned it, but they never suggested so much as a punctuation mark to me. The fact that they accepted the manuscript verbatim and had no editorial suggestions seemed like a silent nod of approval. I was rather quickly disabused of that notion, however, when I got a letter from them saying I needed to add 70 pages to get to the proper page count. The content of those pages―story line, plot points or character development―seemed to be of no concern whatsoever.

Being a newbie at this and wanting to do everything I could to make the book a success, I set about to add the 70 pages. Interestingly when I had originally written the book—a historical romance—I had gotten so sick of it by the time I neared the end that I had deliberately skipped over quite a bit of detail about living with the Cheyenne Indians. I still had the reference books and so proceeded to write the Indian section that I had originally planned, and since this was a couple years after the fact, it was fresh to me and not a laborious process.  When it was all said and done, I was grateful for the chance to round out the story in the way that I had originally envisioned.

The next communiqué was the “big reveal” of the name of the book. They had dubbed it Love’s Savage Destiny. Obviously my title, The Rare Breed, was much too tame, and obviously they did not care to have my input in the renaming as I was not even aware that process was going on. (After publication, my husband and I went to the nearest Waldenbooks to search for it. After much perusing of the romance section, he said, “There’s a lot of ‘savages’ here.” I think at that time, it was a prerequisite that all western romances have “savage” in the title.)

The final non-nurturing bit of communication came when I received a box of books … from my agent. I had no idea the book was done. I had received no notice of its publication or availability. They just shipped my free books to my agent and left it to him to send them to me. It seemed more like an afterthought: “Oh, and we need to send books to, um, what’s-her-name.” What’s-her-name, you mean the author? Yeah, that’s the one.

Meanwhile, my agent was shopping my next book around, but he was having no luck. He had thoughtfully sent me the rejection letters he had received, but when I realized he had not offered the book to the publisher of the first book, I went ahead and sent it to them. I’m not quite sure why this never occurred to him, but they jumped at it.

As before, they never uttered a word of editorial wisdom, just accepted the book as written. Oh, except for the fact that on this one I needed to cut 50 pages. The dreaded page count reared its ugly head again. No other suggestions of what areas might be cut, just get the page count down.

And as before, this had a silver lining to it. I discovered that the book was actually pretty tight, but I did go through and cut out whatever fluff I could find. I started cutting paragraphs; on the second go-round, I was cutting sentences. On the third go-round, I was cutting single words. I just barely made the page count, but I was happy with the result. And all this, of course, without any help from the editors at all.

When I received the letter announcing the book’s new name (with no input from me), I was not terribly surprised they had chosen Love’s Savage Embrace. My title, Superstition Gold, they said denoted “the occult,” and was obviously not appropriate. In the letter they actually said, “We hope you’ll be as thrilled with the name as we are.” I swore right then that at some point I would write a book and name it Love’s Savage Armpit.

By the time my third book was optioned in 2000, the entire publishing landscape had changed. The big New York houses were concentrating all their efforts on sure blockbusters and small presses were springing up everywhere to take up the slack. It was a novel and heartening experience to work with an editor of a small press. No, we didn’t sit down and have coffee as we pored over my book, but we did e-mail just about daily about everything from chapter headers to fonts to white space. Although, again, he did not offer a single suggestion about editing, the collaborative experience was about 1000% better than what I’d experienced before.

My next two books were also picked up by small presses. One was published with no changes to the text, no editing whatsoever. With the second one, to my great surprise, my editor actually made some suggestions—three if I recall. She suggested alternate text in two locations, both of which I declined to change, and then flagged some confusion over a name that I had not realized I had used twice in different circumstances. I quickly amended that and the book was good to go. It was nice (1) knowing she actually read the book and was thinking of ways to polish it and (2) having that give-and-take relationship where we could discuss the problem areas and agree on resolutions. Still no coffee, though.

Now I have moved into the realm of self-publishing, which means I supply my own coffee and my own editing advice. I do, of course, rely heavily on friends and family to read and give feedback, but on the whole this is not much different than what I’ve done all along. I suspect this is just the way it will be until I make my way up there to the top, right next to Stephen King.

Oh, and I choose my own titles, now, too.