5 Questions - by Janie DeVos

      

     The gals at WordWranglers threw out the idea of answering five questions for our latest series of blogs, and because I've always enjoyed playing games, I was in!  I had fun answering them (some of my responses even surprised me), and I hope you'll enjoy them, too.  At the very least, I hope it will encourage some of you who are closet writers and have been reluctant to send your work out to finally do so.  Believe me, I've had hundreds of rejections over the years, and what I found is that though they may be bruising to the ego, they're just part of being an honest-to-goodness writer.  So, get those query letters written, take a deep breath of courage, and hit that send button.  You just might get that response you've been dreaming of.  I did, and it's thrilling.

1. Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?  A writer friend (a PUBLISHED writer friend) once told me when I was just getting started that the difference between me getting published and others who didn't is that I wasn't going to let the rejections get to me.  I lived by that little rule, and every time I got a rejection, I sent two more manuscripts off to different publishers. I didn't let it discourage me.  On the contrary, it got my hackles up.  I wouldn't take no for an answer, and I didn't until I  received that longed for, long-awaited for, three-letter word: YES.
2. If you could be mentored by a famous author, who would it be and why?  Harper Lee.  It’s her easy, conversational-style of writing that just pulls me in, and yet, the stories are so real and raw that they stay with you long after the final word is read.  She’s a real storyteller in the truest sense of the word.  Her writing is very intimate in that it exposes the ugliest sides of human nature as well as the most beautiful, and it reaches inside each of us, forcing us to examine who we are and where we lie between the ugliness and the beauty.  I think she tried to tell us that we're some of both.
3. At what point do you think someone should consider themselves a writer? When they send their first piece off to a prospective agent or publisher then they can consider themselves writers.  Otherwise, it’s just a hobby.  It's just something you're toying around with.  I remember when I got my first rejection letter.  I was actually proud of it.  Even though my piece was turned down, someone in the publishing industry had actually taken the time to read it and send a response (albeit, a generic one), and it was only then that I felt like I was truly a writer.  You have to take yourself seriously for others in the publishing world to do the same, and no one can do that if your work is sitting in your nightstand.
4. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be? Determined, faith-filled and logical.  (Is that four words?)
5. You are the publisher and the choice is yours--what is your new romance imprint going to be?  Metamorphosis.  After all, don’t the characters and their situations evolve and change throughout the story?  If not, they should.

Happy writing, everyone!