Ask the Author: C. Hope Clark
Answered Questions (14)
C. Hope Clark
Start local, pitching stories to markets like regional magazines, newspapers, and even blogs relative to your state or area. Once you gain a few credits, them work out from there. Don't limit yourself to online sites. Go with magazines, too, and pitch their websites. There are usually two different editors with magazines - online and print. Pitch timely material to the blog and more evergreen material to the print version.
C. Hope Clark
So sorry I missed your question. The Shy Writer Reborn was published in ebook form via BookBaby. They have gone up in price since I published with them. I just published The Best of FundsforWriters, Volume 1 just through CreateSpace and KDP. I formated it myself and hired the cover done. There are just so many options to indie publishing these days.
C. Hope Clark
Charm School by Nelson DeMille at the moment, then whatever mystery I can get my hands on that I learn about from word of mouth. I read pretty fast and love finding new authors. But if Lisa Gardner comes out with something, I drop everything and read it.
C. Hope Clark
June - I'm asked almost daily to review a book. I always say I'll try, but it will go into a stack that is right now 30 deep. As for the children's fantasy, start pitching it. Not sure what you mean by "not sure of a direction to take." If you are considering self-publishing, go into it in a big way. Own it. Market yourself daily, speak often, be active online. No book ever sells itself. If I haven't answered your question, please let me know.
C. Hope Clark
I love Rainey and Quincy in Lisa Gardner's profiler series.
C. Hope Clark
Wow, just saw this question, Joanne. It hits below the scroll on my page. But I am a pantser. I may loosely outline three chapters at a time, but I like to learn the story as I go. In the edits I tighten things up, but in the evolution of the draft, I like to enjoy the journey.
C. Hope Clark
I find no two books are alike, Patty. I always try to just get it done then edit it into shape, but sometimes it comes flying out like with Murder on Edisto. Sometimes it's horribly difficult and takes forever, like with Tidewater Murder. I say just write it, without thought to how.
C. Hope Clark
My initial inspiration as a writer came from a 10th grade English teacher, a dear lady I keep up with to this day. She frequents many of my signings in my home state of SC. I've been writing since the beginning of time, but I didn't take it seriously until 1998, and by 2003 I was writing full-time. What started as a hobby, became freelance writing, then morphed into crime fiction. I cannot imagine living any other way than as a writer.
C. Hope Clark
I believe you just write. Some days are easier than others, like in anything else you do in this life. We take vacations in writing like we do from day jobs. I treat my writing like a job, not a hobby, and not as something to do when the muse strikes. It's my job. It just so happens to be a job I enjoy.
C. Hope Clark
I'm to the point in my writing career that I make myself sit down and write. Some days I'm more inspired than others, but I cannot wait for inspiration. I let inspiration catch up to me.
C. Hope Clark
Currently, I'm working on the sequel to Murder on Edisto involving a series of accidents some purport as happenstance and others consider a jinx. Just had a fantastic new idea to add to it, and it's made me more excited about getting up to my elbows in plot. It will be a 2015 release.
C. Hope Clark
My advice is somewhat cliché-ish when it comes to writing advice. Two schools of thought mainly:
1) Write daily.
2) Write through it all.
It has to become a habit, such that when you sit down to the computer, your brain clicks into work mode and you create. It's how all the bestselling authors write . . . with diligence no matter the day. The second advice, tells you to write through the adversity, whether it's rejection, illness, bad days, sad days, and setbacks. That sort of writing makes you stronger.
1) Write daily.
2) Write through it all.
It has to become a habit, such that when you sit down to the computer, your brain clicks into work mode and you create. It's how all the bestselling authors write . . . with diligence no matter the day. The second advice, tells you to write through the adversity, whether it's rejection, illness, bad days, sad days, and setbacks. That sort of writing makes you stronger.
C. Hope Clark
The best thing about being a writer is freedom to crawl inside my head and play, with permission to mold it and sell the thing! Of course I adore working from home, and what author doesn't like seeing a book released. But to see a book come together, chapter by chapter, is just exhilarating. When readers tell you they love the story, the character, the setting . . . well, just take that exhilaration and put it on steroids. That's fun.
C. Hope Clark
Murder on Edisto came from a weird place. My publisher felt I was ready for a second series, one that traveled in a different direction than Carolina Slade. So with a shove, they asked me to pick a great place in SC (my home state), add a protagonist with law enforcement experience, and throw in Southern family angst. So I picked my favorite chilling spot, Edisto Beach, made my character a detective, and made her parents mayor of a nearby town. She escapes up North to avoid them only to come back about 17 years later a widow due to a criminal incident related to her work, with a 15-year-old son to raise. The pieces just fell together so well. It's my favorite work. So . . . thanks, Bell Bridge Books, for the poke and prod.
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