Guest author Charley Descoteaux
Jul. 17th, 2013 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneI was so charmed by Charley when she visited before, I invited her back, to be in the interrogatee's chair again...
Thanks so much for having me back, Charlie! It’s been a busy summer so far, but it’s always nice to stop in and chat with you.
When you were last here we chatted about watching your first book fledge. What does it feel like with the second and the third?
In a way, it’s harder with the second and third. I thought it would be easier, since I’m so much more experienced now (ha,ha), but I’m still afraid they won’t make any friends.
What do you think you've learned since you were first published?
Not to sweat some of the small stuff. Waiting for that first review is a killer, or watching the Amazon ranking of a book go down—but sometimes they go back up, so it’s important not to stress out too much about the fluctuations. Now if only I can learn how to stop all the obsessive checking on Goodreads and Amazon I’ll be all set for my next release!
What do you wish you'd known when you were first published?
This is a tricky one. A lot of things could fall into that category, but the safest one to bring out into the light is that I wish I’d known that it’s okay to ask questions. I’ve been working at writing for so long and wanted so badly to have the chance to be published in such a wonderful genre, that I forgot to ask questions that I should’ve asked. It’s not easy for me to risk rocking the boat with a publisher, but sometimes it’s necessary.
What inspired the latest book?
A picture, and an old friend from my fictional town of Willston, Oregon. I’ve known my main character in A Sunday Kind of Love for years, but he never got any page-time until this story. I saw a picture on a friend’s LJ and it just made me want to write. ASKoL is what came out.
Did you know where A Sunday Kind of Love was going from the start or did it take an unexpected turn?
I had no idea what would happen! I usually don’t have more than a spark of an idea, or a picture in my mind before I start a story. This time at least I knew Jake’s history and that helped, especially since he’s not much of a talker when the subject is anything beyond music.
Have you ever been writing and discovered something totally unexpected about one of your characters?
All the time! I love it when that happens! For instance, I didn’t know anything about Mason before I started writing ASKoL. For a long time he was just a shadowy figure that became clear a little at a time as I wrote the first draft.
I tried to think of a story or character that wasn’t a surprise, but I can’t. It’s tied to the reason I don’t plot ahead of time, I think. If I know what’s going to happen before I start I’m not engaged enough to write the story, it’s not exciting enough. I must have a short attention span!
Which book do you wish you'd written and why?
Hmm, this is hard. I could name a few of Stephen King’s books, or Hamlet, but I’ll go with Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. I think I’ve read it a dozen times and each time it’s like visiting an old friend. Her characters are so vibrant and the town it’s set in is almost like another character. It has everything I love in a book: angst, love, a history, and a deeper meaning and relevance in the real world. Much deeper than I could write—plus the language is gorgeous.
Which book do you wish somebody else would write?
Someone may have already done this, but I’d like to see a book with a trans main character who’s not straight and who doesn’t conform to the standards of beauty society tries to impose. It’s a difficult subject to nail down, but since my daughter is trans and a lesbian it’s important to me that her experience is captured, and in a good story. If anyone can point me to a book like this, especially one featuring a trans woman, I’ll be eternally grateful. There are just so many books out there, sometimes I’m amazed that anyone finds my little stories at all.
Have you got a secret you'd be willing to share?
If I shared it, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore! I have so few of them left . . . Okay, here’s one: A lot of people name their electronics—including me—but I have conversations with mine. If I had a food replicator I wouldn’t stop at saying Thank You, I’d have conversations with it just like I do with my laptop, Eddie.
Charley's latest, A Sunday Kind of Love, tells the story of Jake McKynnie, a middle-aged jazz musician, who has the chops to solo—in every sense of the word. He’s living a lonely life in LA, convinced that’s the best he can expect. DJ, the boy who calls him Dad, turns up the day after his high school graduation like a sucker punch from the past. Could their celebratory trip to the salon be the catalyst for Jake’s duet with the enigmatic stylist, Mason?
Thanks so much for having me back, Charlie! It’s been a busy summer so far, but it’s always nice to stop in and chat with you.
When you were last here we chatted about watching your first book fledge. What does it feel like with the second and the third?
In a way, it’s harder with the second and third. I thought it would be easier, since I’m so much more experienced now (ha,ha), but I’m still afraid they won’t make any friends.
What do you think you've learned since you were first published?
Not to sweat some of the small stuff. Waiting for that first review is a killer, or watching the Amazon ranking of a book go down—but sometimes they go back up, so it’s important not to stress out too much about the fluctuations. Now if only I can learn how to stop all the obsessive checking on Goodreads and Amazon I’ll be all set for my next release!
What do you wish you'd known when you were first published?
This is a tricky one. A lot of things could fall into that category, but the safest one to bring out into the light is that I wish I’d known that it’s okay to ask questions. I’ve been working at writing for so long and wanted so badly to have the chance to be published in such a wonderful genre, that I forgot to ask questions that I should’ve asked. It’s not easy for me to risk rocking the boat with a publisher, but sometimes it’s necessary.
What inspired the latest book?
A picture, and an old friend from my fictional town of Willston, Oregon. I’ve known my main character in A Sunday Kind of Love for years, but he never got any page-time until this story. I saw a picture on a friend’s LJ and it just made me want to write. ASKoL is what came out.
Did you know where A Sunday Kind of Love was going from the start or did it take an unexpected turn?
I had no idea what would happen! I usually don’t have more than a spark of an idea, or a picture in my mind before I start a story. This time at least I knew Jake’s history and that helped, especially since he’s not much of a talker when the subject is anything beyond music.
Have you ever been writing and discovered something totally unexpected about one of your characters?
All the time! I love it when that happens! For instance, I didn’t know anything about Mason before I started writing ASKoL. For a long time he was just a shadowy figure that became clear a little at a time as I wrote the first draft.
I tried to think of a story or character that wasn’t a surprise, but I can’t. It’s tied to the reason I don’t plot ahead of time, I think. If I know what’s going to happen before I start I’m not engaged enough to write the story, it’s not exciting enough. I must have a short attention span!
Which book do you wish you'd written and why?
Hmm, this is hard. I could name a few of Stephen King’s books, or Hamlet, but I’ll go with Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. I think I’ve read it a dozen times and each time it’s like visiting an old friend. Her characters are so vibrant and the town it’s set in is almost like another character. It has everything I love in a book: angst, love, a history, and a deeper meaning and relevance in the real world. Much deeper than I could write—plus the language is gorgeous.
Which book do you wish somebody else would write?
Someone may have already done this, but I’d like to see a book with a trans main character who’s not straight and who doesn’t conform to the standards of beauty society tries to impose. It’s a difficult subject to nail down, but since my daughter is trans and a lesbian it’s important to me that her experience is captured, and in a good story. If anyone can point me to a book like this, especially one featuring a trans woman, I’ll be eternally grateful. There are just so many books out there, sometimes I’m amazed that anyone finds my little stories at all.
Have you got a secret you'd be willing to share?
If I shared it, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore! I have so few of them left . . . Okay, here’s one: A lot of people name their electronics—including me—but I have conversations with mine. If I had a food replicator I wouldn’t stop at saying Thank You, I’d have conversations with it just like I do with my laptop, Eddie.
Charley's latest, A Sunday Kind of Love, tells the story of Jake McKynnie, a middle-aged jazz musician, who has the chops to solo—in every sense of the word. He’s living a lonely life in LA, convinced that’s the best he can expect. DJ, the boy who calls him Dad, turns up the day after his high school graduation like a sucker punch from the past. Could their celebratory trip to the salon be the catalyst for Jake’s duet with the enigmatic stylist, Mason?
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Date: 2013-07-17 03:55 pm (UTC)