Guest author - Lynn Marie Hulsman
Dec. 17th, 2013 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneThis week I'll be having two guests, both of whom I met through the Festival of Romance and both of whom are jolly good eggs. The first is Lynn Marie Hulsman who likes mince pies and so goes straight to the top of any list of people with good taste. So, Lynn...
What inspired you to start writing?
I’m from the American South, where storytelling is given deep respect. For us, great stories are heard in likely and unlikely places. Equally important in my memory are church sermons exhorted by the fiery preachers I heard when we lived in the mountains of Appalachia, in tall tales fueled by beer, and told around the campfire alongside Kentucky’s lakes, as hyperbolic yarns spun among elderly ladies in my grandmother’s beauty parlor where I spent my summers sweeping hair, or in the pages of the novels penned by Harper Lee and William Faulkner that I studied in University. Storytelling is power. It’s a call for attention. And as I coach the performers in my comedy improve troupe ComedySportz New York, if you ask an audience to pay attention to you, respect them by giving them 100 percent of what you have to offer. Do not waste their time.
Do you have another job (paid or otherwise) apart from being an author? If so, how do you juggle your time?
I am the Artistic Director of ComedySportz New York, an improv company. While the administrative part is very much a “day job,” the creativity and writing-on-the-spot nature of improv refuels and replenishes my artistic stores. I also ghost-write, co-author, and now have written a cookbook as sole author. Non-fiction writing is a wonderful way to keep sharp, and to earn money. I love it, and am grateful that I’m able to do it as a profession. Writing fiction, however, is something that I would do even if I were a ditch digger by day, and had only five minutes per night to scribble my stories on a slate using a lump of coal. I pray someday I’ll be lucky enough to have ten novels under my belt, and a readership that connects to the stories that only I can tell. Regardless, I’ll keep writing them, whatever the result.
What does it feel like watching your first book fledge and leave the nest?
In my case, there have been many stages in the process. It’s not like I was the starlet discovered perched on a stool at Schwab’s Soda Fountain and swept off to star in a Hollywood film. But I do remember the first time I hit “send,” and handed over the manuscript to my dear friend and first reader Kate. I literally almost threw up. And I mean literally. The construct of terror in my mind was like being in a room full of Tigers. And Kate loves me! Her wisdom and kindness helped me clean up my manuscript to ready it to be seen by my agent. Then, there was the waiting period when I knew my agent was submitting to my dream publisher, HarperImpulse. I pretended to go about my life, but really, I was sleep walking until I got that “yes.” Next came edits (what the English call revisions). I was sure my editor, Charlotte Ledger, was going to email me saying she’d made a grave error, and perhaps I’d enjoy a career as a barista at Starbucks. In reality, she was more intelligent, knowledgeable, and supportive than I could have dreamed. The verdict about reader reviews is still out. As I write this, I’m quivering in my flannel pajama bottoms and sweatshirt, hoping for the best, but who knows? When HarperImpulse did a “soft reveal” of my book jacket and quietly announced me as being in their stable, I burst into tears. As an American in England, I chose to keep my seat rather than publicly blubber at the dais. I did not see that coming.
Are you character or plot driven? What do you do if one of your characters starts developing at a tangent?
My jumping off place is always the world of the story. Once I can picture the culture, the furnishings, the weather, and the day-to-day workings of the people there, I can get in the head of the ambassador, my heroine. That said, there is no story without plot, and I have to stick to the duty of a writer: Tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end in which my heroine grows and changes. Left to my own devices, I might paddle around in the pond of describing a picture frame or allow secondary characters to chat at length about a chocolate croissant. I find myself highly entertaining in those moments, but like I said, if you ask an audience to put butts in seats, you’d better deliver. That’s why God gave me an excellent editor: To save me from myself.
If you were in a tight corner and had to rely on one of your characters to save you, which would it be and why?
Without a doubt, it would be sexy Edward from Christmas at Thornton Hall. He’s a sensitive modern man who makes his living as a chef, but he began his adulthood as a military man. His emotions run high, and he feels things to the heart, but when the chips are down, he’s a precision soldier. Snowbound? Call Edward. Need the Heimlich maneuver? Call Edward. Need your soul and body unlocked? Call Edward.
If you had no constraints of time and a guarantee of publication, what book would you write?
A book like the ones I’m writing. I’m so lucky that Romantic Comedy is still alive and kicking in the U.K. For awhile, the scuttlebutt was that U.S. readers didn’t want it, and U.S. editors were afraid to take a risk on it. Times have been tough in America. The economy has been a challenge, and I won’t go into it here, but there’s been a shadow of war and unrest hovering over our formerly optimistic nation. In times like this, I can see why books featuring only high-flying fashionistas slurping Champagne on a bed of money may have been called into question. However, I see Chick Lit coming back, though reinvented and renames as new genres. I think that in dark times, some readers still want millionaire’s fantasies. During the Great Depression, glittery films did a booming business. Whatever the backdrop, be it city or farm, publishing house or cupcake bakery, I still think there are many readers who want a laugh. That’s the sweet spot for me. I want to write with humor. I was a stand-up comic! I can’t sweep that part of my voice under the rug. I hope I find my tribe, and I hope they share my sense of humor.
Is there a classic book you started and simply couldn't finish?
Moby Dick. There! I said it. I’m sorry, Herman Melville. It’s me, not you. Hey, don’t take it hard. I loved Bartleby the Scrivener. That was awesome for one night. That’s how I wanted to roll with you: Nice and light, short and sweet. I respect what you did with Moby… the struggle, the demons, etc. We just weren’t in the same place at the same time. When we were together, I just wanted to have fun. Who knows what would happen if we met now?
What’s your favourite romance book? And why?
I’m going to cop out and talk about a few. Lazy? Perhaps. I’ve been sustained through life on romantic fiction, though. Escaping to the worlds of my beloved books gave me hope that happy endings do exist, despite flaws in heroines. I love Trisha Ashley for all of her heroines. They want love and a man, but they rarely need it. For romantic heroines, they’re fairly chill and self-sufficient in a way that I’ll never be, so it fascinates me. I love Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner because Cannie Shapiro gets the wind knocked out of her again and again. Still, her smart and worthy side always wins. She gets all she wants in the end, but it’s not an easy road, and it’s not wrapped up with a ribbon. I love Bridget Jones because (like all women who consider themselves funny and undiscovered gems) I AM Bridget. I know that’s annoying. It’s like girls watching Sex in the City and saying, “I’m such a Carrie!” I’m not. I’m probably an unsavory hybrid of Miranda and Samantha.
And of course, Sense and Sensibility. Dear God when it’s revealed that Marian and Edward can wed, and will, I cry so hard I nearly throw up. And I know it’s coming! I’ve read it and seen the film maybe 50 times all told!
What's your next project?
My second book for HarperImpulse is another Rom Com. My heroine is a co-writer and let’s just say that there’s an Irish chef who is too focused on his food for his own good. Not for nothing, but Irish accents have been touted as the sexiest on the planet, and I won’t disagree.
Christmas at Thornton Hall from Harper Impulse.
When Juliet Hill unwittingly discovers a most-definitely-not-hers-rhinestone-studded lace thong in her high-flying lawyer boyfriend's apartment, this usually feisty chef is suddenly single and facing a very blue Christmas - with only a ready meal for one to keep her company!
So when she's personally requested to cater for the family at Thornton Hall three days before Christmas, it's not long before Juliet's standing at the (back) door of the impossibly grand ancestral pile.
The halls are decked, the guests are titled, those below the stairs are delightfully catty, and all-American Juliet sets to work cooking up a glorious British Christmas with all the trimmings.
But other flames are burning besides those on the stove... Sparks fly with Edward, the gorgeous ex-soldier turned resident chef, and are those sidelong looks Juliet's getting from her boss, the American tycoon Jasper Roth?
As the snow starts to fall on the idyllic Cotswolds countryside, so does the veneer of genteel high society and there are more than a few ancient skeletons rattling out of the Hall's numerous dark cupboards!
If you fancy looking at Lynn's cook books, get your teeth into How To Make Your Own Soda or The Irish Pantry.
What inspired you to start writing?
I’m from the American South, where storytelling is given deep respect. For us, great stories are heard in likely and unlikely places. Equally important in my memory are church sermons exhorted by the fiery preachers I heard when we lived in the mountains of Appalachia, in tall tales fueled by beer, and told around the campfire alongside Kentucky’s lakes, as hyperbolic yarns spun among elderly ladies in my grandmother’s beauty parlor where I spent my summers sweeping hair, or in the pages of the novels penned by Harper Lee and William Faulkner that I studied in University. Storytelling is power. It’s a call for attention. And as I coach the performers in my comedy improve troupe ComedySportz New York, if you ask an audience to pay attention to you, respect them by giving them 100 percent of what you have to offer. Do not waste their time.
Do you have another job (paid or otherwise) apart from being an author? If so, how do you juggle your time?
I am the Artistic Director of ComedySportz New York, an improv company. While the administrative part is very much a “day job,” the creativity and writing-on-the-spot nature of improv refuels and replenishes my artistic stores. I also ghost-write, co-author, and now have written a cookbook as sole author. Non-fiction writing is a wonderful way to keep sharp, and to earn money. I love it, and am grateful that I’m able to do it as a profession. Writing fiction, however, is something that I would do even if I were a ditch digger by day, and had only five minutes per night to scribble my stories on a slate using a lump of coal. I pray someday I’ll be lucky enough to have ten novels under my belt, and a readership that connects to the stories that only I can tell. Regardless, I’ll keep writing them, whatever the result.
What does it feel like watching your first book fledge and leave the nest?
In my case, there have been many stages in the process. It’s not like I was the starlet discovered perched on a stool at Schwab’s Soda Fountain and swept off to star in a Hollywood film. But I do remember the first time I hit “send,” and handed over the manuscript to my dear friend and first reader Kate. I literally almost threw up. And I mean literally. The construct of terror in my mind was like being in a room full of Tigers. And Kate loves me! Her wisdom and kindness helped me clean up my manuscript to ready it to be seen by my agent. Then, there was the waiting period when I knew my agent was submitting to my dream publisher, HarperImpulse. I pretended to go about my life, but really, I was sleep walking until I got that “yes.” Next came edits (what the English call revisions). I was sure my editor, Charlotte Ledger, was going to email me saying she’d made a grave error, and perhaps I’d enjoy a career as a barista at Starbucks. In reality, she was more intelligent, knowledgeable, and supportive than I could have dreamed. The verdict about reader reviews is still out. As I write this, I’m quivering in my flannel pajama bottoms and sweatshirt, hoping for the best, but who knows? When HarperImpulse did a “soft reveal” of my book jacket and quietly announced me as being in their stable, I burst into tears. As an American in England, I chose to keep my seat rather than publicly blubber at the dais. I did not see that coming.
Are you character or plot driven? What do you do if one of your characters starts developing at a tangent?
My jumping off place is always the world of the story. Once I can picture the culture, the furnishings, the weather, and the day-to-day workings of the people there, I can get in the head of the ambassador, my heroine. That said, there is no story without plot, and I have to stick to the duty of a writer: Tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end in which my heroine grows and changes. Left to my own devices, I might paddle around in the pond of describing a picture frame or allow secondary characters to chat at length about a chocolate croissant. I find myself highly entertaining in those moments, but like I said, if you ask an audience to put butts in seats, you’d better deliver. That’s why God gave me an excellent editor: To save me from myself.
If you were in a tight corner and had to rely on one of your characters to save you, which would it be and why?
Without a doubt, it would be sexy Edward from Christmas at Thornton Hall. He’s a sensitive modern man who makes his living as a chef, but he began his adulthood as a military man. His emotions run high, and he feels things to the heart, but when the chips are down, he’s a precision soldier. Snowbound? Call Edward. Need the Heimlich maneuver? Call Edward. Need your soul and body unlocked? Call Edward.
If you had no constraints of time and a guarantee of publication, what book would you write?
A book like the ones I’m writing. I’m so lucky that Romantic Comedy is still alive and kicking in the U.K. For awhile, the scuttlebutt was that U.S. readers didn’t want it, and U.S. editors were afraid to take a risk on it. Times have been tough in America. The economy has been a challenge, and I won’t go into it here, but there’s been a shadow of war and unrest hovering over our formerly optimistic nation. In times like this, I can see why books featuring only high-flying fashionistas slurping Champagne on a bed of money may have been called into question. However, I see Chick Lit coming back, though reinvented and renames as new genres. I think that in dark times, some readers still want millionaire’s fantasies. During the Great Depression, glittery films did a booming business. Whatever the backdrop, be it city or farm, publishing house or cupcake bakery, I still think there are many readers who want a laugh. That’s the sweet spot for me. I want to write with humor. I was a stand-up comic! I can’t sweep that part of my voice under the rug. I hope I find my tribe, and I hope they share my sense of humor.
Is there a classic book you started and simply couldn't finish?
Moby Dick. There! I said it. I’m sorry, Herman Melville. It’s me, not you. Hey, don’t take it hard. I loved Bartleby the Scrivener. That was awesome for one night. That’s how I wanted to roll with you: Nice and light, short and sweet. I respect what you did with Moby… the struggle, the demons, etc. We just weren’t in the same place at the same time. When we were together, I just wanted to have fun. Who knows what would happen if we met now?
What’s your favourite romance book? And why?
I’m going to cop out and talk about a few. Lazy? Perhaps. I’ve been sustained through life on romantic fiction, though. Escaping to the worlds of my beloved books gave me hope that happy endings do exist, despite flaws in heroines. I love Trisha Ashley for all of her heroines. They want love and a man, but they rarely need it. For romantic heroines, they’re fairly chill and self-sufficient in a way that I’ll never be, so it fascinates me. I love Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner because Cannie Shapiro gets the wind knocked out of her again and again. Still, her smart and worthy side always wins. She gets all she wants in the end, but it’s not an easy road, and it’s not wrapped up with a ribbon. I love Bridget Jones because (like all women who consider themselves funny and undiscovered gems) I AM Bridget. I know that’s annoying. It’s like girls watching Sex in the City and saying, “I’m such a Carrie!” I’m not. I’m probably an unsavory hybrid of Miranda and Samantha.
And of course, Sense and Sensibility. Dear God when it’s revealed that Marian and Edward can wed, and will, I cry so hard I nearly throw up. And I know it’s coming! I’ve read it and seen the film maybe 50 times all told!
What's your next project?
My second book for HarperImpulse is another Rom Com. My heroine is a co-writer and let’s just say that there’s an Irish chef who is too focused on his food for his own good. Not for nothing, but Irish accents have been touted as the sexiest on the planet, and I won’t disagree.
Christmas at Thornton Hall from Harper Impulse.
When Juliet Hill unwittingly discovers a most-definitely-not-hers-rhinestone-studded lace thong in her high-flying lawyer boyfriend's apartment, this usually feisty chef is suddenly single and facing a very blue Christmas - with only a ready meal for one to keep her company!
So when she's personally requested to cater for the family at Thornton Hall three days before Christmas, it's not long before Juliet's standing at the (back) door of the impossibly grand ancestral pile.
The halls are decked, the guests are titled, those below the stairs are delightfully catty, and all-American Juliet sets to work cooking up a glorious British Christmas with all the trimmings.
But other flames are burning besides those on the stove... Sparks fly with Edward, the gorgeous ex-soldier turned resident chef, and are those sidelong looks Juliet's getting from her boss, the American tycoon Jasper Roth?
As the snow starts to fall on the idyllic Cotswolds countryside, so does the veneer of genteel high society and there are more than a few ancient skeletons rattling out of the Hall's numerous dark cupboards!
If you fancy looking at Lynn's cook books, get your teeth into How To Make Your Own Soda or The Irish Pantry.
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Date: 2013-12-17 08:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-17 09:21 pm (UTC)