The only thing that hanging out with writer friends, is getting to cheer on their new releases. And I'm so excited to have Cara here today to talk writing -- both fiction and nonfiction -- plus mugs and dogs and seriously can you stand the cuteness in that picture????? 

Oh, and coconut because ... COCONUT!!!!!! 

If we were at a coffee shop, what would you order?
Tea! Some kind of black tea with an interesting flavor. My current favorite is Salted Caramel Chocolate tea, but I also love anything with coconut in it!

I’m so excited that Blind Turn is available for everyone to enjoy (I’m so honored that I had the opportunity to read an advance copy). What was the idea (or coffee bean maybe? :-) ) that triggered this story?
Thanks so much for being a reader. The support I’ve gotten from other authors has made publishing during a pandemic a little less lonely. 
 
As far as the inspiration for Blind Turn, the hardest thing I’ve done as a mom is teach my kids to drive. After having their lives in your hands for years, suddenly you have to put your life in their hands. About the time my oldest was learning to drive, there was a horrific accident in the county just east of us. A young driver hit an Amish buggy and killed the family inside. That accident haunted me and probably made me jumpier than need be in the passenger seat. I couldn’t shake it, so I wrote through the idea of how lives move on after a good kid does something so terribly tragic. It helped remind my worried mama soul that even in the worst of circumstances, we can find a way through.
 
You also write non-fiction. How do you juggle the demands of two very different writing endeavors?
Sometimes I don’t do it very well! I tend to lean in one direction or another when a book is in its launch period. But dividing my days does help. The nonfiction mornings are busy and active—lots of email or research or phone calls, plus sometimes I’m testing out a product or an idea. I can write nonfiction fast, so that’s the tempo of my mornings. I can also write nonfiction pretty much anywhere/anytime and love a good deadline. For fiction I have to switch gears. I definitely need quiet and solitude to work. When my kids were living here, that meant I didn’t write fiction in the summers because there were too many chances of being interrupted. (And I’m not nice to people who interrupt me when I’m in the midst of a story…just ask my poor husband.)
 
The worlds of fiction and nonfiction publishing have been very different experiences, but there is plenty of overlap. I worry, often, that I can’t dig deep enough into either to be truly successful. It’s made me redefine success. Its also made me face up to the limits of what one person can do in a day. 
 
I love that you've been able to redefine success and limits. That's something I'm still struggling with. Can you give us a hint about what you’re working on next?
I'm wrestling with too many projects and am hoping to settle on just one or two soon. I’m exploring another ‘dog book’ idea—working through the storyline and writing scenes. I’m also marinating two different fiction manuscripts—one is mostly finished but my agent is demanding a huge overhaul, so to avoid that task, I’ve been dabbling with another one that is nearer to my heart (but not quite so ‘commercial’). Plus, I have a nonfiction project about parenting and breaking an unruly horse (I promise there is overlap!), that has languished a long time on my laptop.
 
That last one made me laugh. My teenage boy is much easier than the majority of horses I've worked with. :-) Back to the coffee shop. Do you eavesdrop on folks at neighboring tables or tune everyone out?
I eavesdrop terribly – even if they aren’t speaking. I love to watch body language, study wardrobe choices, guess ages, and imagine lives. I can tune everyone out if I must. I wrote my newspaper column and started my first blog in a coffee shop, four hours a week while my oldest son was taking fencing classes.
 
Finally tell me something about yourself that will make the people at the next table scoot closer to hear better … or maybe scoot further away. ;-) 
I grew up with Chris Coons, the senator from Delaware who took Biden’s seat and was recently in the running for a cabinet seat. His mom was my piano teacher and became one my mom’s best friends, so our families spent time together. I even lived with Chris (as a roommate) briefly when I was in Wilmington. He convinced me to be a mentor for his I Have a Dream project and he taught me how to make homemade pizza. He’s a great guy—the real deal when it comes to wanting to help people and make the world a better place. Plus, he’s wickedly funny and smarter than anyone I know.

Where to find Cara ... 

www.carawrites.com

whowillletthedogsout.org

Facebook and on Instagram

In addition to starting a notebook for each project, I also create a Pinterest board. During the drafting phase, I keep the board private because I'm superstitious (don't judge!) and I don't like sharing story information before the story is ready for prime time.

The types of images I save: locations, objects that pique my interest and have a part in the story (even if only a small mention), animals that remind me of a character in the book, recipes, or anything else that fits with the story.

The one thing you won't find, though ... photos representing the various characters. I've always resisted putting an actual face to the people in my mind. Likewise when I read, I don't want someone else's vision hijacking my imagination. 

You can check out the story boards for The Distance Home and Carousel Beach, and see the images that inspired me during the writing process. 

In keeping with giving a shoutout to something that's making me particularly happy on the last Monday of the month, today's happy moment is courtesy of MasterClass. 

I'd looked into this in its early days but, honestly, didn't give it the time it deserved for no other reason than, well ... it was one more distraction I didn't need. Then a couple of years ago, my son took an interest in some of the courses and I signed up for a membership. But, in typical form, I never made the time to watch the classes that intrigued me.

The following year, I renewed and this time, I started watching. We're in our third year and I admit, I'm completely hooked.

Whenever I start a new writing project, I seek out books that have some similarities to what I'm working on. The magic ingredient that drew me to this book was the shipwreck. I absolutely loved these characters and the different POVs.

From Goodreads:
As the First World War rages in continental Europe, two New York heiresses, Sydney and Brooke Sinclair, are due to set sail for England. Brooke is engaged to marry impoverished aristocrat Edward Thorpe-Tracey, the future Lord Northbrook, in thewedding of the social calendar. Sydney has other adventures in mind; she is drawn to the burgeoning suffragette movement, which is a constant source of embarrassment to her proper sister. As international tempers flare, the German embassy releases a warning that any ships making the Atlantic crossing are at risk. Undaunted, Sydney and Brooke board the Lusitaniafor the seven-day voyage with Edward, not knowing that disaster lies ahead.

In London, Isabel Nelson, a young woman grateful to have escaped her blemished reputation in Oxford, has found employment at the British Admiralty in the mysterious Room 40. While she begins as a secretary, it isn’t long before her skills in codes and cyphers are called on, and she learns a devastating truth and the true cost of war.

As the days of the voyage pass, these four lives collide in a struggle for survival as the Lusitania meets its deadly fate.

Whenever a story idea nestles in my brain, I start a project notebook for it. These notebooks become my keep-all from initial brainstorming through final revisions. 

What's in them? 
1) Notes.
I include everything that comes to mind here - all of my "what if" or "this could happen" thoughts as well as research on various topics related to the story. This is where I also keep a copy of the back cover blurb, the synopsis, and whatever Mindmaps I've created.

2) Timeline
I always print a calendar for the year the book will take place and track chapters. I learned the hard way that it's far too easy to clip along with a story, not paying attention to what day things are happening until your characters are going to work on Saturday morning when they work a traditional Monday - Friday job (yeah, I know, those don't really exist anymore), or I lose track of how much time has gone by. 

3) Storyboards
Every morning before I start to write, I brainstorm what the current chapter is about. I don't re-read what I've written (too easy to get sucked into triple guessing and revising), but having the notes in the storyboard, helps propel me forward. 

4) A miscellaneous tab
Here's where I keep track of my beta readers and folks who've helped with the book. Another lesson I learned the hard way ... by the time I'm writing the acknowledgements page for one project, I'm usually armpit deep in another and can barely remember who I am much less who helped me with this particular project.

I'll also write down any creative marketing ideas I've come across that would be relevant for that project.

And, of course ... 
5) A photo that takes me immediately into the story.

Winnie the Pooh has long been one of my favorites. Need a mood boost? Turn to Pooh and his buds for a lift. And whether it's one of the movies or book, the result is always the same. And age, my friends, has nothing to do with it. I think I adore Pooh and his buds as much now as I did when I was a kid!

So happy your day, Winnie the Pooh. Thank you for always making me smile.

This may be a strange recommendation considering my Monday post on taking an hour to not do anything, but I think it actually fits. While I love those first words of the day before it becomes light outside and before anyone else is awake around me, the point of the book is to find that extra hour to do something you otherwise wouldn't have the time to do. 

For me, right now, that goal is to read more. As a writer, reading is part of the job and yet I've been brainwashed into believing that sitting and reading in the middle of the day is wrong. I'll read before bed and whenever I'm waiting on something (for example, when my son is at the gym, or a doctor's appointment), but I will rarely give myself the okay to sit, read, relax when I'm at home.

So yes, my first slice of cake, as Karma Brown calls it, is a deliciously quiet hour of reading. 

From Goodreads: 
How to find guilt-free time for what you really want to do, and why it matters

Do you feel like you’re always busy, even as your to-do list continues to grow?

Do you think you can’t keep up as it is, let alone add another thing to your plate?

An award-winning journalist, avid reader and new mom, Karma Brown dreamed of writing her first novel. But between diapers and tight deadlines, how could she? Like so many of us, she felt stretched taut and hyper-scheduled, her time a commodity over which she had lost control. For Brown, the answer to this problem was to rise earlier every day and use that time to write. Although she experienced missteps along the way, after committing to her alarm clock and an online community of early risers, she completed a debut novel that became a national bestseller.

In The 4% Fix, Karma Brown reveals the latest research about time management and goal-setting and shares strategies that have worked for her as well as for others. Refreshingly, her jargon-free approach doesn’t include time-tracking spreadsheets, tips on how to squeeze in yoga exercises while cooking dinner, or methods that add bulk to those never-ending lists.

How will you use this one hour—only 4% of your day—to change your life?

Writing a book isn't different from any other project. There are steps to take, milestones to meet. When I first started, I savored every step. Finishing a first draft was HUGE. Finishing a round of revisions, wine time. Getting a request from an agent, pop that champagne. 

Somewhere along the way, those individual milestones seemed to merge into one long to-do. I'd barely get one done and I'd already be racing into the next. I'd finish one manuscript and immediately dive into the next one. "No rest for the wicked," I'd joke. 

But here's the problem with that ... writing is creative (duh, I know) and creativity needs to be nurtured (something I clearly suck at). By not taking time to appreciate each milestone, I'd turned writing into one long slog. And there's only so long you can slog before mental exhaustion makes every word too heavy to carry one step further.

That's where you'll find me, sitting at the bottom of the hill, the fork in the path from one completed project and the start of a new one. Normally, I'd take a deep breath (a quick one) and plod on up the hill with my new story ideas pushing me along. 

This week, I got to that fork after sending the manuscript to the editor and immediately turned to attack the next steps. But no, not this time. Maybe because I'm too drained from a year (okay, years if we're honest) of non-stop slogging and frustrations. Maybe because I miss enjoying the process. 

This week, I chose not to continue up that next path immediately. I chose to honor that process, to enjoy the big fat notebook that is a completed draft of a book. I'm not stressing about the next step (okay maybe a little).  

For the first time in a very long time, I'm giving myself the time to celebrate a milestone.

About a month into the stay-at-home order last year, I started using the first hour of my day to do a meditation exercise via the Headspace app and read. That was my time to be quiet, without the distractions of the other people in my house or email or social media (the only one I couldn't ignore was the fluffy orange cat who thought meditation time was the perfect opportunity to perfect his stealth pouncing technique).

Somewhere along the way, though, I lost focus on the significance of that hour and allowed other distractions to seep in. Deadlines, projects I'd neglected because of said deadlines, catching up on news and social media and planning and oh my!

Between the news and emotion overload that was 2020 and what I was pushing myself to accomplish, I got to the end of the year even more exhausted than usual. The holidays were quiet but not relaxing. And so far, 2021 hasn't proven to be very chill either.  

And then a couple of days ago, this notification popped up, courtesy of my neglected friend Headspace ... 

Who am I to ignore such wisdom?!

​I've re-instated my hour quiet time while the world is still dark outside and the house is (mostly) still snoring. And yesterday, I did something I haven't done in ages -- I sat on the couch and crocheted, no noise, no guilt.

And guess what ... go ahead, guess ... :-) 
For the first time in quite some time, I felt more grounded. AND found the enthusiasm to get back to writing. 

A few months ago I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post by a fellow author about THE GIRL WHO READS ON THE METRO. I admit, the title and cover had me immediately. This turned out to be one of the best reads of 2020.


From Goodreads:
In the vein of Amelie and The Little Paris Bookshop, a modern fairytale about a French woman whose life is turned upside down when she meets a reclusive bookseller and his young daughter.

Juliette leads a perfectly ordinary life in Paris, working a slow office job, dating a string of not-quite-right men, and fighting off melancholy. The only bright spots in her day are her metro rides across the city and the stories she dreams up about the strangers reading books across from her: the old lady, the math student, the amateur ornithologist, the woman in love, the girl who always tears up at page 247.

One morning, avoiding the office for as long as she can, Juliette finds herself on a new block, in front of a rusty gate wedged open with a book. Unable to resist, Juliette walks through, into the bizarre and enchanting lives of Soliman and his young daughter, Zaide. Before she realizes entirely what is happening, Juliette agrees to become a passeur, Soliman's name for the booksellers he hires to take stacks of used books out of his store and into the world, using their imagination and intuition to match books with readers. Suddenly, Juliette's daydreaming becomes her reality, and when Soliman asks her to move in to their store to take care of Zaide while he goes away, she has to decide if she is ready to throw herself headfirst into this new life.

Big-hearted, funny, and gloriously zany, The Girl Who Reads on the Metro is a delayed coming-of-age story about a young woman who dares to change her life, and a celebration of the power of books to unite us all.