What are the best and worst things about being a writer?

The best: the thrill of creating people and stories from the world of my imagination. The worst: deadlines!

How does your family deal with having a romance writer in their midst?

My family is wonderful and very happy for me. It isn’t always easy, since I also teach high school English full-time, but my husband and two young children encourage me and get excited over all the little milestones I achieve along the way. My extended family--parents, sisters, in-laws, etc.--are also very supportive and enthusiastic about my writing.

When did you first know you were a writer?

I knew I loved the written word from a very young age--as early as I can remember one of my favorite things was to sit next to my mother while she read to me and my sisters. Saturday morning visits to the library were one of the highlights of my week when I was a child; I must have signed out the book, A LITTLE PRINCESS by Frances Hodgson Burnett, over a dozen times before I received a copy of the book as a gift one Christmas. I read voraciously - fairytales, novels, short stories, classics, and eventually historical and contemporary romances--all through high school and college, but I didn’t make my first real attempt at actually writing fiction until I was nearly twenty-one.

My first efforts were short stories; however I soon discovered that the short form wasn’t for me. I put word to page of my first novel when I was twenty-seven, just after completing my Master’s degree in English; that manuscript is still unpublished, though I have hope that it might eventually see print one day. But since it is partially set in Russia, the market wouldn’t be favorable for that right now. I started it in May of 1993, and it took me nearly four years to finish, in part because I became a mother for the first time within the space of those years and in part because I was learning the craft of writing as I wrote that manuscript. I completed a second novel in late 1997 and was working on a third, SECRET VOWS, in 1998, when a partial of it earned me the notice of the literary agency that represents me now. My agent took me on in May of 1999; I finished writing SECRET VOWS in September of 1999, and Avon/HarperCollins offered me a two-book deal in January of 2000. The rest, as they say, is history.

What is the most common pitfall on the road to writing success?

Hmmmm…I’ve never been good at coming up with simple, one-reason answers, as you can tell from my rambling response above. :) However, if had to narrow it down, I’d say one of the most common pitfalls on the road to success for many writers would be difficulty in fighting a condition I like to call "waning focus." Many people have written two, three, four, or more wonderful beginnings to books, but they’ve never finished a single manuscript. To find success in a writing career, whether success to you means simply being published or if it’s a permanent spot on the NY Times bestseller list, you must produce saleable, completed manuscripts. You need stubborn persistence to make it in this business; those who give up too easily or jump from idea to idea without working all the way through the difficulties of writing the middle and end of a book cannot find success.

Do you belong to any critique groups or writer's organizations?

Yes. I belong to Central New York Romance Writers and of course to Romance Writers Of America. As for critique groups--years ago I used to get together regularly with two writing friends and critique every other week or so, but with the birth of my children and an increasingly hectic life of teaching, parenting, and writing, that luxury has gone by the wayside. I do find that critiquing can still be valuable, though, especially when I’m facing a particularly stubborn problem in my plotting and/or characterization process…which seems to lead into question following this one rather well….

What do you do when creatively blocked or empty?

I try different things, depending on my mood, the problem that’s "blocking" me, or what’s happening in my life at that time that could be contributing to the creative difficulty. A lot of times I find that listening to certain types of music--often when I’m driving--can help me to get my creative juices flowing more easily. When I’m nearing the last quarter of a book and am trying to end things in a powerful and emotionally satisfying way, and yet nothing seems to be working, even though I’d plotted the entire thing from the very beginning, I tend to have one or more gripe sessions about it with various family members and writing friends. The griping usually turns into brainstorming...and lo and behold, before I know it, I’ve found a way out of the creative bind.

Where do you see the romance genre going in the next five or ten years? Your own career?

I think romance as a genre will continue to expand; many people like to feel uplifted by what they read, and romances provide that result like no other genre can. It’s no accident that romance accounts for nearly 60% of mass market fiction sales. Emotionally satisfying fiction will always be in high demand, and so I think romance will be stronger than ever ten years from now. As for my own career - well, I can only hope it will grow at as healthy a pace. :)

What authors or others have had significant influence in your writing?

Many writers have influenced me in a variety of ways. As far as story themes go, I think that classic tales, when I was younger, like the works of Frances Hodgson Burnett and Laura Ingalls Wilder--any stories that resonated with interesting characters and themes of justice, redemption, and nobility (in terms of one’s character, not royal title)--were and still are popular with me. As an adult, I gravitate toward the same themes in different forms; for example, Shakespeare’s works continue to rank among my favorites. As far as people other than authors who have influenced my writing, I’d have to say my parents, first, by instilling in me a love of words and language from an early age, and teaching me to believe I could achieve anything, including writing books and getting them published. I’ve also had several teachers, professors, fellow writers, and other family members who encouraged me along the way.

What would you say to people who have never read a romance novel, yet denigrate them anyway?

The same thing I say to anyone who speaks out on any topic about which they are uninformed: do your homework and then we can have a chat about it. I’m always happy to hear anyone’s opinions on any topic, including romance, but any talk that’s not supported by information and knowledge is simply a discharge of hot air.

Covers are a hot issue in the romance (novel) industry. If you could design your ideal cover, what would that be? (People, flowers, clinch/no clinch, plain brown wrapper, cover made of Superglue, so nobody could put it down, literally?)

Ah, this is a tough one for me. To be honest, I’m not trained in graphic arts and so have little to offer in the way of what would be deemed attractive to the general reading population. I know that I tend to pick up books that have lush colors and striking images, whether they are of people or an object or setting. Bland colors don’t do much for me; neither do nondescript designs. The only kind of clinch cover I really don’t like is one where the pose places the heroine in what I consider to be a demeaning or blatantly subservient position. I feel that I’ve been very fortunate with the covers that Avon’s Art Department has created for the three books of mine published thus far; they’re in vibrant colors with a styling that is unique to them (an embossed arch over the characters and a rippling, lacy effect to the cover’s background color). I trust in the Art Department’s professionalism and knowledge in creating covers that will both capture the feeling of my stories and help to sell them to readers.

What is your work environment like? Can you take us into your writing space in fifty words or less?

It’s a spare bedroom-turned-office that I share with my husband. I have my treasured flat-screened computer, bookcases of reference texts and novels, and a two-drawer file with a little fountain atop it. Scattered around the office are family photos, as well as objects of personal significance or inspiration.

Do you have any writing rituals when you sit down to work; special music, foods, drinks, mascots, etc?

No, I don’t have any special rituals. I procrastinate a lot, but I don’t consider that a ritual (at least not one I want to nurture!) After reading through a bit of what I wrote during my last session, to get me back into the flow of the story, I try to just dive into whatever I’m working on. Because I work full-time as a teacher, my writing must be done primarily in the evenings, and even then, with two small children at home, uninterrupted writing time is at a premium, so I’ve learned to try to make the best of the hours - or minutes - I have. Sometimes I do like to listen to music while I write and other times it distracts me. It depends on the scene I’m writing, as well as my mood. The same goes for what I eat or drink while writing. More often than not, if I’m drinking something it will be hot tea or a glass of wine. I usually eat at the computer only when I’m on a deadline crunch and working long hours into the night, and then its trail mix or something similar to keep my energy-level up.

The Uppity Women volumes by Vicki Leon are wonderful research tools for heroines or villainesses. Do you have a favourite real-life uppity woman?

I’ve always admired strong women, whether that means a “break the mold” kind of woman like those featured in the Uppity Women texts or simply a woman of conviction and character. My own mother has been a source of inspiration in this area; she spent a good portion of her adult life (and my youth--I was the sixth of seven daughters) as a stay-at-home mother before going back to school to fulfill a dream of working professionally. I was fifteen when she began her coursework toward attaining that goal, and it was an amazing and wonderful experience to watch her succeed in that achievement. She did it all with the grace, determination, and strength of spirit that have always been her hallmarks. She was and still is a wonderful role model for me.

I especially enjoy the writing advice portion of your website; a great resource for us pre-published types, especially the entries on voice and discipline. What is the single best piece of advice you have received? The worst?

There are two pieces of “best” advice I’ve received, I think, and I’d have difficulty picking one over the other. The first would be to believe in yourself and trust in your storytelling instincts. It’s very easy to allow other voices and other opinions to color your work and change it from what it is meant to be. This isn’t to say that there is no such thing as useful critique or feedback, but only that you have to learn to listen and then use what feels right and discard the rest. No one else’s name is going to go on the cover of your book. It’s your baby, so to speak, and you need to keep control of it from a creative standpoint. The second piece of advice would be to handle yourself professionally at all times, no matter how tempting it may be to do otherwise--and in the process to be as genuinely nice to people as you can, regardless of who they are/how important the rest of the world deems them. People appreciate it, and you’ll never find yourself on one side of the river, wanting to get back over but unable to because all of the bridges you’ve burned.

The worst advice I received stems from a specific incident: someone once encouraged me to approach an agent in the hallway at a conference and ask her opinion on how to handle something specific I would be facing in an editor’s appointment later that day. It’s not that the advice was necessarily horrible in and of itself--something similar might work in other circumstances and for other people - but it wasn’t right for me, then, and I knew it. I’m not a natural “schmoozer.” I never have been. I love to talk to people and in my day job I spend a good deal of time interacting with and even counseling others, but I don’t feel comfortable cornering people based upon who they are or what they know, whether in the scope of a writing career or not. I was as yet unpublished and unagented when I received this advice, and I felt deep down inside that it would be a mistake to follow it, but I ignored my internal warnings and did it anyway, convincing myself that I’d never get anywhere if I didn’t force myself to develop some “guts.” It didn’t go well, to say the least. I ended up feeling embarrassed and intrusive, and I’m pretty sure that the agent I cornered wasn’t too thrilled, either. I kicked myself all the way back to the lobby after that, and I’ve never forgotten it, though it happened more than six years ago. It taught me that I had to believe in myself and allow myself to be who I am, for better or for worse. Challenging yourself is fine, but jumping off cliffs without a parachute is not.

What first drew you to the medieval period? Why is it perfect for romance?

I think the medieval period more than many other time periods has a sort of untamed, passionate, and dangerous aura that lends well to the emotional kinds of stories I like to read and write. It was a time of uncertainty and a daily struggle for survival, whether against illness, marauding forces, or political intrigue. Life was sort of cranked up a notch, it seems to me, and I believe that adds a hum of desperation and/or excitement to anything that is mixed with it. Heroism can seem larger than life against such a backdrop, as can the sweep of all-encompassing love.

Are there other areas you would like to explore someday? Perhaps a Russian historical?

I’m definitely open to other time periods, settings, and types of writing. At this point in my career, however, I’m trying to establish a base of readers and so I need to stick with one thing for a while in order to do that. Also, while I may have what I consider a great idea for a book or series, it doesn’t necessarily mean I can write it and expect to sell it, no matter how much I, my editor or agent may like it. The plain truth is that every book must be marketable in order for a publisher to put the time, money, and effort into getting it in print; they have to be able to earn a profit on their investment. If you’re Nora Roberts or Heather Graham you probably have a better shot at getting a traditionally unmarketable concept out there in bookstores, but for most authors, there are certain books of the heart that will need to remain in the desk drawer until either the author has achieved a certain level of name recognition and sales or the market has changed enough to make that unusual manuscript/setting/time period worthwhile for the publisher. Hence, I think it’s unlikely that my Russia-set manuscript will be seeing the light of day any time soon. :)

The prologue for Secret Vows sucked me right into Catherine's plight, and of course the epilogue gave me the happily ever after sigh. What is the main advantage of the first person viewpoint?

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not really a fan of books written completely in the first person viewpoint. I think it can be interesting and engrossing if handled well, but such a result can be very difficult to achieve. That said, the prologue of SECRET VOWS is written in the first person viewpoint for the purpose of allowing the reader to empathize quickly and deeply with Catherine, while the epilogue follows suit to provide a closure of that framing. This is the main advantage of the first person POV, I think--allowing readers to connect with your character with much deeper, swift intensity that the gradual knowing that comes from the third person POV.

As a curious aside, I didn’t intend to have a first person prologue in SECRET VOWS; I’d actually written a completely different scene for the opening of the book, done in the traditional third person POV and showing Catherine and Eduard in one of their early interactions. But when I was about halfway through the writing of the manuscript, I reached a point of impasse, where nothing was coming out the way I wanted it to. In a fit of frustration, I decided to write out a first person character study of Catherine, to try to work through some of the kinks that kept stalling me. As one of the world’s slowest writers (at least it feels like that much of the time!), I astonished myself when it took me only about 25 minutes of furious and emotional writing to complete the character study. When I was done I had a nearly twelve page “letter” from Catherine, telling me about her predicament, her insecurities, her feelings, and her dreams. I read it to my critique group (I’d gone to a writing immersion weekend at a friend’s camp at the time) and they were moved by it--enough so that they convinced me to use that first person character study as the book’s prologue, in place of what I’d originally written. Of course it was condensed down to about four and a half pages by the time it went into print, but that’s the story of how Catherine’s first person prologue came to be in SECRET VOWS at all. I feel very fortunate that it worked out the way it did, however, because I was much happier with the “feel” of the story’s opening afterward--and both my agent and editor told me that it was that prologue that first grabbed their attention regarding my work.

The Maiden Warrior and The Crimson Lady both look like they have strong, unique heroines. What would you say makes a Mary Reed McCall heroine (or book) stand out from the rest?

Wow - this is a great question that gets me thinking on a more objective level about my characters! :) I’d say that for any heroine to interest me enough for me to take the time to write her story, she needs to have a core of strength, a sense of fairness/honor…and a really big problem on her hands. I also like my heroines to possess qualities that may not be recognized, initially, as being desirable by society at large or perhaps by the hero, even--but that ultimately save the day (and often the hero, whether literally or figuratively) and help to bring the story to a satisfying denouement. People seem to describe my books as “complex,” “intense,” and “descriptive”--and I guess that speaks to the fact that I like to examine the often complicated inner workings of the heart and mind against a backdrop of difficult and dangerous times.

The connection between music and story is both timeless and strong; what is in your CD player during working hours these days?

As is usually the case, I’m trading off between several CDs while writing or simply brainstorming (the latter which usually happens when I’m driving or exercising). But for the most part, lately, for vocals it’s Faith Hill’s “Cry” and for instrumental it’s a collection called “Celtic Fantasy.”

As we peek over your cybershoulder, what do we see as your screensaver?

My screensaver isn’t very exciting, largely because if the computer is on I’m usually working on it. I have it set to “go to sleep” after only a couple of minutes, in the event that I get pulled away from writing because one of the kids wakes up or something. It’s just the colored, curvy swirls. My desktop wallpaper is usually a scene from the current season or holiday; I do like to change this frequently and I try to pick pictures that are cheerful or invigorating for me.

You have been given five minutes in the world's largest bookstore; whatever you can fit in your cart in that time is free. What's the first thing you grab? What else fills the cart?

Probably research books from whatever time period or topic factors in my latest manuscript. I’d likely position myself right near the medieval history section and see what struck my fancy. As for other things...well, I’ve always been partial to nice bookmarks and other similar “reading tools." :)

Poof! You have been made queen of romance fiction. What is your first decree? Is there a pet peeve you would banish? A favourite vanished or retired author to be summoned back?

Hmmmm--this isn’t an easy one for me as my imaginings don’t often lean toward this topic. I’m just thrilled to have people read my books, forget about anyone putting me in charge of anything. :) But if I were to come up with an answer to this, I guess a pet peeve would be when characters in books tell information in dialog--or in narrative passages for that matter--that the reader may need, but that the character him/herself already knows and would never say aloud. An example would be something like, if a character says, “Well, you know I never did like our uncle, who tricked our mother into leaving the family, leading to her premature death.” Those kinds of “information dumps” make me crazy!

Does Rhett come back for Scarlett?

Of course! :)

Any parting comments, shameless plugs, rhetorical questions or silly slogans you care to impart?

To all of you who are writers seeking publication (I personally don’t say “aspiring writers” and never thought of myself that way, because to me, if you’re writing regularly, you’re already a writer, whether you’re published or not)--keep honing your craft and don’t give up. A good part of writing success is timing, and you want to be ready when the right time comes. As for shameless plugs, my next book will be out in June 2003. It’s called THE CRIMSON LADY, and it’s another emotional medieval, set in 1293 this time. It centers on a former notorious prostitute and outlaw who manages to escape London and that difficult existence make a better life for herself. However, she’s forced to confront her painful past again when the hero finds her and blackmails her into returning to help him find his foster-sister, who was sold into prostitution while he was serving in the Holy Land.

Where can readers contact you?

The best way is probably through my website: www.maryreedmccall.com. There is an e-mail contact button there, as well as a snail-mail address, if someone prefers the old-fashioned way of writing to me.