Since you last heard from me, I’ve had quite the week — some of it non-literary, of course, but most of it centered around me living the most literary life I can.
I made the bookmarks you see in the above photo in preparation for the upcoming readings and appearances I’m doing. I will need to make more soon, but these helped me restock my supply. I like how these turned out.
In the past week, I’ve managed to edit and do some rewrites on 20,000 words of my 6th novel that I’m trying desperately to complete, so I can get it out to beta readers ASAP. I have about 25,000 more words to get through, so wish me luck. If you’re a paying subscriber, I’ll be sharing a couple chapters from the novel beyond the paywall — remember that it’s still a work in progress, but I’m getting there.
On Tuesday, I received an email from the program coordinator of the Norfolk Arts Center, asking if I’d answer some questions for the featured artists corner of the August newsletter. Naturally, I obliged, so he sent me the questions, and I provided the answers. I don’t know how they will use them in the newsletter (my complete answers or snippets of them), so I thought I’d share the questions and my answers here with you.
Here they are:
1. At what point did you decide to be an author and what was your path to publication? I’ve always wanted to be an author. It’s been my dream since I was a child. I went to UNL and majored in English, but I also got a teaching certificate in English and Spanish to pay the bills while I pursued the writing dream. Over the years, I wrote whenever possible and tried to gain an agent so that I could follow the traditional route toward publication. I got a few nibbles, but I couldn’t manage to snag an agent. Meanwhile, my first novel was languishing in the figurative drawer. I’d begun writing a book column called “Novel Thoughts” for the Norfolk Daily News early in 2010 (and I’m still writing it to this day), so in 2014 I asked the editor if he’d consider serializing my first novel. He agreed to do that, and “The Clearwater House” ran one chapter a week in the online edition for an entire year. By the end of that year, so many people wanted their own copies of it that I had to find a way to get the book out there in paperback form. Thus, I ended up going the self-publication route via Amazon’s print-on-demand feature. Once I started down that path with the first book, it was easy to continue self-publishing the following books, and they are all available as eBooks, too. I have five out so far and a sixth novel is nearing completion. 2. Who is your favorite character to write, and why is that person your favorite? If picking a favorite character would be like picking a favorite child, which character seems to be the most demanding or your attention and detail as a writer? I have two favorites. First is Lillian Chase, the protagonist of “The Clearwater House,” because I devoted so much time to that first book that I felt like I really got to know her. My other favorite is Marvin Wineski, the veteran protagonist of “Ticker Tape” because he came to me one day fully formed and demanded I write his story. I spend a lot of time with veterans through my role as an American Legion Rider and as the daughter of an Air Force veteran, so veterans have a special place in my heart. 3. Do you have any odd (writing) habits? Some people think that it’s odd that I handwrite the first drafts of my novels. I love to handwrite things even though typing on the laptop is much faster. Handwriting brings the magic of writing to life in front of my eyes, and it slows the process so that I focus more on the story I’m telling. 4. Tell us what you enjoy most about writing? Now that I’ve left teaching behind to focus solely on my writing career, I love everything about my writing life. I probably most enjoy the quiet solitude of working on it alone in my house, but I also really enjoy doing readings and appearances at libraries and other literary events. Meeting my readers fuels my drive to create even more stories. 5. Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your jobs/education in your writing? Once a teacher, always a teacher. Georgia, the protagonist of “State of Georgia . . . and Other Writings” is a retired teacher. “Twinges” is completely about an elementary teacher and her student who grows up to be evil. The novel I’m currently writing has a high school principal who is also a motorcyclist (like I am) as the protagonist. Additionally, I write a weekly piece called “Cognate Cognizance” in which I incorporate my 30 years of experience as a Spanish teacher to share insights that help my subscribers improve their English and Spanish vocabularies. “Cognate Cognizance” is found at cognatecognizance.substack.com. 6. What are some books or authors that you would recommend to our readers? My column that appears twice a month in the Norfolk Daily News is all about books that I recommend, but when people ask me what my favorite book is, the answer will always be “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. In more contemporary literature, I absolutely adore “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish. There’s not enough space here for me to recommend all the books that I love. 7. If you had one text, no more than 160 characters to send to everyone on earth, what would it say? Travel the world, read great books, learn another language, find your passion, stretch your body and your mind, and be kind to animals and to each other.
In preparation for my upcoming readings, I ordered a bunch of copies of my books to take with me to those events. Amazon sends my books in very strange ways. Two boxes arrived days ago, and then I got a lone box with two books in it today followed by a large box with the remaining books in it. I was surprised to find two books in the one box because usually I get a box that only has ONE book in it and then the rest come all together in one or two large boxes. This time, I ordered quite a few because from tomorrow through September 8th, I have 9 readings/appearances set up.
Those can all be seen on my website on the Readings and Appearances page if you’re interested to know when and where: author website
I will be speaking at six libraries and holding down the fort for the Nebraska Writers Guild booth at the Nebraska State Fair for three days. One of the libraries is in Rapid City, SD, and will be my first official out-of-state appearance, and one of the libraries is the Columbus Public Library’s yearly author fair on September 2nd, for which I’m the keynote speaker. Woohoo!
Last night, I drove up to Ponca State Park and met and listened to William Kent Krueger speak about his writing life and journey. He’s a well-known writer, as evidenced by the large crowd there, and he’s a very nice guy who signed my book with a lovely inscription.
With luck and a lot more hard work, maybe I’ll be as good of a writer as he is someday and maybe even as well known. I enjoyed listening to him speak and was happy to hear him talk about his journey to where he is now because that’s basically what I talk about at my appearances, too.
While there, I chatted with a couple women at my table, and they ended up buying three of my books from me after his event! Nice, right? What was funny, though, is we went out to my car, which I already have loaded for my event tomorrow, so they could look at my five novels and see which they’d want. I joked that I felt like I was selling them drugs out of the back of my vehicle.
On top of my upcoming appearances, I’m also going to be writing 4 or 5 stories for the Norfolk Daily News about things going on in and around Neligh. So, I really really really need to get those last 25,000 words of my novel done, so I can put that aside for most of August and focus on the newspaper stories, my column, my appearances, and other things that are bound to come up.
Thanks for being a part of my writing journey. If you would like to become a paying subscriber, please upgrade so you can read what’s beyond the paywall.
Until next time.
Tammy Marshall
I swear that the book I’m writing isn’t a romance, but you might not believe me by the excerpt I’m sharing here.
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