Meet Margaret Brownley

Sandra here with a special guest. We are very privileged to have author Margaret Brownley with us today.

Margaret Brownley has published more than 20 books writing for Harlequin, St.Martin’s Press and Penguin. Her books have been published in 15 languages. She also co-wrote a storyline for a daytime soap. She’s currently writing “love and laughter” in the old west for Thomas Nelson. A LADY LIKE SARAH will be in bookstores 12/29.

Please join me in welcoming this renowned author to Seekerville.

And yes, this evening, we will have drawings for copies of Margaret's latest release, A LADY LIKE SARAH. Margaret will be giving away a copy and our Tina, who is one of Margaret's biggest fans will also give away a copy.

So Margaret, We have some questions for you.

1. I read you got started writing fiction because of your Grisholm
style newsletters. Can you give us more details

You mean you want to hear about vanishing picnic baskets, stone cold cuts and killer ants?

Seriously, I’ve written fiction all my life. It was kind of a secret vice. I wrote my first book in fifth grade (a mystery which I didn’t know how to end) and entered every short story contest I could find during my teens. My angst-driven stories didn’t even garner an honorable mention. That and the fact that I failed eighth grade English didn’t do a whole lot for my self-esteem. Diagram a sentence? Are you kidding me? I can fix any sentence but don’t ask me how I do it. I’m like the musician who can’t read music. I probably would still be a closet writer had my pastor not suggested that maybe God was calling me to write fiction. Hey, who am I to argue with the Big Man?

2. Tell us about your journey to get published.

It was a long and difficult journey. I wrote four books before I published my first one including the world’s worse romance novel. Trust me, sometimes it’s a good thing that our early attempts don’t get published. After selling my first book, things got even more difficult. It seemed like every time I sold a book, the publisher or line went belly-up. I probably own the record for having the most sold books that never got printed. Things got so bad that when I finally landed a contract with Harlequin, my writer friends begged me not to sign it for fear I would close its doors, too.
3. Your December release A LADY LIKE SARAH sounds fun. Can you tell
us about how you came up with the idea?

Each book in my Rocky Creek series is based on historical events. A Lady Like Sarah was inspired by the escapades of Pearl Hart. Desperate to help her seriously-ill mother, she stopped a stage and, with the help of a loaded pistol, convinced its passengers to help pay her poor mama’s medical bills. (Bet you didn’t know that health care was highway robbery even back in the Old West.) The question that kept running though my mind was, how desperate would a person have to be to rob a stage? Suddenly a character named Sarah popped up on the page and demanded in no uncertain terms that I tell her story.

I got the idea for the next book in the series, A Suitor for Jenny (September 2010) after seeing a meeting notice in an old Kansas newspaper for an organization called The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Male Independence. What fun the heroine has breaking through that society!

4. I notice you have Internet presence through your website, Youtube, Facebook, etc. How helpful/necessary do you think this is for the modern author?

To be honest, I don’t really know. I’m not sure anyone has the answer to that question. I‘ve heard that publishers expect even unpublished writers to have a web presence these days, but I do think you have to be careful. I see writers posting rejections, bad reviews and personal information, and I don’t think that’s the kind of web presence publishers are looking for. If you were going on a job interview, would you want a prospective employer to know that you’d been turned down by x number of companies? I don’t think so.

It also takes an enormous amount of time and effort to create a web presence which might be better spent writing the book. Some writers blog every day and I don’t know how they do it.

5. What advice would you give all of us on our unpubbed islands?

Go and see the movie Julia and Julie and pretend it’s about writers instead of cooks. Julia Child enjoyed the process of cooking, even the failures. Julie didn’t enjoy the process, which led to constant meltdowns and relationship problems. The lesson here is that you have to love the process. If you’re just getting started, stay focused on learning the craft and discovering your inner writer. Don’t worry about the publishing end. That’s down the road. Celebrate every little success. Enjoy the ride. And write, write, write. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule to success. Before I was published I put in my 10,000 hours by writing four books. At least two of them (okay, three) were pretty crappy but I learned.

Finally, show up—or at least make sure your manuscript does. Woody Allen said that 80% of success is just showing up and this is SO true. I heard a disturbing statistic at a recent writing conference: only 10% of the writers asked to submit chapters or proposal to an agent or editor actually bother to do so. Write and submit. Write and submit. Babe Ruth said it best, “You can’t beat persistence.”

Thank you so much Margaret.

So chime in folks and take advantage of the wisdom this author has to offer. She will be here to join us during the day.

If you're interested in a copy of A LADY LIKE SARAH, be sure and leave your email addie. We will announce the winners in the weekend edition.

In case you're hungry, we a sideboard loaded with coffee, creamers, teas and hot chocolate. Then you can move on to the table loaded with Danish pastries, Krispy Creme donuts, cinnamon crumb coffee cake and a platter with pears, grapes and bananas.