Ask the Author: Melanie Howard
Answered Questions (6)
Melanie Howard
I don't really get writer's block. I'm a chatterbox on and off paper. If there is silence or a blank page I feel a compulsion to fill it. This is not always a good thing because sometimes the content of that filler is not what I envisioned. I do, however, have to deal with procrastination. I will put off writing for household tasks or just messing around on social media. Lots of writers set up schedules to deal with that, but that's not my thing. I just have to power through it, open up the page, and start.
Melanie Howard
The amazing fortune I've amassed. Just kidding. I get to use my imagination as well as my investigative skills, and I get to stay home with my dog.
Melanie Howard
Write. Ignore rejections. Write some more.
Melanie Howard
Andrea Leidolf and I are currently working on a sequel to Queen of the Court.
Melanie Howard
Writing is mostly work not inspiration. I get inspired to work by sitting down at the computer and working. If nothing comes to me, which is infrequent, I'll write emails or Facebook posts until I am in the flow. As far as plot points and characters, anything can be an inspiration; a news item, a person I see on the Metro; an obituary. Obituaries are fascinating. So many people who are not famous have lead incredible lives.
Melanie Howard
Our most recent book is a mystery set at a girls boarding school in 1963. We got the idea because several of our most interesting characters in Queen of the Court would have been teens at that time, although this is an unrelated story in a different genre. It's a fascinating era, right before President Kennedy was shot, at the beginning of the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movement, right as Vietnam was starting to heat up. We wanted to capture that moment in time before social upheaval, when these girls in a traditional, southern atmosphere would have lived very constrained lives.
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