Ask the Author: Lisa Beazley
Answered Questions (8)
Lisa Beazley
Thank you - I'm so glad to hear it. I relate more to Cassie. It was a lot of fun to create a character who had a life like mine and experiences like mine, but to have her react in ways I wouldn't. She very much became her own person as I wrote her, but she started as a little piece of me. Thanks, Rebecca!
Lisa Beazley
Hi Laura - To be honest, the idea of writing 300-some pages of narrative freaked me out. I didn't know if I could do it; I wanted to give myself a gimmick to spur me on. I first thought it would be emails and texts exchanged between the sisters. But then when brought in the story of the Grandpa reading the letters aloud, I had to make it all about the letters. That really happened, by the way. One Christmas, my grandfather read letters he and my grandmother exchanged. And it did make us all melt a little bit. So my answer is: my Grandparents and my own self-doubt.
Lisa Beazley
I think I'd have to go with the one where Cassie goes from being pregnant in NYC to being a mom in NYC. That is one of the parts of the book that just flowed for me - it's close to first draft (whereas there are other parts of the book that are 12th draft.) This was one of those places where Cassie and I overlap - I definitely pulled from personal experience here, and I would smile every time I re-read it, thinking, "I'm just going to leave this." That doesn't happen very often, so it was a satisfying chapter to write. Thanks, Emily!
Lisa Beazley
That's a tough one - there were so many. The one that's coming to mind right now is Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. It's been 20-some years since I read it, but I still remember feeling swept away and haunted by it. Thanks for reminding me -- I'm loading it on my kindle right now!
Lisa Beazley
Hi Janey -Thanks! I'm glad to hear it. Yes, there is another book in the works. This character is very different from Cassie and Sid. She's all grown up and has raised her kids and held down a career for many years, but everything goes a little haywire for her when she becomes an empty nester. She winds up back in her old neighbourhood facing up to past decisions, and discovering she still has a lot of power to determine her future.
Lisa Beazley
Find your niche - be open to all forms and genres, and don't worry about how you might be categorized. Don't feel like you have to master the art of writing to call yourself a writer. I'm very much a beginner in some ways --When I try to do writing exercizes like, say, describing a scene using all five senses, it is so bad. Cloying, overwrought, pretentious garbage. I have a lot to learn. But if I play to my strengths and just tell the story the way that comes naturally to me, it's so much better. So be yourself, and work and work until it feels like, 'yep, this is the best I can do'. (Also, before it's good, it's going to be bad...so don't let that put you off. Keep going - it'll get better.) Find a class or a group to hold you accountable. I wrote with an online Media Bistro workshop led by the brilliant author and teacher Erika Mailman. I couldn't have done it without them. Most importantly, don't listen to jokers like me. You know what to do - now go do it!
Lisa Beazley
I keep writing even if it's really, really bad. Even the garbage will often lead to something I can work with. It's better to come back and have something to re-write or even rule out than to come back to a blank page. I'll also go back and re-write a previous scene, maybe add some dialog that will trigger something to unblock my current scene. If I'm really stuck, I get up and rearrange furniture in my house.
Lisa Beazley
From a dozen different places, really. I attempted to blog and it was an embarrassing disaster. Seriously, hats off to bloggers. To do it well you have to be fearless, open, honest, smart, deep, funny, and all sorts of other things I don't even understand how to be. So after a few other false starts and different types of creative writing, I took a crack at a novel. At the time, I was struggling to maintain my most important relationships across oceans, and in my own home and local community while being constantly (and voluntarily!) bombarded by social media. I knew that the quality of my relationships were more important than the quantity, but with Facebook and Twitter and Instagram providing little bursts of comfort and connection anytime I picked up my phone, it became an effort to focus my energies in a way that prioritised my VIPs. Getting to work through these issues - the same ones I'd tried to blog about - in a novel, without being tethered to my own boring life, was a blast.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more