Ask the Author: Helen DePrima
Answered Questions (7)
Helen DePrima
Why did my mother die in childbirth?
Helen DePrima
The first three books in my Cameron's Pride series deals with a ranching family in southern Colorado. I've already written about the father and his two sons, all involved in professional bull riding. The novel I'm currently working on follows Lucy Cameron, an aspiring actress torn between her stage career and her childhood sweetheart.
Helen DePrima
Waking up too early revs me up to write. I lie in bed and construct whole chapters before facing the day. Unfortunately, honey-do's from my husband sometimes divert my drive, but the ongoing work is always in my head. Stories jostle for precedence from so many sources -- travel, the news, family memories -- that choosing which to explore first sometimes becomes a problem. I have to tell them to take a number -- I'll get to them when I'm finished with my current project.
Helen DePrima
Right now, I'm working on the fourth novel in my Cameron's Pride series for Harlequin's Heartwarming imprint. I'm eager to get this manuscript to my agent for its first vetting so I can proceed with another project that's been nagging me for attention, a story about a young Marine vet suffering from PTSD. And a mystery series set in the background of a Kentucky equine rescue farm. I'm never at a loss for subjects.
Helen DePrima
Best advice: to paraphrase Winston Churchill -- "Never, never, never give up." Everything you write will serve to sharpen your craft, even if it's never published. Develop a thick skin and a sense of humor; few writers gain success without more than a few rejections. I could paper a small room with rejection letters before I finally won representation with a wonderful agent. Take your work seriously, but not so seriously that stumbles are devastating.
Helen DePrima
Two things are co/best about being a writer. I have the pleasure of inventing and acting out my own fantasies, in my case, living on a ranch with fascinating characters and adventures. And I meet such kind and interesting people in the course of my research. I take pride in creating authentic settings and situations, so I do deep exploration into the backgrounds where I set my characters into motion. Everything in my books has firm footing in reality.
Helen DePrima
I rarely have a problem with writer's block, as such, but I do have trouble with writer's procrastination. Right now, I'm writing without a deadline, so I don't feel the urgency that a contract (and advance!) engenders. Once I sit down with my laptop, the words flow just fine.
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