The Crossroads Tour: Day 3 Linda Joy Singleton

Thanks for meeting us at The Crossroads! Today we're featuring YA paranormal author, Linda Joy Singleton. Don't forget to swing by The Crossroads main page: http://judithgraves.com/events/the-crossroads-tour/ to discover today's question for your grand prize hunt!

1. What projects are you working on / have published?

After I finish rewriting a middle-grade, I plan to write another YA. If my publisher wants another spinoff from THE SEER like the Goth Girl Mystery starring Thorn which comes out in 2011, then I’ll write about Thorn again. I’m hope this happens as I don’t feel finished with her yet. If that doesn’t happen, Plan B is to work on a futuristic YA about an unusual society. I’ve written 4 pages and have lots of notes. I always have to work on something. Ideas are easy, it’s staying published that has always been a challenge. Fortunately I love challenges.

2. Best writing advice you've heard?

Basic stuff really. Read, write, never give up. If you do those 3 things, you’ll be ahead of the game. And I don’t mean just read a few books – I mean read hundreds of books in your genre plus others and really analyze and study what works and what doesn’t. Write daily, even if it feels like crap. Then rewrite and rewrite until the words sing with strong voice and story. And don’t get discouraged (for long anyway) by rejections, life dramas, comparing yourself to other authors, bad reviews or anything that knocks down your confidence. So my fave advice is: You only fail if you fail to try. So never ever fail to try.

3. What inspires you?

I have to inspire myself by visualizing successes and knowing that I’m not special or entitled to success – I have to work hard to create the lucky breaks. So when luck calls, I’ll be ready with polished manuscripts.

4. Did you write stories as a teen? If yes what has/hasn’t changed?

I wrote constantly as a teen. That was before computers, so I scribbled my stories in notebooks while I was in class. I was always writing. I mostly wrote dialogue and action, bored by descriptive details. So as an adult, I had to really study descriptions to learn. I consider myself self-taught; learning to write by constant reading. I wrote for fun, too, which I now realize was practice (like a pianists practices for years before doing a concert). Everyone has different methods and time frames – some writers sell right away. But for me it was those years writing as a teen that gave me a solid foundation of practice so that when I pursued a writing career, I already had a sense of plotting, dialogue, rhythm of words and characterization. Still I keep going to conferences and reading a lot, always studying to keep my dialogue and characters current. I especially love reading YA novels – so many great ones being published now.

5. Describe your office/workspace/writer’s cave.

My office is on the second floor and has six windows looking out on oak trees and golden rolling hills. We have horses so sometimes I see them from the window. Or the neighbor’s peacocks strut onto our place, too, and it’s fun to take walks and find peacock feathers. I love living in the country, even though it means being alone a lot. But I always have animals nearby, like my dog Lacey is curled up near me and usually my part-Siamese Snowy is near, too.

In my office I have 3 large bookshelves. One has middle-grade paperbacks as part of my kid series collection; another has favourite books plus 2 shelves of books to read; the third has foreign edition Harry Potter and a shelf of all my published books (plus other editions like French, Italian, etc.), with 3 shelves of autographed books from authors I’ve met – some real treasures there!