“Dear Friends,
Hello to all of you, and thanks to Sybil for inviting me to her tres cool blog!
As Sybil and I were emailing each other about my visit, she mentioned a question that was brought up in the blogosphere about my cancelled appearance last year at my dear friend Eloisa James’s website. It’s a perfect valid question—I was a no-show, and to this day I feel terrible about it, so I sincerely apologize to those who were disappointed by my non-appearance.
Unfortunately a few days before my planned visit to Eloisa’s site, a fairly devastating personal event happened to me, and like anyone else there are things in my life I would prefer to keep private. Naturally I confided in my closest friends, including Eloisa, who is very loving and understanding, and she let me off the hook regarding the website visit.
But all the same, I know how awfully rude it appeared, so again, I’m sorry. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that whenever any of us is hit by some kind of disaster, be it personal, physical or financial, we face the choice of either crumbling or standing up to it. And most of the time, neither way is exactly what you’d call fun. But when you choose to stand up to it, you make some interesting discoveries . . . about your own strength, about who your friends are, and about your own determination to make the best of the life you’ve been given. We’re all the sum of our choices.
And this necessity of putting your life together in a new way—which we all have to do at some point—is one of the main ideas that drove me to write Sugar Daddy. I wanted to show my heroine, Liberty Jones, as she goes from age 14 to 24, and to follow her through the hardships and struggles that help to form her personality. She’s a trailer-park girl who is given the burden of raising her younger sister by herself, and because of her resilience and hard work, she creates her own happy ending.
I believe in real-life happy endings too. I refuse to be cynical. I’ve gone through so many changes (thankfully) since the first book I wrote twenty years ago. I’ve made some terrible choices (many of them involving hair mousse and bad 80’s fashion styles!) But you learn more from your failures, and from loss, than you do from success. Basically, I’m happy being the sum of my choices despite the cringe-worthy moments I’d love to forget.
What about you—are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you ever torture yourself about mistakes you’ve made in the past? If you’ve chosen the “road less traveled,” are you happy about it?”
Hi, Lisa!
I tend to be more of an optomist. I think it is easier to be looking for the sun, than it is to worry about the clouds.
Do I ever torture myself about past mistakes-hmm. I guess occasionally, but then life is too short to keep looking back.
As for missing a visit to Eloisa’s BB, I am sorry for your personal loss. But it is not necessary to still “feel terrible” about it. As I am there everyday, I have to say you do not have to wait for an invitation-come on over any time.
Di
Hi Lisa! Being another fan of Eloisa’s BB – I didn’t mind at all (don’t you just love Eloisa – we do – oops, sorry . . . probably spreading too much love around, LOL). There are a lot of great aspiring writers on that board and there is often discussion on an author’s “voice” — I in particular love the depth and wisdom that I hear in yours. On that note, is there a part of you/your experience that makes up the heroine’s character and do you have any particular favourites?
Hi Lisa! I think it’s great you are taking the time to visit Sybil’s blog today. Thank you.
I think I’m a bit of both pessimist and optimist. If I get too bogged down by a problem I usually can give myself a mental head slap and go over my list of things I’m grateful for. I get this from my Italian grandmother who whenever I would cry over some hurt would comfort me by talking to me about all the good things in my life.
One of the things I think you did very well in SUGAR DADDY was showing the fear and every day worry about the simplest things when a person is poor with limited resources and opportunities like Liberty was. Having gone through a scary period like this in my early 20s I was moved with how accurately you captured those feelings of fear and desperation.
I’ve been itching like crazy to get here but *sigh* my work days has been very busy so far 🙁 – and Sybill’s blog is so darned purple – not that I don’t love purple, and I sit kind of out in the open….
Sybil didn’t say whether we could ask questions or not, but since she didn’t say we couldn’t…..
First off, when I heard you where moving to contemps, I wasn’t bothered as some other historical readers were. I read all genres including contemps so it wouldn’t be a problem for me to follow. Some authors seem to make the jump easily and some not so much.and by the reviews starting to come out, looks like SD is going to be a solid hit! Although I haven’t read Sugar Daddy yet, I plan to. I have a copy *g*. I think as we get older, our reading tastes change too. Since you’ve been writing for years now (and I have some of your old Onyx books to prove it, I can fully understand wanting to try something different after all these years. And since it looks like you still plan to write historicals – well, I’m a happy camper on both.
And now my question. Was it hard to make the transition from first off, historicals set in England, to contemps set in Texas and from a third person to a first person? One of the things I’ve discovered in writing class, is the world narrows in first person to what the narrator can actually see as opposed to other things going around.
And second question – hope it’s OK. Now that you are with a different publisher, do you have any plans to maybe change your setting to – oh, say – America? I love historicals set in early America and since McKenna and Aline and his friend and Aline’s sister have moved ‘cross the ocean, I know myself, personally would love to see such a setting. Not that you would write a book for me personally of course, but I keep hoping to see more being published and more selling. One of the things I most admire about your books is many of the heroes aren’t the dukes and earls ect that seem to be pretty much the only kind of heroes most historicals have. Instead, your heroes can be publishers, Bow Street Runners or my very favourite, owners of gaming houses.
And hope I haven’t made any spelling mistakes! You wouldn’t believe how “minimized” I have this!
I try, try, try, to move past my mistakes. They can certainly haunt you but you can’t really move forward until you let go. My favorite parts about Sugar Daddy was the focus on Liberty and the challenges she had raising her young sister.
Hi Lisa,
Like Kristie(j), I wasn’t bothered when I found out you were writing a contemp, just curious. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m very anxious to do so.
I think we learn from our mistakes, and it’s only natural that we make them. I tend to be an optimist, I think, though I have my darker moments. But I prefer the road less traveled. What fun is there in following the same safe path as everyone else?
I bought Sugar Daddy yesterday…at Target. Sat down to read the first few sentences and ended up reading about 50 pages, and I never do that. One reason is that I usually only have time to read at night and another…I am in the middle of about 3 books already. I think they will be pushed aside for the time being. Love your voice in this book. Congratulations on such a successful transition, going from historical to contemporary so smoothly. Can’t wait to get back to the book tonight! xina
Hi Lisa,
I liked the way you put it in how to deal with crisis. I think crisis fade away with time, meaning what you may think of as an unsolved problem. You’d hardly look at it the same way after one month or one year. But what you wouldn’t have a second thought about would be – just like you said – the way you handled that problem.
Well.. I am a pessimist. I’ve always thought if I was that way I wouldn’t be very disappointed expecting something and not getting it. But I was wrong things shouldn’t be done this way. One should enjoy life not spending it afraid or worry of lost chances.
Dear Di,
“I think it is easier to be looking for the sun than it is to worry about the clouds”
What a PERFECT way to put it . . . that’s exactly how I feel!
Dear Midwestgal and Rosie,
Thank you, dears! I put a lot of my own thoughts and experiences into Liberty . . . I definitely know what it’s like to grow up without having the things you want and need . . . I think that fear and desperation can really form a person and give you a certain drive. Not to mention a true appreciation of the good things in your life. I wonder sometimes if I’m not spoiling my two children (who are incredibly sweet) because I try to give them all the things I didn’t have.
HI KRISTIE DEAR!
Yes, Sybil’s blog is very purple . . . and did you know she’s trying to make me say obscene words? LOL.
Yes, it was a challenge to find a new voice for my contemp, but after a lot of work and effort, I just decided to sit down and tell the story in my own true voice. What surprised me was how personal it became . . . and after all these years of writing racy love scenes with no sense of embarrassment, I found myself turning absolutely red when I was writing the love scenes in first person! *g*
And oh, Kristie, I want SO MUCH to set a historical in Victorian America!!! I have the most wonderful research books and it’s such a romantic and exciting place and time. I think I have to continue building my readership, and then maybe someday they will follow me into a new setting.
BIG HUGS!
Dear Jane,
I’m so glad you liked those parts! The scene in which Carrington has the croup actually happened to me with my daughter, and it was SCARY. And my son also swallowed a penny *g*
Woohoo! Lisa is in the house! Thanks for stopping by.
I would say growing up I was a pessimist. After being married to a very positive person for 20+ years, I can say I’m now an optimist. I dont dwell on past events or decisions. I tend to believe things always happen for a reason. Maybe I can’t see that right now, but it will come some day.