Tag Archives: writing advice

My Completely UNAUTHORIZED Interview with Thriller Writer James Rollins

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So I asked James Rollins, who is a bestselling thriller writer and very popular, if I could do a completely UNAUTHORIZED interview with him and he agreed.

Now, James Rollins, even though he is the MAN, still has a critique group, I’m fairly certain. Not sure I could critique a superstar, but hey, I’d give it a try. Why not?

I asked what advice he had for newbies when we chatted at RT last year while he was surrounded by people, his entourage, his posse, his crew.

His advice for newbies? Get your name out there with social media. He was amazed at how much we can reach people nowadays. He started when there was no Facebook and so he thought we as writers should utilize social media as much as we could.

And of course, to write. Write always. Write when times are good. Write when times are bad. But always, keep writing no matter what.

He also said something interesting. Much of the writing business is about luck. He suggested newbie writers spread out as much as possible because you never know when lightning will strike.

It’s an interesting idea and I’ve heard others echo it. This is a magical time for those writers prolific enough to keep churning out pages, though like Sue Grafton said in my completely UNAUTHORIZED interview, you can’t take short cuts. Quality counts.

But does quality count as much as it did before the nano-second attention span? I just don’t know.

But thank you to James Rollins for chatting with me! And I wish him all the best!

Find out more about James Rollins and buy his books on his website. (Caveat: Sound happens when you click on that link.)

My Completely UNAUTHORIZED Interview With Charlaine Harris

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To steal from Wikipedia: Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing mysteries for over twenty years.

She is big time.

If you don’t know who Charlaine Harris is, either you’ve been in prison, in the hole, for years on end ala Papillion, or you only watch PBS documentaries on badgers. Not even the honey badger, just badgers.

 

Charlaine Harris penned the Sookie Stackhouse series of wonderful, southern vampire books that HBO turned into the True Blood series. But even before Sookie hit like a tsunami, Charlaine was writing books and books and books.

I talked with her at the 2012 Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention and she was wonderful and kind and supportive. This was the question:

Aaron: Charlaine, how do I as a writer handle the emotional storms of writing? How can I handle the ups and downs?

And her answer changed my life. It took a little while to sink in, but when it sunk in, it hardened into concrete. Quick-dry cemented, right down into the cracks and crevices of my soul. Charlaine said you have to believe in your story and your characters and you have to share that with the world.

It is my job to write my story and to share it. Not sell books, not get a huge publisher and make millions, though that certainly would be nice, but that’s not what this game is about. My job is to write a quality story with memorable characters and share it with the world.

I know what you are thinking. Duh. But it’s not just duh, nope. When the fear hits, when the rejections all dump on us like acid rain, if I can remember my primary purpose, I can weather those storms.

Because this adventure is not about me. It’s not about Aaron Ritchey. It’s about my story and my voice and my characters. I’m not here to sell me. Selling me is frightening because, dude, I am damaged goods. I’m the 1978 Dodge Dart rusted out.

But my story, my characters, Lena Marquez, the heroine of The Never Prayer, she’s tough, she’s fragile, she’s forced into impossible situations, and yet she emerges strong and healed and good. I’m here to share her story with as many people as I can. Not everyone will be interested, and that’s fine. But those that do connect with her, they will emerge from my book, hopefully a little more strong, a little more healed, a little better.

Thank you so much, Charlaine, for talking with me. And here is a link to her Amazon page. She is a woman with a generous heart.