Q. I see you have a new book out Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets can you tell us a little bit about the book?
a. This second book in the Sidra Smart & The Third Eye mystery series, again transports the reader to colorful, but mysterious southeast Texas where hurricanes are wont to blow, and mosquitoes grow as big as dragon flies, where Civil War heroines lived and died in obscurity, and live again. Where everyone knows everything about the other—or at least they think they do—until the sins of the past catch up with the secrets of the present.
By now, fifty-year-old Sid Smart Sid thinks she knows where she’s headed. She’s divorced her preacher-husband, she’s inherited a private detective business, and she’s solved her first case. But then she moves into a ghost active house and discovers that the past holds the key not only to her future, but to the lives of innocent people trapped in an unholy web of deception that spans decades.
When tobacco-spitting, chair rocking Dempsey Durwood convinces her to clear the name of his dead son in the murder of a local couple, Sid finds herself confounded by clues that lead nowhere. She battles her own prejudice, a burned-out office, the disappearance of a local preacher’s wife, and a midnight trip through a murky swamp before clues begin to fall into place.
But when skeletal remains of a local boy, missing since the 1970s, are found half-buried in ancient shell mounds, and that this event ties back to the murdered couple, Sid realizes the past holds the key to the present, but she’s still unsure what she’s dealing with, or whom.
Q. Have you always wanted to be an author?
a.Wanted to be an author—sure, then I think 99.9 of the world WANTS to be an author. Having the discipline to finish a manuscript until it was ready for submissions was another whole ball of wax. In the case of my first novel, I had a story I wanted to tell and after much consideration and consultation with other writers, I decided that mystery was the genre to best fit the story.
Actually, I consider myself more a Storycatcher than an author. One reviewer said that I “weave a tale tighter than a hangman’s noose,” and that my characters resonate with a down-home feeling found in small towns all across America. That is exactly what I hope to capture. The true heart of America is in the thousands of small towns across this great country. I chose a small town in which to set this series in honor of such characters that inhabit these towns, turning a black and white world into full-spectrum color. My plots are complex, with twists and turns that keep the reader engaged and guessing. They also deal with social issues that we each face. My older female sleuth is easy for baby-boomers to identify with. Plus, I think bayous, swamps and a touch of history add to the mystery.
Q. What advice and tips do you have for a beginning writer, on writing and publishing?
a.Keep your derriere in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard.
Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite and rewrite some more. One of the biggest mistakes many aspiring author make is submitting their work to agents or editors prematurely.
Join a critique group—join FOUR critique groups. Get feedback from them and pay attention when more than one member says the same thing. Don’t react to the feedback or defend your work, just absorb the comments, and then go home and consider the worth of what others have said.
The last, and probably the most important of all: DON’T GIVE UP! Take rejection as motivation. Dig your heels in and keep going!
Q. I noticed you have a Blog, would you suggest to beginning writer that they create a blog or have one created for them? Or website?
a.Oh most definitely! I use my website to keep folks informed, to help them get to know me better, to contact me, to know when new books are coming out, where I am and where I’ve been. I also offer a couple of Cajun recipes—that sort of thing. I think any writer needs a website. I established mine soon after I started writing my first book. I wanted to start getting my name out there. It has been invaluable. When folks hear of me and my books, I want them to be able to find me, fast and easy.
And by all means keep an active blog. By active, I mean submit something to the blog at least twice a week. Learn all you can about marketing the blog and link to others.
By the way, my website is www.sylviadickeysmith.com and my blog address is sylviadickeysmith.blogspot.com
My books, DANCE ON HIS GRAVE and DEADLY SINS DEADLY SECRETS are published by L & L Dreampspell and are available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, or any other online or bricks and mortar book store. If your local store doesn’t have them, they will be most happy to order it for you.
3 comments:
As an aspiring writer (older—the baby boomer set) your comments give me hope that I may publish one day, too.
Do you ever have writers block? If so, how do you deal with it?
Do you think keeping up with the content on your blog…helps keep your writing focused? Does it interfere with your creativity, fiction wise?
Writer's Block? What's that? (hehehe, she says!)
Not so much writers block as dead in the water--befuddled with wondering what direction I want to take and how in the world will get there! I have learned to be patient with myself through these times, because new words and ideas will come if I keep my seat applied to the bottom of the chair! Blogs--how great are they! Love them, although they do take time to do right, and I'm not even sure I do that with mine. However, they are a great way to express yourself, your ideas, your convictions, and funny stories we all love to tell and hear! I love it when folks comment on mine, for it confirms someone is out there in the ethers reading my ramblings!
How about you? What do you do when the words just won't come?
Sly love your comments. Your question…what do you do when the words won’t come?
Drown mostly. (he he, the red says) My own writing is on the backburner, I go through periods like this periodically when the juices won’t flow. Then I catch a movie like “Stranger than Fiction” and the juice is sparked. Have you seen it?
The movie is meaningful to writers in that it’s about this author who attempts to kill her protagonist and the words won’t come, then her publisher sends a caretaker (assistant) to make certain the ending is completed. The author is incensed naturally and resist the assistants attempt to help her. The ending is the death of the character only a few paragraphs nothing major and she can not come with the ultimate ending for a character that has little meaning in his life other than counting the brush strokes as he brushes his teeth or the steps he takes to the bus stop where he catches the bus his meaningless job.
As the movie continues and this meaningless character stands at the bus stop and he begins to hear the author (narrator) voice in his head and realizes she is going kill him off.
I’m not going to tell you anymore about the movie you will just have to see it and come to your own conclusions. As to writer’s block, the movie interpreted one meaning for me as to why I’m suffering writers block, my character and I have lost touch she doesn’t hear me and I can’t sense her.
LadyRed
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