"I refuse to “write to market” despite crushing pressure to do just that from all around me. I write from the heart and always will."
Hello Everyone!
I'm sitting on my deck today and enjoying the soft sounds of late spring. It's such a beautiful day to introduce you to a wonderful author, Linda Fausnet. Isn't she lovely!
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| Linda Fausnet |
This is Linda's first time on my blog and I'm thrilled to have her. Linda, thank you for sitting down today with us. To start off this interview, tell us a little about yourself--the real Linda behind the writer. How did you come to write Finding Their Forever
Linda is in italics...
Well, this is the fifth and final book in the Wall Street to Broadway Series (though it can work as a standalone). In the first four books, people were always losing something. The books are Losing His Shirt, Losing His Cool, Losing Her Inhibitions, and Losing Her Fear, so I thought it would be appropriate to wrap up the series by having the characters finally find what they’re looking for!
I thought about calling it Finding Their Happy Ending, but “happy ending” has unintentional, if hilarious, connotations… I absolutely love Broadway musicals, and as a writer, I know what it’s like to follow your dreams. I also know what it’s like to have your heart broken by bad reviews and how it feels to cry both happy and sad tears during the whole crazy artistic journey. I explore all of this emotions throughout this series.
Before we go on, I want to break in and show everyone her very sensual cover for Finding Their Forever. For your own copy, just click the image.
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| ONLY $0.99 FOR LIMITED TIME |
Linda, completing a book is an enormous challenge. What was your biggest obstacle and how did you overcome it? In other words, what do you think drove you to complete this enormous project?
First of all, thank you for affirming what an accomplishment it is to write a book. As authors, I don’t think we hear that enough these days. There is tremendous pressure to write inhumanly fast – many authors write a book a month and some a book a week! It helps to take a deep breath and remember that writing a book is awesome. It just is. All you writers out there – you rock, and please don’t ever forget it.
The biggest obstacle this time around has been that sales have been slower for this series than my other series. I don’t know if it’s because contemporary romance is a more competitive genre (my other series is a mix of historical, paranormal and contemporary, and I’ve done well by marketing primarily to historical romance readers). It can be really hard to keep going when you have those days where you feel like nobody cares. I also struggle with the enormous popularity of arrogant alphaholes/ bad boys. Though I never judge people for what they read, I personally cannot stand bad boy/super alpha heroes. I write sweet and steamy heroes, and I struggle daily with the fear that everybody wants Christian Grey and that maybe there’s no room for my nice guys in the market. That being said, I refuse to “write to market” despite crushing pressure to do just that from all around me. I write from the heart and always will. My business model is “one book at a time, one reader at a time”. I’m not a bestseller, and that’s okay. I try to take one day at a time, one book at a time, and remind myself to be patient. It can take time to find an audience and that’s okay, too.
Beautifully said, Linda, and I couldn't agree more. I can only write from my heart, and one book at a time with the age long adage that love conquers all. My men are good men who just haven't found that one person they will love for a lifetime. In a small way, I want the world to believe that HEA exists with the right person.
When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
July 1994. Well, I think I realized even before then, but July 1994 was when I realized I was actually going to do it. I was sitting in a hot tub in Rehoboth Beach with a friend when I had a Eureka moment. I realized then I was done thinking about it, and that I was actually going to do this thing. I began as a screenwriter and did that for fifteen years (had two screenplays optioned by production companies in L.A. during that time) and then switched to novels. This summer will be my 25th anniversary of being a writer. The amazing thing is that I am just as excited about writing now as I was then.
That's so exciting. I've never written a screenplay, but it's on my list. What moment in this journey are you most proud of?
Back when I was a screenwriter, I had a screenplay that was very near and dear to my heart. It was all about LGBT equality in Major League Baseball. It was getting just terrible feedback from other readers on it and I was in denial about it. I kept telling myself that they were wrong, that it was them and not me. Then one day when I was home with a stomach virus and was already weak and vulnerable, I got another terrible review. That was when it really hit me – the script was terrible. I specifically remember thinking “if I wasn’t a writer, I wouldn’t be in this pain right now.” That was, for sure, my lowest point as a writer.
I knew I was at a crossroads and had a choice to make. I could either give up or start over, and fix the script I loved. I picked up the whole screenplay and dumped it in the recycling bin. And I started over. Giving up was never an option. After extensive work and rewrites, the screenplay went on to become a Finalist in a small but national screenplay competition. When I switched from writing screenplays to writing novels, I adapted the story to a novel an I self-published in July 2004. That was my 20th anniversary of being a writer. The book, entitled Queen Henry, received a glowing review in Baltimore Outloud and I was invited to give a talk about it at a PLFAG meeting (a group for loved ones of the LGBT community). I got to read aloud from the book, and it was one of the highlights of my writing career. All proceeds from that book go to the Harvey Milk Foundation.
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| CLICK THE COVER FOR YOUR OWN COPY |
Beautiful story. This is exactly why I love hosting amazing people on my blog. So what is up next for you?
I am working on a new series, most likely a trilogy, called the Williamsburg Ghost Series. It’s a mix of paranormal, historical, and contemporary romance and its sort of a follow-up to my earlier series, the Gettysburg Ghost Series.
Who doesn't love a great ghost story. Where can readers find out more about your book and yourself?
My website is lindafausnet.com, and my books are all available wide – Amazon, Apple, Nook, Kobo, as well as in paperback. I also run a romance novel fan group called Romance Novel Addicts Anonymous that you can find on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Finding Their Forever will be available for 0.99 for a limited time. Even though it is the fifth book in the series, it works fine as a standalone novel. The links for Nook, Apple, and Kobo will be up soon. I also plan on releasing a box set of all five books in the near future.
Linda, I wish great success with this new release and hope you will come back for another visit with your Williamsburg series or anything else you would like to share with my readers.
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That's it for today. I hope you have a great weekend and find a few stolen moments to read a wonderful book.
Hugs to all,
Nancy C. Weeks
