Interview with Maggie Davis..aka Katherine Deauxville:
Hi Maggie. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...
- Please tell us about your latest book.
My Latest book is a comedy romance The Last Male Virgin, WHICH HAS BEEN OPTIONED FOR FILM DEVELOPMENT BY Rugged Land LLC, who recently announced their partnership with National Lampoon. National Lampoon produced the movie hit ANIMAL HOUSE and the National Lampoon “vacation” films.
- What can we expect from you in the future?
Well, I’m working on a series featuring twin brother and sister amateur sleuths – and they’re clairvoyant! But I don’t have a publisher for it yet. I still get fan mail asking about my medieval romances, and when am I going to do another one. Right now, the medieval romance market is not a strong one, and publishers are not very keen on them. (Meaning they’re not buying many medieval romances. But I’d like to do some more, I enjoyed writing them A LOT.)
- How may readers contact you?
Your can contact me at Madav1@aol.com and my email address is always posted on my website at http://www.maggiedavis.com
- How do we find out about you and your books?
I have a complete list of my published books on my web site, Maggie Davis.com and you can always check you local independent bookstore (including the used ones) for back copies available, as well as BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. I also have some of my backlist published in e-format. You’ll find the places where these are available on my web site. To find out a little more about me, there’s a bio in the back inside cover of my last five romance novels that’s pretty up-to-date.
- Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I LOVE THEM. Not all of them, there are some pretty silly ones currently out there, but I have been reading romance novels (like most women) since I was a kid.
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
Writers are “observers.” We watch and study everything, even as children. So we put everything in life into our books. But I admit, I am partial to “strong women,” as main characters
- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?
I was at home raising kids (there were to be four boys before I stopped) and we were living on a “farm” in Georgia while my husband worked for the telephone company. It was a great life, especially for the kids, but we needed the money. And I had always loved to write, had been composing poetry and short stories since the third grade.
- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?
Sometimes the contract says very specifically that I have to turn the finished book in to my editor in six months or a little more. Particularly in paperback. Hardcover books usually give you a year.
- Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow ?
I have a schedule of sorts. I try to do X number of pages a week – find I have to do that in order to finish. But I also go with the flow. There are days when I’m better off “working in my head” thinking about the plot, than trying to sit down and write.
- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?
When they were little kids this WAS a problem. Men seldom complain about this, but it is critical for women, partly because women writing are not taken as seriously as men, and most everything and everybody feel free to interrupt. I once rented a friend’s kitchen to work on my Civil War book, The Far Side Of Home. It was later a major release and a Literary Guild Selection.
- What is your writing routine?
I get to work as early as possible in the morning. If I don’t, everyday life gets top priority, like grocery shopping, running errands. Then I seldom get back to work. That’s one of my great failings.
- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
I love to travel and do it whenever I have the time and money. I’ve lived for a year in Majorca, Spain, with my two youngest kids, and have spent time in North Africa, Paris, Scotland, Ireland and England. Also the Dominican Republic. But most writers’ lives mean you are chained to the keyboard if you want to get any work done.
- Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?
With me, it’s the “idea.” You can see I have some pretty nutty ones, like the two recent comedies Out Of The Blue, featuring an alien stranded here on earth, and The Last Male Virgin, about a young man raised by a Stone Age tribe in Papua, New Guinea.
- Where do your ideas come from?
I think this is a lot like asking a musician/composer where his or her tunes come from. Writers’ ideas come from.....the “imagination” I guess, or “creative talent” but since nobody has been able to accurately define these, it remains a mystery, I guess.
- What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?
Yes, love scenes, especially explicit ones, ARE difficult to write because they reveal so much about the two characters. The worst thing a writer can do is just “throw them in” to pad out the plot. I think I was one of the first romance writers to talk about don’t put a love scene in unless it advances the plot – make it mean something.
- What kind of research do you do?
I read all the time. I really love reading up on anything, it’s not ”research” to me. And I always visit a location if I can. I still love libraries, books and encyclopedias, but I also “GOOGLE” when I can. Although online research is not at all easy, it throws up so much information.
- What does your husband think of your writing?
Don’t have one anymore.
- Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?
Yes, I listen very carefully to what fans tell me they want to read. Usually I agree with them. But then after all, they’ve been reading MY books!!! I really like to hear that the reader felt as though he or she was on the spot, that the characters and the setting were absolutely alive to them. That the story could have actually happened.
- What are some of your favorite things to do?
I paint. I have given away some of my original paintings from my web site and am about to do a new contest as soon as I can catch up with a lot of back work. You can see one of my paintings on my web site now. http://www.maggiedavis.com
- Do you have a favorite author? Favorite book? - Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?
I have so many favorite authors and favorite books it would be hard to list them all here. But I have been influenced by Rudyard Kipling – he’s STILL such a great story teller, and Lawrence Durrell, JRR Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, HH Munro and a lot of English writers. Throw in Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Margaret Mitchell, I could go on and on.
- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
I belong to Novelists Inc. and the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Authors Guild and the American Society of Poets. I would like to be more of an activist for writers’ rights, especially women writers, because I don’t think women writers get a break financially at all (and in other ways!) in today’s publishing business, but I don’t have the time.
- What do you think of critique groups in general?
I think critique groups are fine, if they work hard for the right atmosphere and remember they come together to be productive and POSITIVE. JRR Tolkien used to gather his writer friends together at Cambridge (where he was a professor) for a weekend of reading recent work to each other,. Marcel Proust used to work in the morning and then run across the street to his best friend in the afternoon to get his take on what he’d written!
- If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
You know, I’ve been at this business so long I can’t even imagine not writing! It really is my profession.
- What are the elements of a great romance for you?
Really solid believable story, solid believable emotion, no wimpy female characters.
- Any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
I know you’ve heard this before, but don’t give up. If you feel you’ve reached a dead end of discouragement and failure, shift gears and go off in another direction. If all your romances have been rejected, try a mystery, or sci fi. Make a commitment, that writing is your vocation, and take it seriously. Remember, only about 5% of all fiction writers actually make their living writing. It’s a tough business...
- What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
Just being a writer. Talking writing with readers and other writers, Being absorbed in one of the most fascinating and universal occupations in the world.
-- You may be interested to know that Maggie Davis has another film, this is a TV movie, A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE, starring Olivia Newton-John that's shown every holiday season on cable TV. It took three years to get that movie deal together, though, I hope she doesn't have to wait that long this time. Find out more at Maggie's website: http://www.maggiedavis.com.
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
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