![]() An Interview with Lisa H. Owens, Non-Fiction Writer: Today I got the chance to chat with Lisa H. Owens, author of a fascinating memoir and numerous short stories. [Poppy Kuroki] Hi, Lisa! Thank you for talking with me today. Tell us about your upcoming book release. I completed my first book, written in 2020 during the shelter in place element of the pandemic, titled Dear Melinda, How I Met Your Brother. It was an accidental book that began when I started writing a letter to my sister-in-law about mine and her brother’s (my husband of thirty-four years) separation. One letter became many, so it turned into a something I never anticipated, a humorous epistolary memoir. I began querying traditional publishers in October 2020 and plan to continue on that route for a while and see what happens. I have put 30 queries out with 4 rejections to date, so a slightly over 10% failure rate. Not too bad! I wish you all the luck in the world with your queries and hope it’ll be picked up by a publisher soon! What’s the first book you ever remember reading? One of the Richard Scarry children’s books published in the late 1960s. I think it was Great Big Mystery Book, and I was absolutely obsessed with it. I received it as a Christmas gift from my Aunt Joyce and it was the nicest gift I had received (except my creepy ventriloquist doll, Sammy Cement, who I still have in my closet fifty years later… just to mess with my kids when they visit! My lips always moved anyway). I slept with it and carried it everywhere I went. It started me on the path to appreciating and collecting books. Getting books as gifts is the best! Clearly your Aunt Joyce had good taste. So what inspired you to start writing? Being an avid reader my entire life, I always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to write some of my childhood stories, memories of multiple moves my family made over the years. Six of us were stuffed into an aging Volkswagen Beetle causing a veritable clown show everywhere we went. Instead, my first story was taken from a vivid dream that I had when I was fifty-six years old. After writing the one dream inspired micro-fiction, I never looked back and began to write a monthly humorist column (stories about my oddball family) for two newspapers. Once the two-year stint with the newspapers ended, I continued to write flash fiction and essays and then the “accidental book.” Currently, I’m working on turning photos into illustrations for a children’s book about my personality-challenged rescue dog called Fred is Grumpy. Fascinating! It all sounds so exciting. Who is your main inspiration? Gosh! I would have to say I have been inspired by my family and some of the things we have been through together. Without those antics, I wouldn’t have been able to write the funny weird stories that pop into my brain. Aside from writing, what do you like to do in your spare time? I am working full time, remotely, as an environmental compliance manager for a small company, but also just spent the last several months having my house put back together. It was literally falling apart. I call it my “Brady Bunch House,” because like the home in the show, it was built in the 1970s in a similar style – floating staircase and all. Now that the house is no longer falling apart (and I am broke… lol), I work, garden, walk with my rescue dogs and volunteer one afternoon a week at a horseback riding facility for special needs children. It has been such a blessing in my life. I also try to write something each day. I have a great fear that one day I may forget how to write. It sounds like you have a productive lifestyle, which is great. Good news about the house being complete too, that must be a lot of stress off your shoulders. It’s also important to write daily, something all aspiring authors should do! Tell me about your writing space. Where do you usually write? Believe it or not, I wrote my entire book on my phone. I typically sit outside on my patio with coffee and open a Google document and type using an awkward combination of thumbs and clumsy fingers. Thank God for spellcheck. On occasion, usually when querying, I use my office set up which is a living-room-behind-the-sofa, wall-facing, giant wood and iron Pottery Barn desk with matching file cabinets that I bought at a garage sale for about $100 many moons ago. All on your phone, wow! I respect you so much for that, it couldn’t have been easy. Are you a morning or night person? What time of day do you prefer to sit and write? I write in the morning. I am up having coffee with my daughter by 7:30 am before she heads off to work as a journalist for our local newspaper. I crash by 9:30 pm but spend about an hour doing crossword puzzles before turning on the Calm App bedtime story of the night. I’ve heard about that app; sounds like it works! It’s good to be up early and sleep early. Do you plan out your stories or are you a pantser (making it up as you go along)? Pantser all the way, so far. If I am going to attempt to write another book or even a short story longer than 2,000 words, I am going to have to learn how to outline and plan, I think. Maybe not, though. I will wing it and see what happens. Of all the authors I’ve interviewed, you’re the first who’s said they’re a panster. That’s great! And it’s definitely okay, especially for shorter works. What’s your favourite book genre? Do you write in that genre? I read a lot of suspense/thrillers and milder horror stories but also enjoy authors like Fredrik Backman and Louise Penny. I just enjoy reading books that paint a picture. I don’t write in a specific genre. I have had short stories published in several genres: horror, comedy, relationship stuff and even a bit of prose. Have you ever read a book that changed your life? Yes. Some self-help books here of late. The most important one helped me with social anxiety and changed the way I think about conversations with strangers and even friends. How to Be Yourself by Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D. That’s so great. Self-help books can really help people. Who is your favourite book character who you’ve created? Well, having only a memoir, I enjoyed recreating my flight attendant training experience and building/embellishing the characters of my three roommates. Two out of three of them read and loved the story. The third, I haven’t located yet and she isn’t portrayed in the best light (at times) but she was still a fun character. Where can we find out more about you? You can find out more about me, as well as my short stories, on Lisahowens.com. Thank you, Lisa! Best of luck finding an agent! Lisa H. Owens Link to Interview: Lisa H. Owens conducted by Poppy Kuroki, Dark Fantasy Author August 18, 2021
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![]() Star of the Show [link to interview] Elaine Marie Carnegie: "Please welcome Lisa H. Owens to the Writer's Journey Blog this week!" Books have always held a special place in my heart, beginning in elementary school, when my Aunt Joyce and Uncle WT gave me an illustrated book by Richard Scarry for Christmas. I immediately ignored the other gifts I had received from family members and even Santa Claus, as I found myself mesmerized by the witty cartoon creations and quips. I even cast aside the number one choice on my wish list, Sammy Cement, the name I ended up giving to the Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll I had been so adamant about needing from Santa Claus. Weird facts about Sammy Cement: 1. My parents could never figure out why I chose the name “Sammy Cement,” because “em” sounds are by far the most difficult to say without moving your lips. [Try keeping your lips still while saying "Sammy Cement." You’ll see what I mean.] 2. Sammy is kept in a large shopping bag in my closet, though he is now missing one hand and his mouth string doesn’t work so well anymore. He is utterly terrifying. [Imagine Billy, the dummy in the movie “Dead Silence.”] After reading most of the Richard Scarry creations, I continued to read, getting engrossed in many of the classics (Little Women, Mark Twain, Oliver Twist, The Call of the Wild, Don Quixote, Treasure Island, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Gulliver's Travels to name a few) when my Daddy would drop me at my hometown public library in Graham North Carolina most weekends, where I would curl up on a cozy rug in the Children’s Section and read for hours. When I got older, on occasion, I would fall asleep while reading, not realizing I was asleep and continued “to read” while dreaming and concocting a whole new scenario. It was strange to awaken and find my finger placed on a drooly passage where I had left off. My introduction into really writing occurred when I was 56 years old. I had taken melatonin to help me sleep and had a dream so emotional and vivid, that I had to write it down. Upon waking, I grabbed my phone and opened a Google doc, and typed it out in one fell swoop without even taking a breath. The story had elements of some special people in my life. My son, now 31 years old, my daughter, now 33, and my younger sister. Somehow, this little story called, Star of the Show, brought my creativity to the foreground and my next story was longer and based on a true event. It was titled, The Laundry Room, and described my near abduction by Ted Bundy in Pensacola Florida in 1978. A local newspaper picked it up and thus my two-year stint as a monthly humorist columnist was born. It was kind of a “right place at the right time” stroke of luck since the timing of the story coincided with the capture of the Golden State Killer in 2018. I was told I had free reign in style and genre, as long as the stories were kept to about 500 words. I struggled with the concept of what I wanted to write. After a few false starts with poetic thoughts of birds chirping and flowers growing, I decided that wasn’t me and I needed to stick to what I knew. I knew a lot about hardship and moving and always being the “new kid” at school, since growing up, my family moved around—a lot. I attended a total of nine schools in six cities in four states before my first year of college in 1980. I decided to run with that. Write what I knew and not try to get all fancy and contemplative. My column turned into a humorous series of short stories inspired by the antics involved in making those numerous moves—from north to south and east to west—with my oddball family. My editor loved the concept; and I loved the experience of revisiting those times, sometimes evoking tears, but mostly laughter, and sharing with the local subscribers. That ended in 2020, just after the pandemic started when my editor was laid off…permanently… due to budget cutbacks within the company and really the entire newspaper industry, a fact since the same thing happened to other acquaintances of mine. Fortunately, I had a day job and didn’t rely on writing for my income. “By day,” I am an environmental compliance manager. The creation of job-specific Excel spreadsheets and GAEA Winlog Soil Borings, something I approach with gusto, has earned me the coveted title of nerd among my office peers. I was one of the lucky ones who was allowed to work remotely and kept my job. Working remotely certainly had its perks, so I had time each morning to work on my debut book, a humorous epistolary memoir describing my first year as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines back in 1984. I was shocked at how quickly the words flowed as I described head-shaking scenes detailing my naivety in moving from a small town to a big city, Boston Massachusetts. I called it the accidental book since my initial reason for writing the very first letter to my sister-in-law, Melinda, was to explain how my relationship with my in-laws didn’t have to change because her brother, my husband for 34 years, and I had recently separated. As I began to write, I wondered if she had ever heard the entire story of the reason behind my move to Boston and the fated series of events that led to her brother and I meeting in the first place. And that is how an entire book was born. It was a 55K-word fun ride to relive those memories and prompted me to call my former roommates from that period of my life. We had lost touch and now try to touch base every so often. I think the most pertinent piece of advice I could give to a new writer; is to write what you know or the things that interest you the most. When approaching it that way, the words will usually flow, and if they don’t, put it away for a while and revisit the story another time with fresh eyes. I find myself looking at things in a different light with writer’s eyes. Everything can become a magical story if you look hard enough. Lisa H. Owens Link to Interview: The Writer's Journey Blog Guest Author August 5, 2021 |
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