A CHAT WITH DEE S. KNIGHT AUTHOR OF NAVAL MANEUVERS MARCH 1, 2018
I love chatting with creative people. I consider myself a very lucky man; most of my life is spent working and chatting with creative people. It never gets old; creative people brighten your day in so many ways. I have spent a bit of time chatting with one of our new authors, Dee S. Knight author of Naval Maneuvers. It is now available at a pre-order sale price of $2.99 until the release date 9th March.
I started by asking about her background.
I always think I’ve lived a kind of boring life. I was born in the Midwestern USA but later became an adopted Virginian. I met the man who was later to become my husband when I was 13. I married him, after graduating from college, where I gained a not-very-useful degree in sociology. I had years of experimenting with jobs and trying different things. In the course of our marriage, I’ve been a librarian-clerk, a long-distance trucker, a teacher, a technical writer, an editor, and yes, a writer of erotic romance. After I tried my hand at writing, I knew that was what I wanted to do when, or if, I grew up.
Right now, I’m retired from editing technical manuals and live in a small town in the Northwest. We have an office set up for writing, but I frequently use an Alphasmart portable so I can sit in the living room and take breaks for my favorite HGTV shows. That’s where I am right now with my feet up and a steaming cup of coffee by my side. Wish you were here!
You sound a very contented lady, how long have you been writing?
My first book came out in 2003. I wrote pretty consistently for a couple of years and then took off for a few years. Then I wrote like a madwoman for awhile…then took off. So it hasn’t been 15 years full time, but enough time that I’ve been able to crank out a few books. I’ve been lucky.
While I have always been an avid reader, the idea of writing never occurred to me. A couple of years after my husband and I were married, I worked in a library acquisitions department, surrounded by books. Then hubby—Jack—and I took a sharp turn in our lives and went on the road as a husband/wife truck driving team. When I left the library one of my friends said, “You know what kinds of books we like so keep a journal and write a book!” Still didn’t light a fire in me. However, trucking allows a lot of time to think—long, straight highways across Nebraska and Texas, waiting for freight to be loaded and unloaded, sitting and waiting for the truck to be repaired, etc. It gave me time to make up stories, not that I ever planned to do anything with them.
Long after trucking, Jack became a consultant, and we moved around a lot as his contracts changed. He had about two months left on one contract, and we planned to leave the area, so I didn’t want to apply for a job. Jack suggested I write a book with some of those stories I’d stored away. Silly me, I thought, how hard can it be? Once I started writing, I was a house afire. I resented having to stop and fix meals and talk to Jack or call my mom. In a month I’d written a 95K word book. Then I wrote another one the next month, and another the following month. What fun! What inspiration! Then, when I’d finished my fourth book in six months and had found a publisher, I was edited… Roll credits. Fun and inspiration weren’t all there was to write a book. Go figure!
Yes, I think a lot of people consider publishing a quick easy process, but it is far from that, it can take a long time to get from your computer screen to the finished book. I can tell that the ideas come easily to you.
Ideas come soooo easily! It’s making myself sit at a keyboard and type that’s hard. If ever I’m searching for an idea, all I have to do is turn on the radio and listen to a few country songs. It’s always a great feeling to find just the right words to express the right emotions and be happy with the finished product. What can be more energizing than that?
I’ve never had too much of a process, although from time to time I try developing one. I’m a pantser by nature. I normally have an ending in mind and a scene or two that serve as inspiration for the book, and I just sit down and write what I picture in my mind. I’m not one of those writers whose characters demand their time on the page and express what they want to do or say. I’m a dictator to my characters. For the past few books, I have tried filling out what I call character detail sheets where I try to round out my knowledge of what I want the characters to be. It’s simple stuff like hair and eye color, background, likes/dislikes, conflict, and goals—that sort of thing. The sheets help keep me from calling my heroine Ethel in one chapter and Lucy in another. My writing is a little disjointed because life doesn’t wait for us to finish writing books, before intruding. So I write on and off during the day. As long as I finish a thought I’m fine. And I usually write a chapter or two scenes and then edit it later that day or the next day.
How has your writing developed over the years? And has that affected your speed of writing?
Well, as I said, when I first started writing I could knock out a 90K word book in a month, ready to submit. But, I found that I knew nothing about the mechanics of writing. It was easy to write fast when I didn’t worry about POV or structuring a scene. I found the more I learned about the “rules” the longer it took to write. I worry more now—ignorance was indeed bliss! One book, Passionate Destiny, took nine months to write—like giving birth and nearly as painful. Another book, with an idea that I’d kicked around in my head for a few years taken from the Vietnam War, took less than thirty days. The length of time needed kind of depends on the amount of research required and the love I feel for the idea as a whole. Naval Maneuvers took about three months.
Your writing has been diverse, what about the kinds of books do you enjoy reading?
I love romances—contemporary, historical, sweet, erotic, most any kind of romance. I didn’t use to. My mom convinced me to try them. I’m ashamed to say that like a lot of people, I thought romance writers followed formulas and weren’t “real” writers. What an idiot! Once I tried a few, I found just the opposite is true, although there is a certain formula to them, there is to all genre. I also love legal thrillers, psychological mysteries, and some fantasy. I’m not really big on non-fiction, and I feel sort of bad about that.
Have you got any writing tips that you would like to share?
Let’s see, tips…
- Write and keep on writing. It’s a cliché to say that you can edit a badly written page but not a blank page, but it’s true.
- Write what you know and what interests you and not what someone else says you should write. That’s a variation of too thin own [writer’s] self, be true.
- Don’t say to yourself that Nora Roberts doesn’t pay attention to the rules, so you don’t have to either. When you’ve sold as many books as Nora Roberts, or maybe even a fraction as many, you can break the rules, too.
- Having a Muse is nice but don’t let the witch dictate whether or not you write. Sometimes life takes precedence and during those times you have to step back and maybe stop writing. But don’t stop writing because you don’t feel like it, or don’t have the Muse, inspiration, hitting you over the head with her fickle magic wand. There is no magic wand. Sometimes writing is hard. Keep at it anyway.
- Find a safe person to talk to about your work—a significant other. Although that’s not always a good choice. Writing is an emotional endeavor and feelings are often close to the surface, a friend, a critique partner—someone who will be honest but not malicious with any input.
I do believe in writer’s block. I’ve found the best way to get past it is to follow that last tip—find someone to talk through the trouble spot with you. Sometimes just expressing the problem out loud will clear what is blocking your writing.
I’m sure there are more tips I haven’t listed here. Please keep in mind that I have these in the forefront of my brain because I’ve ignored them all at one time or another, to my own peril.
Can you tell us about any new projects you are working on?
Right now I’m working on a book about twins that I’d started fleshing out years ago. One twin is a prig and far too serious, and the other is not serious enough. It’s another erotic romance. The serious priggish twin is a teacher, so I’m drawing on my years of being in the classroom. Though I’m sure my students had a lot of things to say about me, it was an all-boys’ school, so you can use your imagination, I don’t think priggish or too serious would come to mind.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat Dee. I love Naval Maneuvers, and I can’t wait to read your next story.
Our latest and soon to be released books. Black Velvet Seductions
Out of the Shadows by Gabriella Hewitt is out now!
A Woman’s Secret by C.L. Koch is out now!
Her Lover’s Face by Patricia Elliott is out now! Click here to read the Prologue and Chapter 1.
Naval Maneuvers by Dee S. Knight is now available at a pre-order sale price of $2.99 until the release date 9th March.