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INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEW with DEBUT AUTHOR on the RISE, JULIE LESSMAN
Hi, Julie. Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your new release, A Passion Most Pure (formerly A Chasing After the Wind), the first novel in the Daughters of Boston series published by Revell.
Q: Congratulations on the publication of your first manuscript! What has been the most exciting time on your road to publication, and why?
A: That’s easy! It was the moment I got "the call" from my agent. I was in the middle of praying with my prayer partners when my cell phone rang. My heart dropped when I heard Natasha’s voice, but when she told me the pub board went well and she was 99% sure we had a sale, I started crying. I repeated everything she said so my prayer partners could hear, and they were screaming and jumping up and down in the background. Believe me, after 42 rejections and another publisher giving me a slice-n-dice rejection the week before, this phone call was balm to my battered soul.
Q: You have a three-book contract. Can you tell us about your stories and when we can get them?
A: Book One of the "Daughter of Boston" series is A Passion Most Pure, available now.
Faith O’Connor always dreamed of falling in love—just not with her sister’s fiancé! Bent on a love relationship with God at the center, she steels her heart against her secret attraction for Collin McGuire, a rogue courting her sister and bitter at God. When Collin’s affections shift her way, Faith finds herself in a struggle as explosive as the Great War raging in Europe. Because although God holds her spirit, and Collin her heart, her sister wields the power to betray them all.
Book Two, scheduled for release in Sept. 2008, is A Passion Redeemed. It stars Faith’s sister, Charity, who puts her faith in her beauty rather than in God. It’s a story of redemption and faith rising from the ashes of temptation, desire, and shame.
Depth of beauty … shallow of heart, Charity O’Connor is a woman who gets what she wants. She sets her sights on the cantankerous Mitch Dennehy, an editor at the Irish Times who has stolen her heart. Although the sparks are there, Mitch refuses to fan the coals of a potential relationship with the sister of his ex-fiancée. Charity burned him once, destroying the only true love he’d ever known. He won’t play with matches again. But Charity has a plan to turn up the heat, hoping to ignite the heart of the man she loves. And she always gets what she wants—one way or another.
Book Three, working title A Passion Denied, is the story of Faith and Charity’s younger sister, Lizzie, a shy bookworm who dreams of a fairy-tale romance. It unfolds a man’s dark past and a young girl’s shattered dreams … and the God who redeems it all.
Elizabeth O’Connor is the little sister John Brady always longed for. With a fire for God in his belly, he has been her spiritual mentor since she was thirteen, sharing her love of literature and her thirst for God. But when his gangly protégé blossoms into a beautiful young woman bent on loving him, John refuses to act on the attraction he feels. His past won’t let him go there. Unfortunately, "Lizzie" won’t let him go anywhere else … until his dark and shocking secrets push her away.
Q: What was your inspiration for A Passion Most Pure?
A: Oh, another easy question! Undeniably, Gone With the Wind. When I read that novel at the age of twelve, I was swept away into the world of romance for the very first time. It captured me like no other book had done, and I immediately set out to write (along with thousands of other love-struck young girls, I’m sure), what I hoped would be "the great American novel." Obviously my dreams of grandeur didn’t go anywhere (grin), but I did write 150 pages (single-spaced and practically no margins) of a story that is actually the basis for my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure.
Q: So A Passion Most Pure is the book you started writing at age twelve? When did you pick it up again and what inspired you to do it this time?
A: Without question, I strongly believe that this time my motivation was God. I was actually waiting to get a haircut in a beauty parlor, when I read a Newsweek magazine July 16, 2001 cover article about Christian entertainment. It said Christian books, movies and music were on the threshold of exploding. My heart jumped, and something in my spirit said, "It’s time to write your book." Now, I have to be honest with you—up until that moment, I had never seriously considered writing a book. But the pull was so strong, that I started writing A Passion Most Pure one month later—almost forty years after penning those first 150 pages.
Q: What was the journey to publication like for you?
A: An emotional rollercoaster, like it is for every writer, I suspect! Lots of tears, trials, and prayer (an ongoing process) to become the writer that God wants me to be. Even though I held a part-time job as a commercial writer, the first thing I did was take a fiction-writing class at a local community college, then a writing seminar. Next, I joined ACFW, FHL and RWA and got into a great critique group, ACFW 19. I started entering contests like crazy and never finaled, but the feedback from judges was invaluable. I went to writers’ conferences and invested in paid critiques with published authors I respected. Then I hooked up with a fabulous critique partner by the name of Kelly Mortimer (grin), and before I knew it, I started finaling in contests. As far as getting published, I would have to say that the best thing that happened was signing with my agent. Within six months, she not only sold my novel to Revell, but garnered a 3-book deal to boot, despite my personal track record of 42 rejections on my own (agents and publishers). That said, I think an agent is invaluable in the whole publishing process, and I regret wasting time trying to do it on my own!
Q: You refer to your book as "Edgy Inspirational." What do you mean by that—more sensual than the majority of books in the CBA?
A: No, I would definitely not call it "sensual." This book is NOT about sensuality. It is about real people with real emotions, desires and temptations, doing their best to deal with them according to God’s precepts. Yes, it is a saga of deep passion—but passion for God as well as romantic passion. It’s a love story on a number of levels—the heroine’s romance with God … her romance with the hero … and an inspiring and deeply romantic relationship between the parents. I refer to it as "edgy Inspirational" because I utilize strong and realistic romantic tension in order to convey the difficulty of living for God in a fallen world, as well as the joys and blessings of applying His precepts.
Q: What would you say is the strength of your book?
A: I think one of the biggest strengths, other than the fact that the heroine is a "real" person who lives and breathes for God in a natural and believable way, is the strong family relationship in the book. It’s really more of a family saga than just a romance, epitomizing for me what I believe God intended a family to be. Not perfect, not plastic, but real and loving, with plenty of failings to underscore just how much we need the grace of God in our lives.
Q: Is it true we can order copies of A Passion Most Pure right now, and pre-order A Passion Redeemed at www.amazon.com, by typing JULIE LESSMAN in the “search box."
A: My kind of gal, Kel! Yes, you can! And I hope all those reading this interview who enjoy passionate love stories along with strong spirituality will do so, as well as check out my Web site at http://www.julielessman.com/. Thanks, Kel, for your precious time and friendship. Love ya!
Back to Kelly: I’ll put in my five cents (inflation, and all). I’ve read the book, and it’s fabulous. And Bravo to Revell for being open-minded and letting Julie portray her characters as real people. Her book is honest, and a great read. I highly recommend it, and I believe it’ll skyrocket to the best-seller lists. Not because of any controversy surrounding it, but because Julie Lessman wrote a heartwarming family saga full of laughter, tears, love, and dare I say it, PASSION. See "Worth Reading" for my Amazon.com review.
Interview with Editor Cynthia DiTiberio on Avon Inspire by Kelly Mortimer
A big thank you to Harper San Francisco Acquisitions Editor Cynthia DiTiberio for granting me this interview about the upcoming new line, Avon Inspire.
Hi Cynthia, is the new Avon Inspire line going to be separate from your Harper San Francisco line, and if so, what will the differences be?
While I will still continue to be an editor at Harper San Francisco, this line of inspirational romance will be published under the Avon Books imprint. The team at Avon will be consulting with the team at HSF for HSF’s knowledge of the Christian marketplace. We're looking forward to a unique partnering of the Harper family.
Do you accept unagented writers?
Yes.
When do you expect the new line to be coming out?
Our first book is due in May 2007.
How many books do you plan to release and in what format?
We'll have two Avon Inspire books per season, in trade paperback with the Avon imprint to start, with plenty of room to grow.
Approximately what word count are you looking for?
We're pretty open right now, but 75-100,000 is a good range. It depends upon the book.
And what sub-genres are you looking for?
Once again, we're open to different types. We want to publish excellent books, and won't turn one away just because it might not fit a certain category. In general I'd say contemporary, historical, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy.
Can you elaborate on 'historical' as that covers so many areas?
Sure. I'd love to see some American-based historicals. Prairie westerns are always popular, but as the line grows, we’re open to exploring more options.
How strict are your guidelines going to be?
Not as strict as some publishers are, but there are general guidelines. As in other Christian fiction, we’d like to stay away from premarital sex, drugs, drinking, and foul language. If the storyline does include some of those elements, it should primarily be to show their destructive nature and how a virtuous life is a better path.
How about the level of intimacy between characters, language, and level of violence?
No pre-marital sex or explicit love scenes, the language should be clean--we don't have a list, no gratuitous violence or gore.
How about portraying the main characters?
We'd like at least one character to be a strong Christian all through the book, or the main character could be coming back to a faith that they’ve perhaps strayed from in the past. Again, alcohol or drug use should be avoided unless it is used to show the absolute destruction these things cause to our relationships with God and each other.
I hear you have two great authors for your kickoff debut.
Yes. Tracey Bateman and Linda Windsor. We're very excited to have their great stories as our leads.
Thank you so much for your valuable time. We realize it must take a huge amount of work to start a new line and we greatly appreciate you letting us in on the details.
Interview with Editor Anne Goldsmith of Faith Words by Kelly Mortimer
Will the sale of the Time Warner Book Group to Lagardere change things for you?
As part of Lagardere and Hachette-Livre, we are now the third largest publisher in the world! That’s great news for us, our authors, and our books. In light of this change, Warner Faith will have a new name sometime in the near future. We’ll continue to publish great Christian books!
What kinds of manuscripts are you looking for?
Fiction: At this time, contemporaries only--no historicals. I’m looking for big concepts, strong hooks, and authors with some kind of platform. While we don’t publish genre romance at Warner Faith, I am looking for strong love stories. I’m also looking for suspense novels, legal thrillers, women’s fiction, and mainstream contemporary fiction. Non-Fiction: I’d really like to find strong nonfiction for women. I’m looking for Christian Living, Inspirational, Devotional, etc. And as always, the author’s hook must be irresistible, and she needs to have some sort of platform that will ensure commercial success.
Word Count?
75,000 – 90,000 words.
Do you consider unagented writers?
No.
How about taking on agented unpublished authors?
It’s VERY difficult for an unpublished author to sell us a manuscript. Normally, we deal with established writers.
As President of FHL, I know we have some unbelievable writers who have yet to be published, but their manuscripts are worthy of publication. What is your advice to them on having a better chance at publication with you?
The manuscript must be irresistible—compelling hook, amazing writing. In addition to that, it helps if the author has media connections, can provide a list of big-name endorsers, has plans for partnering with the publisher to promote her work, etc. It’s also helpful to know if the author has published anything else—articles in mainstream magazines, etc.
Does self-promotion catch your eye?
Absolutely. Who do they know? Do they have media connections? Do they have a platform? All of that helps when I give the material initial consideration and later if I actually present the material to our New York publication board.
Thanks, Anne. I look forward to submitting some of those worthy unpublished authors to you. God Bless and have a great day.
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