Your professional accomplishments to date have included actor, jewelry designer, television host (and bartender)! You published your first book in 2010 “Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career” and have since published 6 more novels, three young adult and three adult fiction, adding acclaimed author to your long resume. Can you talk a little bit about your winding career path and whether you feel like you’ve finally found your calling as an author or are there still other creative pursuits in you?
I love this question! It’s something I think about a lot. I do love being a novelist. It’s something I always wanted to be, even when I was little. But I think there will always be other creative pursuits because it’s so much fun to try something new. And I find that things tend to snowball in the best way when you try different things; it’s almost like having your hand in a bunch of pots and seeing what sticks. I failed at many things as I was trying to build a creative career, but the more I put myself out there and kept trying new things, the more things stuck and started to work.
You told me that you started writing prolifically at age 8, do you think being a good writer is an inherent skill or something that can be taught and learned overtime with practice?
I think anyone can learn it, particularly if you love telling a story and enjoy reading and practicing writing. You can learn so much from the cadence of what you read. It will inform your own work, and the more you try writing, the better you’ll get. It took writing a few novels before I really understood how to do it. I tried to approach it the same way I would expect someone to approach achieving something in a more traditional career. If you were trying to be a doctor, you’d know you have to do four years of medical school and then a residency. I knew it might take years to really understand how to write a novel, and it did. My first novel never sold, and it wasn’t until years later that I sold something under my own name, but I kept at it.
Who have been the greatest influences on your own writing?
I was lucky to have excellent writing teachers who are authors themselves, like Micol Ostow and Kristin Harmel. Both of those women really encouraged me in my late twenties and early thirties; they believed in me as a writer, and they taught me the art of writing fiction for both young adults and adult audiences.
I know you are very close to your own siblings and family, how have those relationships shaped you as a writer, professional and mom of four?
I love to explore the inner workings of families in my writing, and I think this comes from being part of a big family and watching the dynamics at play. And my siblings and my parents were my support system as I was navigating a creative career and trying to figure out how it all could work. Even earlier, when we were children, they encouraged me to write and purse all things creative, and you really can’t ask for much more than that. 😊 I’m very grateful to them.
Your three most recent novels are mysteries, what draws you to that genre in particular?
I like the mystery genre because everything feels so immediate. The stakes are so high, and you can really explore what a character would do when pushed to her limits under extraordinary circumstances.
Much of your writing is set in bucolic sleepy towns similar to Bedford where you and your family settled in 2014 after living in New York City for many years. What is it about this type of setting that makes a good backdrop for a story?
It feels like ripe writing ground to explore a place (anywhere, even a specific home) that feels bucolic and perfect on the outside but hides secrets within. In the new book I just turned in last week to my editor, called THE VACATION RENTAL, my main character rents out her beautiful home to a stranger. This home has been in her family for generations and has been a site of both happiness and grave tragedy. It holds secrets, for sure. And then to have a young woman come up from the city to rent the home and inhabit someone else’s life… it gives me a lot to play with as a writer, and I love digging into these kinds of themes.
Do you have any tricks or pieces of advice to help stay disciplined and focused when you write?
Sometimes I have to push through on days when writing feels more like work. Every writer is different, but for me it’s helpful to have a wordcount. I try to hit 1,000 words per day, and I often remind myself how good it will feel when it’s all done. I also very often remind myself how lucky I am to be making my living creatively, as a storyteller, which is what I always wanted to do. That usually gets my butt in the chair and working.
How much of your success do you believe has been about luck - being in the right place at the right time - versus you seeking out opportunities and putting yourself out there to be discovered and appreciated?
So much luck was involved! My agent and I talk about this all the time. He likes to say it’s because I’ve worked hard, but I can’t help but look back at my career and think a lot of it was being in the right place at the right time. I was lucky to work at a boutique where the owner let me sell my jewelry, and because it was in the heart of downtown NYC, lots of influential editors and celebrities saw it, and then featured me in their magazines or wore the jewelry, and then I was able to get a television hosting gig because of that, which enabled me to find an agent and write a nonfiction book called CREATIVE GIRL, which led to writing novels. I had to actually do the work, and I tried a lot of things that failed. (I say that, because listing it out above makes it look simple!) But I had so much rejection along the way, all kinds of projects that didn’t pan out. I tried to keep going and focus on the fact that you really only need a few yesses to make an entire career work. There were probably one-hundred nos for every yes 😊
You seem like an extremely positive person who brings a zest to life in everything you do, yet I imagine you have experienced some setbacks throughout your career. Can you talk about some of those challenges and how you saw your way through them to get where you are today?
So many setbacks! I failed at a zillion acting auditions when I first got to NYC. I remember a fashion series my friend and I tried to pitch, which never worked, and now I smile when I look back at the footage of me trying to act like I knew what I was talking about in the fashion world. Later in my twenties, my first novel didn’t sell, so I got really stubborn and realized I had to figure out how to write novels, so I took a job ghostwriting mystery novels. I wrote three books under someone else’s name, and then got my first deal for a novel under my own name at age thirty-two. Once I tried to pitch a book to Taylor Swift that we would co-write together. (I love her.) I don’t think that project ever got past her people. These are a handful of examples, but there were so many setbacks I could write you an entire novel about them. 😊
One of the greatest lessons from your first book is that as a creative person, it’s important to be somewhere in the world where people can find your work. What advice would you give to aspiring writers (or other creatives) who have an idea or an art form but don’t necessarily see a path to get it out in the world?
I think if you can try to immerse yourself in the world in which you want to work (so for a writer, that could be going to book readings, taking writing classes if that’s affordable, or starting a writing group if it’s not) and really getting your work into the world is so valuable. Getting feedback is so valuable, and finding resources in your area or creative networks can be so helpful. Then it’s not just you creating in your room, it’s you in the world open to all the synergy that happens when creative people get together.
Lightning Round:
What book(s) are on your nightstand right now?
Ann Leary’s THE GOOD HOUSE. Ann is a local author, and I met her at a tennis match! The book is fantastic! There was a movie made, too, which I can’t wait to watch.
What’s the last BEST book you’ve read?
I loved THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES. Such an epic story, and really well written.
What’s the one book you could read over and over again?
The Great Gatsby
Favorite thing about living in our area?
It’s so beautiful here, and I find that I’m always meeting women who are kind, smart, and actively giving back to our community.
What would you do with one extra hour everyday?
Read in bed with my kids 😊
