Fast Writer: Candace Havens

I have another fast writer for you...Candace Havens!

She writes for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Berkley and Entangled Publishing. You would have probably seen the post below where I shared that I was about to take Candy's Fast Draft class. It's amazing! Candy hosts it several times a year and if you are vaguely considering it, I urge you to seriously consider it!

I hope Candy doesn't mind me telling you this, but she recently wrote a book in FOUR AND A HALF days!!! AND got it accepted before she edited it. Is that cool or what?

We like Candy, she's cool beanz ;D Here is her interview.

MONIQUE: Thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my Fast Writers blog series, Candy. First, I’d love to hear about your writing day in a quick snapshot. Do you have a special time to write? Or do you grab moments whenever you can? I guess I’d like to know how structured you are.

CANDY: I write whenever I can. I usually break the day up into non-fiction writing for my day job as a film and TV critic and I write my books later in the day or at night. But I’m never stuck with one way of doing things. I mix it up all the time. 

MONIQUE: What sort of writer are you? Planner or pantser? 

CANDY: I have to write a brief synopsis for my publishers, but for the most part I’m a pantser. I never stick to those synopses.

MONIQUE: Can you tell us a bit about the technique you use to help you to write quickly, and how you developed it?

CANDY: The class I teach is called Fast Draft. It’s a process where you write your first draft in two weeks. People think it’s impossible, but it isn’t. I have certain rules and tools that help you psychologically get into almost a state of hypnosis to write. Your subconscious is a much better writer than you are and that’s what we delve into.

MONIQUE: Did you always write this way? Or is your method something you picked up along the way?

CANDY: I have a crazy life. I’m a film and tv critic and a radio personality. I write three columns/cover stories a week for the TV job. I’m the president of the TV Critics Association. I have kids, who are older now, but were young when I started. I had to write fast or it was never going to get done. I’ve revised the process over the year, but it works every time.

MONIQUE: How many words do you write per hr/writing session? 

CANDY: I try when I’m doing Fast Draft to write 20 pages a day. I sometimes break that up and do 10 pages early in the day and 10 pages at night. I can write between 1000-1700 words an hour. I do a lot of #1k1hr on Twitter, which is a great motivator. It’s just nice to have people going through the same thing you are.

MONIQUE: How many hours per day do you write? And how many days per week?

CANDY: I honestly have no idea on the hours, but I write about six days a week, seven if I’m on a tight deadline, which happens a lot.

MONIQUE: How quickly can/do you finish a book?

CANDY: From first draft to polished book about a month if I have to. I like to let a book sit between first draft and that first set of revisions if I have time.

MONIQUE: Do you know what you're going to write each day before you start your writing sessions? For instance, do you draft the scenes/chapters you’re about to write just before you write them, or do you thoroughly outline before you even start the book (if you’re a planner, that is J)?

CANDY: I don’t plan that much. I just write the next scene I know. Sometimes that might be in chapter three, and sometimes it’s the last chapter. When I finish writing, I leave my self notes about what I just did and where I was thinking about going every time I finish a scene. That way when I pick it back up, I know where I want to go. The great thing about Fast Draft is your continuity is better because you eat, drink and sleep that book.

MONIQUE: How do you prevent your internal editor/critic from interrupting?

CANDY: This is the toughest part of writing for everyone. I tell people to send their internal editor on vacation. Maybe to Fiji or Alaska. Somewhere far away. You have to give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft and you have to write even when you don’t feel like it. I’ve found that when I write when I’m tired, the words are better. That’s because my subconscious takes over.

MONIQUE: Do you have any more tips you’d like to share?

CANDY: The trick is being disciplined. There isn’t a job in the world where you can work for a few hours and then pick it up three weeks later and expect to be successful. Set your hours and goals for the week and stick to them.  

MONIQUE: Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to spend time with us here today. We’d love to hear about your new book, would you tell us a bit about it?

CANDY: I have a new series debuting in October 2012. The first book is Iron Demon. It’s a southern steampunk. Professor Maisy Clark is a female version of Sherlock Holmes who hunts down paranormal creatures. She has a trusty sidekick, a Scotsman named Barnes. And there is a hot cowboy involved. Oh, and there is a hot U.S. Marshal involved with Maisy. And I have a new Blaze novella with Lori Wilde and Kathleen O’Reilly called “All I Want for Christmas…” and my story in that is “One Hot December Night.”

Thanks for letting me hang out. It was fun.

MONIQUE: It was fantastic having you here with us, Candy!

Author Bio:

Bestselling author Candace Havens has written six novels for Berkley including, Charmed & Dangerous, Charmed & Ready, Charmed & Deadly, Like A Charm, The Demon King and I and Dragons Prefer Blondes.

Her new venture is writing for the Blaze line of Harlequin. Those books include Take Me If You Dare, She Who Dares, Wins, Truth and Dare, and The Model Marine. She is also in the anthology Spirited, and the proceeds go to help literacy. And she has a new southern steampunk series debuting October 2012 with Iron Demon. Her books have received nominations for the RITA's, Holt Medallion and Write Touch Reader Awards.

She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation's leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities including Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise, George Clooney and many more. Her entertainment columns can be read in more than 600 newspapers across the country.

Candace also runs a free online writing workshop for more than 1800 writers, and teaches comprehensive writing class. She does film reviews with the Dorsey Gang on New Country 96.3, and is the President of the Television Critics Association. Her book Model Marine is a 2012 National Readers Choice Finalist.

Fast Writer: Rachel Aaron

Welcome to the Fast Writers blog series, Rachel. So lovely to have you here.

Thank you for inviting me!

·         First, I’d love to hear about your writing day in a quick snapshot. Do you have a special time to write? Or do you grab moments whenever you can? I guess I’d like to know how structured you are.

I like to think I run a very tight ship here at the Rachel Aaron Word Factory! My day is divided into two sections, morning and afternoon. I usually sit down to work around 8:30, 9:00 am and work until 11:00am. Because I have several books out already, I usually use this time to answer email, do promotion, write out interviews, all that sort of stuff. If I don't have any like that lined up (or if I'm trying to make a deadline), I get to write! On days when I write in the morning, I usually try to get about 2000-3000 words before lunch. 

Afternoon is my serious writing time. I take 30 minutes for lunch and then drive to the coffee shop where I do all my real work. I write every weekday afternoon from 12:00 – 5:30 without fail. Seriously, if I miss my afternoon writing time, someone had better be dying and I'm their only hope.  During these 5 and a half hours, I try to get at least 6k words, though I usually end up with 7-8k, or a little over one full chapter.

A chapter a day is always my goal, but on days when I write in the morning and afternoon I usually pile on 9-10k to my manuscript, or about a chapter and a half. I will also sometimes write on weekends if I have the time or I'm REALLY EXCITED about something, but I try not to. My husband does like to see me sometimes... 

·         What sort of writer are you? Planner or pantser?

Militant plotter. I have a system and plan everything, it's the only way I can get the kind of speed I do. I actually have a blog post outlining my whole process from initial book idea to ready-to-write, and as you'll see, it gets pretty detailed. You could call it overkill, but I'm the sort of person who loves knowing exactly where I'm going. The more details I can get in advance, the faster I can write, and the faster I can write, the more time I buy myself to make my books amazing before they're due. Also, writing super fast is amazingly fun!

·         Can you tell us a bit about the technique you use to help you to write quickly, and how you developed it?

I write using a process I call “2k to 10k,” because I went from writing 2k to 10k words per day using it. That sound super impressive, but really it boils down to 3 almost embarrassingly obvious elements: knowledge, time, and enthusiasm. I'm actually going to cheat and just go over each one briefly here, but if you're interested in the details so you can give my process a try in your own writing, please see my blog post “How I went fromwriting 2000 words to 10000 words a day”. There are graphs and everything!

The first and biggest change I made that really boosted my word count was knowledge, or knowing what I was going to write before I wrote it. Before I write a scene, I take five minutes and write out what's going to happen in my notebook. Nothing big, just short descriptions of places, rough outlines of conversations, what happens when, that sort of stuff. Really, really simple, short hand notes, but taking the time to plan things out rather than make all my decisions in the actual text where any changes could mean cutting paragraphs made a HUGE difference in my words per hour. 

I've had tons of people write me and leave comments that this one extra step has doubled their word count. So if you're only going to make one change to your writing, this is the biggest bang for your buck. I've found it's also the best for my writing in general since thinking about each scene on a macro level before I write it has taught me a ton about tension, pacing, and using scenes for multiple purposes. This means I'm not only writing faster, I'm writing much, much better. Total win.

The next change I made was time, making sure I was always writing at my most productive hours. Basically I kept track of my writing for a month, writing in different locations and times of day. From my findings, it was clear that my words per hour were best in the afternoon, out of my house, and when I had a writing block that was at least 3 hours long. 

This step is especially good if your writing time is very limited. By taking the time to find out when and where you write best, you can schedule yourself to make sure that your precious writing hours aren't wasted. Again, a very simple change, but one that can have a big impact on your wordcounts.

The final change was enthusiasm. This was probably the most headslappingly obvious one. Basically, I write faster when I'm excited about what I'm writing. I know! Revolutionary! 

But seriously, pumping yourself up about a scene, whether it's a battle or a love scene or whatever, is one of the simplest way to supercharge your writing. And if you have a scene where you can't seem to get excited, maybe it's time to consider changing that scene. I mean, if you as the author can't get excited about a scene, there's no way your reader will. 

This step is probably the one that has helped my writing the most. I've cut and redone several perfectly good scenes because I just wasn't excited about them. Boring scenes have no place in my novels. 

·         Did you always write this way? Or is your method something you picked up along the way?

This was something I stumbled into in phases. If you're interested in the particulars, they up on my blog post, but the cut and dry version is that I was up against the wall on a deadline. I had a very limited amount of time to write each day and if I couldn't figure out how to squeeze more words out of every hour, my writing career was in real jeopardy. So I got serious, got scientific, and ended up completely revolutionizing the way I wrote novels. Now, instead of 2 novels a year, I write 6-7. Not bad, I think. :)

·         How many words do you write per hr/writing session?

1100 wph is what I think of as my happy writing number, though I can hit 2000 wph when I'm really on fire. Anything under 1000 wph means I'm having trouble and should probably look at the scene again to see what was holding me up (usually a lack of tension or a character acting contrary to their nature). My wph also goes up dramatically the further I get into a writing session. Most of the time I'll write about 800 words in the first hour, 1200 in the second, 1500 in the third and every hour after that, which is why I always try to make sure my writing sessions are at least 3 hours long. The beginning is the dross, the real word burning comes later when I'm nice and immersed in my world. 

·         How many hours per day do you write? And how many days per week?

As I mentioned earlier, I try to always write at least 5 hours a day every week day. If I can write in the mornings, I usually get in another 2, 2.5 hours there, for a total of about 7 hours per day. Of course, I'm always thinking about novels and jotting down notes. An author is always working, but that's OK when you have the best job on the planet! 

·         How quickly can/do you finish a book?

I've written a book in 12 days! (Which has now been edited and sold :D) But that was kind of a crazy marathon combination of a test to see just how fast I could write and a book I was freakishly excited about. A more normal time span for me is about a month, usually writing a chapter per day (6-7k) with a few days of backtracking and fixes thrown in. Editing times vary wildly depending on the book, but I usually budget about a month for that as well, meaning I go from idea to novel ready to go to my agent in about 2 months.

·         Do you know what you're going to write each day before you start your writing sessions? For instance, do you draft the scenes/chapters you’re about to write just before you write them, or do you thoroughly outline before you even start the book (if you’re a planner, that is J)?

*Looks up at previous walls of text* Ohhhhh yeah. I plan. :D For every book, I make a story map listing all my scenes and a written out description of the whole book, scene by scene on top of the pre-writing planning I do before each scene. But even this isn't enough to catch every mistake, and often I'll end up going back and redoing large sections of my planning to take into account new ideas I had while writing or problems I hadn't considered. Novels are complicated!

·         How do you prevent your internal editor/critic from interrupting?

Iron hard confidence and the knowledge that I can go back and fix things later. That said, if I know I'm writing something that is crap, I can't go forward. I actually backtrack a lot in my novels to fix problems that prevent me from moving on. Honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I'd much rather take a day and go back to fix a huge plot problem then write a scene I'm 90% sure I'm just going to end up throwing away.

Basically, my aim on a first draft is “good enough.” A scene doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be good enough to support the scenes that come after it. If it can't hold up, I have to go fix it or replace it.  

·         Do you have any more tips you’d like to share?

Yes! The internet is full of writing advice that begins with “butt in chair” time. I agree that is necessary to being a writer, but it's important to remember that writing isn't something you get better at by putting one word in front of the other until you end up with 100k words. 

If writing is like pulling teeth, if you dread opening up your manuscript, you're doing it wrong. Stop. Remember why you love your story. Remember why you wanted to be a writer in the first place. Never be afraid to take a step back if something isn't working. There's always more than one way to solve a problem. Don't be afraid to do something different. You're the author, you are god in your world. Revel in it, delight in your creation, and you'll finish that book. Guaranteed.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to spend time with us here today. We’d love to hear about your new book, would you tell us a bit about it?

Certainly! I'm the author of The Legend of Eli Monpress series, a light hearted, old fashioned fantasy adventure series about a disastrously charming wizard thief, his taciturn swordsman, and the monster who follows them. Think Lies of Locke Lamora with more tongue in cheek and faster pacing. 

Eli Monpress is talented. He's charming. And he's a thief. But not just any thief. He's the greatest thief of the age - and he's also a wizard. And with the help of his partners - a swordsman with the most powerful magic sword in the world but no magical ability of his own, and a demonseed who can step through shadows and punch through walls - he's going to put his plan into effect. The first step is to increase the size of the bounty on his head, so he'll need to steal some big things. But he'll start small for now. He'll just steal something that no one will miss - at least for a while. Like a king.

 

This omnibus edition contains the first three books of the Eli Monpress series, including The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater.

 

The first three books are currently out in a very well priced (read: cheap) omnibus, and the highly anticipated fourth book, The Spirit War, comes out in June. If you like charming thieves and are a bit worn down by how dark and gritty Fantasy has gotten lately, you should totally go to my site and read the first few chapters. The Spirit Thief.  You won't be disappointed!

Author Bio:

Rachel Aaron is the author of The Legend of Eli Monpress series, a fun fantasy adventure published by Orbit Books. She is also the mind behind the popular “2k to 10k” word count boosting method and the author of 9 novels, 5 of which were written in the last 10 months. You can learn more about Rachel's books and her tips for writing at lightning speed on her website, www.rachelaaron.net

Fast Writer: Melanie Milburne

Our fast writer today is Melanie Milburne who writer for Harlequin Mills and Boon Modern and Medical Romance lines. Welcome Melanie and thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my Fast Writers blog series.

·      First, I’d love to hear about your writing day in a quick snapshot. Do you have a special time to write? Or do you grab moments whenever you can? I guess I’d like to know how structured you are.

My writing day is fairly structured. I’m a clear- the-desk-first type of person so I like to get other stuff out of the way so I feel free in my head to write. I swim early and then I walk my dogs. Then I sort out business emails and so on before I sit down to write. I prefer block time so I can immerse myself into the story world rather than snatch odd moments here and there.

·         What sort of writer are you? Planner or pantser?

I’ve thought a lot about the pantser and plotter thing. I’ve finally come to realize that I’m a bit of both. Some books come to me intuitively; others take a bit more thinking through. If I write a too detailed plan I nearly always end up veering away from it. If I don’t plan at all I can end up losing my way and having to do massive rewrites.

·          Did you always write this way? Or is your method something you picked up along the way?

I’ve always been a fast writer. Again, I think it’s very much linked to my personality. My brain runs like a Ferrari most of the time. Over the years I’ve had to concentrate on slowing down my speech so friends and family can keep up! Writing fast is normal for me so it really scares me when I hit a rough patch and the words don’t pour out as they usually do.

·          Can you tell us a bit about the technique you use to help you to write quickly, and how you developed it?

The technique I use (or which comes most naturally to me) is to write in fits and bursts. I always start with a new book with a bang. I find the first half of the book easy. I can write 20,000 words in a couple of weeks, but then things start to slow down and I might have a few days, or even a week or more, when I don’t write anything much at all, although I will be still be processing it in my head. Then I’ll come back at it and finish it in a rush.

·         How many words do you write per hr/writing session?

I don’t set word count limits or pages for the hour or day. I prefer a word count for the week. I set a target and then head towards it. It keeps me focused and motivated.

·         How many hours per day do you write? And how many days per week?

I write for four to six hours most days. I take weekends off here and there, but when I’m deep in the story world I prefer to keep going until it’s finished. That’s why I find social media and the business end of writing so distracting. They pull me out of the story world and it can take ages to plug myself in back in. It’s like trying to watch a movie while someone is talking to you. Impossible!

·         How quickly can/do you finish a book?

It usually takes me four to six weeks to write a book. But that’s just the unpolished version. It will take another week or so to edit and tighten up the story.

·         Do you know what you're going to write each day before you start your writing sessions? For instance, do you draft the scenes/chapters you’re about to write just before you write them, or do you thoroughly outline before you even start the book (if you’re a planner, that is J)?

I don’t always know what I’m going to write each day. Sometimes I know I’m going to write a particular scene, such as the crisis or climatic scene or a love scene, but generally I will see where the characters will take me. Even when I’ve done a rough outline or a detailed beat sheet I will still let the characters have precedence over it. That is the magic of storytelling. The story comes to you if you’re open to it.

·         How do you prevent your internal editor/critic from interrupting?


I have learned to control or balance my internal critic/editor. It’s not a bad thing to be critical of your work but you have to be constructive in how you go about it. You have to take an honest look at it now and again and improve where you can. Over the last couple of years I’ve been studying the craft of writing by reading dozens of books on story structure and attending novel and screenplay workshops. I found my writing slowed down a quite bit to start with. It was almost paralyzing creatively. I was overthinking everything. Now I find I am back to my fast pace as I’ve gradually integrated what I’ve learned. It’s a bit like learning to drive. At first you remember every stop sign, but once you become more experienced it becomes more intuitive.


·         Do you have any more tips you’d like to share?

My best tip for writing is: If you can’t tell someone what your story is about in a sentence or two then you have no story.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to spend time with us here today. We’d love to hear about your new book, would you tell us a bit about it?

My next release is Book One of a duet called Deserving of His Diamonds. It is a story about a young woman whose life was destroyed two years ago by a sex tape scandal before she found out she had an identical twin. When her ex-fiancé Emilio Andreoni finds out the truth he moves heaven and earth to get her back in his life, but there is something heartbreakingly tragic that Gisele hasn’t told him about the time they were apart.

You can find Melanie here: Website, Facebook, Blog

Fast Writer: Jean Joachim

It's Friday again and that means another author giving up her secrets on writing fast! This week we have the lovely Jean Joachim. This woman makes me want to sit next to her while she writes so I can see how it's done. She can write 50K words in two and a half  weeks!! I couldn't believe it either, a book in just over two weeks--my-oh-my!

Hi, Jean,  thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my Fast Writers blog series. Please tell us how you do it.

·         First, I’d love to hear about your writing day in a quick snapshot. Do you have a special time to write? Or do you grab moments whenever you can? I guess I’d like to know how structured you are.

I write full time. By six am I’m awake and at the computer, ready to start. I make a cup of tea and begin because that is the time when it is most quiet at home. I write until 8am, when I take the dog to the park for an hour, then it’s back to writing until I break for lunch. I take out time for errands in the afternoon but spend a few hours writing then, too. I’m driven by the stories and the desire to get them out of my head and onto the page. 

·         What sort of writer are you? Planner or pantser?

I began my writing career in non-fiction where you have to plan. My first book came out as almost a stream of consciousness and took a heckuva long time to organize into a cogent story. I never did that again! I’m a planner. After eleven books I’ve created a loose form I will use from now on. I call it a scene sequence. It has the month on the left and a brief list of scenes on the right. This helps pacing and plugging plot holes. Of course when my characters take over, the outline often goes to hell and the story can go in any direction!

·         Can you tell us a bit about the technique you use to help you to write quickly, and how you developed it?
   
There are 3 parts to writing quickly:

1) Knowing your characters. I spend a great deal of time thinking about my story before I do the scene sequence. I think about it when I’m on the bus, walking with the dog, running errands. I think about my characters, their motivation. I plan out their backstory in my head. Who are they? Where did they grow up? What was that experience like? And so on so I get to know them well so I instinctively know how they would speak. Characters and plots can roll around in my head for weeks before I write them. Maybe then I’m not so fast?

2) I do the same thing with the plot. It rolls around in my head while I look for loopholes or plot holes, as I call them. Does the plot make sense? Would this really happen? Is it possible, plausible? If not, what would make it so?  When I get the general idea for the plot in my head, I’m ready to write.

3) Uninterruped writing

Since I have the plot basically doped out in my scene sequence and my head and because I know my characters so well, I know exactly how they’d speak and what they’d say. The story rolls out of my mind and onto the page. And I stay there, stay with it until it gets done. I don’t work on any other stories. I focus on the one I want to complete. I channel the characters and live closely with them focusing only on the story and giving it as many uninterrupted hours as I can.

·         Did you always write this way? Or is your method something you picked up along the way?

This method came into being with the first romance story I wrote that was accepted for publication. By the time I sat down to write it, the story had been bouncing around in my head for several months. Then I cleared the decks, told my family I had an impossible deadline and sat down to write. Two and a half weeks later, my 48K story was finished. I edited it a couple of times, then submitted. It was accepted. Since then I find that writing the story straight through allows me to channel it and do a better job, write a better, tighter story.

·         How many words do you write per hr/writing session?

As many as I can before leaving, often in the thousands. I won’t sit down to write if I only have half an hour or less because I get so wrapped up in the story I don’t want to leave.

Another trick I use to get back into the story the next day is to reread the last ten pages. This refreshes the story in my mind and I’m able to more forward quickly.

·         How many hours per day do you write? And how many days per week?

I write seven days a week. I’m now addicted to writing and write as many hours a day as I can, often up to seven or even more if I’m totally into a story. Being able to focus and stick with it is important to writing fast.

·         How quickly can/do you finish a book?

I have finished a book in three weeks. I might be able to do it in less, for a shorter work. But 50K would take about a month or two, once I’m done editing.

·         Do you know what you're going to write each day before you start your writing sessions? For instance, do you draft the scenes/chapters you’re about to write just before you write them, or do you thoroughly outline before you even start the book (if you’re a planner, that is J)?

I often look at my loose scene sequence to see what would come next and think about it overnight. This helps me prepare for writing that scene the next day. Then rereading the previous ten pages sets the mood and gets me “in character”.

·         How do you prevent your internal editor/critic from interrupting?

I have taught myself that getting it on the page is half the battle. I am a brutal editor and slash away at my work after it’s written. But I need to shut that off while I’m telling the story or nothing will get done.

·         Do you have any more tips you’d like to share?

Writers need to write every day, to make it a habit and become addicted.  The best way to improve your writing is to write. The keys to my fast writing are discipline, focus and determination. All the prep work in the world isn’t worth a hill of beans if you can’t discipline yourself to put your butt in that chair and spend a considerable amount of uninterrupted time writing your story.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to spend time with us here today. We’d love to hear about your new book, would you tell us a bit about it?

My newest book, scheduled for release in April is Now and Forever 3, Blind Love. Although it’s the third in a series, it’s a stand-alone book. You don’t have to have read the two previous books to understand the story.

Can a handsome, charming, womanizing professor win the heart of a blind ballerina? Love comes to the university as Peter Caldwell, dashing Art History professor and accomplished pianist meets Lara Stewart, ballerina.  Peter can’t seduce with her with his devastating good looks because Lara can’t see. Obsessed with the one woman he can’t have, Peter has to learn how to love.

Sam Caldwell joins Peter, Mac, Callie and his grandchildren. Witty and attractive, Sam isn’t looking for a woman but finds love isn’t only for the young but the young at heart as well.

Small town secrets feed a blackmailer and blackmail on campus is paid with sexual favors. Blind Love is a roller coaster ride of twists and turns. This full length novel is three parts love and passion mixed with one part intrigue, stirred up with a twist of mystery and heated up to three flames.

It will be available on the Secret Cravings website soon and the major ebook retailers as well. A paperback will also follow.  

Joan: Thank you so much for this interview. It make me think more than I expected.

Monique: It was a pleasure having you, Jean.  Now where did I put my pen...I'm suddenly rather inspired! :) 

About the Author:
Jean Joachim is an author, married, a mother of two boys and owner of a rescued pug named Homer. She lives in New York City.

An English major in college, Jean always knew she wanted to write but didn’t know where to start. Non-fiction presented the best opportunities so Jean joined the corporate world of advertising and direct marketing. Working her way up the ladder, she became a Media Director, writing business plans, reports and presentations. When she started her own ad agency, she branched out into copywriting and found her niche.

The itch to write began while she was raising her children so she wrote about her experiences with school fund-raising and coaching her son’s soccer team. One article led to another and before long, she made up her mind to attempt a book. Her first book, a non-fiction work titled, “Beyond the Bake Sale, the Ultimate School Fund-Raising Book” was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2003.

Five activity books for Sterling Publishing and a book on advertising for Career Press titled, “151 Quick Ideas for Advertising on a Shoestring” followed. In 2010, fiction beckoned and with her youngest in college, Jean found the time to write “Now and Forever 1, a Love Story.” She fell in love with the contemporary romance and eight books later, she is still writing!

Jean has been writing non-fiction for over fifteen years and fiction for two. Her review column, “Movie Choices for Kids” has been syndicated in weekly and parenting newspapers and on websites for the past eleven years.

Where you can find Jean:
Jean's Website
Jean's Blog