Carole Barrowman

How did you become a writer?

I’ve always been a writer. I can’t remember any time when I wasn’t writing stories. My first public piece was for a high school writing contest. I wrote a story based on David Bowie’s Life on Mars…because, you know, at 15 I decided I could do better. Then I went to journalism school where I learned to craft a story and write well on a deadline.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I was always a voracious reader and my parents never placed limits on what I could read. Everyone in my family read. So I grew up with books. I remember reading my papa’s pulp fiction westerns when he finished them. My tastes were eclectic. I grew up in the ’60s in a small town outside of Glasgow, Scotland. When I was eight, I developed a rare blood disorder and was hospitalized for a couple of months. The head of my primary school wouldn’t let my mom bring me books from school that were above my grade level and I quickly ran out. Luckily my teacher, Mrs. Silver (a hero in my reading life) ignored him and she kept me supplied with all the books I wanted. As a child, I read lots of classics like Alexander Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, CS Lewis, Enid Blyton and E. Nesbit. I loved adventure stories of all kinds and I think they influenced the way I pace and structure a story to this day. And I still read voraciously. I read four or five books a week. When I leave the house, I always take a book. You know, just in case…

When and where do you write?  

I can’t write every day because of my teaching schedule. I try block off one day a week when I write for 8-9 hours and the rest of the week I write when I can. When my children were young, I converted my side of a double closet into a cubby where I wrote for years. I also wrote what I now call my ‘practice’ novel in that cubby (where it shall forever remain). When my daughter went off to college, I took over her bedroom as my office. It’s packed with my books and lots of pop culture figures and toys. I like to play when I’m thinking.

What are you working on now? 

For the last few years when I’m between projects, I’ve been working on a story about a female photographer documenting the civil war in the camps and field hospitals around Washington. Walt Whitman and Clara Barton are also main characters. When I realized the story had become a novel, my agent encouraged me to finish it. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

I don’t do writer’s block. Getting stuck, hitting a dead-end, feeling uninspired, or hating every word on my page are all part of writing. I’m okay with all of those fraught moments because I’ve learned to trust my imagination and my process. I know I’ll work things out. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

I’m a student of Elmore Leonard’s school of writing. I think his Ten Rules (yes, they are rules, and, yes, they can be broken, but in my experience beginning writers deserve to know some of the rules that more experienced writers have figured out how to break). I think I’ve always resonated with Leonard’s advice because I trained as a journalist and most of his advice comes from that particular wellspring. I also hate adverbs. Kill them all… or at least wound them a little.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read like a writer…and kill all the adverbs!

Carole Barrowman was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, which she credits for her inherent sarcasm and cheekiness. Carole is a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Studies in Writing program at Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI. In collaboration with her wee brother, John Barrowman (Arrow, Torchwood, Doctor Who), Carole has written nine books, including the acclaimed middle grade trilogy, Hollow Earth (Simon & Schuster), a YA series, The Orion Chronicles (Head of Zeus), comic series for DC Comics (The Dark Archer), Titan Comics (The Tale of the Selkie, Station Zero, The Culling), and a web-based series with Legendary Comics (Acursian). Barrowman is a regular reviewer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and a contributor to WTMJ4’s The Morning Blend. Barrowman is also one of the Hugo Award winning writers for the Chicks Dig Timelords anthology.

Tess Gerritsen

How did you become a writer? 

First I was an avid reader. I was crazy about Nancy Drew mysteries, and by the age of 7, I knew I wanted to write stories as well. My parents weren't convinced that was a viable choice of career, and my father insisted I go into the sciences. I took a detour to medical school, worked as a doctor for about 5 years, but never stopped nurturing the hope that I'd write novels someday. When I went on maternity leave for my first child (who was a very good napper!) I'd write whenever he was asleep. That's how I wrote my first novels -- on maternity leave. A few years later I sold my first romantic thriller to Harlequin, and that's how I first broke into publishing.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Number one influences were the books I loved in my childhood, by Tolkien, Asimov, Victoria Holt, Agatha Christie. And I had wonderful teachers in high school who kept encouraging me to write -- and who knew I'd be a novelist long before my parents did. 

When and where do you write? 

I have a home office overlooking the sea. That's where I do all my writing, usually with pen and paper for the first draft.

What are you working on now? 

I've just finished writing a thriller novel in collaboration with Gary Braver, a project where he wrote the male POV and I wrote the female POV. And now I'm working on the next Rizzoli & Isles novel, tentatively titled MRS RIZZOLI.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Every single time. It's a consequence of my plotting process, which involves no planning whatsoever. I start writing, get stuck midway through when I don't know whodunnit or whydunnit and I have to stop and figure out the last third of the book. I have to walk away from it, spend a lot of time walking or driving or staring up at the ceiling. But I always manage to solve the problem.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

My literary agent once told me: "Readers want to know secrets. They want to learn how insiders (in whatever profession) think." So I try to open the door to the medical world, and reveal how doctors or pathologists would approach a problem.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Don't get hung up on the first draft. Don't worry if it's flawed. Just keep writing till the end and don't stop to revise. Don't feel you have to know everything about a character, or everything about your plot, before you can start writing. Sometimes the best plot twists happen on the fly.  

Trained as a medical doctor, Tess built a second career as a thriller writer. Her 28 novels include the Rizzoli and Isles crime series, on which the TV show "Rizzoli & Isles" is based. Among her titles are HARVEST, GRAVITY, THE SURGEON, PLAYING WITH FIRE, and THE SHAPE OF NIGHT. Her books are translated into 40 languages and more than 30 million copies have been sold. She lives in Maine.

Emily Liebert

How did you become a writer?

I've always been a storyteller, ever since I was a child. Throughout high school and college, I knew I wanted to build a career in the field of journalism in some capacity. After graduating with a B.A. in English Language & Literature, I worked in television, at ABC  News, for two years, but ultimately decided that wasn't my passion. I wanted to write. So I applied for editor jobs at magazines and was fortunate to become the Editor-in-Chief of The WAG magazine for five years. I loved my time there, but wanted to sink my  teeth into bigger projects. I had the opportunity to edit Kerry Kennedy's NYT bestseller Being Catholic Now and I parlayed that experience into writing my own books. My seventh comes out June 2nd!

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

The authors who influenced my writing when I first began were Judy Blume, Helen Fielding, Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin, and Jane Green.

When and where do you write?

I write in my home office (while my kids are at school or camp) between the hours of 8am-3pm, Monday through Friday.

What are you working on now?

I'm writing my eighth book! And my most recent novel, PRETTY REVENGE, was recently optioned for TV.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

No. There are days that it's harder than others to put solid words on the page, but I can always push myself to do a little.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Every chapter has to move the plot forward, otherwise it's just filler.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write what you're passionate about, don't follow trends. And grow a thick skin; there will be rejection and there will be bad reviews.

Emily Liebert is the USA Today bestselling author of six books: FACEBOOK FAIRYTALES (2010), YOU KNEW ME WHEN (2013), WHEN WE FALL (2014), THOSE SECRETS WE KEEP (2015), SOME WOMEN (2016), and PRETTY REVENGE (2019). Her seventh book PERFECTLY FAMOUS releases on June 2, 2020. Emily has been featured often in the press, by outlets such as: Today Show, The Rachael Ray Show, Anderson Cooper, FOX News, Good Day New York, Oprah Radio, Martha Stewart Radio, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, InStyle, People StyleWatch, Good Housekeeping, OK!, Nylon, Woman’s World, WWD, Woman’s Day, The New York Post, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, and People.com. In addition to her novels, Emily writes a travel and books column in each issue of Westport Magazine, for which she’s the Books Correspondent. She lives with her husband, Lewis, and their two sons, Jax and Hugo, in Westport, CT. You can find her at www.emilyliebert.com.