About a
year ago, I had been reading a batch of suspense stories. I had
thought of reading a novel by my favorite author, Randy Singer, who
specializes in legal suspense. But I felt a need for a break, a
breath of fresh air. Well, one of the books just below the one by
Singer was a title I won on-line – Thyme For Love by Pamela S.
Meyers. That book was exactly what I needed. It kept me guessing on
who did it, but I also found it lightened my spirits. (I love
suspense, but you could say cozy mysteries are my literary comfort
food.)
It is my
privilege to interview Pamela Meyers this month. Besides her writing,
she's very active with American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) as
the Genesis Contest Coordinator. I'll mention that I had sent her the
questions a couple of months ago to give her time to write this.
Jeff
Reynolds: Welcome to Sleuths and Suspects, Pam. Your web-page states that
while your debut novel came out in 2011, your desire to write
Christian fiction has been around a while. Can you tell us when you
first caught the writing bug, and how you got from there to where you
are now?
Pam
Meyers: I think the desire to write was in me for many years. When I
was 8 I asked for a diary for Christmas which I received and I began
recording my daily activities in it – which lasted about a month. I
may have stopped making regular entries in the little book, but I
still came back to it many times over the years -- now it's a hoot to
read.
As an
adult I have always journaled, mostly related to my spiritual walk,
but it wasn't until I returned to college and entered an accelerated
adult program where most of the assignments were written reports that
the writing bug really took hold. I took all the writing courses I
could and was flabbergasted when my writing prof suggested I pursue
writing for publication. It was several years before I focused on
fiction, but once I did, I've never looked back. Even then, it took a
long time of learning the craft, networking, and growing as a writer
in many ways. I like to say that when I began the fiction-writing
journey Bill Clinton was in the White House and gas cost $1.15 per
gallon.
JR:
During that time, you had several articles published. Some of them
have great titles: "Snared by the Internet", "Finding
Mary", "How I Overcame Grief" and "God Helped Me
Forgive." What inspired these, and how did these aid you on your
road to the publishing of A Thyme For Love?
PM: All
of these articles were based on personal experience. "Snared"
appeared in Today's Christian Woman and was about getting caught off
guard in the new frontier of social networking. I "met" a
man on a chat list and before long our private exchanges went a
direction I hadn't expected them to go. I shared that experience
through my article to help other women. I wrote the story anonymously
and just recently learned from the woman who was Editor of the
magazine at the time that my article garnered more reader mail than
any had up to that point. That was very humbling to know.
Finding
Mary was in Ancestry Magazine, published by Ancestry.Com. The article
chronicled the steps I took to find an elusive ancestor I knew
existed but could not find anything to document who exactly she was.
She turned out to be a sister of my paternal grandmother :-). The
"grief" article and the "Forgive" article were
both in Victory in Grace Magazine. They are short articles relating
how God helped me through some difficult periods of my life. As far
as how they aided me on my journey to writing my first contracted
story, other than being writing credits I'm not sure they helped. I
think developing my fiction writing skills really helped with some of
the articles as I incorporated those skills in the anecdotes I
included in the articles.
JR: Let
me deal with where you are now. In the last two months you've had two
new releases. Can you tell us about Love Will Find A Way and Love
Finds You In Lake Geneva, Wisconsin?
PM: Love
Will Find a Way is the sequel to Thyme for Love. Both are romantic
mysteries. When Thyme for Love ended my main characters, April Love
and Marc Thorne had finally reconciled after an 8-year separation
that had begun when their engagement ended. After April had to turn
amateur sleuth to find the real killer of their boss before Marc
would be falsely accused, they realized they really did love each
other. Now that the mystery was solved, they wanted to start dating
as a normal couple. In Love Will Find a Way April's eccentric Aunt
Kitty buys her an old Victorian to house her new catering business,
but before renovations can be completed it's apparent someone doesn't
want April's business to open. She's ready now for Marc to pop "the"
question, but too many roadblocks keep cropping up which makes her
wonder if they ever will get married.
Love
Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is set in my hometown, a
beautiful picturesque small town on the shores of Geneva Lake in
southeastern Wisconsin. I have dreamed a long time about setting
story there, and when I was given the opportunity to do so, it was a
real blessing from God. The story is set in 1933 during the Great
Depression--the same year the Riviera Ballroom was opened on the
lakeshore. The building still stands today and is featured on the
book cover. My characters, Meg Alden and Jack Wallace both work for
the Lake Geneva News Tribune, the town's weekly newspaper. Meg
aspires to be a news reporter for the paper but, like most in the
news biz of that time, her boss believes that news reporting is a
man's job. Women should only write society fluff. This creates a lot
of conflict because Jack is hired to fill an open reporter
position--the position Meg thought should be hers. She doesn't want
to fall for Jack but she is. I had a lot of fun researching for the
story and writing it. And I learned a lot of things about my hometown
I never knew. Through the research I found myself falling in love
with my hometown all over again. I could go on and on about the book.
It truly is the book of my heart.
JR:
These stories both have the words "Love" and "Find(s)"
in the title, but they're different genres. (I won't mention that one
of them shares a title with one of my favorite Pablo Cruise songs.)
Did you have the luxury of writing one at a time, or were they
written more or less simultaneously? If the latter, how did you
manage to balance the creation of two unique stories?
PM: I
actually had nothing to do with the titles of the books. Love Will
Find a Way was a title my editor at OakTara gave the story, and Love
Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is part of the "Love Finds
You" line from Summerside Press. They are from different
publishers, and are different genres. One has no connection with the
other. I had written LFYLG long before I wrote LWFW. I did not have
to write them both simultaneously. I would find that difficult to do,
although I know that some authors work the way.
JR: Not
only do you have two books to market, but at the same time you're
also coordinating ACFW's Genesis Contest. How are you managing your
time between these various activities?
PM:
Well, you see how long it's taken me to complete this interview :-).
LWFW was to release in November but, as sometimes happens, the
publisher delayed the release date and it ended up coming out just as
I was kicking the LFYLG promotion into high gear. And, as you
mentioned, I am overseeing the ACFW Genesis writing contest for
unpublished writers. Because LFYLG is set in my hometown and we have
a specific window of opportunity over the coming summer months to
promote the book during Lake Geneva's tourist season, my focus has
been nearly 100 percent on that book's promotion. I have scheduled
several appearances. I gave a
Power Point presentation at the Geneva Lake Museum on April 27th,
followed by a signing the next day at a popular gift shop in town, which went very well. I took my two mystery romances with me and sold quite a few of them at the museum event. As a reslt of that weekend, I've been invited to present and sign at several other events in Lake Geneva throughout the summer. I
plan to mention my other books and have some with me to sell. Once
the major push for the Lake Geneva book is over, I'll focus more on
getting the word out about LWFW. The Genesis's biggest time consumer
is the first round and that ended May 3. The second round judges are now judging the semi-finalist entries and I will soon be gettinb back into writing some proposals and the first draft for my WIP, a story tht takes the reader further back into the early history of the Lake Geneva area.
JR:
Speaking of Genesis, how long have you been working with that
contest? Any highlights from your work there? (I'm not sure about
lowlights -- it might scare me off from entering it.)
PM: I
had been a category coordinator for Genesis for several years prior
to taking over as head coordinator last year. I had very big shoes to
fill when Camy Tang stepped down as contest coordinator. Last year we
had an unprecedented 620 entries and it quickly became apparent that
we did not have enough volunteer judges. Every entry requires three
judges. I relied a great deal on prayer and the willingness of many
volunteers to make themselves available. That was truly the highlight
of the year for me, when I came to the end of myself and told God I
couldn't do it, and He'd have to take over. He provided and then
some. This year we have had a new challenge in that the entire
contest is now automated with a new software program our techies
built. As with any new software, there have been our share of "bugs,"
and troubleshooting those has been a huge time-grabber. But the
highlight of this year has been the team effort by the category
coordinators, the techies and other ACFW staff to get it done. Again,
all of it is bathed in prayer.
JR: I'll
be honest: sometimes the only way I find to keep encouraged to keep
writing is to bury my head in the sand and avoid watching the news.
I'm sure I sound like Chicken Little, but it's easy to doubt that
things will be stable long enough for me to publish my novel. Is
there anything from your experience writing and working with Genesis
you can encourage me with? (Sometimes I think I spent too much time
bonding with my Uncle Eeyore.)
PM: I
agree the news can be very unsettling and I do wonder where we're
going to be in another year or two. Will the publishing world look
the same or will some of the major players even be around by then?
Then I come back to where is God in all this? He is still in control
and will be always. He's not surprised by any of the negatives that
have happened and I just have to trust in Him. If he wants my books,
your books, or anyone's books published, it will happen. There are
some fantastic gifted writers around, and He keeps giving us more and
more ideas for stories to write. If He wills it for you, it will
happen.
JR:
Thanks for the time from your very busy schedule. I'll be looking
forward to your books.
PM: I've
enjoyed it, Jeff. You ask some very good questions. Thought-provoking
and challenging.
Jeff to
readers: Hope you've been encouraged by this interview with Pam
Meyers. How do you find encouragement/motivation to keep on in the
slow phase of getting published or in our uncertain times? How do you
manage your many hats between writing and non-writing duties? Any
other thoughts this interview encouraged?
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