Blog Nine: iHeartMedia Radio Spotlight

It is getting closer to the publication date for my newest book, Lila’s Story: War, Alaska, and the Open Sea. It is a time of reflection, back to the day I first sat down to start the book. It is also a time of tension, as the book is just a book without readers- how to get it to the people who will love the story?

I answered a submission from iHeartMedia Radio about a month ago, hoping it wasn’t one of the scam artists I get offers from multiple times each week. It was encouraging right from the start. They asked the right questions, listened as I answered their interview questions, and ran 1-3-minute audio segments about me as an author, the books, and their relationship to history.

They offered suggestions on how to put the books in the right place, at the right time, in front of an audience who will appreciate them and refer them to friends. I have also gotten this information from my marketing person, Shumbie Harris, from Booksbutterfly. Marketing is not for the weak-at-the-knees author, but it is what you need to attack with as much energy as you use to write the stories.

iHeartMedia Radio has packaged my two books together for promotion. The hope and the strategy are obviously to have another book, easily found by happy readers of your stories, and a following for your hard-earned publications.

Here are some answers to questions from readers through iHeartMedia Radio.

Q: What first inspired you to write The Image Maker?

A: I grew up not more than 50 miles from the site of the first oil well, Drake’s Well, in Titusville, PA. It was taught to us in school. About a year before I started the book, two different families from Chautauqua came to me with documents, photos, and family stories of their relative, living through the start of the oil boom in 1860. One was a businessman, one an oil scout and eventually owner and editor of the international oil newspaper, The Derrick. I researched and added the photographer, John Mather, who chronicled the birth of the oil industry with his glass negatives. The three men each told their part of the story, my fingers flying to get it all down and to follow their lives and those of their families as they circled each other.

Q: Which character from your books do you relate to the most?

A: That is the easiest question of the lot. I identify strongly with Lila Michaels, the main character of Lila’s Story. Lila was told many times throughout her amazing life that she couldn’t do something. There were times in her life when she was told that she wasn’t included; she didn’t belong. She was a young woman who always met and exceeded the demands she set for herself. She was an administrative assistant to the president of Cook County Hospital during the 1930s, two months out of the typing pool in the basement. When WW II broke out, she quit her job to join the first WAAC training, becoming an officer and a WAC in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Post-war, well, she went on to new heights; details would ruin the story for you. I have tried things; I accomplished small and large tasks I set for myself, sure that I would be capable. It worked. But trying is the key. You can’t win a war if you don’t join the fight. You can’t be an author if you don’t sit down and write.

Q: How long did it take you to research and write both books?

A: The Image Maker required almost 6 months to research and then about 10 months to write. I knew next to nothing about the birth of the petroleum industry or the Industrial Revolution. I had rich resources from the two families. For Lila’s Story, a friend came to me with the story of her great-aunt. She had family stories, some writing from Lila, and about 3000 slides Lila took throughout her active and varied life. I researched for 3 months, and within a year, the book was at the publisher. It practically wrote itself.

Q: What message do you hope readers take away after finishing your books?

A: I hope they find that learning about a certain time period or a particular event is always easier with the characters telling it through their conversations, their actions, and their goals in life.

Q: Are you currently working on another historical fiction novel?

A: I am, a book about a wonderful woman, born in Brooklyn, Iowa, a nun, a physician, a board-certified surgeon. She was a woman who used her life to help people in Berecum, Ghana, both medically and spiritually. Her partner gave he hundreds of letters she wrote to friends and family along the way to jump-start the writing. She was also a close friend during her retirement in Chautauqua, New York, where I live. This will be a satisfying and illuminating book to write about a quiet but great lady.

Q: Which scene was the most memorable for you to write?

A: Because Lila’s Story is my most recent book, it is the final scene in the book. Without knowing it, I was aiming at that scene all along!