“Life is good. A life
centered on writing is even better.” ~~Charlotte Rains Dixon
Charlotte
Rains Dixon is an author, writing coach, teacher, and supporter of creativity
in all its forms. She lives in Portland and delights in helping writers do what
they love to do—write. I met her in the blogosphere a few years ago and follow
her informative blog at charlotterainsdixon.com
In
2011 I took her up on an offer of a free fifteen-minute coaching session.
Charlotte is funny, inspirational, and truly gifted at helping writers over the
obstacles we all face. Check out my post “Tea with My Inner Editor” for
one of the results of my session with Charlotte.
Charlotte’s
new novel Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior was released by Vagabondage Press on
February 12 and it’s a great read.
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Best-selling novelist Emma Jean Sullivan longed for a baby for
years, but after she and her husband Peter were unable to conceive, she
staunchly vowed to become the standard bearer for all childless couples. And
she succeeds spectacularly. At age 48 (43 according to her blog, Life, Full
Tilt) Emma Jean enjoys a rabid anti-baby fan base and her novels have sold
millions. But now she confronts a dilemma larger than any that her heroines
have faced: she’s pregnant. And the baby’s father is not her husband.
Through no fault of her own (he was just so damned adorable),
Emma Jean had begun a passionate affair with Riley, a fetching airplane
mechanic she met at a book signing in L.A. Terrified of losing both her fan
base and her identity, she struggles to maintain her sham brand and her
marriage. But Peter is busy embezzling Emma Jean’s money and completely
uninterested in fatherhood, and Riley has his hands full with problems of his
own. Not only that, her latest novel is a miserable failure, and a Vanity Fair
reporter, who plans to out Emma Jean’s pregnancy to her fans, is stalking her.
What’s a suddenly broke, failing, middle-aged, pregnant novelist to do? Why,
flee to a glamorous resort town, of course. There, Emma Jean plots her next
move.
I've finished reading Emma
Jean's Bad Behavior and I am enchanted, Charlotte. Emma Jean’s snarky
exterior hides a deeply wounded and insecure soul who is searching for the
truth of the story of her life. She's delightfully flawed and I wanted to take
her by the shoulders and shake her.
Readers get to meet Emma
Jean in the pages of your book. Where and when did you first meet her?
Charlotte—Emma
Jean burst forth in my brain at a time when I was visiting L.A. regularly to
work with ghostwriting clients. Much
like Emma Jean herself, I'm fascinated and repelled by L.A., half of me loving
it, the other half hating it. The city
is just so big, so full, so overwhelming, so everything. And I think Emma
Jean, who has some of the same characteristics, was born of my wonder at this
place. Emma Jean lives in Portland, like
me, but when we first meet her she's in L.A. for a book signing and the city
figures largely in the novel. I'd had a couple of discussions with a friend who
is a screenwriter about how funny it would be to get pregnant at an advanced
age, and out of that stew sprang Emma Jean.
I wish I could point to a specific moment when me met, but it was more
like in real life when you're aware of someone who might be a friend of a
friend or an acquaintance and all of a sudden that person comes into your life. She was quite vocal and insistent once I met
her, however!
ZM—Please share the
journey Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior
made to publication. Why did you choose a small press?
Charlotte—I
love to talk about my journey to publication because I think that it is
instructive, and I hope inspiring, to other writers. Once I'd gotten the manuscript to a point I
felt good about, I started submitting it to agents. I had the great good fortune to have some
personal introductions, which got me to the top of the pile. But over and over again I heard that agents
loved Emma Jean but felt she was not relatable enough to make the novel
saleable. I heard that word
"relatable" a lot. In nearly
every rejection I'd read, Thanks for
submitting your novel to us. We love it,
but we don't think we can sell it because…
I
ran through all the personal introductions and kept submitting to agents I
found through my own research. One thing
that kept me going was that I got encouraging responses about the writing. The agents might have been taken aback by
Emma Jean, but they were complimentary about my writing and many offered to
look at my next novel. I ended up submitting the book to over 50 agents.
In
the fall of 2011, as I was in the middle of this frustrating submission process,
an old friend with whom I'd gotten my MFA contacted me and told me his novel
had found a publisher—Vagabondage. I
knew this novel well because I had critiqued the manuscript (for the record,
it's Facing the Furies by Daniel
DiStasio). It was a novel that I
absolutely adored and so I checked out the publisher. They had a submission form on their website
and on a whim, I submitted Emma Jean.
Dan told me he'd heard back in two weeks and the website said they
responded in six, so when I didn't hear back, I just figured it was another no.
Fast
forward to March 2012, nearly five months later. It was a Saturday afternoon and I'd been out
all day, so I was checking my email on my phone. I noticed an email from Vagabondage and idly
looked at it. Thanks for submitting your novel to us.
We love it, and would like to publish it. I was so used to reading the same old
rejection that it took me a few minutes to realize they were accepting me, not
rejecting me! Even after it sunk in, I
kept going back to the email to make sure I hadn't read it wrong.
Please,
writers who are reading this—don't give up!
When you know you've done your best and have honed your novel to a point
that it's publishable, keep going. We
creatives give up way too fast. I know I
have in the past, and the reason that Emma Jean is published is because I just
kept going.
ZM—What’s the best thing
about publishing with Vagabondage Press? www.vagabondagepress.com
Charlotte—My
editor, Nanette. She's amazing. She did a fabulous job of editing the book,
and she's also held my hand throughout the entire process, answering my many
questions and reassuring me every step of the way. I've also been impressed with the rigor of
the process, from the content and grammar edit, through the copy editing and
proofing. I'll never forget when a
writing friend said to me, "You mean they actually edit you?" As if
all small presses just accept books and throw them up for sale. Small presses are fast becoming the biggest and
most vital segment of the publishing industry, and with good reason. We all need to learn not to discount them
just because they are small.
ZM—In publishing today,
getting an agent, finding a publisher, and marketing all seem to be tied to genre.
What is Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior’s genre?
Charlotte—I
call it women's fiction, which annoys me every time I say it because we don't
have a category called men's fiction. A
few years ago it would have been called chick lit, but that became a pejorative
so I avoid it. You could also classify
it as a romantic comedy, but I'm afraid that the word comedy might turn people
off, making them think that it's full of jokes.
It's not. The comedy comes from
the gap between Emma Jean's view of herself and reality.
ZM—Many craft books
stress that writers must read and read a lot. Who is your favorite author, or
what is your favorite genre? What draws you to a book you read for enjoyment?
Charlotte—
I love women's fiction. I always feel
like I should have a long list of classics of literature to name, but truth to
tell I love women's fiction because I can empathize with the characters, which
I think answers the second half of your question. I read authors like Jennifer Weiner, Juliette
Fay, Jo-Ann Mapson, and Lolly Winston, writers who tell a great story with
characters that you feel you know.
I'm glad you asked this question because I agree
with all those craft books—writers must read a ton in order to write. I once had a client who struggled with
writing a memoir and about a year into our relationship I learned that she
didn't read, which explained everything to me!
ZM—Finally, what question
do you wish interviewers would ask, but they never do?
Charlotte—Well,
one of the things I'm wrestling with is people's reaction to the characters in
the book and how similar they might or might not be to people in my life. So a question might be, "How similar
are you to Emma Jean?" And my
answer is that in some ways we are a lot alike and in many other ways we're not
the same at all. I admire Emma Jean's
brash ways and she always seems to have a witty or smart rejoinder. Me?
Not so much. I'm the one who
always thinks of the perfect thing to say a day later, which is why, I might
add, I'm glad I'm a writer who can revise and edit! Emma Jean has many experiences that I don't
share but we do share a similar outlook on life.
I
love the process the process of writing fiction, and part of the reason I enjoy
it so much is this melding of real life and completely fictional elements that
happens. We take a bit here, and there,
combine it, and throw it on the page and magic happens!
This
has been a fabulous interview, Zan Marie, thank you so much! Your one-sentence synopsis of Emma Jean's
story nails the novel perfectly—I needed you when I was writing my query
letter.
