Ravenous Wednesday with Special Guest!

Today we are doing something a bit different at Un:Bound for our Ravenous Wednesday funfest! I'm delighted to welcome Pat Bertram for another stop on her whirlwind tour for her third book DAUGHTER AM I.

A little about DAI:

When twenty-five-year-old Mary learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents--grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born--she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead. Along the way she accumulates a crew of feisty octogenarians--former gangsters and friends of her grandfather. She meets and falls in love with Tim Olson, whose grand-father shared a deadly secret with her great-grandfather. Now Mary and Tim must stay one step ahead of the killer who is desperate to dig up that secret.

"A delightful treasure-hunting tale of finding one's self in a most unlikely way." -- Publisher's Weekly


Interested? I know I am!

Pat is not a Ravenous Romance author, but Ravenous Wednesday is about more than RR and all of the wonderful authors who write for them; it's about the passion for writing and reading that all of our guests and readers share, regardless of genre. I personally find the inner workings of my fellow writers fascinating and love to compare notes on the writing process each one utilizes to get the job done. So I decided to interview Pat and find out what makes her tick! So please welcome Pat to Un:Bound and let the dissection commence!

1. How do you choose to write what you write? Feel free to expand on this for each of your books, if you'd like!


I’m not sure I chose which books to write; it’s more that they chose me. Like most writers, I’ve written the beginnings of a few books that have gone nowhere. I have zero interest in pursuing them. On the other hand, for various reasons, the books I did write took hold of my imagination and didn’t let go until they were completed.



More Deaths Than One started with an obituary that could have been for a friend’s mother. The woman who passed away came from the same city as the friend’s mother, had a similar name, had two sons about the same age as my friend and his brother. Jokingly, I said, “Maybe this really is your mother.” We had great fun that day trying to figure out how it could be possible for him to be the woman’s son. The story we came up with captured my imagination, and so I had no choice but to pursue it.



A Spark of Heavenly Fire came about because of a Washington Irving quote: “There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.” I loved the idea of a woman who felt half-dead when everyone else was doing well, but in a time of dying, she came to life. Since I didn’t want to do a war story, I created a plague -- the red death. I had fun with that!



Daughter Am I was the combination of two different stories I wanted to write. I’d read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and the mythic journey so captured my imagination that I knew I had to write my own quest story. I also liked the idea of telling little-known truths about the mob, and I settled on the story of a young woman going in search of her past. As she listens to stories of old-time gangsters and bootleggers -- her mentors and allies -- she gradually discovers the truth of her heritage. I’ve always liked stories within stories.


2. What is your writing process? Do you outline first or just jump in and go for it? Up at dawn? Laze about for a while? Tell all! :-)


There’s not really much to tell. Most of the process goes on in my mind. I think about what story I want to tell, who the characters are, what they want, what I want to say, how the story will start and how it will end. When I sit down to write, I read over a bit of what I’ve already written to put me in the right mind frame, then I sit and think. Finally, I put words down on the paper. I keep rewriting those words or cross them out and start over until something clicks, and then I write the scene. It is not a method I would recommend! It takes too long and is too ponderous, but somehow I’ve managed to write four-and-a-half readable books.


3. What are your current writing goals and how do you juggle the promotional aspects with the actual writing?


I haven’t been juggling. I’ve been concentrating solely on promotion. My writing goal for this month is to add a single sentence a day to my work-in-progress. Doesn’t sound like much, but I am out of the habit of writing, and I’d like to reestablish the pattern.


4. What's the best and worst part of the book for you to write?


I struggle with the beginning of every book. It takes me months sometimes to figure out enough of the plot and characterization so I can begin to write, but even when the story comes to me quickly, the writing still takes a year or so. The back end is the most fun because the story choices I made during the writing of the first three-fourth of the book have narrowed the possibilities so much that the plot and characters take on a feeling of inexorability. I just coast to the end.


5. What's been the most surprising part of being a writer?


The most surprising part for me is that I know how to write. For many years, my life was shadowed by the sadness of having no innate talent for writing. I’m not being modest -- I really couldn’t write anything worth reading. When I decided to write despite that lack, I set out to learn everything I could about developing a readable story. Most of the how-to books confused the heck out of me -- the authors would talk about rising conflicts and motivation/reaction units, and I didn’t have a clue what they meant. It’s only recently that I realized I actually know what I’m doing.


6. What's next for you?


My fourth book, Light Bringer, will be released by Second Wind Publishing in April, 2010. That’s the last of my backlog, so if I want to get any other books published, I have to start writing! Yesterday I finished typing up the beginning of my work-in-progress (I still write longhand, can you believe that?) and discovered that I’m 41,000 words into the story -- a tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic allegory. I’ve been saying for two years now that I haven’t been writing, but somehow I’ve managed to complete half the book. So, my first priority is to finish the poor neglected thing. My second priority is to write a graphic novel. It should be fun. I only need to write the dialogue -- the artist will do the rest. And then . . . who knows. Perhaps fame and fortune.


7. Who gave you the best writing advice you ever received and what was it?


The best writing advice I ever received I read in an old book called The Practical Stylist by Sheridan Baker: “Clarity is the first aim; economy the second; grace the third; dignity the fourth. Our writing should be a little strange, a little out of the ordinary, a little beautiful with words and phrases not met everyday, but seeming as right and natural as grass."


8. What do you like to read?


I like to read novels that have it all -- mystery, adventure, romance, a touch of strangeness, a bit of truth -- but since I can’t find that sort of novel very often, I settle for just about anything. Non-fiction, genre fiction, literary fiction, whatever is at hand.


9. What advice do you have for writerly aspirants?


All too often, inexperienced writers tiptoe through their novels, letting major events — fistfights, gunplay, murders, betrayals — take place off-page. It’s much easier to let characters emote afterward than for the writer to take the time and trouble to tackle the action scene. I know I have passed on opportunities to create such scenes, thinking the characters’ reactions all-important, but I forgot one thing: readers need to experience the drama.



Sometimes it’s hard to find the confidence to bring such complex scenes to life, to juggle the many elements that comprise an action scene, but the only way to learn is to plunge headfirst into action. Write it fast and fearlessly; let the words fall where they may. You can always clean up the mess in rewrites.


Thank you so much, Pat, for being our guest today! Everyone, please feel free to bombard her with questions and comments!


Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. To follow the rest of Pat's blog tour as well as read the previous tour posts, go here.