February 18, 2024 • 18 mins
Lisa Towles is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling crime novelist and a passionate speaker on the topics of fiction writing, creativity, and self care. Lisa has 11 crime novels in print with a new psychological thriller, Codex, forthcoming in June of 2024. The first two books of her E&A Investigations Series (Hot House and Salt Island) were both #1 Amazon Kindle Bestsellers with Book 2 (Switch) due for release in the Fall of 2024. Lisa also writes standalone thrillers, such as her November 2023 release, Terror Bay, and The Ridders, which won an American Fiction Award. Lisa is an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She has an MBA in IT Management and works full-time in the tech industry.
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(00:01):
Hello everyone, and welcome to thewriter's class. And today we have someone
who's really like gonna talk about writing. Probably I'm not quite sure yet.
You know me, I don't preparefor these things. I show up and
y'all, my hair grew. That'swhat I'm gonna call it, all right.
I think I'm done with me because, like, I don't feel like
(00:23):
being a narcissist today. It iseighty degrees outside in the middle of January,
excuse me, which means that I'mnot gonna talk about me. It's
just too beautiful of a day towaste it on me. I'm like,
I'm double checking that. No,I think I'm gonna stick with it.
I'm gonna go with that. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Anyways,
I wrote books, y'all. Gofigure, silly, silly little me wrote
(00:46):
books. There are end I thoughtthe voice was bad, and I thought
being runnable was easy. If onlyI are me a memoir and Verse,
Foreign Coffee, Widdows Web, andWidow's Debt. And if you're counting that
as six books, and if youknow anything about us, you know we
have more than six books. Wehave eighteen. So you can get the
six books wherever you find audiobooks.Wherever you get your audiobooks, that's where
they are. Actually, I suggeststarting with Widow's Web because it's fun,
(01:11):
although Jade suggests and I thought,I did My Journey Alone, which is
a reading book, and you canfind those reading books that aren't already as
audiobooks at www dot And I thoughtladies dot com. Can you tell the
eighty degree day has me thinking aboutanything other than being right here, because
I'm like, what is my websiteagain? Oh? Right, there we
go. I slowed right down afterthat third wos like, hold on,
(01:33):
what is it? But you're nothere to hear about me? And how
I slow down after the third wor the fact that I'm probably about to
cough again in a few minutes.I'm gonna try to rush this so I
can get to my guests here tohear about our wonderful guests. Wonderful guys.
Would you like to introduce yourself?Uh? Yes, my name is
Lisa Toles. But I think yourguests would like to hear about ice cream.
(01:53):
Can you share anything about ice cream? Well, Nona, I love
this, this is my show andI'm talking about ice cream. But y'all
today, since it's eighty degrees,I celebrated by having a real ice cream
cone. This wasn't a ConA wasa Sunday with the cool whip and the
caramel and the sprinkles and the cherriOh my god. It wasn't even gluten
(02:15):
free. It wasn't dairy free.It wasn't sugar free, because that's normally
how I eat my ice cream.Tiny That's how I gotta eat it.
Otherwise it's flavored ice But it wasawesome. I'm not talking about me,
Lisa. You have tricked me.I did. I tricked you. And
that's what mystery writers and thriller writersdo is we trick people. We set
(02:38):
clues and we try to make thereader feel smart, and then we just
kind of turn it on its sideand make them realize, oh my god,
what this person did. What?That's that's our job. Our job
is to lie and to put falseclues into trick people. And that's what
I do. I'm a diehard mysterywriter and reader and I live in Northern
(03:00):
California. I have two cats namedCoffee and Marmalade, and I am secretly
a lifelong musician. Okay, sothis is the writers' class, and I'm
going to start with what instrument,because you know, it has so much
to do with writing. I'm amusician who was born from a family of
(03:23):
musicians and music teachers, and fluteis my main instrument. So I'm a
lifelong flutist. I graduated from musicschool. I was a jazz flutist for
a long time. I also playedpiano, and I think that ties in
with music because because of that earlyLiberal arts training, I have an MBA
(03:46):
in it management and NBAS have alot of math, a lot of economics,
a lot of finance, like likea little bit more left brained,
and the Liberal arts is more rightbrained. And so I think my my
Liberal arts background and foundation really helpedme with creativity. You know, I
mean not just to write books andimagine news stories, but creativity is also
(04:10):
used for problem solving, for interpersonalconnections, and so I think they all
kind of work together. I agreewholeheartedly. I'm gonna talk about me again,
y'all. So I have I dohave a business degree and then I
was in it, but I neverfinished the field degree, but I was
(04:31):
like a semester away and computer sciencewith more of a focus on computer programming.
But man, the amount of creativityyou can have while programming is awesome,
but you have a ton of mathto do it. So I think
that person kind of makes a Imean just phenomenal mystery writer because you're using
(04:57):
both sides of the brain. Now, this is my thoughts. I'm going
to ask the actual mystery writer here, because I write suspense deers, what
do you think how do you seeyour right and left brain in your writing?
Well? I think you know,so there are two things that I
want to talk about. You havekind of like the writing and the and
(05:18):
the create energy, and then youhave all the crap that comes with the
business of writing, the stuff noone wants to think about, no one
wants to talk about. We justwant to like write stories. We don't
want to think about that. Theythey each of those paths take take kind
of like that left brain and rightbrain capabilities. And I think there's an
(05:44):
art and a science to being awriter and a published author. Building a
relationship with an audience, building arelationship with readers, reaching out to readers
to find out what they want toread, what types of books they want,
and reach out to individual readers tofind out what they want from you,
you know, I mean I thinkthat takes It takes time, and
(06:06):
it takes a real commitment to wantto take the time to understand why a
reader keeps coming back to you overand over and over book after book.
Sometimes people just you know, say, oh, that's a pretty cover.
Let me look at the back.Oh that sounds interesting. Yeah, I'm
going to invest time and read inthat. That's kind of a one time
reader. But then you have otherreaders that are kind of die hard fans
(06:29):
that keep coming back to your writingone after the other, and you need
to reach out to them to findout what is it about your storytelling style
that keeps them coming back. Maybeyou write a series and maybe they like
that character and that whole mythology andthat's why they keep coming back. Or
maybe they just like you and yourvibe and where you're coming from and they
want to stay connected to you.I'm also a diehard mystery reader, and
(06:51):
I do that. I mean,I like reading series, but I also
like connecting with an author whose overallvision I can connect with. Okay,
so you know said you're a diehardreader. The next question is who do
you read. I read so many, so many types of mystery thrillers.
I like spy thrillers. I likecozy mysteries. I like amateur sleuth mysteries.
(07:15):
There are just so so many.Right now, I'm rereading the Fourth
Wing, and I'm also reading anotherNelson Demil and a John Lecare and they're
just so many. I'm one ofthose readers that reads like four or five
books at a time. Some ofthem are paperbacks over there in that stack,
and some of them are on myI don't use a kindle anymore,
(07:40):
but I have the Kindle app onmy iPhone so I can sit in bed
and read and just put the lightlow so I don't wake up my husband
and I can just read for likehours and hours under the covers and he'll
never know that I'm not getting anysleep. So yeah, I kind of
read all types of mystery thrillers.I also like nonfiction books, you know,
I try to stay well. Ialso like fantasy books. I just
(08:01):
read a book by an author,and this book is coming out on February
seventh. It's called Braided Dimensions byMarie Judson. She's another Indies United Publishing
author like me and it's a wonderfultime travel fantasy. Love it well,
I don't gonna have the contact marineand have her on. You should,
(08:22):
yes, you should tend to bea little long for me, even for
audio. But my next question toyou, of course, was, like
I heard published, so are youindie published or traditional published? So when
people hear the phrase indie published,they assume that means self published. I'm
not self published, but I don'thave a Big five traditional publisher either.
(08:45):
I didn't reach my publisher with anagent and I don't get an advance.
But my publisher is They're not evenreally a small publisher anymore. Indies United
Publishing is kind of a mid sizepublisher and I couldn't be happier with them.
I've just published my fifth book withthem, called Terror Bay, last
November. I have another one comingout in June, and so I guess
(09:07):
they'd be called an independent publisher.And they're wonderful. They do a lot
of marketing and they've done a greatjob with my books. I'm really happy
with them. I love Indie Unitedbecause the first time I've ever chose a
publisher any way, shape or form, I chose Indy United. So that's
(09:31):
it was different and new, andI loved it. I loved it when
when Lisa started it, I lovehe's done with it, it's amazing.
Okay, we're going to talk aboutLisa though, right because I'm about to
be like and then Lisa did,and Lisa say, I guess you're wondering
who this Lisa person is that isnot here because I'm talking to Lisa told
but the other Lisa is Lisa Orbitwith Indie United, moving on onward and
(09:56):
upward. I guess that's what theysay, onward and upward to how do
you find your ideas? And thendo you pants? Are you a panther
or a plotter? I feel likeyou're a plotter. Hmm. Interesting that
you feel like I'm a plotter.I think that's good. I'm absolutely halfway
(10:18):
between plotter and pantser. I usedto write elaborate outlines when I kind of
when I first started writing a longtime ago, and I found that writing
an elaborate, highly detailed, likeyou know, like line by line by
chapter by chapter outline, I haveno juice left to write the actual book.
So I so then I wrote somesome novels without any outline at all.
(10:43):
And now I find that I'm kindof in between. I do map
out kind of a few chapters ata time, and I might know exactly
how I want to end the bookthat might just kind of come to me,
but I might not know how I'mgoing to get there. So I
do plot out kind of like,you know, like chunks of the book
at a time, but like notlike whole long stretches. Because I found
(11:09):
it was actually Stephen King's book calledon Writing that was the first time that
I felt like I had permission towrite without an outline, and he he
wrote about in that book how havingan outline kind of locks you in and
makes it impossible for organic ideas tokind of make their way up into your
(11:31):
consciousness. And so that's what mademe start writing without outlines. And now
I'm kind of a hybrid. SoI do kind of have an outline,
and I usually know where I'm goingto go for at least the next chunk
of the novel. And in termsof how I get my ideas, I
wish I could tell you. Imean, like every other author, it
kind of comes at different times.Like right now I'm editing, working with
(11:54):
my editor on the book, that'scoming out on June twentieth. It's called
Codex. And I'm not supposed tobe writing anything. I'm supposed to be
like having a rest because I justfinished writing a standalone thriller, just a
not very good first draft. Thefirst draft isn't supposed to be good.
I finished that first draft, andthis is supposed to be a rest period.
Well it doesn't always happen that way, right, So something else has
(12:16):
been kind of bubbling up to thesurface, and I've just been taking notes.
I haven't actually put fingers to keyboard, and I haven't started writing it
yet. But in terms of whereideas come from, you never know.
So this new idea for a newbook that I have that I haven't started
writing yet. I was in thegym yesterday and I was on the treadmill,
(12:37):
and they have big TVs in thegym now. I was watching the
show Dateline about something that happened inMississippi, just this tragic story of this
woman who died and they were tryingto find her killer. And something about
that led me to a question.I can't tell you what the question is,
but something in Dateline led me toa question, and I knew that
(12:58):
that has something to do with whatevernew thing I'm going to write. How
did I know that? You justknow? Right? You're an author?
You just know? I was like, this is important. Let me add
that. So I have this emailthat I've been forwarding to myself over and
over and over again, now likewith a whole bunch of notes on it,
And that's how I keep track ofit until I started. But where
those ideas come from, I don'tknow. I don't know. They all
(13:22):
come from someplace different. And youknow, I think in some sense we're
talking about an art and a science, left brain and right brain. I
think, you know, you canthink about and cultivate and birth ideas.
But I also think that being acreative person means that you have some sense
(13:43):
of trust and faith and surrender thatideas are going to come to you and
you follow them and see where theywant you to take them. What three
pieces of advice would you give anyoneout who's like, Yep, mystery is
my genre, it's my damn,let's go ahead and aout writing. What
would you like tell yourself the threepieces of a vibe? If it's someone
(14:07):
who hasn't written a book before whatI like to tell novice writers is to
try not to think too much aboutwhere your book is going to end up
in terms of a shelf in abookstore. Try not to think too much
about marketing and the business of writingand capturing the synopsis and all of like
the saleable parts of the commodity thatyou're producing. Instead, think about what's
(14:31):
in here that wants to come out. Put your fingers on the keyboard and
let that story emerge from you.Again, it's that sense of kind of
trust and faith and opening to thestory inside that wants to be told.
I think that's that would have beenimportant for me to think about back then,
and I wasn't really thinking about thatback then. I think another piece
of advice would be invest in aneditor. Whether you're getting traditionally published looking
(14:56):
for an agent, or if you'regoing to publish yourself, investment in an
editor before you start sending queries toagents and publishers is the best money you're
gonna You're gonna invest in your writingcareer, Find a really good editor,
and then create the cleanest copy youcan that gets put on the shelves for
(15:16):
readers. That's gorgeous, YO,This is good advice because when you start
thinking about your future, you're like, oh, the pressure and the stress
and the stress and the pressure,and then you stop writing, which is
the point of you sitting in thechair. Well, I think there's another
there's another piece of advice too thatI wish I could go back in time
(15:37):
and tell myself twenty years ago oreven less than that. Try to enjoy
the journey, you know, Imean, like, there's there's so much.
Like you just said, we're thinkingabout the future, we're not thinking
about the now. Try to enjoythe experience of having the talent to bring
a story to life. I meanthat that takes talent, it takes vision,
(15:58):
it takes time, it takes energy, but but it really does take
take a lot. And try totry to enjoy it along the way.
Thank you. Okay, I'm partialto that last piece of advice because I'm
still thinking about what's going to happenin the future and then I look back
and I go, oh, Iwish I had to just sat down and
be like, this is a moment. Oh my god, right, No,
(16:22):
like I need to get to thenext moment. No, you don't
know, you don't so what's comingup next for you? And where can
we find and buy your books?You can find all my books on Amazon,
also on Barnes and Noble, It'sIt's. You can find audio books
for the audiobook versions of some ofmy books on Audible. What's coming up
(16:45):
for me? The next book that'scoming out is called Codex. It's a
standalone thriller. Although there might bea sequel to it. I still haven't
decided that yet. Actually, I'mnot going to decide. I mean it's
going to decide. The book willtell me if there's another one coming.
So I I left to kind ofopen at the end and I like doing
that. And that's coming out onJune twentieth with Indies United Publishing. It'll
(17:08):
be published in Kindle, paperback,hardcover, and maybe down the road there'll
be an audiobook. And then anotherbook will be coming out in November or
December. I don't yet know whatthat is, so another thriller, but
we'll see. Thank you so muchfor being here with us today, Lisa.
I've had so much fun, I'velearned so much. It makes me
(17:29):
want to write you already, dowrite and thank you will Noonah for everything
that you and Jade do to supportauthors like me. Thank you, so
y'all. I'm going to wrap itup for us over here and will Nona
and one of the anti thought ladies. I think I probably forgot to say
that. I just told you whereto go for the website and you have
no idea why I named it thatgo figure because we're one one of the
anti thought ladies. And when yougo down to it, when you go
(17:52):
to our page at www dot andI Thought ladiesdown dot com. Down to
the bottom of the page, youcan see the charities that we probably support.
We asked you take a moment outand support them as well. That
does not have to mean money.It could mean wisdom. It could mean
volunteer. Everyone needs hands on deckat all times and the volunteer and charity
organization, and we thank you inadvance for doing that. Remember that wisdom
is all around you if you're opento finding it and accepting it. So
(18:15):
peace to love you guys, fromWilnona and the Missing Jade. Oh yeah,
thanks for listening.
Hello everyone, and welcome to thewriter's class. And today we have someone
who's really like gonna talk about writing. Probably I'm not quite sure yet.
You know me, I don't preparefor these things. I show up and
y'all, my hair grew. That'swhat I'm gonna call it, all right.
I think I'm done with me because, like, I don't feel like
(00:23):
being a narcissist today. It iseighty degrees outside in the middle of January,
excuse me, which means that I'mnot gonna talk about me. It's
just too beautiful of a day towaste it on me. I'm like,
I'm double checking that. No,I think I'm gonna stick with it.
I'm gonna go with that. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Anyways,
I wrote books, y'all. Gofigure, silly, silly little me wrote
(00:46):
books. There are end I thoughtthe voice was bad, and I thought
being runnable was easy. If onlyI are me a memoir and Verse,
Foreign Coffee, Widdows Web, andWidow's Debt. And if you're counting that
as six books, and if youknow anything about us, you know we
have more than six books. Wehave eighteen. So you can get the
six books wherever you find audiobooks.Wherever you get your audiobooks, that's where
they are. Actually, I suggeststarting with Widow's Web because it's fun,
(01:11):
although Jade suggests and I thought,I did My Journey Alone, which is
a reading book, and you canfind those reading books that aren't already as
audiobooks at www dot And I thoughtladies dot com. Can you tell the
eighty degree day has me thinking aboutanything other than being right here, because
I'm like, what is my websiteagain? Oh? Right, there we
go. I slowed right down afterthat third wos like, hold on,
(01:33):
what is it? But you're nothere to hear about me? And how
I slow down after the third wor the fact that I'm probably about to
cough again in a few minutes.I'm gonna try to rush this so I
can get to my guests here tohear about our wonderful guests. Wonderful guys.
Would you like to introduce yourself?Uh? Yes, my name is
Lisa Toles. But I think yourguests would like to hear about ice cream.
(01:53):
Can you share anything about ice cream? Well, Nona, I love
this, this is my show andI'm talking about ice cream. But y'all
today, since it's eighty degrees,I celebrated by having a real ice cream
cone. This wasn't a ConA wasa Sunday with the cool whip and the
caramel and the sprinkles and the cherriOh my god. It wasn't even gluten
(02:15):
free. It wasn't dairy free.It wasn't sugar free, because that's normally
how I eat my ice cream.Tiny That's how I gotta eat it.
Otherwise it's flavored ice But it wasawesome. I'm not talking about me,
Lisa. You have tricked me.I did. I tricked you. And
that's what mystery writers and thriller writersdo is we trick people. We set
(02:38):
clues and we try to make thereader feel smart, and then we just
kind of turn it on its sideand make them realize, oh my god,
what this person did. What?That's that's our job. Our job
is to lie and to put falseclues into trick people. And that's what
I do. I'm a diehard mysterywriter and reader and I live in Northern
(03:00):
California. I have two cats namedCoffee and Marmalade, and I am secretly
a lifelong musician. Okay, sothis is the writers' class, and I'm
going to start with what instrument,because you know, it has so much
to do with writing. I'm amusician who was born from a family of
(03:23):
musicians and music teachers, and fluteis my main instrument. So I'm a
lifelong flutist. I graduated from musicschool. I was a jazz flutist for
a long time. I also playedpiano, and I think that ties in
with music because because of that earlyLiberal arts training, I have an MBA
(03:46):
in it management and NBAS have alot of math, a lot of economics,
a lot of finance, like likea little bit more left brained,
and the Liberal arts is more rightbrained. And so I think my my
Liberal arts background and foundation really helpedme with creativity. You know, I
mean not just to write books andimagine news stories, but creativity is also
(04:10):
used for problem solving, for interpersonalconnections, and so I think they all
kind of work together. I agreewholeheartedly. I'm gonna talk about me again,
y'all. So I have I dohave a business degree and then I
was in it, but I neverfinished the field degree, but I was
(04:31):
like a semester away and computer sciencewith more of a focus on computer programming.
But man, the amount of creativityyou can have while programming is awesome,
but you have a ton of mathto do it. So I think
that person kind of makes a Imean just phenomenal mystery writer because you're using
(04:57):
both sides of the brain. Now, this is my thoughts. I'm going
to ask the actual mystery writer here, because I write suspense deers, what
do you think how do you seeyour right and left brain in your writing?
Well? I think you know,so there are two things that I
want to talk about. You havekind of like the writing and the and
(05:18):
the create energy, and then youhave all the crap that comes with the
business of writing, the stuff noone wants to think about, no one
wants to talk about. We justwant to like write stories. We don't
want to think about that. Theythey each of those paths take take kind
of like that left brain and rightbrain capabilities. And I think there's an
(05:44):
art and a science to being awriter and a published author. Building a
relationship with an audience, building arelationship with readers, reaching out to readers
to find out what they want toread, what types of books they want,
and reach out to individual readers tofind out what they want from you,
you know, I mean I thinkthat takes It takes time, and
(06:06):
it takes a real commitment to wantto take the time to understand why a
reader keeps coming back to you overand over and over book after book.
Sometimes people just you know, say, oh, that's a pretty cover.
Let me look at the back.Oh that sounds interesting. Yeah, I'm
going to invest time and read inthat. That's kind of a one time
reader. But then you have otherreaders that are kind of die hard fans
(06:29):
that keep coming back to your writingone after the other, and you need
to reach out to them to findout what is it about your storytelling style
that keeps them coming back. Maybeyou write a series and maybe they like
that character and that whole mythology andthat's why they keep coming back. Or
maybe they just like you and yourvibe and where you're coming from and they
want to stay connected to you.I'm also a diehard mystery reader, and
(06:51):
I do that. I mean,I like reading series, but I also
like connecting with an author whose overallvision I can connect with. Okay,
so you know said you're a diehardreader. The next question is who do
you read. I read so many, so many types of mystery thrillers.
I like spy thrillers. I likecozy mysteries. I like amateur sleuth mysteries.
(07:15):
There are just so so many.Right now, I'm rereading the Fourth
Wing, and I'm also reading anotherNelson Demil and a John Lecare and they're
just so many. I'm one ofthose readers that reads like four or five
books at a time. Some ofthem are paperbacks over there in that stack,
and some of them are on myI don't use a kindle anymore,
(07:40):
but I have the Kindle app onmy iPhone so I can sit in bed
and read and just put the lightlow so I don't wake up my husband
and I can just read for likehours and hours under the covers and he'll
never know that I'm not getting anysleep. So yeah, I kind of
read all types of mystery thrillers.I also like nonfiction books, you know,
I try to stay well. Ialso like fantasy books. I just
(08:01):
read a book by an author,and this book is coming out on February
seventh. It's called Braided Dimensions byMarie Judson. She's another Indies United Publishing
author like me and it's a wonderfultime travel fantasy. Love it well,
I don't gonna have the contact marineand have her on. You should,
(08:22):
yes, you should tend to bea little long for me, even for
audio. But my next question toyou, of course, was, like
I heard published, so are youindie published or traditional published? So when
people hear the phrase indie published,they assume that means self published. I'm
not self published, but I don'thave a Big five traditional publisher either.
(08:45):
I didn't reach my publisher with anagent and I don't get an advance.
But my publisher is They're not evenreally a small publisher anymore. Indies United
Publishing is kind of a mid sizepublisher and I couldn't be happier with them.
I've just published my fifth book withthem, called Terror Bay, last
November. I have another one comingout in June, and so I guess
(09:07):
they'd be called an independent publisher.And they're wonderful. They do a lot
of marketing and they've done a greatjob with my books. I'm really happy
with them. I love Indie Unitedbecause the first time I've ever chose a
publisher any way, shape or form, I chose Indy United. So that's
(09:31):
it was different and new, andI loved it. I loved it when
when Lisa started it, I lovehe's done with it, it's amazing.
Okay, we're going to talk aboutLisa though, right because I'm about to
be like and then Lisa did,and Lisa say, I guess you're wondering
who this Lisa person is that isnot here because I'm talking to Lisa told
but the other Lisa is Lisa Orbitwith Indie United, moving on onward and
(09:56):
upward. I guess that's what theysay, onward and upward to how do
you find your ideas? And thendo you pants? Are you a panther
or a plotter? I feel likeyou're a plotter. Hmm. Interesting that
you feel like I'm a plotter.I think that's good. I'm absolutely halfway
(10:18):
between plotter and pantser. I usedto write elaborate outlines when I kind of
when I first started writing a longtime ago, and I found that writing
an elaborate, highly detailed, likeyou know, like line by line by
chapter by chapter outline, I haveno juice left to write the actual book.
So I so then I wrote somesome novels without any outline at all.
(10:43):
And now I find that I'm kindof in between. I do map
out kind of a few chapters ata time, and I might know exactly
how I want to end the bookthat might just kind of come to me,
but I might not know how I'mgoing to get there. So I
do plot out kind of like,you know, like chunks of the book
at a time, but like notlike whole long stretches. Because I found
(11:09):
it was actually Stephen King's book calledon Writing that was the first time that
I felt like I had permission towrite without an outline, and he he
wrote about in that book how havingan outline kind of locks you in and
makes it impossible for organic ideas tokind of make their way up into your
(11:31):
consciousness. And so that's what mademe start writing without outlines. And now
I'm kind of a hybrid. SoI do kind of have an outline,
and I usually know where I'm goingto go for at least the next chunk
of the novel. And in termsof how I get my ideas, I
wish I could tell you. Imean, like every other author, it
kind of comes at different times.Like right now I'm editing, working with
(11:54):
my editor on the book, that'scoming out on June twentieth. It's called
Codex. And I'm not supposed tobe writing anything. I'm supposed to be
like having a rest because I justfinished writing a standalone thriller, just a
not very good first draft. Thefirst draft isn't supposed to be good.
I finished that first draft, andthis is supposed to be a rest period.
Well it doesn't always happen that way, right, So something else has
(12:16):
been kind of bubbling up to thesurface, and I've just been taking notes.
I haven't actually put fingers to keyboard, and I haven't started writing it
yet. But in terms of whereideas come from, you never know.
So this new idea for a newbook that I have that I haven't started
writing yet. I was in thegym yesterday and I was on the treadmill,
(12:37):
and they have big TVs in thegym now. I was watching the
show Dateline about something that happened inMississippi, just this tragic story of this
woman who died and they were tryingto find her killer. And something about
that led me to a question.I can't tell you what the question is,
but something in Dateline led me toa question, and I knew that
(12:58):
that has something to do with whatevernew thing I'm going to write. How
did I know that? You justknow? Right? You're an author?
You just know? I was like, this is important. Let me add
that. So I have this emailthat I've been forwarding to myself over and
over and over again, now likewith a whole bunch of notes on it,
And that's how I keep track ofit until I started. But where
those ideas come from, I don'tknow. I don't know. They all
(13:22):
come from someplace different. And youknow, I think in some sense we're
talking about an art and a science, left brain and right brain. I
think, you know, you canthink about and cultivate and birth ideas.
But I also think that being acreative person means that you have some sense
(13:43):
of trust and faith and surrender thatideas are going to come to you and
you follow them and see where theywant you to take them. What three
pieces of advice would you give anyoneout who's like, Yep, mystery is
my genre, it's my damn,let's go ahead and aout writing. What
would you like tell yourself the threepieces of a vibe? If it's someone
(14:07):
who hasn't written a book before whatI like to tell novice writers is to
try not to think too much aboutwhere your book is going to end up
in terms of a shelf in abookstore. Try not to think too much
about marketing and the business of writingand capturing the synopsis and all of like
the saleable parts of the commodity thatyou're producing. Instead, think about what's
(14:31):
in here that wants to come out. Put your fingers on the keyboard and
let that story emerge from you.Again, it's that sense of kind of
trust and faith and opening to thestory inside that wants to be told.
I think that's that would have beenimportant for me to think about back then,
and I wasn't really thinking about thatback then. I think another piece
of advice would be invest in aneditor. Whether you're getting traditionally published looking
(14:56):
for an agent, or if you'regoing to publish yourself, investment in an
editor before you start sending queries toagents and publishers is the best money you're
gonna You're gonna invest in your writingcareer, Find a really good editor,
and then create the cleanest copy youcan that gets put on the shelves for
(15:16):
readers. That's gorgeous, YO,This is good advice because when you start
thinking about your future, you're like, oh, the pressure and the stress
and the stress and the pressure,and then you stop writing, which is
the point of you sitting in thechair. Well, I think there's another
there's another piece of advice too thatI wish I could go back in time
(15:37):
and tell myself twenty years ago oreven less than that. Try to enjoy
the journey, you know, Imean, like, there's there's so much.
Like you just said, we're thinkingabout the future, we're not thinking
about the now. Try to enjoythe experience of having the talent to bring
a story to life. I meanthat that takes talent, it takes vision,
(15:58):
it takes time, it takes energy, but but it really does take
take a lot. And try totry to enjoy it along the way.
Thank you. Okay, I'm partialto that last piece of advice because I'm
still thinking about what's going to happenin the future and then I look back
and I go, oh, Iwish I had to just sat down and
be like, this is a moment. Oh my god, right, No,
(16:22):
like I need to get to thenext moment. No, you don't
know, you don't so what's comingup next for you? And where can
we find and buy your books?You can find all my books on Amazon,
also on Barnes and Noble, It'sIt's. You can find audio books
for the audiobook versions of some ofmy books on Audible. What's coming up
(16:45):
for me? The next book that'scoming out is called Codex. It's a
standalone thriller. Although there might bea sequel to it. I still haven't
decided that yet. Actually, I'mnot going to decide. I mean it's
going to decide. The book willtell me if there's another one coming.
So I I left to kind ofopen at the end and I like doing
that. And that's coming out onJune twentieth with Indies United Publishing. It'll
(17:08):
be published in Kindle, paperback,hardcover, and maybe down the road there'll
be an audiobook. And then anotherbook will be coming out in November or
December. I don't yet know whatthat is, so another thriller, but
we'll see. Thank you so muchfor being here with us today, Lisa.
I've had so much fun, I'velearned so much. It makes me
(17:29):
want to write you already, dowrite and thank you will Noonah for everything
that you and Jade do to supportauthors like me. Thank you, so
y'all. I'm going to wrap itup for us over here and will Nona
and one of the anti thought ladies. I think I probably forgot to say
that. I just told you whereto go for the website and you have
no idea why I named it thatgo figure because we're one one of the
anti thought ladies. And when yougo down to it, when you go
(17:52):
to our page at www dot andI Thought ladiesdown dot com. Down to
the bottom of the page, youcan see the charities that we probably support.
We asked you take a moment outand support them as well. That
does not have to mean money.It could mean wisdom. It could mean
volunteer. Everyone needs hands on deckat all times and the volunteer and charity
organization, and we thank you inadvance for doing that. Remember that wisdom
is all around you if you're opento finding it and accepting it. So
(18:15):
peace to love you guys, fromWilnona and the Missing Jade. Oh yeah,
thanks for listening.
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