WD Editors

WDBC: How long have you been a Book Club member?
I’ve been a member of the Writer’s Digest Book Club for several years. I can always find what I need there.

Tell us a bit about your writing. What genre do you like to work in?
My true love is writing suspense/thrillers. There’s something about the chase that totally involves me in the entire process of writing the story. Character driven stories are especially important to me. I tend to get into my characters skin, if you will, so that I can let them evolve throughout the whole story.

Why do you use the pen name Tamara Delancre?
I’m asked that all the time. Tamara is my birth name, and Delancre is my father’s birth name. As I grew in my writing, I promised my father I would use this name as the signature for the particular series I was working on. He was so proud of me. How could I not use it? My father and I had a special bond. He passed away in 2001 and my first book, Demon Passing: The Legacy, written under my pen name was published in 2005. My new suspense/thriller, Without A Doubt, will be written under my own name as will its sequel, Bad Things.

Anything else you’d like to add?
I love blogging. Not only do I have a blog page set up on my Web site but I also can be found haunting the halls of blogspot. It’s therapeutic. Blogs let us discuss issues we would not otherwise address unless we were journalist.

Note: To visit Tammy’s Web site just click www.tamaradelancre.com. Tammy recommends The Glimmer Train series on writing fiction: “The voice, themes, place, and setting of both books caught my eye immediately,” she says. “They should be on the shelves of every writer!”

Writer’s Digest Book Club member Morgan Mandel fell in love with books in the fourth grade and has been reading ever since. First it was Nancy Drew, then Dick Francis, and later Gothic novels and contemporary romances. Her quest to get a book published started eleven years ago after attending a Romance Writers of America program at her local library.

To achieve her goal, Morgan joined writers’ groups, attended conferences, and devoured writing books and magazines. A good portion of her reference library was purchased through Writer’s Digest Book Club where she still buys her books. “Each month I tell myself I don’t have room for another, yet when I see the Bulletin I change my mind.”

Her persistence to continue writing and get published paid off in February 2006 when her mystery, Two Wrongs, was published by Hard Shell Word Factory. It is available in e-book format and in print at www.hardshell.com, through Amazon.com, and by order through most bookstores. Her romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams, will be available in January 2008. To learn more about Morgan, visit her site at www.morganmandel.com.

Writer’s Digest Book Club member Ron Gould is one busy guy. He owns the largest florist business in Texas’s Ft. Bend County, volunteers as the “official” Santa Claus for the town of Rosenberg and still finds time to pursue his goal of finishing his first science fiction novel. “My dad nurtured my desire to write and be published,” Ron says. “He met author Marion Zimmer Bradley (Mists of Avalon) when they were both at Hardin Simmons University and she inspired him to write.”

But family obligations took Ron’s father away from writing until nearly the end of his life. “By then, dad had lost his stories and didn’t have the energy to start over. I’ve always thought that was one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard,” Ron says, vowing he will never lose his stories. “I’ll get them written even if my goal to publish never happens.”

Ron successfully balances several writing projects at once and has learned the value of reading, researching, and writing rough outlines. He recommends his WDB favorites Writing Fiction Step By Step by Josip Novakovich and The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference by the editors of Writer’s Digest Books.

The Writer’s Digest Book Club featured Kathye Fetsko Petrie in its January bulletin:

Kathye Fetsko Petrie may have been destined to become a writer since she grew up in the town of Media, Philadelphia, but it wasn’t until her friend, author/illustrator Judy Schachner, asked her to write a story to accompany some illustrations that she thought about writing children’s books.

“I’ve had article proposals and essays accepted the first time out, but my children’s book, Flying Jack, was rejected over a dozen times before it was accepted by Boyds Mills Press,” she says. In the story, many obstacles thwart her main character’s dream of flying but he never gives up. “How could I not practice what I was preaching in my book?” Kathye asks. Patience won out and twelve years after she wrote its first word, she held the published book in her hands.

And as for that mysterious “e” at the end of her first name, Kathye says there’s an interesting story behind it. “It was originally a typo on a memo written by a co-worker. She said if I wanted to be a famous author I should keep it. Later, my first published story was printed with “Kathye” in the byline. People noticed it so I kept the spelling. Now I use it as a test-if a prospective editor includes the ‘e’ in the response, I know he or she is a great proofreader and likely someone for whom I would want to write.”

Kathye recommends the 2007 Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition. She says, “I use it to browse and dream, and the online resource to check updated information on current needs and contact information for publications where I’m planning to submit a manuscript.”

To find out more about the Writer’s Digest Book Club, visit www.writersdigestbookclub.com.

The Writer’s Digest Book Club featured Jeff Ayers in its December bulletin:

Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion may be Writer’s Digest Book Club member Jeff Ayers’ first book, but he’s a veteran at talking with some of today’s top authors. As a reviewer of suspense thrillers for Library Journal, Jeff has had the pleasure of interviewing many writers, including Janet Evanovich, Dan Brown, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child.

However, it wasn’t until his interview with the DaVinci Code author that Jeff began thinking about writing for pleasure and accomplishment. “Dan Brown asked me why I wasn’t devoting more of my life to writing since I was obviously good at it,” Jeff says. “His comment spurred me on to pursue my writing dream.”

Like a lot of us, Jeff has been writing for just about as long as he can remember. “Since as far back as 4th grade, I’ve always wanted to create my own stories,” he says. “I’d cast my classmates as characters in my bizarre adventures.” And if they weren’t good friends, Jeff says, “Then I’d kill them off … heroically, of course.”

Jeff recommends WDB’s The Novel Writer’s Toolkit by Bob Mayer because he says, “It’s the best book about how to write a novel and it also shows the true business side of the writing life.”

Jeff’s book has been published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon and Schuster. It is available for purchase at Amazon.com and your local bookstore.

To find out more about the Writer’s Digest Book Club, visit www.writersdigestbookclub.com.

The Writer’s Digest Book Club offers dozens of writing and reference books to its 20,000 members, through a full-color bulletin mailed monthly. Each main selection, as well as alternate selections, are hand-picked by Linda Walker, the WDBC editor.

Before joining Writer’s Digest Book Club, Linda spent two years as a columnist for Personal Journaling magazine. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in national and local publications. She is the co-author of You Can Successfully Parent Your Difficult Child, and is presently at work on her second book.

The Writer’s Digest Book Club has just shipped out the November bulletin, which features the following WDBC member spotlight of Suzanne Lieurance.

Book club member Suzanne Lieurance’s writing career began “once upon a time” in the literal sense. As a teacher and parent, she loved reading to children and it seemed natural to start writing stories for and about her two kids. From there, Suzanne wrote nonfiction and worked for children’s educational publishers. “And then one day I decided to quit teaching and write full time,” she said. “I’ve never looked back.”

Since then, Suzanne has developed an intensive 8-week program she calls The Working Writer’s Coaching Program (www.suzannelieurance.com) to help others live the freelance writer’s life. “I help them identify the kind of writing they like to do and then help them develop a part- or full-time freelance writing career based on those interests.”

These days she’s putting the finishing touches on a cozy culinary mystery series and hoping to find a publisher for it. As for the writing advice she follows, Suzanne says it comes from Ernest Hemingway. “He said to stop writing BEFORE you run out of things to write. That way, when you start the next day, you won’t waste time trying to figure out what to write!”

To find out more about the Writer’s Digest Book Club, visit www.writersdigestbookclub.com.