Laurie Alice Eakes is the award-winning author of novels, articles, essays, and, as she is fond of saying, just about anything for which she can get paid. Writing is her career, her hobby, and one of her top five favorite loves. Below are her answers to questions posed by friends, fans, and fellow writers.
Q. How long have you been writing?
A: Forever. I remember telling myself stories as a young child. Actually sitting down and starting a novel? I was twelve. Many more years passed before I finished one, but I started lots of them.
Q. How long have you been published.
A: That depends on your definition of published. I have had my work in print since I was ten. I got my first check for something I wrote—a poem—when I was thirty-one. I got my first check for a novel in 1999.
Q: Tell us about that work.
A: I’d rather forget about that. It was with a small press, got good reviews, but is truly awful, I think. I love the story still, though it is secular, and the editing was pretty bad. Still it got me interested in writing again.
Q: What started your interest in the Regency Period, the setting for your award-winning Family Guardian?
A: A librarian gave me a copy of a Georgette Heyer novel when I was fourteen. I was enchanted and began reading everything about the time period I could get my hands on.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the award Family Guardian won.
A: Since God gets all the glory for this one, I am happy to talk about it. It is the Readers Choice Award for Best Regency. The Oklahoma RWA chapter has this contest every year. No judge can be a writer, so this is really special. My competition in the finals was two highly published and highly talented authors, so I was happy just being a finalist along side these two special ladies. But there it was—winner. I have to look at my plaque to believe it still, which is why I know God wanted me to win for some reason. It is the only way I could have.
Q: You have a knack for making your readers feel as if they've been transported back in time. What do you credit that to?
A: Research. Lots of research. So much that I forget what century I am living in now. I want to know what my characters would have smelled, tasted, heard, felt against their skin, and seen. That is the only way the reader can identify, too—getting all the sensory details right. I read books about the history and clothing, but also the flowers and trees and animals of the time, too. The food and perfumes. The music.
Q: Are you interested in other eras besides Regency?
A: I am. I love the medieval era, though don’t know nearly enough about it to write a novel set then—yet. And I love anywhere from 1660 and the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England up through the Regency. In America, I love the colonial era up through the War of 1812.
Q: What are your favorite research tools?
A: Letters, diaries, and books written about the time period by people of the time period. www.gutenberg.org and Google Books are fabulous research resources. Web sites come in handy for quick reference, and I am careful about how much I believe them, insisting on verification from other sources, too, as many fallacies get passed around that way. Of course, visiting a place is great, and that is a bit difficult when writing history. I also talk to people who live in the area about which I am writing, get their input on the tiniest details like my English friend who told me the woods are silent there at night, not full of cicadas like here in Virginia.
Q: In researching your novels, how do you make sure you're getting the details right?
A: I research as many details as possible and, again, original sources help. But one can never be 100% right. Phrases slip in without anyone catching it, and of course, I can’t be sure of many things. None of us are. I strive for accuracy to the best of human possibility without true time travel. That takes detail hunting and time, and I am happy to spend it.
Q: Where do you get your ideas from?
A: Things I read. Thin air. I don’t know. They just materialize in my brain, ferment there for a while like the leftovers that end up at the back of the fridge, and spring forth, unlike said leftovers—fortunately.
Q: When did you first know you wanted to be an author? What steps would you recommend for others who also feel the call on their lives?
A: I have known I wanted to be a writer for most of my life. Advice? Write and learn about writing. Get good books on writing, hang out with other writers and learn from them, and write. It’s like any other talent—it may be there, but you need practice to get it right. I went as far as to get a MA in writing fiction from Seton Hill University, and started selling after that, but one doesn’t need to go that far. It just gave me the extra attention and push I needed to get me on the right track. Mainly, that was how to be an organized writer and a great deal about markets and their importance in success.
Q: Do you have ways to spark your creativity when you feel drained?
A: Write for fun. Just forget about selling it and write something on my heart. Or sometimes I simply drink a cup of hot chocolate and take a fragrant bath and forget about writing. Long walks help, too. Reading some really good books, preferably an old favorite. Watching a Humphrey Bogart or Audrey Hepburn movie. Sometimes, like one’s singing voice if one is a professional singer, the writing part of the brain needs a rest, too.
Q: What are you working on currently?
A: Right now, I have so many projects with editors that I am writing something for myself—a sea adventure. I hope it finds a home one day if it turns out, and it is my “I have time right now, so I’m writing this for fun,” novel.
Q: What do you have coming out next?
A: I have an essay in A Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers, which will be my second essay this year, and, in March, 2008, is my first CBA novel, Better Than Gold. This is the third book in the Heartsong Presents Iowa historical series with Lena Dooley and Lisa Harris with books 1 and 2 respectively.
Q: What made you decide to write for the CBA?
A: I was just thinking about that on September 11, because it was on September 16, 2001 that I felt the call to write for the CBA. I was in church, and the choir was singing “Here I Am Lord,” that lovely hymn by Daniel Schutte. It comes from Isaiah, which is one of my favorite books, so I was doubly struck after the events of the week and that and so many other things going on my life. I was in grad school, so I didn’t finish anything
For another two and a half years, and didn’t sell anything for another year after that, but I knew it was right from that day on and started learning about the CBA. Mind you, I had thought about it earlier, but my heart wasn’t ready yet.
You can find out more about Laurie Alice from her web site and blog at http://www.lauriealiceeakes.com
Please welcome today's guest blogger: Sally Bradley.
