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Interview - July 2007 Problem Child: Let’s start with a little background. You have a degree in Journalism; were you working as a writer before you started writing romance? Jane Graves: Nope. I've never held a job as a writer. In spite of having the good fortune to study with the infamous Jack Bickham at the University of Oklahoma, once I graduated, I didn't write again for almost fifteen years. Oddly enough, after I got my degree, I went back to get the classes necessary to apply to medical school. But then I met my husband, and we were married. When I had only one Biochemistry class left to complete my pre-med requirements, the oil company he worked for transferred him to Denver. We decided to have a baby. And I became a stay‑at-home mom. It wasn't until years later that I even tried to write again. By the way, these days I laugh hysterically when I imagine myself as a doctor. Academically I could have handled it, but personality-wise? I don't know whether I became an airhead as grew older, or whether I was always that way and never realized it. If I were, say, a plastic surgeon today, there would be a whole lot of people wandering around with ears where their noses used to be. PC: What was the spark that caused you to make the leap and write your first book? JG: We got a computer. In 1993, we bought a used PC-XT for $200 from a guy out of his garage. It had no hard drive, only a floppy drive, back when floppy disks were actually...floppy. But suddenly I could save words, and I was off to the races. For a long time I just played around with short stories. I had one published in Women's World Magazine. But it wasn't until 1995 that I read my first romance novel. I fell in love with them and decided to give writing one a try. PC: You currently live in Texas. Are you a native? I ask because your backlist has definite Texas overtones. Is that simply a love for your state, or is there something about Texas and Texans that make good book fodder? JG: You have to promise not to tell anybody this. I'm not a native Texan. I'm from, uh…that state north of the Red River. As we say in Texas, "I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could." I've lived here for twenty years, and I'll never live anywhere else. Why do I write books set in Texas? Because I hate research. So much so that I almost always write about places I'm already familiar with. I've had reviewers who've tried to ascribe meaning to the fact that certain books of mine are set in Texas, but no. Sorry. It's the research thing. And I figure writing fiction means making stuff up, so I try my best to do that as much as possible. PC: You started in category, then made the jump to single title. Was it tough to make that move? What changes do you have to make to your writing/thought process in order to write short stories for anthologies versus the longer category novels versus your single titles? JG: I made the jump to single title very quickly after selling my first two books to Harlequin Duets. I put together six chapters and a synopsis of my first ST, and my agent sent it out. Three weeks later, we had a two-book offer from Ballantine. I was really fortunate that all the stars lined up for me on that one--the right story at the right time with the right editor. And I sold my first book to the Temptation line the same week. PC: With the Temptation line gone, do you see your voice and style fitting in well with another Harlequin/Silhouette line? Or are you planning to concentrate more on single titles and less on category? JG: To tell you the truth, I'm not too sure right now. I loved writing for Harlequin--I'm still mourning the loss of Temptation. But I'm not sure which line I'd target if I decided to submit there again. I'll probably be concentrating on single title for the foreseeable future. Unless Temptation comes back from the dead. PC: You wrote your first Harlequins under the name “Jane Sullivan,” and now you’re writing as “Jane Graves.” Was there a reason for the pseudonym? JG: When I sold my first book to Harlequin Duets, they thought "Graves" sounded too somber for romantic comedy and wanted me to take a pen name. When I sold to Ballantine, they wanted me writing under my real name. So suddenly I had a split personality. The big bummer is that the reason I took the pen name vanished after I'd written two books for Duets and the line went south, and I was stuck with two names to promote. JG: I gotta tell you. I love this book. Authors always like some of their books better than others, but this one is right at the top of the pile for me. The heroine is a spoiled trophy wife who lives Plano, Texas, an upscale suburb north of Dallas. She gets her life jerked out from under her when her husband sends her on a vacation with a friend, cashes in their assets, sells their house, embezzles $300,000 from his employer, and skips the country. She's left with nothing but the clothes in her luggage, her neurotic Chihuahua, and her beloved Mercedes Roadster. She'd like nothing more than to marry rich all over again, but who does she find herself falling for? The sexy ex-cop turned repossession agent who comes after her Mercedes. She hates blue collar men, and he hates high maintenance women. Instant conflict. I love to create heroes and heroines who are polar opposites, then peel away their layers to show how they connect on a deeper level and fill in each others' blanks. If I've done my job, in the end the reader will not only believe they've fallen in love, but that there's nobody else on the planet who's better for each of them than the other. I'll give you guys a sneak peek at an interactive Flash presentation that was created for this book. It's not officially up yet--it'll be on the new website I have coming soon. But you can play with it now if you go to http://www.janegraves.com/hotwheelsbonus.htm and start clicking. You'll find all kinds of fun things! PC: Let’s talk about process. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Which comes first for you—characters or the situation? JG: I'm a pantser. 100%. And I'm the weirdest one you'll ever talk to, because I have a writing process that's marginally insane. I'm a puzzle-piece writer. From the moment I begin a book, my mind goes off in a hundred different directions. The first thing I put on the page is usually the first scene or part of a scene I imagined when I conceived the book. That might be the opening. Or the black moment. Or the first love scene. Or just a dialogue exchange that comes to mind. Then I start jotting down bits and pieces of anything else that comes to mind that these characters might say or do in the course of the story. In the beginning, I poke around at the file where all this stuff is and work on whichever scenes or parts of scenes seem the most interesting. After a week or two, I'll have enough of the setting and the characters on the page--though in no discernable order--that I can settle in and get the first scene on paper. If I'm putting together a proposal, eventually I have to force myself to finish at least a chapter or two so I can sell the book, but it always changes when I actually write it. I've never written a story from start to finish and then gone back and revised. I just hop all over the place until I plug the last hole. The last words I put on the page to finish a book might be a transition between scenes in chapter three, or a description in chapter twelve. That's how fragmented my writing process is, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But it's the only way I've ever been able to write. (Back to the plastic surgeon thing I talked about before: Would you really want somebody with a brain like mine standing over you with a knife?) When you read Hot Wheels, take a look at the teaser chapter in the back of it for my next book, Tall Tales and Wedding Veils. When Tall Tales comes out next year, compare the two. It's the same story, but a lot of the details have changed. That's because I don't really know the beginning of a book until I've written the end, but I had to give them a teaser chapter before I finished the book. PC: Humor is obviously an important aspect of your books. Is it hard to be funny? How do you know that what’s funny to you is also funny for your reader? What tips would you offer newbie writers about writing humor? JG: Being funny is the easiest thing in the world--if you're a funny person. It's all about your outlook on life. If you're the joker in the back of the room cutting up during a "serious" workshop and you have to smack yourself to stop giggling, you probably have what it takes to write comedy. If you come out of a public bathroom with twelve feet of toilet paper stuck to your shoe, and instead of being embarrassed about it you have someone take a picture of it, you probably have what it takes to write comedy. If you send your editor Hoops & Yoyo e-cards, you probably have what it takes to write comedy. I've been asked many times to do workshops on writing comedy. But personally, I don't believe you can be taught how to be funny. You can learn techniques to help you express your funny thoughts, but nobody can teach you to have the funny thoughts in the first place. As far as knowing if what's funny to me will amuse my readers, in the beginning it was a shot in the dark. You don't know until you write it whether other people will laugh or not. Fortunately, enough editors, agents and readers find the same things funny that I do that I can actually sell books. My best advice to anyone trying to write comedy is this: Let it rip. Don't hold back. Make the characters bigger than life and twice as funny. Janet Evanovich didn't get to be a New York Times bestseller by keeping Stephanie's cars intact and telling Lula to shut up. PC: What was the best advice you received as you were starting out (you don’t have to tell us whether you heeded the advice or not, but we’d love to know!)? JG: It came a long time ago from Harlequin author, Judy Christenberry. She told me that if I wanted longevity in this business, I couldn't be a pain in the butt to work with. She said it was fine to disagree, but to do it respectfully, and to pick my battles carefully. And yes, I've always heeded that advice, and I pass it on every chance I get. After Judy told me that, I said, "If my head ever gets too big, will you pop it for me?" She assured me she'd be ready with the pin. We should all have that friend who's ready with the pin. Over the years, I've had five editors at three different houses, and I've never had a moment of discord with any of them. I had a long and rewarding relationship with an editor who other authors swore they couldn't work with. And I've never had any trouble selling books and staying published. PC: What was the one piece of advice you wish you’d ignored? JG: Honestly? I can't think of a single thing. Really. I've just always been very careful who I listen to and whose advice I choose to take. PC: Complete this sentence: My readers… JG: My readers believe that laughter is the best medicine. I just fill the prescription. PC: Some just-for-fun questions: JG: Coffee. And lots of it. To be specific: Caramel Macchiatos. And all that caffeine people want out of theirs? They can put it in mine. PC: Heels or flats? JG: Flats. Although I do intend to buy heels for the RWA National conference this year--a pair of leopard pumps. Look at the cover of Hot Wheels and High Heels and you'll see why. It's all about the promo, baby. PC: Have you ever had Texas Hair? JG: Ha! Are you kidding? I lived here in the '80s. Of course I had Texas Hair! The question is, how could I ever have thought that was attractive? Then again, I used to wear Joan Collins shoulder pads, too, and I thought I looked fabulous. That kind of fashion blindness can only be cured by time. I once had my husband dig through some boxes in storage for a pair of gold shoes I'd bought years before because I needed them to wear with a formal gown. In my memory, they were stunning. He found them. They stunned me, all right. I laughed out loud and threw them into the Goodwill bag. JG: Anywhere a cruise ship can take me. My husband and I just got back from a week aboard the Grand Princess out of Galveston. If it were up to me, I'd live on a cruise ship. They almost had to get a stun gun to get me off the Grand Princess. "Lady, the cruise is over! Get OFF the ship!" PC: Alternate career choice? JG: Ever watch Flip This House, that show about renovating real estate for profit? Several years ago, my husband and I flipped a couple of houses. I might like to do that again. You simply can't believe how some people can screw up a perfectly nice house, and how much money you can make by unscrewing it. PC: What are you working on now? JG: I'm wrapping up Tall Tales and Wedding Veils, also set in Plano, Texas. The hero is a secondary character from Hot Wheels. The story features one of my favorites matchups‑‑the charming, handsome womanizer who falls for the ultra-serious Plain Jane. Through a weird set of circumstances, they end up‑‑oops‑‑marriage in Vegas, and before their annulment comes through, something happens that forces them to spend a month pretending to be happy newlyweds. Again, polar opposites. It sure has been fun to toss the two of them together and watch the fireworks. PC: Thanks for stopping by, Jane! Come back any time. JG: Hey, nobody dumped sand down my pants or smacked me with a plastic shovel. I consider that a good day at the Sandbox. A great big thanks to the children at The Writing Playground for inviting me over to play. Readers, be sure to drop by...it's a fun place to hang out!
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