~ Author of the Month - Shirley Hailstock ~

1.  What inspired you to write MORE THAN GOLD?

A book with the Olympics as the backdrop has been on my mind for years.  My son started gymnastics when he was three (he's 16 now) and he went on to become a regional champion in the sport.  I also enrolled in the adult class and stayed with it for six years.  Two years ago I thought about the upcoming Olympics in Australia and proposed the idea to my editor.  She agreed with me and I began writing MORE THAN GOLD.

2.  Tell us a bit about the book?

Morgan Kirkwood was a street-wise homeless kid on her way to nowhere when she is adopted by her social worker.  From that point her life becomes normal, but she never forgets her days on the street.  At 19 she is tapped for the Olympic gymnastics team and set to go when the CIA asks her to use her special skills to get a political prisoner out of a Korean jail.  This action changes her life, sends her into a self-imposed exile for twelve years.  Then Olympic fever sweeps the country and her safe world is thrown off course.  Calling for help, Jack Temple arrives.  Morgan thinks the former swim coach is her assassin.  She is only just discovering he was part of the sanction in Korea and that his role called for more than swimming.  Even though he tells her he's there to help her past won't let her trust him.  Suddenly she has no choice when they find themselves running for their lives.  And falling in love along the way.

3.  I notice that your book, is the lead title for the month and features one of Arabesque's new covers.  How do you feel about this change that has been made?

The Arabesque authors have no control over their covers.  The new cover is a marketing method to make them stand out on the shelves and have people pick them up because of the difference.  Getting someone to pick up a book is half the way to selling it.  My cover grew on me.  I'm a photographer and I love people pictures.  It takes me forever to find a Christmas card I'm satisfied with.  I'm not that fond of cartoons or caricatures, but this cover is elegant and tasteful and I hope it will help sell the book.

4.  MORE THAN GOLD is your first full length book in more than a year.  Why the long wait?

I have several writing projects in the works last year, conferences, speaking engagements and the contract negotiations took much longer than expected.

5.  Do you have a full-time career outside of your writing?

I work full time for a pharmaceutical company.  I'm the Senior Manager of Sales Systems.  My function is to keep five sales forces set up correctly and respond to the needs of the field sales people with information that is generally critical to their daily operations.  My day is always different.  I never know what to expect.  It makes it exciting.

6.   When you're not writing, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to sew.  I'm making a costume for the Romantic Times Convention in November.  I play tennis once a week and I'm enrolled in a singing class.  And I love to read, just for pleasure.  Once I sold my first book and had to write on deadlines the amount of time for enjoyable reading decreased.  Now I covet that time.

7.   What is something about you that your readers would be surprised you do?

I don't think they'd be surprised by "what" I do, more about "how much" I do.  That seems to be thing that most people are awed by.  For me it's normal. I sat on the RWA board for four years and I'm running (unopposed) for the PAN Liaison position, so I will be going back on it.  I maintain a full time job. I'm a single mother of two teenagers with heavy schedules of extra-curricular activities and social engagements and have no outside help from friends or family.  I write two books a year, speak at conferences, conventions, do book signings and a lot of self promotion.

When asked how I get all this done, I usually laugh it off with "I don't watch television and I don't sleep."  Truthfully, I have a lot of energy and I'm very organized.  I make lists and methodically do what is on the list.  I also sit down some nights and do nothing, but not often.

8.   Which of your books is your favorite?  Did you most enjoy writing?

The favorite book is always the one you're going to write next.  I don't think I could pick one over the other.  I like them all.  They are different in that they are not all romantic suspense or historical or straight romances. Thankfully my editor allows me to exercise variety in what I write.  I do like the heavy plotting of the romantic suspense, but when I'm writing historical I love being in that time period and working with the characters.

The book I most enjoyed writing is WHITE DIAMONDS.  It came to me completely ready to write.  All I had to do was type.  At one point I was writing thirty pages a day which is a huge number when usually we write five or six.  With that book my keyboard was smoking.  I also enjoyed writing MIRROR IMAGE although it rung we dry with the sequences involving the mother.  Memories of my own mother are within those pages.

9.   How would you define the African American Romance?

African American romances are stories that include the black experience. The heart of the book is a love story and I think that is a universal theme, but the additional background and life experience of the characters adds dimension and flavor to the stories and makes them uniquely African American.  Specifically, this includes the important things in the lives of African Americans;  family, church, sorority/fraternity, foods, music, schools. Peppering the background of the characters with these experiences changes the story and gives a walk of life that is not told by other writers.

10.   How did you get started writing your novels?

I wrote my first romance on a dare from a fellow romance reader.  We were on the New York subway and she asked what I was reading.  I turned the book over to let her see the cover.  It was a Harlequin Presents novel.  I made the statement that I could write one of these and she challenged me to do it.  I went home energized and ready to write.  Then I realized I had no idea what to do, but I didn't let that stop me.  I wrote for a year, producing 240 double-spaced pages.  I let her read it and she told me she never "thought it would be that good."  This was encouragement enough to go on, so I joined a local writing group (New Jersey Romance Writers) and kept writing.

11.   What process do you use in writing your novels?

I plot extensively.  I write everything down, the scenes, the characters, their family, the external plot, internal plot, motivations, habits, hobbies, friends, setting, everything I can think of.  Then I do an outline and from this I write a synopsis.  And then I write the book.  Some of these things are going on at the same time or don't happen until I'm into writing the story.  The sister of the heroine in WHITE DIAMONDS showed up one day and said "I'm in this book, write me in."  In OPPOSITES ATTRACT the hero told me his brother had sickle cell anemia and I asked him why he didn't even have the trait.  This became crucial to the plot.  In MORE THAN GOLD the CIA director told me Morgan's secret.  All these came as complete surprises, but they worked so well in the books that I kept them in.

12.   How long does it take you to complete a manuscript?

About eight months from idea to putting the final manuscript in the mail. Some books take longer and some shorter, but the average is eight months.

13.  What was your becoming a published writer journey like?

It was a transition from one set of circumstances to another.  I couldn't just write anymore.  I had to write on deadline.  I had to turn in synopsis and story ideas, bios, and character sketches at certain intervals.  I didn't just have to write, I had to also be a business woman.  I had to read contracts and understand what I was signing.  I had to do my own promotion, prepare workshops and speak at conferences.  I had to do book signings and hire an accountant.  At first it seemed a little overwhelming, especially since I also had small children to contend with.  It's a lot easier now since most of the ground work is behind me.  I enjoy the process of creating the characters and storyline immensely and want to do that above the business side of writing.

14.  Is being a published writer what you thought it would be like?

No.  I thought by this time I'd be able to quit my day job and write full time, but that has not happened.  I knew I'd have to promote myself and I know my publisher appreciates my efforts.  I thought there would be a greater push for the books by the publisher, getting them into the hands of readers through the non-conventional methods and providing incentives for booksellers to position them and hand sell them.  I don't see that happening.

15.   What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment as a writer and why?

I think that writing books from the African-American perspective and having readers realize there are romances with people who look like them is one.  The other and I feel more important one is the connection between the stories told and the lives of real people.  Some of the fan mail is phenomenal in the degree in which it tells how a novel has touched or enriched someone's life.  This was an unexpected accomplishment for me.  I hoped people would like the stories, but I never dreamed they would be galvanized to act on some phase or desire in their own lives because the heroines or heroes in the books overcame an obstacle in their fictional world.

16.  If you had known then what you know now, what would you have done differently in terms of your romance writing career?

I would have been more prepared for after the sale.  I said I am an organized person.  I had a hundred things done that I didn't know I had done. If I'd known in advance I would probably have had a thousand ready.  I would have learned more about writing a synopsis and had several of them done and ready for other books.  The up-front work is the hardest.  Once that is done, then the writing goes a lot smoother.  I have a million ideas for future stories, but only a few synopses ready.

17. I've notice that of all the African-American romance authors, you're the one of the few that seem active in RWA at a national level.  Do you think there is a need to for more involvement from AA authors at that level?

I absolutely believe this is true.  I think we need a visible face on the RWA board and in the organization.  Many of our efforts are invisible, not because we are being excluded, but because our positions are not part of the thought processes of people who do not share our background and heritage.  We bring an awareness that is there because of the seat we hold, and then the words we have to say.

18.  Do you like communicating with your readers?  In what forms, and how can a reader contact you?

I get a lot of fan mail.  In the back of all my books is an address for readers to contact me.  I also have a web page and e-mail.  Readers can access my web page at http://www.geocities.com/shailstock or e-mail me at shailsto@diag.bracco.com.

19.   What's next for Shirley Hailstock?

In 2001, I have a book called Her 1-800-HUSBAND being released in May. This is the story of a well-to-do woman whose family thinks she should be married.  She installs a phone number to find a husband she can marry and happily divorce in six months.  Of course, the best laid plans...  I'm also working on a mainstream novel about four black women and how they survive the Depression of the 1930's.  It has not been sold, but I'm nearly finished the first draft.

RIC wants to thank Ms. Hailstock for a wonderful interview.