An Interview With Author, Gloria Zachgo--Part 2

Author, Gloria Zachgo 

I'm pleased to present part 2 of my interview with Gloria Zachgo:

6.      Do you belong to any writers’ groups? Why or why not?

Yes, I’ve belonged to several. About a year ago, when we moved to Wichita, I had to leave my original writers group. I miss the weekly challenges it provided. I am still able to meet once a month with my novelist group. They supply invaluable feedback, criticism, and encouragement. I might be able to write novels without them, but it would be a lonely trek and not nearly as much fun.

7.      Of your three novels, which one is closest to your heart?

That’s like asking which of my children is my favorite.

The Rocking Horse was my first. It started me on this journey of writing novels and gave me the confidence to write more.

Hush Girl is where my heart took me the last two years.

However, Never Waste Tears is probably closer to my heart because I write about the area where I grew up. I see my grandfather every time I write about Carl, and I’m hoping to go back to that prairie one of these days.

8.       Do you write every day or when the mood strikes?

I would like to say I’m disciplined enough to write every day, but I’m not. When the mood strikes I’m miserable if I don’t write. I can’t say that’s always when I do my writing though, because “the mood” can strike at the most inopportune times.

9.      What prompted you to write Hush, Girl?

I know someone who has been affected all her life because her mother left her when she was only a child. Once I started developing the story of a child whose mother left her, she became real. She became Nicki. I simply wrote what happened to her, embellishing the story to make a suspense novel.

10.       Any tips for other writers hoping to publish a book?

Self-publishing has worked for me. I’ve learned that even with traditional publishing, an author is often left to do their own promotional marketing. There are so many new books coming out every day that it’s hard to get noticed as a novice author.

If you decide to self-publish, you must believe in yourself and your writing. Re-write. Re-read. Re-read and re-write again. I’m learning from my mistakes every day. Make your manuscript as perfect as you can. Get critiques from others if possible.

Talk to other authors. Most tend to want to share their experiences. Find out what works for them. There are a lot of different avenues one can take today. Explore several before you take the voyage.

I write what’s in my heart. I write because it’s my passion. I go on journeys with my created characters. I find pleasure in telling their stories.

I find even more pleasure when my readers give me feedback on my novels and share their thoughts with me.

An Interview With Author, Gloria Zachgo--Part 1

              

Gloria Zachgo graciously agreed to an interview. Part 1 runs today and Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. Gloria's answers to my questions will give some insight to what is involved in writing and self-publishing a novel. Her three book covers and her thoughts her might entice you to read the books. Check them out at Amazon.

Gloria Zachgo

1.      How long have you been writing?

A little over ten years. Unlike a lot of writers I’ve met, who have been creative writing since they were children, I started later in my life.

2.      Are you a self-taught writer, or have an advanced degree in the Fine Arts?

My formal education was from a business school, so my creative writing is mostly self-taught. I joined a writing group about ten years ago to improve my communication skills. Little did I know how it would change my life.

             

3.      What inspired you to write novels?

When I first started writing, I found it therapeutic to write a few memoirs, but it was when I experimented writing short fictional stories that I found my true passion.

I attended a workshop given by mystery author, Nancy Pickard. Driving home from that workshop, the image of one of my short stories kept popping into my mind. I wanted to find out what happened to Julie, so I challenged myself to develop her story into a novel. I wrote a scene at a time, sending each one to a writer friend for a critique. Once I had all the scenes written, I put them into chapters and wove them together into a finished manuscript.

4.      You have self-published 3 books. What made you decide to publish this way?

Each week at my writing group, I read a chapter of my manuscript, The Rocking Horse. The encouragement I received led me on a quest to find an agent. I queried about eighty agents over the next six months. The rejections were kind but plentiful.

I could have put the manuscript in a drawer and forgot it. Instead, I chose to follow through with the dream of having a debut novel. So, with support from family and friends, I began exploring the self- publishing world. My research led me to CreateSpace, where I invested in one of their self-publishing packages offered at that time.

After learning the basics of self-publishing a print-on-demand book for my first novel, I decided to use CreateSpace, doing most of the published work myself on Never Waste Tears and Hush Girl.  It’s worked well for me.

 5.      Do you have your manuscripts edited professionally? Or do it on your own?

I’ve done both – with mixed results. Most people in the writing world will advise authors to never do their own editing. One of my books is a perfect example of why. Following, are my three experiences...

The Rocking Horse was professionally edited. Even though it won an Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest 20^th Annual Book Awards and received great reviews, I’ve still received criticism on its editing.

Never Waste Tears was self-edited. Ironically, I never heard the editing criticism that I received on The Rocking Horse. Never Waste Tears received an indie B.R.A.G. Medallion and was a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review competition.

Hush Girl: It’s Only a Dream was self-edited. It was an economic decision, as professional editing can get quite expensive. It’s a time-consuming, difficult task. I thought I had done a fairly good job when I first published Hush Girl. I received some great reviews on the story itself. But, I was also told I had some editing problems. When I re-read my manuscript, I was shocked at the errors I found. I was so disappointed in myself because most of the mistakes were simply a matter of careless proofreading.

After beating myself up for a few days, I decided to learn from the experience. I’m currently trying to amend some of the damage done. I loved telling Nicki’s story, and many of my readers have told me they loved the story too. So, I’m once more putting on the editing hat and I will re-publish as soon as possible. It still won’t be perfect, but I will try to make it the very best I can.  

Part 2 of the interview in tomorrow's blog includes Gloria's advice to other writers. 

Historical Fiction--Read It and Write It!

History is one subject we all had to take during our education years. We studied American History and World History, Ancient History and that closer to our own times. There were dates to be memorized, treaties and pacts to figure out and myriad historical figures who influenced our lives to this very day.

Even with all that, history was sometimes boring and even a bit overwhelming. Facts and figures, personalities and battles become great blurs once we are past the learning process for this subject. 

I find a far more painless way to learn history is to read historical fiction stories and novels. It's one of my favorite genres. It's painless because we get involved in a good story and many of those facts and figures drop unnoticed into our subconscious. Instead of learning a list of Civil War battles, we can read about fictitious folk who lived through it because an author put them there.

We can read about a slave girl in ancient Rome who served her mistress well enough to be made a favorite messenger sent to warn soldiers of a coming siege. Or the story of immigrants who fled religious persecution, sailing on none-too-sturdy ships across an ocean to a newly settled country. 

Yes, we can read about those things but we can also write those stories. I have written several historical fiction short stories for kids. They are as enjoyable to write as reading them. I like making up the characters and slipping them into a particular period of history in our country. I try to add bits and pieces to show the times when the story takes place. Knowonder! ezine published one I especially liked writing. It takes place during the Civil War and features a young Southerner stuck in the Northern Territory, trying to reach Southern lines and a father fighting on that side to give a special message. You can read the story here if you would like to get an idea of ways to incorporate history into a fiction story.

Things to keep in mind when writing Historical Fiction:

• Check you facts--you don't want to make up dates, battles etc.
• Be careful you don't end up giving a historical lecture--stick to the fiction story itself
• Use fiction techniques to tell the story but add accurate historical points
• Sprinkle in details about clothing, foods, transportation and more
• Develop characters your readers can relate to

If Historical Fiction writing is new to you or relatively so, use your favorite search engine to find article with tips from writers who have experience in this genre. Read and absorb the suggestions, then give it a try on your own. 

Whether you write for kids or for adults, Historical Fiction is worth trying. One of the Historical Fiction novels that is set in my state of Kansas gives a good picture of what homesteading was like here in the nineteenth century but it is also a wonderful story about people and how they meet new challenges. Check out Never Waste Tears by Gloria Zachgo on Amazon. 

What Historical Fiction books or stories would you recommend to others? Ones you especially liked and have stayed in your mind long after you finished reading? 

There's More Than One Way To Self-Publish

                                   

                                         










Meet Gloria Zachgo, Guest Blogger for today. Gloria and I met through Kansas Authors Club, a state organization for writers. She has self-published two novels but in somewhat different ways. Thanks, Gloria, for sharing your self-publishing experience with us.

How and Why I Self-Published

A friend once sent me the quote, “Amateurs built the ark – Professionals built the Titanic.”

I truly was an amateur when I published my first book, The Rocking Horse.  I’d written a manuscript as a challenge to myself, shared it with my writing group, and received enough encouragement that I knew I wanted to see my book in printed form.

I also knew the odds of a traditional publication were not good, but I was not deterred. I started querying agents – 80 of them. Some of them answered my queries. They were kind and encouraging, but they were all rejections.   

The bottom line was, I didn’t find an agent to represent me, and if I wanted to see my book in print, I was going to have believe in myself enough to publish it myself. 

I was lucky because my husband, Ron, believed in me too.  Together we researched publishing options and finally decided to go with a package deal offered by Createspace. It included…

·        Comprehensive copyediting of my manuscript

·        A unique book cover

·        Custom total design

·        Promotional text creation

·        LCCN Assignment (Library of Congress Control #)

·        Press Release Creation

·        Press Release Distribution

I learned by working with those professionals. I had a comprehensive editor for my manuscript, a design team for my book cover, and another team for my promotional text.  They gave their advice, but the entire time ALL DECISIONS WERE MINE AND I HAD THE FINAL SAY ON EVERYTHING.  In three short, but very busy months, I held my first printed book in my hands.

Reviews for The Rocking Horse were so encouraging that I wanted to write another novel.  I had many requests for a sequel, but my heart dictated a different venue, and a different genre. 

Upon completion of my second manuscript, I knew I wanted to self-publish again. I liked having the control over my own work that Createspace gave me.  However, I couldn’t justify the cost of all the services I’d used for my first book.  

As much as I would have liked to have a comprehensive copy editor, the cost for a 90,000 plus word manuscript was over my budget.  I’d written Never Waste Tears in first person (but I had five first persons), and the dialect was written with incorrect grammar.  Even my spell and grammar check quit correcting me. So I basically did ALL of my own editing, without purchasing a support team.

Because I already had an account with Createspace, all I had to do to get started was to type in my title.  Then it was a matter of following the provided step by step instructions to create…

·        A book cover

·        The book size

·        A choice of paper color

·        A type of font

·        The selection of margins

·        The placement of chapters and headers for my name, the book title, and the page numbers. 

After making the formatting selections, we downloaded the manuscript, so that we could page through online and see what it looked like in book form.  Because I used interims in different parts of my book we found it a bit tricky to insert the blank pages correctly.  We learned by trial and error.  

I’ve been told a writer should not design their own book cover. I broke that rule by using my own painting for the cover.  Ron then used Microsoft Publisher and tools from Createspace to design the front and back cover of the book.  Here is the one place we had a bit of a problem, as we had trouble getting the spine to fit correctly. So for a modest fee, we purchased help to finish the cover design.    

Once Createspace approved the formatting, we ordered our first PROOF book. I was then able to edit directly from my proof book, make any corrections on my manuscript, and download it again.  I hate to admit that it took us a total of 12 downloads and 5 proof books before I was ready to push the publish button.

The quote my friend sent me came to mind again—“Amateurs built the ark – Professionals built the Titanic”.  Yes, I was still an amateur, but I gained a great deal of experience through the whole process, and had fun learning. 

The first time I self-published was because the traditional way didn’t work.  The second time I self-published was because I liked having control of all the decisions.  Every step of the way was totally my own.  It worked for me.  

My advice to others would be that every author should investigate the many options available to them.

Please feel free to visit my website at www.gloriazachgo.com , or my author page at Amazon .

Never Waste Tears--Worth A Read

                                                         

Gloria Zachgo's second novel is historical fiction at its best. She seamlessly weaves the story of five individuals who travel west from Ohio where they homestead in western Kansas a few years after the Civil War has ended. Gloria is a native Kansan so it seems natural that she used Kansas as the setting for her book.

The novel opens at the beginning of the Civil War when two of the main characters are young teens. We follow Rebecca and Nathan as they mature, fall in love, marry and head west. Carl and Hannah are part of the wagon train that the young newlyweds travel in. The two young couples decide to settle close to one another in western Kansas in an area that Carl had seen once but never forgot. We follow the progress made by the two young couples, their hopes and joys, their sorrows and trials. Hannah's sister, Sarah, joins them later and is the fifth main character in the book.

There have been many other books written about the pioneers who settled the western parts of our country but this one hooked me immediately and kept me reading at a fast pace. The oversized paperback book is just shy of 400 pages and my interest level was such that I read it in two days. I kept picking it up between household tasks because I wanted to find out what happened next.

Gloria Zachgo used an interesting technique in presenting her story. The five main characters tell us the story in their own voice. The reader might hear from three characters in one chapter but the narrative flows smoothly. She labels each with the name but the five are such individuals that the reader can figure out who is speaking without the names. Even so, I liked seeing the name above the narrative.

This technique allowed the author to achieve excellent character development, even though doing so in a book written in this method is not always easy to do. She mastered the technique. Because I'm a writer, I read a novel with two sets of eyes--that of strictly a reader and also a writer. I'd give it five stars in both categories.

The title of the novel is explained on the back cover:

 Five journeyed into the unknown, where opportunities and tragedies were in equal abundance.     Those who were strong didn't waste their tears, but used them wisely to help wash away their grief.

You can order the book at Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.

In tomorrow's post, author Gloria Zachgo, will be my guest blogger. She will discuss self-publishing which she did with both Never Waste Tears and her first book, The Rocking Horse. Each one was done in a different manner. Anyone interested in self-publishing will want to read what Gloria has to say. So check in tomorrow.