Dawn's Reading Nook: Guest Author Day with Laury Egan

Please give a warm welcome to author Laury A. Egon to the Reading Nook. I am very excited to get to know this new to me author and I hope you enjoy getting to know her. So let's get started, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by to talk a little about your writing!

Thank you, Dawn! Because I have several titles recently published or forthcoming soon, I’ve concentrated on two books but have mentioned others. One of my unique qualities as an author is that I don’t write in the same genre—I range from psychological suspense to literary work, nor do I always write for the same market (some books are for general readers, some for LGTBQ readers, and many are “bridge” titles.) I write the book that comes to me, without fitting it into a genre slot.

Let's jump right in. When did you begin writing and why?

My first poem—four stanzas—was written at age seven, in the bath tub. I’ve never attempted doing this in water again! During my childhood, I lived a distance from town, had no siblings, and my parents worked, so I was alone much of the time. The area was also very beautiful, with views of the ocean, bay, and Manhattan skyline, a woods across the street—all very inspiring for a young poet. From the beginning, my poetry and then fiction served as self-entertainment but soon became intrinsic to who I was and remains so. I felt fated to be a writer. My first novel was completed at age thirteen.

Fire off five words to describe your book (s).

Turnabout: Summer 1964, first loves, self-discovery

Wave in D Minor: Creativity, composing, blizzards, ocean, danger

Give us an out of context quote from your book to warm our hearts.

Turnabout:

“Lindsay leans on the wood railing, her blond hair bright in the gold sun, curls twitching in the breeze. Her face is dark in profile, but even so, I see the flash of her smile. I watch as she nods her head and gestures gracefully with her hand; the other rests on the banister. She’s wearing a Lacoste polo shirt tucked into tennis shorts. All white, all cotton, oh so cool.

I gaze on the tall beauty with astonishment and pleasure and forget all else except the miracle of Lindsay’s radiant perfection. It’s as if she’s been born today as a new gift, one I desperately need, either because I want to look like her or to become her in some kind of supernatural transformation. Then, I remember the dreams I’ve been having, the ones that leave me restless when I wake, happy to be alone so I can savor the feelings and hold them tight and secret, rewriting them into little stories before I go to sleep again. This moment and the dreams share similar forbidden longings, ones I ache to satisfy even though I haven’t a clue how to do it.”

Wave in D Minor [prologue]:

“Death is in the house. This thought echoed in my mind as I looked through the windows upon the green, rough-hewn waves biting at the cloudless sky, a sea and sky that had once seemed innocent and beautiful. But I could no longer attach either quality to the view of the North Atlantic, nor was I inspired by the elegant home of my patron. Instead, the optimism I had felt before my arrival at Point No Point had been replaced by grief and pervasive confusion.

Surrounded by police officers and crime scene specialists, reeling from the effects of pain and painkillers, I was disoriented and physically faint. After cracking open the sliding door, I was briefly invigorated by the sweet smell of snow and the tart saltiness of the ocean, but the blustery gales were blowing the paper and plastic on the floors—set down last night to protect evidence. The sheriff asked me to close the slider and step inside. After doing so, I placed my palm against the chilled glass to steady myself, murmuring “Leslie Chase”—my name—in an attempt to consolidate my vaporous sense of identity, but this effort proved futile. Last night’s violence had affected me too much. I sat at the dining table, depleted, and observed the activity.”

Name one song or artist that gets you fired up.

I’m an opera lover: Tatiana Troyanos, Elīna Garanča, Kate Lindsey

How do you find readers in today's market?

Not easily. “Discoverability” is the biggest headache for small-press authors because the publishers have almost no promotional budgets. Although I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and keep in touch with as many readers as possible, expanding the market for my books is tough. Paid publicists aren’t terrifically cost-effective, and sending out fifty or more review requests to bloggers, podcasters, and print media people is exhausting. Marketing my own books is antithetical to many of us introverted writers!

Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook?

Many of my novels were character-inspired, with the plot derived organically from his/her personality and circumstances (Fabulous!, A Bittersweet Tale, The Outcast Oracle). Setting inspired others: (Jenny Kidd/Venice, The Ungodly Hour/Mykonos). Others began with a situation: The Swimmer/therapist with pancreatic cancer, Wave in D Minor/opera composer, Turnabout/historical coming-of-age, Doublecrossed/female con artist and “doubling.” So, I’d say the “what-if” problem is equal to channeling a character and location in terms of what comes first.

How do you create your characters?

It depends. On several occasions, a character will come to me…Gilbert in Fabulous! was downright chatty, with a unique voice. The name “Jango Jacks” came to me one morning, and when I typed in his name, out he came, fully visualized (voice, looks, history, manner). First, Jango was in a short story, but he stuck with me so I wrote A Bittersweet Tale. A few primary narrators share a touch of my own personality, but I try to steer clear of this or using people I know. The characters who come in through a kind of channeling process are the strongest; otherwise it takes some time to get know everyone, much as one does when meeting new friends.

What are you currently reading?

Kate Atkinson’s books. She is brilliant, wry, a writer’s writer, and makes me laugh out loud. Her religious and world views are totally sympathetic with mine.

Any advice for newly sparking writers in three sentences or less.

Whew. Read great writers (especially in your genre), learn your style and proper punctuation/grammar, proofread and polish your novel 25+ times, and ask sophisticated readers to review. Don’t rush the process. When you think the ms. is done, it isn’t.

If you had to write your memoir in five words, what would you write?

Writer, poet, photographer, book designer.

How often does your muse distract you from day to day minutiae?

My muse never “distracts” me because I’m a full-time writer. It might be fairer to say that housework, doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, and other mundane chores are distractions.

Can you briefly describe your writing process for us?

I usually work seven days a week, mostly full days. Over the last year, almost 100% of my time has been devoted to polishing, revising, reading rounds of proof, requesting reviews, submitting work to publishers, and (the least favorite activity) promoting new titles. Essentially, I’ve had six novels in various stages of production in 2021, with two more under consideration plus some short stories and poems. It’s been a nightmarish confluence. I’m hoping to return to Jack and I (85 pages completed) about a boy with dissociative identity disorder. In other words, fresh writing. As for the process, it usually takes me about nine months to write a first draft, but then I revise up to 45 times, often incorporating suggestions from writer friends or a developmental editor. On occasion, a book sits for a few years before I return to it: Turnabout and Doublecrossed for example. In some cases, short stories inspired longer treatment: Jenny Kidd and A Bittersweet Tale.

What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?

Due to Covid, publishing has been crazy, causing a weird cluster of my titles to appear within two years. Some books have been slowed, one placed on a fast schedule, one switched to another publisher, and one was on a normal schedule. In addition to two titles in 2021: The Swimmer and Turnabout, Wave in D Minor is due on January 1, 2022 (Kindle and paperbacks are already available); and on February 1, Doublecrossed will be published. In July, Once, Upon an Island (a favorite book) will be released, with The Firefly also planned for a summer pub date. I’m also shopping a psychological suspense novel, The Psychologist’s Shadow, and a strange literary work, two partially linked novellas: The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers. Some of these novels were written years ago and recently revised; others are new. They are in different genres, which is typical of my writing.

Thank you so much, Dawn, for the insightful questions and the opportunity to muse upon my writing and this last very busy year. Yours is a much appreciated service!

Waves in D Minor

Literary Suspense

Literary Wanderlust Publishing

Buy at:

Wave in D Minor: https://www.literarywanderlust.com/product-page/wave-in-d-minor Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wave-D-Minor-Laury-Egan:

Wave in D Minor: Leslie Chase, a young composer, receives the use of an ocean-side Maine house from her patron so she may complete her first opera. As Leslie battles loneliness and winter snowstorms, she meets a handsome but troubled man, Matti, and becomes enmeshed with him and his enigmatic relationship with her benefactor. When three opera singers visit, one of them, Sasha, begins to flirt with her, evoking Leslie’s sexual ambivalence and traumatic memories of an affair between her mother and another woman that inspired the choice of her opera’s subject—the relationships of Vita Sackville-West with Violet Trefusis and Virginia Woolf. As the emotional spaces between the characters compress, mysteries are exposed that lead to violent conflict.

Turnabout

Ninestar Press

YA/Adult Coming of Age Romance Fiction

Buy at:

Turnabout: NineStar Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/turnabout/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Turnabout-Laury-Egan

Turnabout: In the summer of 1964, during a sailing class, four teenagers meet. Jessie Schaffer is fourteen, an intelligent and solitary girl, who dreams of becoming a writer. When she sees nineteen-year-old Lindsay Ames, the instructor, sunlight illuminating her blond hair and blue eyes, Jessie falls in love but is too afraid of her feelings and what they mean. In an attempt to reassure herself she is “normal,” Jessie becomes involved with two boys in the class: Kenny Crenshaw, also fourteen, a darkly handsome and flirtatious guy, and Calvin Brayburn, a year younger, who will be in their freshman class because he’s brilliant. On the first day of sailing, Cal is smitten with Jessie, though he is hindered by shyness. As the romantic relationships take unexpected twists, Jessie, Lindsay, Calvin, and Kenny relate their individual stories, their hopes, fears, and longings, all the while being buffeted by intense pressures. Set in coastal New Jersey, the plot roams from its beautiful rivers to lush scenes in St. Thomas and Vietnam’s jungles during the war.

About the Author and where to find them:

Laury A. Egan is the author of two young adult/adult novels, The Outcast Oracle (a Kirkus Reviews “Best Book of 2013”) and Turnabout; a literary work with magical realism, The Swimmer; Fog and Other Stories; a psychological suspense, Jenny Kidd; a comedy, Fabulous! An Opera Buffa; two mystery/romance novels, A Bittersweet Tale and The Ungodly Hour, and a literary suspense, Wave in D Minor. Four limited-edition poetry volumes have been published: Snow, Shadows, a Stranger; Beneath the Lion’s Paw; The Sea & Beyond; and Presence & Absence. Website: www.lauryaegan.com