Coffee: Fueling Creativity And Career
A lot of people want to write a book, so more power to them for finishing that first one! But getting that 3rd, 4th, 5th, and so on out to build your career as an author is a long labor of love! Ryan Jo Summers is here today to show how participating in an anthology and some Coffeecake Chaos contributes to becoming a successful author.
What inspired this book?
There was a call out for submissions to two anthologies. One was Scottish men and the other was foodie and romance. I really wanted to write the Scottish story, but could only come up with a male character and not much plot. After many days of simmering and brainstorming, I had to admit there just wasn’t a story there. The food and romance idea, however, was sparking like fireworks on the Fourth of July. I had characters, plot, setting, and even dialogue. A story was born. So I ran with it and dumped the Scotsman. Sometimes you just can’t force a story when there isn’t one. Sigh. He was a hunk too.
Is writing your only job or do you have another? Does it impact your story?
I work full time on second shift for a retail distribution center in the loss prevention department. It gives me a social outlet, many people there know I write, though I don’t often talk about it. Sometimes, if I am writing during the morning and early afternoon, and on a hot streak, then I have to stop to get ready for work, it hurts. It’s actually upsetting sometimes. I make rushed notes to I know where to pick up at night. I also pet sit/ dog walk. I do this around the day job mentioned above. I love it, because it’s a great way to meet people and animals. However, sometimes I just want to stay home and work on writing, and I have scheduled walks to do. It’s good exercise, but it keeps me busy and on busy weeks, I tend to fall behind in blogging, plotting, writing, and promoting.
Are you a pantser or a plotter? How does that impact your work?
I’d love to say I am a careful and consummate plotter, but alas, sometimes I just run with it. I can blame a particular (unpublished) manuscript. I was working on it, along with two others, a couple of years ago. The other two were plotted out and I had clear visions of both. The third one, however, was my wild child. I never knew where that crazy story was going to take me. I struggled to even wrestle it neatly into one genre. I got stuck in so many dead ends and blind alleys, it challenged me to write better, and to trust myself as a writer. I grew a lot as a write while working on that script. So now, I can still carefully plot along, and plod along, but I have learned to enjoy the unbridled freedom of just flying over the keyboard or notepad and not worrying about outlines.
What comes next for you as a writer? What’s your end goal?
I have four stories total coming out in 2017, Coffeecake Chaos, a romantic comedy novella, and two novels—a Christian romance and a mystery/ paranormal romance. I am hard at work on two time travel romance novels to hopefully finish their rough drafts by year end. There are three novels I am pitching to agents, under different genres. One is a YA paranormal with mystical elements, one is women’s fiction saga, and the third is my wild child mentioned above. The end goal is to become fully self-supportive as an author and one day stop my day job at the warehouse. I also write free-lance non-fiction but it does not pay much, if at all. I enjoy it because the leap from fiction to spec non-fiction is good to stretch the writing muscles, so I want to keep doing that. I also write poetry and short stories or flash fiction. I have submitted several to literary journals but have had sporadic luck in acceptance. But again, it’s yet another way to stretch the muscles and I plan to keep at that too.
About Coffeecake Chaos
Old sparks rekindle as Avianna and Sawyer reunite.
Avianna Goodman and Sawyer Steele had been young lovers. Now she is a caterer, building her own business. Right now she needs cash to help her family. He’s being ordered to stop his wild ways and settle down to take over the family empire. His controlling mother has picked out the perfect heiress for him. Now they need the right caterer to launch the perfect engagement celebration.
Food and Romance Go Together is Volume 1 of a food-themed anthology with Melange Books.
Pre-sale for $2.99 – Get your copy today! On release date, May 16, the price goes up to $4.99
- Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Food-Romance-Together-Vol-Anthology-ebook/dp/B071RKMDSV/
- Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/720457
- Print book at Lulu.com –http://www.lulu.com/shop/sonja-gunter-and-jody-vitek-and-april-marcom-and-ryan-jo-summers/food-romance-go-together-vol-1/paperback/product-23162420.html
About Ryan Jo Summer:
Ryan Jo Summers is a North Carolina author who specializes in writing romances with a twist. Love stories blended with inspirational, paranormal, suspense or time travel–or several at once. She also writes non-fiction for regional periodicals. Ryan’s dad is a songwriter and his aunt wrote poetry so she claims she came by her writing skill honestly. Apparently it’s in the genes.
Her hobbies include bird-watching, houseplants (50 ish and growing), poetry and yard work. She loves to gather with friends, hike in the forest with her dog, paint ceramics and canvas and work on wiggly word find puzzles. She lives in a 1920 cottage with a menagerie of pets. Living in the mountains, she dreams of the shore and frequently uses the water as scenes for her stories.
- Website: http://www.ryanjosummers.com/
- Blog: https://summersrye.wordpress.com/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Jo-Summers-author-page/312875648810797
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ RyanJoSummers
kathybryson 
Kathy, thank you for hosting me today.
My pleasure, Summer! Thank you for sharing your journey!
I like the new look of your blog. Very nice.
Thank you! WordPress had some nice themes.