SimonSays.com

ANSWER: Nope, never. Though I know it's hard to imagine that anyone could take for granted having a best selling novelist like me for a mother (LOL) Whitney and Clay have no illusions about the magic of writing. They've grown up watching me working at a computer, alone in an office, wondering...worrying...despairing...believing.

To them, understandably, a "great character" is simply a result of painstaking work.

It's rather like knowing how a magic trick is done...and then watching it being done, day after day, month after month, decade after decade.

And Judith, homework????

Thank you for all of the wonderful books that you have given to us. Please know that all of your "wondering, worrying, despairing and believing" has been worth it. You are a very special and talented lady and all of that shows in each and every one of your books. Thank you again for your time tonight.

God Bless,
Aline

ANSWER: I find the entire act of writing to be excruciatingly difficult until I begin to sense that a manuscript has great possibilities and is at least half finished.

Assuming that happens, and that I don't decide the manuscript just isn't good enough for you, then my primary challenge is to put the right words into sentences. I'm not being flippant, I'm being serious. I have a perfectly good vocabulary, in fact, better than perfectly good...but when I'm writing, I cannot think of the right words. There are dozens of synonyms for "beautiful," or "large" and countless beautiful phrases to enhance those two word, but when I'm writing I cannot REMEMBER them. Oh look--I just used "beautiful" to describe phrases. See what I mean?

Nearly all writers excel at that sort of thing, but I...go blank whenever narrative involves describing something you see or feel, including emotions!

Conversely--and strangely--most writers find it anywhere from difficult to excruciatingly difficult to write sophisticated or witty or emotional dialogue. I, on the other hand, find that the easiest thing of all about writing. I could do it all day. I could write the dialogue for an entire manuscript in a month or less.

QUESTION: What motivates you to continue during those times of challenge?

ANSWER: A mortgage payment. A signed and binding contract with my publisher. And increasingly insistent phone calls from editors, etc. Oh yes...one more thing: Guilt.

As you can see, I love having written a new manuscript; I love talking about writing. However, the actual act of writing is a formiddable challenge and it is only "fun" when it's going well.

I had a wonderful time visiting with you. I'll try to answer the rest of your questions from my laptop when I'm on tour.

Maybe McCord was prematurely gray???

I, myself, am 33 and have 50% gray hair...I started getting gray hair at about 16 or 17. Although I do color my hair! *grin*

My Dad started going gray at the same age that I did and was fully gray by his early 40's.

Lydia

The fact that you mentioned the heroine's ages was stunning because i always thought the same.
To me the ages can and must be different depending on what the book is about, for example if the book is based on medievial ages then the age of 18, 19, 20 is more likeable. But, nonetheless, when Diana Foster was 30 I understand she needed to be older, for her exepraince in making a big and successful company but even then when the heroine is a little younger lets say 24-27 is more desirable for the reader, in my opinion.

I would aslo want to ask one question, I just found out about this site and i just regsiteres, I read that this is a live chat with a wonderful person like you and still can't belive that it is possible for me to talk to you. Do the readers really get a chance to talk to you and ask questions? If they do would you let me know please , for i'm new here

I again came to visit this chat and hoped that I could have a live talk with you, but unroftunately I don't see you online and to be honest I do not even know how will I know if your online or not. I have several question and I would be very thankful if you answered them.

Are your son and daughter named after the book"Whitney, My Love" or the characters were named after them?
I have read "Perfect" and it was the very first book that I read from romance section and from that day on I just can't take my eyes off romance books, and I always search for particularly your books, because I never regretted reading any of them, on the contrary I had pshysical reactions to them, I seldom cry But I cried while reading "Perfect, Kingdom Of Dreams, Whitney, My Love, Once And Always", I adored "Perfect" Zack became my hero, I started to love that character and was even obsessed with him for months lol What are the next books that you are planning on writting? and will they come soon, for I have read all of your books and can't stop but wanting more.

The sence of humor in your books is what most appealed to me, I think that besides having a great vocabulary u have a great sence of humor, how can you make all those funny scenes?

Judith isn't online right now, although she will occasionally visit. This thread was left over from a live chat with her on 2/27.

Glad you found us, hope you stick around!

As Elise already mentioned, JM had a two-hour live chat on Feb 27th. This thread was used for that chat but it is no longer "active".

JM has been stopping by quite frequently during the past few months. If you are interested in reading what she has said in her previous posts, you can use the following link to catch up:
http://bbs.simonsays.com/bbdocs/Forum5/HTML/009731.html

Hope this helps, and welcome to the BB!

Sari

[This message has been edited by Sari (edited 03-08-2003).]

Posts: 2914 | From: The Rutherford ballroom | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | 

Sari thanks to you too for noticing me and thanks to both of you for welcoming, I was so happy to find this site and be able to communicate with people share the same interest in books.