Interview With Kaye Dacus - The Art of Romance

I'm thrilled to share with you an interview with Kaye Dacus, the author of both contemporary and historical novels. If you haven't met Kaye or had the privilege of reading her books, you have missed a treat. Her newest novel, The Art of Romance just released May 1, and as a special bonus, I am giving away a copy to a lucky commenter. In order to have a chance to win, you must answer her question at the end and leave your spam-free email address in the comment section.

Now, let's get a peak into Kaye and the inner workings of her writerly life.

Did you see yourself becoming a writer as a child? If not, what did you dream of being?

For many years, I was planning to follow in my uncle’s footsteps and become a racehorse breeder/trainer. Until I got to high school and realized how many science classes I’d have to take. After that, my Plan B was to major in secondary education/Social Studies to become a high school history teacher. But after a semester or two of majoring in Education, I realized I didn’t want to do that either. Then I discovered a Creative Writing Major. So I figured since I’d been (secretively) writing since around age twelve or thirteen, that’s what I’d major in—and I’d teach Creative Writing!

It wasn’t until I was thirty years old that I ever seriously considered pursuing publication and “becoming a writer.”

How long did you write before you sold your first book?

I’d been writing for almost twenty years—and even had a “manuscript” of over 200,000 words, though with no storyline and no ending in sight—before I attended my first writing conference in 2001 (Blue Ridge). Taking the advice from the Fiction 101 track I took there (to write from beginning to end and to finish the first draft before doing any revisions or making any changes), I completed my first full manuscript—one with an actual plot and an actual beginning and an actual ending—in the spring of 2002. Over the next year, I completed two more manuscripts, and in 2003, I started working on a story idea that would become Stand-In Groom. I wrote SIG between 2003 and 2006—completing the final revision of it for my thesis novel for my master’s degree in the spring of 2006. That year it also finaled in the ACFW Genesis contest (2nd place). I signed with my agent in January 2007 and signed the contract for Stand-In Groom in December 2007. (It came out in January 2009.)

How many manuscripts have you written and which is your favorite?

Not counting anything that isn’t completed (including the one that’s over 200k words), at this moment, I have completed eleven manuscripts (and am furiously working on the twelfth).

Asking an author which manuscript is her favorite is rather like asking a mother which child is her favorite! I have different feelings for each of my books, because I experienced something different with each one. What Matters Most is the first manuscript I finished. Stand-In Groom helped me fulfill two dreams: getting my master’s degree and getting published. The Ransome Trilogy books are a story of my heart that I wasn’t certain would ever be published. Love Remains allowed me to go back and resurrect characters from the manuscript I wrote before SIG and give them new life. The Art of Romance contains a couple that just won’t leave me alone.

How can I choose a favorite???

I’ve never heard you talk about an agent. Do you have one? If not, why? If so, how long did you write before you sought representation?

The inimitable Chip MacGregor is my agent, and I am so blessed that he decided to take a chance on signing me as an unpublished author right after starting MacGregor Literary. After Stand-In Groom finaled in the Genesis contest in 2006, I received requests to submit to him and another agent (“requests” as in, I told them I was a finalist and asked if I could send my stuff to them and they said yes). Four months later, Chip offered to represent me.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Depends on when my deadline is.

I would prefer to have at least six months to write a book—five months to do the actual writing and a month of intensive rewriting, revisions and editing.

For the last six books I’ve written, however, I’ve only had between two and four months to get them written, so it’s been a race against the calendar to get even a first draft turned in on time.

Who am I kidding? I’d prefer to have the three years that I had on Stand-In Groom and Ransome’s Honor, but then I’d only be putting out one book every eighteen months (those three years overlapped). And that’s no fun!

What do you like to do when you are not writing? Are you ever not writing?

With being under contract for three books in each of the last two years, there’s never a time when I’m not supposed to be writing. (You’re talking to the person who figured out how to write while driving so that I could redeem all that time I spent in the car traveling last year!)

Usually if I’m not writing, I’m (a) working on freelance editing projects; (b) filling out blog interview questionnaires or doing other marketing work; (c) writing my own blog posts; (d) catching up on TV series I missed over the years through Netflix Instant Watch or DVD; (e) watching movies; (f) on Facebook and/or Twitter; (g) teaching monthly workshops for Middle Tennessee Christian Writers; (h) online looking for more actors and actresses to add to my casting book; (i) downloading book samples to my Kindle which I might, eventually, get around to reading; (j) none of the above because I’m completely zoned out due to being overwhelmed by everything that I need to do.

Many of the people who follow our blog are aspiring writers themselves. Can you share your favorite writing tip with them?

The best writing tip I ever received (referred to above) was from Davis Bunn at the 2001 Blue Ridge conference: “Above all else, FINISH YOUR FIRST DRAFT!”

We learn more about writing by actually completing novels than we do by obsessively polishing and editing our first three chapters. So set the beginning aside and get that manuscript finished! And then finish another one. And another one. And another one.

If I hadn’t learned how to write a manuscript all the way through from beginning to end without getting caught up in that revision loop, I never would have been able to publish nine novels in less than three years.

Now that you are published, do you still experience rejections? If so, how are these rejections different or similar to the ones you received before becoming published?

I do still experience rejection—both in the form of having new book proposals rejected (I’m waiting to hear about two right now, one contemporary, one historical; I had a different historical proposal rejected last summer), as well as in the form of negative reviews of my books.

The rejection on the proposals are different now that I’m published—because my belief in myself as a writer isn’t shaken the way it would be if I were still unpublished and receiving rejections. I remember when we were trying to sell Stand-In Groom, every time Chip would e-mail me to let me know another house had rejected it, I felt horrible—because I felt like I was letting him down. After all, he’d taken a huge risk signing on as my agent when he’d just started a new agency and needed authors who were making sales. Now that feeling isn’t there, but it’s more of a scramble to make sure I have something else ready to go out if we get the word that a proposal is a no-go.

The negative reviews are a whole different level of rejection. It seems more personal—which, I guess it is. Rejections coming from publishing houses are different, because that’s a business decision. Rejections coming from readers is personal, because it’s their own personal, individual feelings about the book. And if they didn’t like it, that bothers me. After all, we all want to be liked. And we all want our “babies” to be liked. I don’t have children, but I would imagine it would be like someone walking up to a mom at Target, looking her child over thoroughly and then telling her that her child is not only ugly but poorly dressed and has crooked teeth and a lazy eye.

The Art of Romance released May 1. Tell us a little about the book.

 The Art of Romance came out of one of those fun “what if” sessions that I occasionally indulge in. I was crushing on Chef Sam Talbot, a contestant on the second season of the cooking competition show Top Chef. But I was already writing a book about a chef (Menu for Romance), so what if he had a different creative career—an artist! And what if he had a secret. . .that he put himself through art school by doing the clench-covers of steamy romance novels. And what if that wasn’t his biggest secret. . .what if he used himself as the model for the covers? Ooh—and what if the author of the books he did that for is now someone who isn’t proud of the fact that she used to write those kinds of books. But they meet and fall in love—keeping this mutual secret from each other.

And thus the story for The Art of Romance was born!

It was fun to dig into the psyche of an artist for Dylan Bradley’s character—especially since both of my grandfathers were hobbyists (one was an oil painter the other a sketch artist). And then having a heroine who’s a romance novelist. . .let’s just say a lot of me went into Caylor Evans’s character!

Here’s the official blurb:

Sassy Evans and Perty Bradley are determined to get their older grandchildren married off, but when twenty-eight-year-old Dylan comes home after being fired from his teaching position because of the betrayal of his ex-girlfriend, Perty knows her grandson has more important issues to deal with first.

                Sassy understands her friend’s reservations about timing, but she also sees so many ways in which Dylan would be the perfect match for her thirty-four-year-old granddaughter Caylor. With his record of acclaimed paintings and Caylor’s bestselling novels, they could complement each other’s talents and provide each other support and encouragement. And there’s no denying the spark of attraction between the English professor with the untamed red hair and the painter with the unusual tattoos.

                But neither grandmother realizes the secrets both Caylor and Dylan are keeping from each other. Will pain and embarrassment from the past keep Caylor and Dylan apart, or will they develop the courage to be truthful with each other and discover the true art of romance?

If you could only share one line from The Art of Romance, which one would you choose and why?

  Talk to his brothers about his emotions? He was an artist, not a girl. 

The Art of Romance turned out to be my longest published novel to date (yes, even longer than my historicals, at a whopping 110k words), and this was the first line that popped into my head—and the only one I can remember word-for-word, mostly because it made me laugh so hard that I even shared it on Facebook as soon as I wrote it. I guess it’s because I was afraid Dylan might come across as not masculine enough. But when this line popped up, I knew we were going to be okay.

Tell us what new projects you’re working on.

I’m currently writing the third and final book in The Matchmakers series, Turnabout’s Fair Play, which follows The Art of Romance and focuses on Caylor’s friend Flannery McNeill.

Jamie O’Connor knows his grandmother Maureen O’Connor has matchmaking on the mind when she starts inviting him to events where single women are present. Realizing she’s somewhat smitten with an older gentleman, Jamie decides to turn the tables on Maureen by agreeing to meet Kirby McNeill’s granddaughter at dinner—with both grandparents there. But will Jamie’s schemes go awry when he meets his match in Flannery McNeill? Flannery is thrilled that her widowed grandfather Kirby “Big Daddy” McNeill is now attending her church. So when he invites her to meet a grandson of a woman from his seniors group, she agrees to go along. Later, as Flannery conspires with Jamie to play matchmaker to Maureen and Kirby, she wonders how long she’ll be able to tolerate spending time with Jamie and his seemingly over-inflated ego. As the juniors scheme to bring their seniors together, mayhem and misconceptions ensue. Will these potential lovers walk away from what may be their last chance at true romance?

And then. . .as I said, I’ve got two proposals out, waiting to hear back on them. The historical is set in 1851 in England during the time of Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition (with two romance storylines in each of the three books). And, actually, Barbour is looking at two different contemporary proposals from me right now. One is a totally new idea set in a fictional small tourist town in the hills of Tennessee and the other one is a second Bonneterre/Guidry family series. So, until I know if any of those are sold, I’m actually going to get to take a break from writing after TFP is finished! (Meaning that I’ll get to spend time working up a bunch of new story ideas—including doing some brainstorming with writing buddy Liz Johnson on a WWII-era idea we’ve been bouncing around!) 

Now for a little fun…tell us 3 FUN facts about yourself that you don't think anyone knows. It doesn't have to be writing related, but a funny writing quirk would be FABULOUS!

People probably know these things about me, since I let everything hang out over on my blog, but here goes:

·         I’ve been to four Star Trek conventions and actually got to go back stage and meet Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir from Deep Space Nine) at the last one I attended in 1996.

·         I used to sing in a Southern Gospel quartet.

·         I’m obsessed with the actors Karl Urban and Oded Fehr and am convinced that I’m married to each one in separate alternate universes.

Do you have any challenging/silly/writing/or quirky questions to ask our readers?

In writing The Art of Romance, I learned that many famous actors started out as models and ended up on the front of romance novels—including Corbin Bernsen. If you could pick any actor in the world, living or dead, to be on the front cover of the book you’re currently writing, who would it be and why?

You can find Kaye Dacus here:

• Website
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• Facebook

Don't forget to answer Kaye's question and leave your spam-free email for a chance to win a copy of The Art of Romance!