Katherine Center’s second novel, Everyone Is Beautiful, is featured in this week’s People (calling it “charming”) Magazine and in this month’s issue of Redbook. Kirkus Reviews likens it to the 1950s motherhood classic Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, and says, “Center’s breezy style invites the reader to commiserate, laughing all the way.” Booklist calls it “a superbly written novel filled with unique and resonant characters.”

Katherine’s first novel, The Bright Side of Disaster, was featured in People Magazine, USA Today, Vanity Fair, the Houston Chronicle, and the Dallas Morning News, among others. BookPage named Katherine one of seven new writers to watch, and the paperback of Bright Side was a Breakout Title at Target.

Katherine recently published an essay in Real Simple Family and has another forthcoming in Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond this April. She has just turned in her third novel, Get Lucky, and is starting on a fourth. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and two young children. You can visit her website at www.katherinecenter.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Katherine. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published? Can you give us the titles of your books?

Everyone Is Beautiful, my new book, is the second in a two-book deal with Random House. The first one was The Bright Side of Disaster. I now have another two-book deal with them and have just finished my third novel, Get Lucky.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

My first real book-length work (other than a novel I wrote in 6th grade about how Duran Duran fell in love with me) was a collection of short stories I wrote in graduate school called Peepshow. It was never published because I was not at all brave about sending it out. Though it was a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

I was very lucky. I got an agent for my first novel quite by accident when I ran into a novelist at the park who offered to pass it on. Then that agent offered to represent me and then the book off to publishing houses and was able to get an auction going.

Though I did spend ten years getting rejected before that. And rejection is definitely horrible.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

The rejections made me feel like I shouldn’t be writing. What was the point? And so I’d quit writing. Forever. And I’d decide that wanting to be a writer was crazy and masochistic and I should move on with my life and get a real job.

But then I’d keep writing anyway. Because I couldn’t stop.

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

Random House published my first book under their Ballantine Imprint—and they are still publishing my books. I didn’t really choose them, they chose me. For which I remain very grateful.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

It felt great. It still feels great! Writing is the thing I’m best at. I can’t tell you what day of the week it is most of the time. But I can write stories. It’s amazing to know that people are reading them and thinking about them and being moved by them. When somebody sends an email saying they laughed and cried because of one of my books—it’s just mind-boggling.

Though it didn’t really change my life in all the ways you might expect. I’m still just me. Me with books at Barnes & Noble, but me just the same.

What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I set up a website—and found a great designer to make it pretty. I printed up business-size cards with the book cover on them, thinking I’d hand them out to people. Although it turned out I was way too shy to hand them out. My parents handed out a ton of them, though! And my husband! He’d take them to the pool and give them to moms who were there with their kids.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

No. Looking back, this was a great way for it to happen. I was very discouraged for a long time. But I also didn’t really know what I wanted to write about then. I think I wasn’t ready. I needed to mature.

Sometimes I think making a go of the writing life means just sticking with it long enough to stumble onto some good luck. Of course, this was a little bit before blogging. Now, if I were still wanting to write and not sure how to get published, I’d blog.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

Well, I have the three books under my belt (2 published, one in production) and one that I’m about to start writing. I’ve also had an essay in Real Simple magazine and another essay is forthcoming in an anthology called Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond.

And I have grown tremendously as an author. The more you do a thing, the better you get. That’s especially true of writing: Your sense of timing and structure and language gets better each time you do it.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

If I could go back in time and give my younger self advice, I’d tell myself not to get so discouraged. But I know my younger self would never listen to my old self, anyway.

I think writing through those struggles—rejection, lack of free time, uncertainty that what you’re doing matters—is part of the process of becoming a writer. You have to believe in yourself, and believe that the stories you’re writing will mean something to the people who read them, but it doesn’t come easy. You have to struggle with yourself about it. You have to earn that faith.

I also think it’s easy to focus on the publishing part of it when what really matters is the writing. Especially nowadays, with blogging as an option, the great writing has a chance to get its own attention.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

There have been a lot of exciting moments in the past few years. Seeing my photo in People Magazine (this week!) has been pretty exciting.

But the biggest accomplishment is the writing. Whenever I put something on the page and it sounds as good as—or better than—it did in my head, I feel proud.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

A photographer. Or a maker of artists’ books. Or a sign maker. Or an organic gardener. Or a landscape architect. Or a house renovator. There are so many jobs I’ve been interested in over the years. The great thing now is that I can give them to my characters.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

I wouldn’t give up being an author for anything. I thank my lucky stars every single day that I get to write these stories and send them out into the world.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

Still writing stories about the lives that interest me and getting them out there however I can.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Don’t dream about being published! Just dream about the stories! No one can keep you from writing the stories. Write them, and love them, and share them with the people in your lives who will love them too. That’s the meat and potatoes of being a writer. Getting to go inside the stories—that’s the best blessing you can wish for.

J.L. Miles (Jackie Lee), a resident of Georgia for over thirty years, hails from Wisconsin via South Dakota. She considers herself “a northern girl with a southern heart”. Her paternal grandfather was christened Grant Lee by her great-grandmother in honor of the many fallen soldiers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Ms. Miles is a former D.I.A.L. Systems Engineer for Baker/Audio Telecom, one of the premier forerunners of voice mail. In addition to systems application, she provided voice tracks for several major companies, including Delta Airlines and Frito-Lay Corporation. A former Miss Racine, Wisconsin, Ms. Miles, made television, print and fashion appearances, and participated in various stage productions, including “Joan of Lorraine”, “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” and “The Miracle Worker”.

She resides in a suburb of Atlanta with her husband Robert. Her debut novel, the critically acclaimed Roseflower Creek, was Cumberland House Publishing’s lead book when it debuted in hardcover. It is also available in Trade paperback. Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons called it, “A powerful, extraordinary novel.”

N.Y. Times best-selling author William Diehl wrote: “The lyric prose will thrill you, the story is unforgettable, and the characters will stay with you forever.”

Cold Rock River, the journey of two young women born a century apart, debuted September 2006 in hardcover. N.Y. TIMES best-selling author DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK writes: “Cold Rock River by J. L. Miles is a powerful story of family, love and loss that will keep you up into the wee hours. Absolutely wonderful! Beautifully told and straight from the heart of an exquisitely talented writer.”

Miles latest project is the Dwayne Series, a three-book southern anthology featuring Francine Harper, who is under felony assault charges for shooting at her husband Dwayne and his stripper/lover Carla from the Peel ‘n Squeal. Francine finds her strengths and reclaims her dignity via a trial and many errors. Divorcing Dwayne debuted April, 2008. Dear Dwayne releases April 2009. Dating Dwayne to follow.

When not writing, Miles tours with The Dixie Darlin’s, four nationally published book-writing belles—with a passion for promotion—serving up helpings of down-home humor and warmth. Visit the website at www.j.l.miles.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Book, Jackie. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published?

The Dwayne Series is a genre removed from what I normally write, but it did provide a nice respite. My debut novel Roseflower Creek was inspired by an actual death penalty case in Georgia. My second novel Cold Rock River is the parallel journey of two young women born a century apart. In 1060’s rural Georgia, with the Vietnam War cranking up, seventeen-year-old Adie Jenkins discovers the diary of seventeen-year-old Tempe Jordan, a slave girl, with the Civil War well under way. Adie is haunted by the death of her baby sister. Tempe is grieving the sale of her three children sired by her white master. What’s buried in the diary could destroy them both. New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank writes, “Cold Rock River is a powerful story of family, love and loss that will keep you reading into the wee hours. Absolutely wonderful! Beautifully told and straight from the heart of an exquisitely talented writer.”

What was the name of you first book?

Roseflower Creek, published by Cumberland House, is my debut novel. It covers the short life and death of ten-year-old Lori Jean, a sensitive dreamer of a child who longs for a normal family life. Lori Jean discovers a secret that leads to her untimely death. Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons calls is, “A powerful, extraordinary novel.”

For your first published novel how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher?

I consider the way I got published to be a miracle. I went to this book conference. At the reception I literally bumped into Ron Pitkin, the president of Cumberland House Publishing. He was kind enough not to notice I spilled his drink and asked what I was working on. When I told him fiction, he promptly replied, “That’s a crap shoot.” Definitely not what I wanted to hear. I mean, I’d paid good money to come to this conference and he’s raining on my party, big time. “Well,” I said, “that’s too bad, because I have a dynamite opening line.” I was prepared to walk away, when he gently took hold of my elbow and said, “So what’s your opening line?”

“The morning I died, it rained.” Keep in mind this was long before The Lovely Bones.

“God! I want to see that book,” he said, doing an about face.

“Ah, I don’t have a book,” I said. “I have a great opening line and a hundred pages.”

He asked if I had it with me. “Of course. I’m getting it evaluated in the morning. It costs forty-five dollars.”

He told me to give it to him, he wouldn’t charge a thing. I immediately went to my room and brought back the pages. I had a prologue, and the last chapter and the epilogue along with the rest of it. It wasn’t finished, but I knew where it was going.

Mr. Pitkin thanked me and went on his way. Come Sunday morning with the conference over, everyone was checking out. I spotted Mr. Pitkin making his way toward me and thought, oh-oh, this is where he’s going to pull the rug out from under me and tell me to get a real job. To my surprise he handed me the manuscript and said, “I want this and I want it yesterday. Go home and finish it!”

I figured if I took forever to finish it he’d never even remember that he liked it. I stayed up and wrote around the clock for the next five days, took the weekend off, stayed up again and wrote around the clock for the next five days and sent it off to Mr. Pitkin. I marked my calendar for three months, thinking it might take that long for him to get back to me. I started in on my second book. Just like all the books on writing said to do. The following Friday evening my phone rang. I answered. A voice said, “This is Ron Pitkin at Cumberland House and we’re going to bring your book out in hardback.” I said, “Ya? And I’m the tooth fairy.” And I hung up on him. The reason I did this is that the only person other than my husband who knew I’d sent off the manuscript was a good friend of mine who can mimic any voice he’s ever heard. He’d been going to this conference where I’d met Mr. Pitkin for years and has heard him speak many times. It had to be this friend playing a joke on me. Not a very funny one either. I wasn’t amused.

I went upstairs to comb my hair and put some lipstick on. My husband was starving and wanted to go and get something to eat. Poor thing, he probably was starving. I stopped cooking when the kids left home and I took up writing. No sooner did I get to the bedroom when the phone rang. This one has caller ID, the others don’t. I leaned over and saw CUMBERLAND HOUSE flashing on the screen. I’d hung up on Mr. Pitkin for real!

I picked up the handset, leaned into it and barely whispered “Hello?”

“What’d you hang up on me for?” he said. “Ah, it’s a long story, a very boring story,” I said.

“Well, we’re bringing out your book in hard back and bumping back our memoir piece on Dale Earnhardt (he’d been tragically killed), to make Roseflower Creek the lead book. What do you think of that?”

I was hyperventilating and finding it impossible to speak. I did my best. “Didn’t you say fiction was a crap shoot?” I asked

“Yes—and it is,” he said.

“Then I think your crazy or my protagonist got herself a miracle. What do you think of that?”

Mr. Pitkin laughed and said he’d be seeing me. This is a true story and a pretty amazing way to get published.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

I couldn’t believe my good fortune. I got on my knees and managed to stay there for quite a long time!

What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I read as much as possible about promoting ones book and bought a copy of 1001 Ways to Promote Your Book. With my subsequent books I hired Pump Up Your Book.com, which has been a phenomenal way to get my books out there. Thank you Pump Up Your Book.com!!

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

Since I consider the way I first got published to be a miracle, I wouldn’t change a thing. But getting my second book out there wasn’t as easy. First of all, it took five years to write and research Cold Rock River. Once I had finished it my agent, who I secured after I first got published, had left the industry after she birthed two babies back-to-back. At the same time, I found out that Cumberland House no longer was publishing fiction. I decided to send the manuscript to them anyway and ask what they thought about the novel. To my surprise I got a call from Ron Pitkin, the president of Cumberland House, who said he enjoyed the book very much and wanted to bring it out in hardcover. Another miracle!

What had been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

Being invited to all of the book festivals as a featured author and presenter is by far the most amazing achievement. I have seven workshops I’ve written:

5 Things That Make a Good Story Great!

Bring Your Characters to Life.

Finish What you Start in 5 Steps.

Opening Lines That Get Published.

Elements of Fiction Made Easy.

Crafting Queries That Count: Getting an Agent When Others Don’t

Revision: What to Cut. What to Keep and Why!

I’ve presented these at book clubs and book festivals all over the south. I find it extremely rewarding when struggling authors approach me after a festival and let me know that what I taught has been a big help to them. I just want to hug them!!

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

If I were to go back to school I’d want to be a district attorney and prosecute criminals. I have a theatrical background and feel the best criminal attorneys have the ability to spin a good story and capture the audience, in this case the jury.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

I think Id’ combine them and write thrillers like John Cresham! And for sure I’d finish my Kate Ferrington mystery series that I started years ago. It’s billed as A Kill Her Series, as all of the titles have the word “kill her” in it. Titles like:

Love Her So Well, Kill Her So Good

Kill Her Dead, Kill Her Gone

Love Her on One Day, Kill Her on Sunday

Kiss Her, Tease Her, Kill Her, Squeeze Her

I’ve finished the first one, but set it aside several years ago. It needs a good edit. It’s four hundred and fifty pages long. Yikes! Mystery’s normally span say three hundred pages, max.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

On the New York Times Bestsellers list! Hope. Hope. Or perhaps on the beach—laptop in hand—pounding out my next attempt to get on that list.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Read, read read! And write, write, write! And remember those talented authors who you think were born to write, well maybe so, but let me assure you they weren’t born published. And always remember there are only three simple steps to writing a good book:

1. Put your protagonist up a tree.
2. Put a tiger under the tree.
3. Get your protagonist out of the tree.

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Lisa Daily is a dating coach, speaker and popular media guest — she has done more than 2000 interviews on top radio and television shows, including iVillage Live, MTV Live, Entertainment Tonight and top UK national morning show, This Morning, and she appears as a real-life dating expert on the HITCH movie DVD starring Will Smith. A frequent source for reporters, Lisa has been quoted in hundreds of publications, from the New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune to Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Men’s Health, Christian Science Monitor and US Weekly Magazine. You can visit her website at www.lisadaily.com.  

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Lisa. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published? Can you give us the title(s) of your book(s)?

Thanks for inviting me! Fifteen Minutes of Shame is my first novel, and my second book. My first book was Stop Getting Dumped! a non-fiction dating advice book for women.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

My first book was Stop Getting Dumped!, which was published in 2002.

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

Both of my publishing experiences were freakishly rejection-free.
My husband and I moved to Minneapolis after he finished grad school, and our young son was still miraculously taking three hour naps every day. I decided it would be fun to write a dating advice book in my spare time, and sell it online instead of going the traditional publishing route.

I did the math, and figured I’d make a lot more money if I published the book myself.

I never looked for an agent, I never submitted to a single publisher. I have an advertising background, and I knew art directors, I knew printers, I knew production people. I figured, how hard can it be? Besides, I planned to do all the marketing myself, and after 8 years of serving the advertising needs of corporate America, I thought I might like to call all the shots in my next creative endeavor. For a change.

So, I wrote my little dating book in about six weeks, set a pub date (Valentine’s Day, naturally) bought myself a block of ISBN numbers and found a good short run printer. I hired a book publicist to send out review copies ($5000, resulting in 7, count ‘em, 7 media hits) and built a website.

When Oprah didn’t call immediately, I started to worry. When B&N national decided to pass, I started to freak. I woke up in the middle of the night, terrified that I’d spent $10,000 we didn’t really have. I decided that publicity, lots and lots of publicity, would be my only salvation. So every time I woke up with nightmares of being sucked into a quicksand-fast hole of debt, I cranked out a press release and faxed it to every media outlet I could think of.

I got booked on a local radio station. I got booked on the local TV station. B&Ns all over the country started placing individual orders for my book. My $5000 publicist managed to snag a quickie review in the New York Daily News (thank you, Alev Aktar).

The interview requests started to pick up, and I had the idea to pitch the book to the Ally McBeal show –it seemed like a good fit, one of the characters was always doing weird stuff to try to snag a man. I sent off my pitch and received a lovely form letter back stating that they could not look at my book and pitch unless they came from an agent.

Well, that was inconvenient. I didn’t have an agent. Fortunately, my $5000 publicist had a good friend who was an agent, and she was pretty certain her agent pal would be willing to slap a cover letter on my package for Ally McBeal.

I’d racked up about thirty interviews, the book started taking off, but I was spending a couple of hours a day in my garage. (in Minnesota, in February), packaging up books one and two at a time for individual stores who’d ordered, and re-ordered them.

I was spending most of my writing time billing stores (individually, gawd help me) and shipping out books.

Two days later, as I returned from my freezing cold garage/shipping center, I got a message from the agent on my answering machine. She said she’d read my book, she loved it, and to give her a call if I ever wanted to sell it to a major publisher.

Hmmm. Thrills and glory as a big-time author? Or two hours a day in the garage? Hmmm…what to do, what to do? As soon as my fingers started to thaw, I dialed the phone.

We talked for an hour, and I agreed to sign on with her. I worked on a proposal over the weekend and sent it and my contract off on Monday morning. On Tuesday I got a call from the Sally Jessy Raphael show. They wanted to book me for Thursday.

I called Lorraine, my newly-minted agent, who promptly set up meetings with as many editors as she could squeeze in before my return flight. Two days later, I was in NYC, sitting across from Sally Jessy, one of the nicest interviewers I’ve ever met. I had meetings with three editors that afternoon, all at big houses, and had several offers from by the end of the week.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

When I first started looking for a job as an advertising copywriter, I was in a very competitive market and spent a lot of time showing my portfolio around. It was the first time I’d ever really experienced any kind of rejection of my work. I tried to listen to the criticism with an open mind – sometimes one creative director would love a piece, and then the next guy would think it was garbage, I’d listen to my own instincts. But when I heard the same type of comment over and over again about a particular piece or line, I took note and made changes. If you want your work to get better, you should at least listen with an open mind to the opinions people who are more talented or more experienced than you are. My portfolio got better, and fairly soon after that, I got my first copywriting job.

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

Plume/Penguin published my first book and debut novel, Fifteen Minutes of Shame, as well. I had offers and/or interest from all six major publishers for Stop Getting Dumped!, but I really hit it off with Trena Keating, who was Editor in Chief at Plume at the time. She wanted to crash the book, which meant they would publish it as fast as they could print it (about 6 weeks later) versus the usual 12 – 18 month publishing process.

She was a great editor for me, a very good fit, and I felt lucky to work with her.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

On the night the deal came in, my husband and I drank champagne. A few weeks later when the book launched, my girlfriends threw a party for me.

What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I pitched radio morning shows non-stop. I’d send out a pitch in the middle of the night, and by the time I woke up, there would be a couple of interview requests in my email inbox.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

No. My brief experience with self-publishing gave me a real appreciation for all the things my NY publisher WAS doing to promote the book, versus the overwhelming feeling that many first time authors get – disappointment in all the things they’re NOT doing.

I got a crash course in how publishing works, and still had the support of a great editor at a big publishing house. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

My first novel, Fifteen Minutes of Shame will be coming out March 25, 2008. It’s the story of what happens when America’s favorite TV dating guru finds out her husband is cheating – live on national television. (It’s fiction, I swear!)

Plume/Penguin is publishing Fifteen Minutes of Shame – I had such a great experience with my first book, we decided not to shop it around to any other publishers.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

It would not have been possible to speed things up even more. Six weeks from sale to bookstore was barely enough time to catch my breath!

I don’t know that I would change anything – I learned from the things that didn’t really work (I’d probably avoid paid TV product placement in the future), but everything that happened brought me to where I am today, and I like that place.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

That’s tough. Stop Getting Dumped! hit the bestseller lists during its launch week both in the US and the UK – I’m really proud of that. I give love advice on a syndicated TV show called DAYTIME every week, and I’m really proud of that. I’m mostly proud that I followed my heart and wrote my novel, Fifteen Minutes of Shame, when it would have been easier to follow up with another non-fiction dating advice book.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

Being an author is the best profession I could imagine. The second-best profession for me was my first career, as an advertising creative. I wrote every day, I worked with really smart people, I traveled and made a really nice living, and I worked on something new every week. For me, it was a dream come true.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

I gave up advertising to be an author, and as much as I loved it, I wouldn’t go back. I love this more.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

I’d like to have another ten books published (we’ll see how that goes). Like most authors, I dream of the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Mostly, I hope I’m as grateful for the experience of being published as I am today.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

What separates working writers from wannabe writers is sticking it out, getting it done, whether your muse is on vacation or not. Don’t give up when it gets hard – it gets hard for everybody. I recommend that anyone wanting to write books starts by getting the best writing job you can swing (newspaper, magazine, advertising copywriter) where you are surrounded by, and hopefully supervised by, writers who are far better than you are. Learn everything you can, and write every single day. Then, be brave and put your work out into the world.

Lisa Daily’s virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion and choreographed by Dorothy Thompson.