Interview with Stephanie Rose Bird: The Book of Soul

Stephanie Rose Bird graduated with honors from Temple University, Tyler School of Art and received her MFA from the University of California at San Diego, where she was a San Diego Opportunity Fellow.  She was Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute in painting and drawing; a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Australia in the field of anthropology, and she has taught at the Chicago Botanic Garden as well as the Garfield Conservatory.  Bird is a professional member of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (Black Midwives and Healers) and the Herb Research Society of the American Botanical Council. She is also a member of Author’s Guild.  Bird is author of Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs, Four Seasons of Mojo: an Herbal Guide to Natural Living, and A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for Body and Spirit.  Bird is a practicing magical herbalist and aromatherapist who lives with her husband, family and animal friends in the Chicago area.  You  can visit her website at www.stephanierosebird.com.

Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Stephanie. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?

I’ve been blessed.  This is my fifth book.

Q: 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 Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs, it was published by Llewellyn Worldwide in 2004.

Q: 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?

Re: rejections, who’s counting, LOL.  After numerous rejections from mainstream publishers I decided to go with a well-situated niche, independent Midwestern publisher.

The Big Book of Soul by Stephanie Rose Bird (click on cover to purchase at Amazon)

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

The rejections hurt each time but they also fueled me to keep trying.

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

Llewellyn Worldwide.  Llewellyn is well known in the New Age/Alternative Spirituality field, VERY, well known.  They distribute widely and have tremendous success with marketing and public relations.  They got my book in mainstream bookstores!

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

It felt marvelous, as Billy Crystal would say with his special accent, to be published.  I celebrated by going out to dinner and lunch and dinner—well, you get the picture.

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

Reached out to friends and associates online to see if I could get an interview or excerpts published.

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

I would have gone straight for the niche/independent publishers in my field instead of trying so many mainstream publishers.

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

Yes I have published four other books, blessed be!  My work has become a balancing act between research-driven hard facts and lyrical writing from personal experience.  It used to be much more drawn from personal experience than it is now.  In The Big Book of Soul for example, my work has broadened and widened in scope.  Now I feel the work is of interest to a much wider audience than when it started.

Q: 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?

I would slow down and not lock myself into ridiculously slim deadlines.  Taking your time makes the work and the experience richer.

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

The biggest accomplishment was winning the COVR Award for best general interest book and being invited as guest speaker to important conferences.

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

I have several professions.  I am a visual artist and a writer as well as being a mother and wife.

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

I’m living my dream.  I have combined my diverse worlds into one very livable one.

Q: How do you see yourself in ten years?

I see myself writing in my beach house, with my parrot on my shoulder, on one of the Gullah Islands of South Carolina.

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

Don’t be discouraged.  Master the discipline by working hard at writing every day, the rest will come in due time.

Stephanie is presently on a virtual book tour.  If you would like to find out where she’ll be appearing next, visit her official tour page here.

An Interview with Literary Fiction Author Candis C. Coffee

Candis C. Coffee grew up in West Texas where her family has lived since 1848 when they immigrated from Ireland. The house in Mariposa is based on the 150-year-old home of her grandparents on the banks of the Concho River in San Angelo.

Candis spent nearly fifteen years in Santa Monica, California, where she was employed as a writer for various organizations. She later moved to New Orleans where she helped Chef Paul Prudhomme write the cookbook of his dreams and titled it Fork in the Road. Candis longed for the desert, however, which inspired a move to Santa Fe and graduate school at the University of New Mexico. She has since returned to her birthplace in West Texas where she currently resides.

After receiving a BA in Literature from the University of Texas, she pursued graduate studies in Creative Writing, Literature, and Spanish. She is presently at work on a children’s book and is pursuing a doctoral degree in alternative health care and the healing arts.

You can visit her website at www.candiscoffee.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Candis. 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)?

I co-authored a book with cartoonist, Rick Detorie (One Big Happy), titled ILLUSTRATED SEXUAL TRIVIA, in the mid-eighties. The book sold a lot of copies. Rick had written a number of cartoon books by this point and was about to become famous.

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

My own very first book was MARIPOSA.

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 spent two years each, with three huge NY agents, such as Writer’s House and McIntosh & Otis, being groomed for publication. Representation was assured, if I would just tweak the book a bit, here and there. This is not a good idea, to agree to work with agents under these conditions, for I’ve come to believe that they will not ever be satisfied. In fact, I read an article about this phenomenon in Writer’s Digest decades ago. The author advised writers to avoid doing re-writes for publishers or agents unless a deal was on the table, for there is a psychological force that comes into play, and the publisher/agent will not or cannot reach that needed point of satisfaction. There is always just one more spot that needs work. None of the agents actually ended up representing me, though they’d expressed great enthusiasm for my book at first. I spent most of my time with agents and then was finally accepted, without the help of an agent, by a new, small traditional publisher in California, one that I accidentally stumbled on.

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

I would be completely devastated for 24 hours. Just finished with writing, crying to friends, full of pronouncements of my next step…to become a stockbroker, jump into the Mississippi River, etc. Then, after a day of misery, I’d be right back into the game, ready to send out new queries.

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

MARIPOSA was published by Behler Publications of California. I chose them because they loved my book and so many years had passed by this point. I had recently lost a beloved friend and was grieving. I just wanted to have my book become alive in the world, as it was in my heart.

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

I felt a mix of excitement and distrust. I wondered if Behler would come through for me. An established publisher in South Carolina had long pondered whether or not to publish MARIPOSA, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake, not giving him a bit more time. I celebrated quietly because I was still in mourning. It just felt finally right at least my book would be in the world after so many years of rewrites and rejection.

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

I set up book-signings in my region. A friend contacted the local paper and an interview was arranged. I was nominated for a local contest for best writer in the area.

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

No, I don’t know of another route, except that after one re-write, if an agent or publisher does not offer a contract, I would find the courage to walk away from them, even if they are the big guys.

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

I have not yet been published again. I don’t know that I have grown as a writer, but I have changed. I no longer see writing novels as a career choice. I, like Mickey Spillane, used to see readers as customers. I wrote MARIPOSA to be read. I have writer friends who write first for themselves, and if the book sells, all the better. That had not been my attitude. Now it is.

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?

I don’t think I could have speeded things up. I sent multiple queries often. The one mistake I might have made is to not have immediately started on another serious writing project, while sending MARIPOSA out. The only problem is that I didn’t have a serious writing idea.

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

I was Writer of the Month for the West Texas/Dallas District of Barnes & Noble. I have heard some lovely words about my book.

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

I would have become a veterinarian or wildlife biologist. Or a professor of Romance Languages.

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

I am interested in animal communication though I would want to write about that rather than counsel people about their pets.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

My wish is to study animals and learn to genuinely communicate with them. I know that it can be done because I have had very real, though sporadic dialogues with them, in terms of mental words or pictures. I am interested in their true intelligence. I’d like to travel the world and write about both domestic and wild animals, fiction and non-fiction.

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

Writing is perhaps 15% of the process. The other 85% is being fabulous, so that people fall in love with you and then want to buy your book. This is true for most writers, though not all. A few writers, the really good ones as far as current culture is concerned, can still be true to themselves. They can be weird, unattractive, unfriendly, and it doesn’t matter because someone somewhere discovered their work and told others about it. That is my dream. Not to be weird, unattractive and unfriendly necessarily, but to have that option if I wish.