Author Interview with #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson can’t keep away from murderers, especially serial killers. She’s been killing people everywhere from Savannah , New Orleans and Baton Rouge to San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest —and it’s been worth it. Her readers come back again and andanagain, and again, and her novels are fixtures on national bestseller lists. In fact, her book Fatal Burn was a number one New York Times paperback bestseller, and the first two of her novels to be published in hardcover, Shiver and Absolute Fear, were in the top five on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Next, readers will be looking for LOST SOULS, just published in hardcover by Kensington Books to go on sale March 25th.

Having made serial killing her business—sort of—she has put her characters through the wringer. They have been up to their necks in danger and stared death, usually a pretty gory one, right in the face. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional and the downright twisted. As she creates the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must conversely confront the fear and terror faced by her victims, and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, horror and madness touch far too many lives and families.

Lisa began writing at the urging of her sister, novelist Nancy Bush. Inspired by the success of authors she admired and the burgeoning market for romance fiction at the time, Nancy was convinced they could work together and succeed. They sat down, determined to write and to be published.

They did and they were.

Initially they wrote together. Later, they moved in different directions. Lisa brought more and more suspense to her work and began writing much darker stories. Nancy ’s writing expanded to include not just her own novels, including her highly praised Jane Kelly Mysteries, such as the recently published Ultraviolet, Electric Blue and Candy Apple Red, but she also spent several years writing for one of television’s leading soap operas, even transplanting herself for a time from the sisters’ Pacific Northwest roots to Manhattan . This year, they plan to work together again on a thriller set for publication in 2009.

Meanwhile, for Lisa the killing goes on as this mother, daughter, workaholic and amazing writer pursues her habit of making the hair stand up on the back of readers’ necks, and landing her books on The New York Times, the USA Today, and the Publishers Weekly national best seller lists.

Lisa Jackson’s novels include the upcoming LOST SOULS and the best sellers Absolute Fear, which will be published in paperback for the first time in March, Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, The Night Before, The Morning After, Deep Freeze, Fatal Burn, and Almost Dead. Last year, Most Likely to Die, written by Lisa, Beverly Barton and Wendy Corsi Staub was published and became a number three New York Times paperback bestseller. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers and the Romance Writers of America.

You can visit Lisa’s website at www.lisajackson.com.  

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

Well, there are a lot. The most recent are ABSOLUTE FEAR in paperback and LOST SOULS, in hardcover from Kensington Publishing.

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

I wrote my first novel with two other women, one being my sister, author Nancy Bush. That book was never sold, probably because it was a first novel and wasn’t all that good. Who knows? It was 1981. I do remember there were rejection letters saying it had too much suspense in it. Ironic, I think, considering the path my career has taken.

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 just sent it to one publisher and they bought it.

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

Rejection is a part of the business. I knew that from the get-go. I just picked myself up, complained to my sister, dusted myself off and got back to it. Rejections aren’t fun. They hurt. But if you use them as a tool and don’t let them dig too deep, you can learn from them. I did.

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

A TWIST OF FATE was published by Silhouette Books. I chose them because they were expanding and didn’t have a lot of authors who wrote the “new longer” romance novels. I figured it might just be my “in” and it was.

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

I was elated—over the moon!! It was great. I can’t remember how I celebrated but I do remember I actually paid off some bills.

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

I didn’t promote my first novel. It was a category book; I didn’t know anything about promotion in 1981. I just went to work on the second book.

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

Absolutely not. It was great. But if it were today, things might be different. I don’t know. I did learn a lot writing category romance novels.

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

Well, I’ve written lots of different kinds of books, everything from historical and contemporaryromance to the suspense novels like LOST SOULS that I write today.

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 doubt I could have changed things. Times were different. Today there are computers and the Internet, more information shared, but back then I would have done things just as I did, though I might have gotten an agent earlier.

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

For my writing, I guess it’s becoming a #1 New York Times best-selling author; personally it’s raising my sons.

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

Wow…that’s tough. I wanted to be a writer. If I had been more inclined maybe a veterinarian, I guess. But that probably wouldn’t have worked as I hate to see animals in pain.

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

No way, and believe me all the dogs and cats in the world are thankful.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

Older, of course. Still writing, I hope. But I really don’t think in terms of 10 years. I look to a max of three.

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

Keep at it. Read and learn. My sister taught me this: It’s easy to find out what you don’t like about a book. But somewhere an editor bought it. It can only help you as a writer to try to understand waht it was about the book that compelled that editor to go to bat for it?

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