2021 Mentee Interviews

Tell us a little about yourself. Who are you, what do you write, and what are you working on right now?

I'm a former university administrator turned accidental stay at home mom. I love all things romance, and my current work in progress is an m/f, second chance, friends to lovers, she's-pregnant-with-someone-else's-baby, steamy contemporary romance. I also have an early draft of an m/f, workplace, enemies-to-lovers, steamy contemporary romance that draws on my own Lebanese heritage.

What kind of stories are you interested in exploring in your career as an author?

I see myself staying within the romance sphere - love stories with happily ever afters have gotten me through some difficult times and I'd love if what I write could one day do the same for others. And I expect the bulk of my stories will be contemporaries that showcase family and friend groups, though I do have a couple of near future sci fi plotbunnies (think the Martian, but with kissing.) 

Also don't tell anyone I know in real life, but I've been playing around with contemporary erotic romance as well.

What's the best thing about you as an author?

Honestly, it's the fact that I managed to find critique partners that have helped me get what's in my head translated to the page. I love creating what I hope are complex characters and realistic relationships and situations, but it's the questions and prodding of my CPs that help me figure out how to polish my first drafts and communicate them to the reader in a way that's relatable and engaging. As a natural introvert, DMing someone during a Twitter pitch event was a scary and intimidating thing to do, but it's not an exaggeration to say that doing so changed my writing (and personal) life for the better.

How have you developed as an author during this mentorship period? Is there anything that you didn't think before about the craft that you think now?

One of the biggest things I've learned is patience. And I'm trying to work on learning to keep my eyes on my own paper!  When I got this mentorship myself and two of my CPs were working on rewrites of our manuscripts to prepare for querying. Getting the chance to work with Anita put me "behind" them— I needed to finish the rewrite I was doing, and then go through another pass to incorporate Anita's feedback. Meanwhile my friends finished and began querying, and one got an agent and went out on sub. Other WTMP mentees were in similar positions - one actually got a two book deal!  It's easy to feel behind, with once-monthly DMs to Anita that "sorry, I'm not done yet!"

She helped remind me to go at my own pace, and my writing friends reminded me that our friendship isn't contingent on all of us being at the same stage. Even though the mentorship timeline is done, I'm not, and it's easy to feel like a failure, or like I wasted this opportunity. But Anita has assured me that she'll be here when I'm ready, and I've discovered that I'm not the only mentee still working on their WTMP manuscript. All of this is a good reminder that things happen in their time and that deadlines are good and important but -- especially at this stage of my writing career -- not as do-or-die as they sometimes feel.

If every book is a book baby, then it takes a village to raise a book. Are there any people who stand out to you as people who helped you in your writing journey?

In addition to Anita, who's been encouraging and uplifting when I need it, I think the biggest shout-out goes to my writing friends. My critique partners, Sarah and Jess, and more recently Livia, help me on a micro level with brainstorming and looking at messy first drafts of scenes to tell me what needs fleshing out. And two pretty significant groups of writing friends, the Hopeful Writing Slack that came together while we were applying to another mentorship contest, and the Bananapants group chat who are a handful of romance authors in all stages from pre-querying to with a book deal. Past, present, and future beta readers and cheerleaders come from these two groups and I'm so thankful for them.

What do you think is the biggest necessity for a group of writing friends?

I think the willingness to talk through the messy stuff. When you're in the pre-querying stages together things can be easier, but once people start querying, and as more people go out on sub, there are mixed feelings of excitement and happiness, but also jealousy. If you have friendships that are valuable and you want to keep, you have to be willing to work through that, and to find a way to keep your own feelings from affecting how you feel about other people's successes. I try and remind myself that if my friends become bestsellers before I ever get agented, what that means is that I'll have a bunch of bestsellers to blurb my book when my time comes!

Also, trust, especially when it comes to critique partners. Writing can be a very vulnerable process, especially when you put a lot of yourself into your stories, and you need people that you can be vulnerable with. I trust mine enough to show them drafts that I know aren't good, because they help me make them good. I also trust them not to let me make a fool of myself, including to not query or submit to contests things that aren't yet for prime time. 

Any parting words for young writers looking for guidance, or a community?

There are a few things - one is to try to find your own group of writers where you can support and cheer each other on, even if they don't write in the same genre or to the same audience. Second is to remember to go at your own pace. Don’t be pressured by where your friends are, where your peers are, or the number of candles on your birthday cake. And third is that mentors and mentorship programs are great, but they're not everything! 

The draft that Anita read when I applied vs the draft that she read after I was selected were very different - in that time I'd worked with critique partners and a number of Anita’s original suggestions were already addressed. Finding people who understand and are enthusiastic about your work is important - they don't have to be formal mentors. I found my first CP through a Twitter critique matchup, she'd introduced me to a partner that she'd already met, and our fourth came because we beta read her manuscript, fell in love with it, and demanded she be our friend. You can find writing partners and your writing people, you just have to be willing to look and to put yourself out there.

What about your own craft, interests, and abilities drew you to your mentee and their work?

I just felt comfortable as soon as I started reading Risa’s book, you know? Like I immediately felt safe and calm and wanted to settle in with a warm blanket. It’s really special to have the ability to write like that, and a comforting reading experience is what romance is all about. I write contemporary romance as well, and am particularly interested in stories that both feel realistic and tell a story I haven’t quite heard before—and Caitlin and Andrew’s story was both of those things. Caitlin’s accidental pregnancy from a one-night stand, and cinnamon roll Andrew’s love and acceptance of Caitlin and her journey, tells an important story of how our paths to family aren’t always perfect or expected, but can be just as worthy and beautiful.

Do you have a message for anyone interested in your mentee's work?

Risa’s writing is so warm, and this second-chance romance explores complex emotions of trust, love, family, and friendship. Oh, and did I mention that Risa can also write STEAM?? Caitlin and Andrew’s relationship is both sweet AND incredibly sexy. One of my other favorite things about this story is that it also includes a FANTASTIC cast of side characters, and I know Risa is exploring some of their stories further in her next book, as well, which I can’t wait to read! I know the romance community would eat up Risa’s imperfect and lovable characters.