Interview Billie A. Williams

by

Sandra Cox

1) Tell us the premise of Small Town Secrets? An intriguing title, by the way.

Thank-you Sandra, I’m hoping people will think it an intriguing read. Small towns across America seem to have one thing in common; it’s more a family than a town. People care deeply about their town, their neighbors and the quality of life afforded by the close-knit ambience created there.

Since I’ve always lived in small towns from Colorado to Wisconsin and Michigan I began to think about what happens sometimes when things are not at all what they seem. How the childhood game of a whispered comment changes as it flows around the circle and when the last child repeats aloud what he has heard, it may never be close to what it actually started out as. This in essence is a small town.

Rumors begin the same way. What’s in a person’s closet may be construed one way but have a totally different truth. Small Town Secrets explores more than the secrets of this small town of Nettlesville. It explores the dynamics of human psychology, how people deal with situations and perceived truths.

2) What will I like about your heroine?

Chaneeta Morgan (the protagonist) is a warm, giving person. She is the personification of small town reality. She cares deeply about everyone who brushes her life. She is town chairperson because of that. People can’t help but like her.

She runs the small café as if her customers were guests at her table at home (which, incidentally, has prompted me to make a cookbook of her recipes that I will have available when the book Small Town Secrets comes out).

Chaneeta is an older heroine; she has had some rough times in the past. She wants to do what she can to make the journey easier for others. Being genuine, adaptive and creative are characteristics that define Chaneeta. Never one to give up on a good thing or a good person, she stands firmly behind her friends and what she believes in.

3) How will make I identify with Chaneeta?

Identifying with Chaneeta will be easy for some because she is a working woman, and we all know that means more than an 8 to 5 job. She has friends, some younger, some older than or as old as her, some male, some female. She was married once--but that’s another story. I have tried to create Chaneeta as the woman next door and yet with an indomitable spirit that says an American woman.

4) Does music inspire your muse and if so what kind?

I begin my writing in long hand at my kitchen table--I write in silence, I revise at my computer as I type in the first rough draft to Jazz--especially Kenny G--although I’ve found a good switch off is Four Play--especially their Journey album. I love music with no lyrics--I sometimes will play a Mozart CD in the background--it does inspire me.

5) Do you feel it’s helpful for an author to have an agent?

There are many opinions on this and my feelings would only be an opinion as I don’t have an agent. If you can get one, good for you. I don’t know that they necessarily will get you a better publisher or more money. You are the only one that cares enough about what you have written to market it with the passion that made you write your book in the first place. However, some hope it will give them more time to write while the agent does the legwork--searching for the right publisher. Because an agent usually has an in with certain publishers, they can be helpful. The major New York publishers more and more rely on agented submissions--but not always. So it is a toss up. You will be doing your own promoting no matter what--agent or not. I have tried to find one--but most of them want you to tell them what publisher would be best for your work--and other things, so if you are going that far, why not submit it yourself? All you need is a really strong, concise, knock-’em-dead query letter.

6) How long have you been writing?

I wasted a lot of time not writing, doing everything everyone else expected me to do. When I went to work for a Community College I began taking all the English, grammar, literature and creative writing courses I could take to correct the High School mistake I made. I found out I could write and wrote for the college paper. That was back in the 70’s. However, I never had the courage to try a book until a newly acquired friend out in Colorado in 1995 asked me to critique her book she was writing. The rest is history, as they say. I had my first essay published in 1999 in a literary journal, my first poetry in 2000 in a national magazine and my first book was published by Wings in 2002--Death by Candlelight. I have over two dozen published titles now. Some non-fiction books on writing as well as novels.

7) How do you fight writer's block?

I don’t know that I’ve ever had writer’s block as such. I usually have several projects going at a time, and a blog or two, or video trailers, or newsletters or columns for other’s newsletters, websites, a writer’s group I own called Word Mage--so if something isn’t working I switch to another project. This usually frees up my muse to work on the stuck place of the original project and before I know it--ideas start bouncing around and I get back to the original project. There is so many venues to write and create in that getting writers block is not an option.

8) What are your recommendations to aspiring writers?

Mine are the same as I’ve heard over and over again. Write, Read, Write, Write, and Write, constantly everything and anything. Try different genre’s than you thought you wanted to write in. Try poetry, try non-fiction, write letters to the editor of your local paper, write book reviews and post them on places like Amazon. Write every day--if nothing else write three long hand pages in a journal every day--start and you will develop the writing muscle. If you want to be a writer you must write. Say this mantra over and over until you really *hear it-- “A Writer Writes!” And Stephen King says in his books Secret Windows or On Writing--if you don’t have time to read, you can’t be a writer.

9) Who is your favorite author?

I have authors I love to read because their writing is beautiful, nearly poetic in its richness--this would be like Jude Devereaux, or perhaps Barbara Kingsolver. I love Stephen King’s characterizations and the way he knows what scares people of the ordinary made un-ordinary. I love the way Patricia Cornwell adds detail only a forensic pathologist (or someone deeply ingrained in the business) would know. I love Mary Higgins Clark thriller type mystery/story-telling. I love the colorful and deeply satisfying writing of Frances Hodgson Burnett, or EB White. Wings has some amazing authors: Roberta Olsen Major, Angela Verdenius, Carol Parsons, JDWebb--there are many many in the Wings list. JGayle Kretschmer, SK Hamilton, Janet Elaine Williams, Bradley James Simpson, Barbara Williamson-Wood are authors I’ve met along the way each with a unique style and a talent for bringing out something in their writing that makes them a favorite for me. There is not one that I could say is my absolute favorite because so many talented writers have mastered the various things necessary to tell a story--their story--as only they could do. So many authors, so little time to read them all.

10) Tell us a little about your current project

I began a novel with NaNoWriMo (The National November--Write a Novel in a Month) challenge. I won by getting over the 50,000 word count and I’m continuing that book as a serialized read for members of my book club--The Capricorn Goat--January Flannel--one chapter a week free until the novel is finished goes out to subscribers. You can find out more at www.billiewilliams.com/BOOKCLUB.html there is still time to sign up.

I also have a couple other novels in progress, Ancient Secrets Of The Goddess Ebony, Tracker, and another non-fiction book Mystery, Muse, and Manuscript, as well as the cookbook for Small Town Secrets.