Hi everyone! Please join me in welcoming Author Lisa Lickel to my blog today!AW: Tell us about yourself…
I am a Wisconsin writer who lives with my high school teacher husband in a hundred and sixty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain which I’ve filled with books and dragons. I write inspiring fiction of mystery and romance, all with a twist of grace. I’ve also written dozens of feature newspaper stories, short stories, magazine articles and radio theater and am editor in chief of Creative Wisconsin Magazine.I am an avid book reviewer, a freelance editor, an editor at Port Yonder Press, a writing mentor, a hostess at Clash of the Titles.com, and enjoy blogging at theBarnDoor.net and ReflectionsinHindsight.wordpress.com, among others. I am a local historian and my husband and I have two sons and daughters-in-law.
AW: What genre do you write and why?
I’ve fallen into a couple of different genres, mostly by accident. I’d love to write literary novels to critical acclaim but they don’t tend to sell well, so my first books were cozy mysteries, then women’s fiction, and romance. The cozies were for a specific book club, and the others were specified by the publishers.
AW: Tell us about your book….
My newest book to release this October is from the publisher of my award-winning romance, Meander Scar. Yet to be titled, it’s a new love story of one unforgettable summer of renewed purpose, faith and strength in family. Set on a farm in a small Wisconsin community, a family rediscovers the meaning of trust, loyalty, and letting go. In the beautiful rolling hills of Oakville, a family is torn by the impending loss of their heritage. Told in layers by each of the four, TessaHasmer Murphy faces divorce when the man of her dreams walks back in her life and forces her to choose between what could have been and what is. Tessa’s daughter Lindsay finds a way to save the family farm, but it may cost her the only man that she has ever loved. Art Hasmer must face his ghosts and come home in time to be a parent to his son or risk losing the woman who has waited for him since high school. And when Andy, Art’s son, discovers the meaning of forgiveness, he must learn to accept it as well as give it in order to receive sweet Ella’s love. I’ve co-authored this book with Shellie Neumeier.
AW: What was your inspiration for this book?
My years reporting in my rural community while watching the demise of the small family farm was the foundation for the story. With Shellie’s expertise on the youthful side of writing, and my experience writing older characters, we experimented with telling this multi-generational story of family, faith, and hope from different angles. It’s not the same story told from different viewpoints, but intersecting viewpoints of family life. The publisher thought it was a unique idea and I’m excited about how it will be received.
AW: Do you have a favorite character and why that one?
In this book, I like both the brother and sister…I don’t know if either is a more favorite over the other. They both have unique conflicts, as Tessa has a secret she’s kept so long she buried how devastating the effects could be if it was ever revealed; and her brother Art has faced the loss of his twin brother and his wife, and made his work the focus of his life.
AW: Did you find anything particularly difficult in writing this book?
Since Shellie and I write very quickly, we had a lot to revisit to make sure the events of the four stories matched up. We had to make the timelines work together so that the characters in each of the stories were at the same place at the same time whenever their characters interacted. That was challenging.
AW: What project(s) are you currently working on?
As of this interview, I will have completed a proposal for a romantic novella collection for Heartsong, a cross-generational family saga that begins in the eighteenth century in Nova Scotia and winds up in Cajun country, Louisiana. A contemporary young woman is contemplating marriage and asks her grandmother for advice. The grandmother tells the stories of family marriages in each century, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth. I’m writing the nineteenth and twentieth-century families. Hard to think of the twentieth century as history, but there it is.
AW: Do you have any interesting writing quirks you want to tell us about?
Besides typing in my…oh, never mind. Um…When I’m in full write mode, I tend to write a chapter or so a day, fairly quickly, to keep continuity.
AW: Do you have any advice for writers out there?
Take your time, learn the correct way to put a manuscript together and submit it. Collect rejections like rare coins.
AW: Where can we find you? (facebook, twitter, blog, website, etc)
My web site has all the connections to my networking sites – http://www.lisalickel.com
AW: And of course we have to know, where can we find your book? (your website, publisher, amazon, etc)
Ashley, pick what you need out of the following:
Healing Grace (through December 2011 only):
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Grace-Lisa-J-Lickel/dp/1934841226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244721331&sr=1-1
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Grace-ebook/dp/B002V8XYES/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286155380&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Healing+Grace+by+Lisa+Lickel&box=Healing%20Grace%20by%20Lisa%20Lickel&pos=-1
Fictionwise: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b91909/Healing-Grace/Lisa-J-Lickel/?id=13425
Meander Scar:
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/Meander-Scar-Lisa-J-Lickel/dp/1934912239/ref=sr_1_1_oe_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267452628&sr=1-1
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Meander-Scar-ebook/dp/B0037Z6YM8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
Meander on BN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Meander-Scar/Lisa-J-Lickel/e/9781934912232/?itm=1&USRI=Lisa+Lickel
Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvD7mE_HQF0
Trailer imbed code:
The Gold Standard, while copies last:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Standard-HEARTSONG-PRESENTS-MYSTERIES/dp/1597895253/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237984174&sr=8-1
Barnes and Noble:http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Gold-Standard/Lisa-Lickel/e/9781597895255/?itm=1
Watch for the sequel, The Map Quilt, from MuseItUp in April, 2012.
I am a Wisconsin writer who lives with my high school teacher husband in a hundred and sixty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain which I’ve filled with books and dragons. I write inspiring fiction of mystery and romance, all with a twist of grace. I’ve also written dozens of feature newspaper stories, short stories, magazine articles and radio theater and am editor in chief of Creative Wisconsin Magazine.I am an avid book reviewer, a freelance editor, an editor at Port Yonder Press, a writing mentor, a hostess at Clash of the Titles.com, and enjoy blogging at theBarnDoor.net and ReflectionsinHindsight.wordpress.com, among others. I am a local historian and my husband and I have two sons and daughters-in-law.
AW: What genre do you write and why?
I’ve fallen into a couple of different genres, mostly by accident. I’d love to write literary novels to critical acclaim but they don’t tend to sell well, so my first books were cozy mysteries, then women’s fiction, and romance. The cozies were for a specific book club, and the others were specified by the publishers.
AW: Tell us about your book….My newest book to release this October is from the publisher of my award-winning romance, Meander Scar. Yet to be titled, it’s a new love story of one unforgettable summer of renewed purpose, faith and strength in family. Set on a farm in a small Wisconsin community, a family rediscovers the meaning of trust, loyalty, and letting go. In the beautiful rolling hills of Oakville, a family is torn by the impending loss of their heritage. Told in layers by each of the four, TessaHasmer Murphy faces divorce when the man of her dreams walks back in her life and forces her to choose between what could have been and what is. Tessa’s daughter Lindsay finds a way to save the family farm, but it may cost her the only man that she has ever loved. Art Hasmer must face his ghosts and come home in time to be a parent to his son or risk losing the woman who has waited for him since high school. And when Andy, Art’s son, discovers the meaning of forgiveness, he must learn to accept it as well as give it in order to receive sweet Ella’s love. I’ve co-authored this book with Shellie Neumeier.
AW: What was your inspiration for this book?
My years reporting in my rural community while watching the demise of the small family farm was the foundation for the story. With Shellie’s expertise on the youthful side of writing, and my experience writing older characters, we experimented with telling this multi-generational story of family, faith, and hope from different angles. It’s not the same story told from different viewpoints, but intersecting viewpoints of family life. The publisher thought it was a unique idea and I’m excited about how it will be received.
AW: Do you have a favorite character and why that one?
In this book, I like both the brother and sister…I don’t know if either is a more favorite over the other. They both have unique conflicts, as Tessa has a secret she’s kept so long she buried how devastating the effects could be if it was ever revealed; and her brother Art has faced the loss of his twin brother and his wife, and made his work the focus of his life.
AW: Did you find anything particularly difficult in writing this book?
Since Shellie and I write very quickly, we had a lot to revisit to make sure the events of the four stories matched up. We had to make the timelines work together so that the characters in each of the stories were at the same place at the same time whenever their characters interacted. That was challenging.
AW: What project(s) are you currently working on?
As of this interview, I will have completed a proposal for a romantic novella collection for Heartsong, a cross-generational family saga that begins in the eighteenth century in Nova Scotia and winds up in Cajun country, Louisiana. A contemporary young woman is contemplating marriage and asks her grandmother for advice. The grandmother tells the stories of family marriages in each century, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth. I’m writing the nineteenth and twentieth-century families. Hard to think of the twentieth century as history, but there it is.
AW: Do you have any interesting writing quirks you want to tell us about?
Besides typing in my…oh, never mind. Um…When I’m in full write mode, I tend to write a chapter or so a day, fairly quickly, to keep continuity.
AW: Do you have any advice for writers out there?
Take your time, learn the correct way to put a manuscript together and submit it. Collect rejections like rare coins.
AW: Where can we find you? (facebook, twitter, blog, website, etc)
My web site has all the connections to my networking sites – http://www.lisalickel.com
AW: And of course we have to know, where can we find your book? (your website, publisher, amazon, etc)
Ashley, pick what you need out of the following:
Healing Grace (through December 2011 only):
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Grace-Lisa-J-Lickel/dp/1934841226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244721331&sr=1-1
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Grace-ebook/dp/B002V8XYES/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286155380&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Healing+Grace+by+Lisa+Lickel&box=Healing%20Grace%20by%20Lisa%20Lickel&pos=-1
Fictionwise: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b91909/Healing-Grace/Lisa-J-Lickel/?id=13425
Meander Scar:
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/Meander-Scar-Lisa-J-Lickel/dp/1934912239/ref=sr_1_1_oe_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267452628&sr=1-1
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Meander-Scar-ebook/dp/B0037Z6YM8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
Meander on BN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Meander-Scar/Lisa-J-Lickel/e/9781934912232/?itm=1&USRI=Lisa+Lickel
Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvD7mE_HQF0
Trailer imbed code:
The Gold Standard, while copies last:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Standard-HEARTSONG-PRESENTS-MYSTERIES/dp/1597895253/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237984174&sr=8-1
Barnes and Noble:http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Gold-Standard/Lisa-Lickel/e/9781597895255/?itm=1
Watch for the sequel, The Map Quilt, from MuseItUp in April, 2012.
You and Shellie sound like a great team. I wish I would have started saving my rejections. I could have wallpapered my office or something ...
ReplyDeleteHi, all,
ReplyDeletechecking in today. Thanks, Ashley for hosting me! The new book is called A Summer in Oakville. We're excited!