Dawn Crandall Interview

The Hesitant Heiress is your debut novel. Tell us about your publishing journey.  "Actually, I never wrote a thing until January of 2010. I'd been thinking up my plot and figuring out what kinds of scenes I wanted, but I could not decide whether to write the story in first person POV or third person. I'd heard it was difficult to write first person well—and that kept me from doing it, although it was always how the words seemed to come to mind. Finally, I decided I just needed to do it--and because I was ultimately writing it for myself more than anyone else--I just dove into writing it from first person, because that was how it needed to be told. However, about a year later I was stuck on trying to figure out exactly how to get to the ending I had planned! Considering I'd basically figured out how to write a book from studying how my favorite books were constructed, I realized I needed to find a critique partner and join some kind of writing organization. So I joined ACFW, met my beloved friend/crit-partner Susan Tuttle, figured out my ending and went to the 2011 conference (upon my husband's urging). I met with two agents there, had two partial proposal requests... and then a month later, I had two agent contracts in my email box! Pretty crazy for not even knowing what a proposal was until after they'd been requested. After I chose my wonderful agent, Joyce Hart, I still had to finish revising the ending of my book! So my one and only proposal went out into the hands of editors during the summer of 2012... and then I waited, and waited and waited. Basically two years to the day that I'd been offered my agent contract, I received official word that Whitaker House wanted to publish my series (which I'd been working on finishing while waiting), first as eBooks, and then later, hopefully as paperbacks. 

Are you a plotter or a pantser when it comes to writing? I do outline pretty extensively concerning chapters, character development, motivations and goals and especially the ending, but there are ALWAYS surprises along the way!! Sometimes I'm totally surprised by some of the things the characters end up doing!!  

How do you find time to write with a newborn baby? Um, before I got pregnant last year I used to start writing at 8-10am on my writing days, and I would get lost in my story world until my husband came home, most times forgetting to even eat lunch. On those days, I could sit there for up to ten hours, a few days a week. I'm not a very fast writer because it takes so long for me to get back into the story after days away—I would usually pre-write, write and edit one chapter per week... My baby is only a few months old right now, so I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to keep writing as efficiently as I had before I was pregnant. Prayers appreciated!!! 

When is your next book due out and what can you tell us about it? The second book in the series, The Bound Heart, comes out this November. It's about one of the minor characters, Meredyth Summercourt as she deals with her own issues a few months after the first book concludes. The prologue to this second book is previewed at the end of The Hesitant Heiress. 

 (www.goodreads.com/book/show/21490844-the-bound-heart). 

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 Where can readers find out more about you and your writing?

 www.dawncrandall.blogspot.com 

 twitter - @dawnwritesfirst

 facebook – www.facebook.com/dawncrandallwritesfirst 

pinterest – www.pinterest.com/dawnwritesfirst 

 blog – www.apassionforpages.blogspot.com 

GoodReads – www.goodreads.com/dawn_crandall 

Amazon link – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M4LQ81I?ie=UTF8&at=aw-iphone-pc-us-20&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links