Interview with author Lisa N Edwards

Happy Friday to all you lovely TWPeeps! This week’s interview is a fun one! We have actor/writer/producer Lisa N. Edwards joining us today. She’s got a great story to share so let’s jump right in.

Lisa if you could start by telling our readers a little bit about yourself.

Lisa:
Hi I’m Lisa N Edwards, I am originally from Brisbane but moved to Melbourne Australia when I was 22 (about half my lifetime ago). I am a Mum of 5 children, and recently sold my Talent Agency so I can write full time. I have always written to clear my thoughts and keep me sane. I find writing files away my thoughts so they stop circling in my head. I seriously started writing about 5 years ago, co-writing a screenplay called LIMBO that won 4 awards:

OFFICIAL FINALIST – New York Screenplay Contest – http://www.newyorkscreenplaycontest.com/2013-official-finalists

OFFICIAL FINALIST – World Series of Screenwriting – http://worldseriesofscreenwriting.com/awards/2013-official-finalists

EXCELLENCE AWARD – Skyfest Film & Script Festival – http://skyfest.net/index.php?id=76

AWARD OF MERIT – Women’s Independent Film Festival – http://womensindiefest.com/Fall_2013_award_winners_2.html

My debut novel Can’t Fight Fate was also going to be a screenplay, but once I started writing, the thoughts kept exploding onto paper, so much so it became a trilogy of books, with the second book due to be released December 2015.

The Writing Piazza:
You’ve also done some acting and producing. Can you tell us a little about that?

Lisa:
After graduating from NIDA-The Presenter Audition only Course in 2010, completing work experience with Sunrise and being trained by Aleksi Vellis at The Film Space, my youngest daughter Darcie and I were featured in a series of Coles TV Commercials – ‘Feed your Family for $10 with Curtis Stone’ and Coles Home Brand. my latest credits include soon to be released Aussie comedy ‘Now Add Honey’ and two Award Winning Hollywood Short films – Riviera and The Road Less Traveled.

My full Acting/Producing resume is available at – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438486/

In 2011, I also spent a year with V8 Supercars, managing and increasing the profile of one of the drivers. This went hand in hand with my passion for fast cars.

A large portion of my working life was as a Talent Agent with VisionsMCP in Melbourne. In fact, 15 years of which 13 of those I was the Owner/Company Director, selling the business in December 2013 to pursue my dreams.

The Writing Piazza:
Wow, you’ve certainly been busy! And that’s exciting (and I bet a bit scary) now that you’ve sold your talent agency to pursue your dreams of writing. Can you tell us a bit about your first book Can’t Fight Fate?

Lisa:
Can’t Fight Fate is the first book in the trilogy. (I have finished the second book Chasing Butterflies and I am currently writing the final book in the trilogy, The Seed of the Sunflower.)

If Goodreads.com is anything to go by, people either love it… or hate it, no in-between! I tend to think that is a good thing, as I connect with the desired audience.

Length – 256 pages
Genre – Contemporary – Romantic Suspense
Synopsis – Can the words of a Psychic Influence your thoughts? Your Choices? Your Destiny?

Nikki, an inspirited Aussie girl thought she had her life planned.

GET A CAREER, FIND A MAN, START A FAMILY

Life seemed simple, until… accompanying her friend to a psychic changed her life forever. The psychic describes her soul mate. Mr. Hollywood, a man with crystal green eyes.

Flash forward 17 years, Nikki’s career as a Hollywood Entertainment Lawyer is taking off, and the Green Eyed man is standing in front of her. The words of the psychic are imprinted on her mind…

“Remember he’s nice to look at, nice to see, but if you chase him, he will flee…”

So if she cannot chase him, and she cannot tell him what she knows. Will she ignore the warnings to get what she wants?

With her best friend, Siobhan, who is effectively her audacious and sassier alter ego, they navigate their way through the supposedly predestined life!

Nikki can try, but she Can’t Fight Fate.

The Writing Piazza:
Now I’ve read your book (for those of you interested in a review of the book you can read that HERE) and Nikki is an easy to follow character, she just pulls you along the story and all you can do is hang on for the ride. Can you tell us about how you created her, how she evolved into the woman we read about in your book?

Lisa:
When I wrote Nikki, I drew on a lot of my own feelings and personal experiences; the psychic reading is my actual reading from when I was 21. Nikki is a complex character she appears to have the world at her feet, her partner is a doctor and she doesn’t need to work. But this is never the vision Nikki had for her life; she wanted to be practicing entertainment law, a degree that took her many years to achieve thrown away… For a man that is following his own dreams.

The voices in her head circle with conflicting thoughts and emotions, and when this happens Nikki always falls back on what her perfect life would look like. She always remembers the psychic reading from when she was 21 with the description of Mr. Hollywood, her fated soul mate – the perfect Green eyed man. Is he her destiny? Does he exist? Sometimes when you search for something you can never find it.

To the outside world her life is perfect, her actions and choices are driven by the words of the psychic that she can’t fight fate….And when she meets the so-called Mr. Hollywood, he meets the exact description of the man she believes she is fated to meet… That’s where it gets interesting…

The Writing Piazza:
That it does. I’m sure those who read the book will want to pick up the second one as soon as they put down this one just to find out what happens next!

Let’s switch gears a little and talk about the business side of writing. Who is the publisher for Can’t Fight Fate?

Lisa:
The publisher was originally Vivid Publishing, they are a vanity publisher and I went with them to get the Novel printed. It cost me quite a bit of money, so probably wouldn’t advise it, but it was a faster way of getting the book out. I then moved over to Port Campbell Press who has taken over publishing and distribution.

The Writing Piazza:
What made you decide to take the publishing route that you did?

Lisa:
I thought instead of sending a manuscript, I would send the completed book, that way they could see what they were getting. It was a little unorthodox, but it was successful.

The Writing Piazza:
What do you like about the road to publishing that you’ve taken?

Lisa:
My main concern was keeping all the rights to the books and not releasing these to anyone other than me. I aim to write screenplays for all the books and I hope to get them optioned later this year when I attend the American Film Market in Los Angeles. Most of the larger publisher’s contracts all had clauses that stopped me doing that, so I shopped around for a smaller publisher that wasn’t concerned by this.

The Writing Piazza:
That’s smart! Not many new writers understand what rights they have and what they are giving up when they sign a contract with a publisher. We just get so excited that our work is going to be published. But it’s so, so important to slow down and make sure you know what you’re agreeing to, otherwise you will be kicking yourself somewhere down the line.

How about something you don’t like about the road to publishing that you’ve chosen?

Lisa:
It was expensive and I am sure had I waited and had more patience, maybe I could have saved money, but patience is not my strong point.

The Writing Piazza:
Girlfriend you are preaching to the choir! I’m not known for my patience either! I know we talked about your main character Nikki, can you tell us how much of your own real life experiences are reflected throughout the rest of the book?

Lisa:
To start with, the psychic reading at the start of the book is my own from when I was 21, I have adapted it to suit the lead character and the book. The idea came for the story when I thought I met my very own green-eyed man. When this happened, I started speaking to a lot of people finding out that they had similar experiences with psychics.

There are a lot of my own experiences and lots of people I know, but they are never just one person. Some chapters it is more than one person that makes up a character. I take different pieces and stories from different people to create one new person. I worked as a Talent Agent for 13 years so I have an endless supply of crazy stories. The entertainment industry is another world, and I wanted to bring that to life for a reader to experience.

The Writing Piazza:
Your experience with the world of entertainment gives your story an authentic feel to it. And I hope there will be more of those crazy stories in your upcoming books as well!

What message do you hope to impart to the readers of your book?

Lisa:
Live the Life you Love – Love the life you live!

If you are not happy with your life, you and only you have the power to change direction. In Can’t Fight Fate, Nikki is miserable with the direction her life has taken, and she makes some huge changes to find happiness and peace within herself. She and the other character Siobhan have quite a few big issues to deal with in the first book.

The Writing Piazza:
That they do! It’s nice that they have each other to get through it all with. Good friends can make all the difference. Their friendship was a nice constant throughout the ups and downs of the book for sure.

What advice would you give to writers who are writing and/or attempting to publish their work?

Lisa:
You Never Fail until You Stop Trying!

Keep going, eventually someone will say yes! The hardest thing is to stay positive when you keep getting told NO! Keep pushing on until you find the person that appreciates your work and says yes!

The Writing Piazza:
Great words of encouragement! Thanks for sharing with us! And you mentioned you had the second book of the series completed, and you’re working on the third?

Lisa:
I am currently writing the final book in the trilogy The Seed of the Sunflower it has been the slowest out of all 3 and only about one third finished, as I am promoting Can’t Fight Fate.

When I hired PR people in Australia and in the USA, I didn’t think about time differences (I tend to jump into things without thinking), so I am very sleep deprived at the moment as the USA is the opposite time to Australia. I am not complaining, I am loving every second, and meeting some amazing people. Promoting a book involves almost if not more writing than the actual book for magazine articles, blog posts etc. it’s hard work, in an ideal world, people would just know about my book and love it – but ha! It doesn’t work that way!

The Writing Piazza:
I would definitely want to live in that world! All we have to do is write the book and then everyone knows about it without me having to bust my bum to get the word out about it. Sigh.

Well I definitely appreciate you taking the time out of your hectic schedule to do this interview with me and for being a guest on my blog! For those interested in connecting with you, how may they do so?

Lisa:
Thank you! I have loved your questions! I’m a social media junkie, and would love to chat and answer anyone’s questions; you can find me almost everywhere… I’m on Goodreads.com also!

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14178683.Lisa_N_Edwards
TWITTER: @LisaNEdwards
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/LisaNEdwardsAuthor
WEBSITE: LisaNEdwards.com
TUMBLR: LisaNEdwards.tumblr.com
BOOK UPDATES: CantFightFate.com

The Writing Piazza:
Thus concludes another #fridayguestinterview. Thanks for joining us. I am constantly humbled by the fact that I get to keep doing these interviews with so many talented authors and others who work in the publishing industry. So we will keep doing them for as long as I have talented people willing to join me. If you’d like to read a book review of Can’t Fight Fate as a companion piece to this interview you can do so HERE. The idea for the companion reviews was from one of our very own TWPeeps. Thank you so much for your most excellent idea. If anyone else has an idea for something they’d like to see here on TWP please don’t hesitate to let us know. We value your ideas so keep em coming!

Until we meet again.