HARRY AND THE POTTERS: WIZARD ROCK

Honest, folks, I didn’t make that headline up. (There was even a sub-headline: “Wizard bands rocking and Rowling.”) Apparently the whole H.P. phenomenon has created a gazillion off-shoots, including a rock band named for J. K. Rowling’s character and an entire genre dubbed “wizard” music.

Who knew?

But I digress: This is the Q&A with Elizabeth G: Part Deux. Inquiring Minds — that’s you — asked questions. The Quills — that’s us — are attempting to answer them. So, here goes . . . again.

First up this week is DFENDER who wants to know the three people I'd most love to have to a dinner party.

I assume you mean dead or alive, Deb. First and foremost, Jane Austen. (While I'm at it, I’d get her to autograph a first edition of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.)

The Quills, of course. (Yes, I know, there are five of them. Six counting me. But I’m counting us as one.)

Hm . . . only three? Then I’ll go with J. K. Rowling as my third choice. I’d love to pick her brain and find out how much — if any — her original story changed as she wrote the Harry Potter series. Her personal life story also boggles the mind.

DARLA is up next. She asked if there was one thing I could change in my writing career what would it be and why?

1. I wish I had written all of my 40+ books under the same name, Darla. Name recognition is so important in this business. In my defense, I was sometimes required by my publisher to use a pen name. Although it was my decision to go with Elizabeth Guest for the paranormals.

2. It’s a waste of time and energy to have regrets since none of us can change our past, but I still wish I’d handled my writing career with more wisdom, more determination, and less perfectionism. I could probably have written twice as many books.

Oops, I guess that’s two things.

BRANDY wants to know if there is a book I wish I hadn't written.

You betcha! But as Jayne pointed out in her Q&A: Writing is a self-taught profession. The only way I’ve learned to do what I do is by reading and writing A LOT, including mistakes like writing less than convincing villains and scenes that seem downright silly to me now. It was all part of the learning process. It always will be. Every writer I know is still learning her craft.

KAREN asks what my dream job would have been if I hadn't become a writer.

I’m sure glad you didn’t limit me to one or even three answers, Karen. At different times in my life I’ve wanted to be a singer, an actress, a lawyer, Secretary-General of the UN (dream big, I always say), a nun (I’m not even Catholic), a college professor teaching Chaucer or Milton, or someone who works in a bookstore.

I’ve still got that last one in mind should this whole writing career ever go south.

SUSAN B wants to know if I reread my own books.

Nope. Never. Well, almost never. I'm working on a series, so sometimes I have to delve back into a previous book to check my facts.

MS. OWEN & MS. KINDER want to know if turning my art into my job in any way distracted from the joy that I take in the writing and have I ever felt that I had to do less than my best to meet a deadline.

Yes, definitely, doing anything as a profession is less “fun” than doing it as a hobby. But — and it’s a big BUT — it’s also more satisfying, more challenging, more rewarding and more lucrative. I love writing. Just not every minute of every day I spend writing. Nobody loves the work they do all the time. (As a wise friend once said to me: “That’s why it's called work, Sue.”)

I realize this is going to sound a tad peculiar. But I can “hear” when a word, or a sentence or a paragraph or a page or a scene or a chapter sounds right to me and when it doesn’t. I’ve learned to accept that it’s an essential part of my writing process, even though I’m also quite certain that 99.9% of the time I'm the only one who notices. This means I'm always rewriting right up to the moment I FedEx off a manuscript. I even do some tweaking in the copy-editing stage. BUT once the printed galleys/author's pages are done and there's no going back, I never look at the sucker again.

TAMMY wants to know if there was anything I'd like to change in one of my older books.

Absolutely. In a word: SEX. Earlier in my career I wrote sex scenes between secondary characters: meaning the villains. If I were going to re-release those books — which, thankfully, is not on anybody’s radar screen — I would delete those scenes. While there was a method to my madness at the time, it’s not something I would write today.

Inquiring Minds want to know (because you’re not the only ones around here who get to ask questions): Did your job turned out to be what you thought it was going to be in the beginning? Have you ever changed careers?

Until next time and Part Three.
Elizabeth G.