Interview Kay Layton Sisk

by

Lynn Romaine

1) You’ve had books published by Wings before, I see. What inspired you to write contemporary fiction and do you see yourself continuing in this genre or are you moving towards somewhere else?

As I told Wings senior editor Lorraine Stephens several years ago, I didn’t want to do historical research, so I’d stick to contemporary. That said, no writing is accomplished without research. If writers just wrote about what they knew it would get dull in a hurry. I’m planning on sticking with the contemporary time scale and finding people who know what I need.

2) Where do you get your ideas for your stories--are they sudden bursts of creativity or have they been hanging around for a while, waiting to be written?

Both. The Texoma Series, of which Anya’s Dream is the sixth and final, started to be just one book (Lyla’s Song) born out of my love of music. Lorraine Stephens suggested I write twin Eddie C’s story (Jemma’s Heart) and then I saw no reason why two of the band members should be allowed happy endings and not all of them. The other books’ ideas have come and tweaked my mind, but what a work starts out to be and what it becomes are often very different books.

3) Have you always wanted to be a writer or if not, how early do you remember wanting to write and can you share one of your earliest experience of writing?

I wrote in grade school, making my friends the heroines. I don’t recall writing many heroes. I must have been doing women’s fiction then. I stopped writing from college onward for about 20 years and then began again when my sons were big enough to take care of themselves while I

wrote.

4) Many authors talk about using outlines and plotting out their stories, while others describe their process as seat of the pants (pantsers) who just write scenes and stick them together? Can you tell us about your particular process?

I’m an unashamed pantser, who believes in taking the journey along with her readers. I do know how a story will begin and how it will end, but the details elude me until I get ready for them. I get an idea for the next section and I write it all--like emptying a pitcher of water--and then I have to wait for my brain to fill back up. It usually takes a day, with the trickles beginning as soon as I print out what I’ve written and left the computer.

5) What types of readers like your work? Is there a particular age group, income group? Are you writing to a particular group?

I know my friends like my work, which makes one segment of my readership female and of a certain age. I certainly don’t write to a particular group.

6) Why do you write? (Aside from the answer all writers give that ‘they have to’) Is there a greater purpose or for the fun of it? Or some other reason?

I write because that seems to be my particular way of expressing my creativity.

7) What do you read, as a writer? Do you have one genre you read? Can you tell us a book you’re reading right now and what you like about it?

I read romance, contemporary and historical. Occasionally a mystery comes my way and I do follow certain authors, such as Laura Jo Rowland’s Japanese sleuth series. Right now I’m reading The Measure Of A Lady by fellow Texan Deeanne Gist. It’s Christian fiction, a sweet romance, from Bethany House. I like that she deals in unusual time periods, this one being 1849 San Francisco, while her first was Virginia Colonial.

8) How long did it take you to write your first book and how long to get your first book published?

It took one year to write The Mermaid And The Eagle. It was first published in 2000 by a now defunct house and will be republished in December 06 by Wings.

9) How much do you write? How many pages a day or week? How long does it take to complete a book?

I’m trying to write three books every two years. I don’t have a per diem goal for myself other than 100 words a day, to be accountable to friend Kathleen Nance. As in question 4, I write until the pitcher is empty, be that 100 words or 2000.

10) What would you tell aspiring writers about writing? Do you have steps or advice for them?

Writing is hard work, not something dashed off in one’s spare time. If you want to write, you have to commit to it.