Saturday, March 24, 2012

CEO by trade, artist by birth.

I see a lot of posts about why people write, which are really interesting. There are quite few where the authors get defensive, like they have to justify the reason they sit down at the keyboard and lose themselves in the world they create.

My family always knew I was creative. I went to a Creative and Performing Arts academy because I loved creating art in any form I could. They all encouraged it, even though at some point I realized a day job was in order so I could

Last night I was watching E! for Fashion Police (I loved RuPaul! Finally someone more catty than Joan Rivers) and I caught Fashion Star which has designers competing for contracts with three huge name stores in a reality show type setting.

They are just competing with themselves really but sometimes the stores compete with each other in a bidding war for the designs. But last night, one designer, Barbara Bates, didn't get picked up and I was really sad because I loved her design. It was sexy and yet age appropriate for me.

One of the buyers asked her why she would create something like that. I loved her answer, which was, "It was something I would wear."

The show was really neat because it reminded me of the publishing industry. Sometimes there is a bidding war over your book (if you're lucky) and you have to decide what pub co to go to. But you design this book and throw it out into the world. If you're lucky, everyone loves it and it sells enormously. If not, well, there is always your next book.

I personally write books I want to read, just like that designer makes clothes she would wear. I love watching the story unfold. While I do temper my style to make it easy to read, the story isn't the words; it's the plot and the characters.

I can't wait to read The Long Con again. :) It's coming 4/17. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it.