Today she spends her days working in accounting, and her evenings living her dream as a novelist. And we've caught up with her to talk about her latest book, Sacrifice of Innocence, which went to print May 2012.
What was your path towards publication like?
It has been a long road and certainly a bumpy one. There are a lot of things as a new author I had to find out through trial and error. For example how to write a query letter that works and different formatting requirements. There are also a lot of less than reputable people who will prey on unsuspecting writers. I ran into an agent early on who was that sort of person. She actually knew I was a mother and still swindled money out of me. One of the biggest things I had to remember was to keep moving forward and not to let rejections get the better of me.
What was the first market you queried and why did you choose that market?
I started out looking for an agent knowing that a lot of the bigger publishing houses require an author to be represented. I was still looking into finding an agent when I was referred to the publishing house I signed with last December.
What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to pitching yourself as a writer and what steps have you taken to overcome that obstacle?
The biggest obstacle for me I found was believing in myself and my abilities as a writer. You cant ask someone else believe in your abilities if you yourself don’t believe in them.
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book?
I have always been fascinated with cults and their ability to operate under the noses of the general public for a long time before they are found out. Also another thing that I find interesting is whenever a new serial killer emerges, we as a society tend to try and place a reason on why this person behaves the way that they do. One of the things that seems to crop up is the notion that serial killers must belong to satanic cults and practice sacrificial rituals. Most of the time there is no evidence that the serial killers ever participated in any cults satanic or otherwise and these persons are merely deviants of one form or another.
This book however is an entirely different scenario but does incorporate and play on the two ideas.
If you could choose just one thing for your book to accomplish, what would it be?
I write for pleasure. I love the art of crafting a story that people can use as an escape from the every day. That being said the thing I wish for my book to accomplish is for it to find its way into the hands of people who are going to appreciate the story and find enjoyment in the time they will spend with my characters. Hopefully my readers will come back time and time again.
How do you balance your life as a writer with your duties as a parent or spouse?
First off I have to say that I am incredibly blessed. I have three wonderful daughters and a loving husband who are four of the best cheerleaders this side of the earth. They have been supportive of this rollercoaster endeavor of mine since day one.
As for the balancing act, we have always been a team and have been there to support one another in everything that we do. We make the effort to be there to pick up the slack of another who needs the time to focus on their passions. Its not always a perfect mix but it’s a work in progress like the rest of our world. That being said as long as I let the rest know that I am sitting down to write they will do the best they can to make sure that I have the quiet time that I need to write. Not only that but my darling daughters always seem to make sure their mothers coffee cup is full.
What is your best advice for getting past writer's block?
Keep writing. Don’t stop even if it looks like a bag of garbage. It can be edited later. You can’t edit words that don’t exist.
If you are having troubles getting any words out with the story that you are working on then try writing about your writers block. Describe it using your senses and write about how you want to destroy it so that you can go back to writing what you were before the block took hold of you.
What do you feel is the single most detrimental thing a writer could do to destroy his/her career as a writer?
The single worst thing you could do is accept the rejections. I don’t mean that you should ignore them but don’t take them to heart. Let them be the thing that drives you to become a better writer. Stephen King started out with a thumb tack holding up his first few rejection letters from publishers by the time he had his first book accepted he had a rather large spike nail holding them up.
If he can survive it you can too.
What’s ahead for your writing?
Sacrifice of Innocence is the first book in an ongoing series. To date I have written 8 of those books. I would also like to write a few one off novels but my problem is I find myself too attached to my characters and end up bringing them up again in another story. So who knows there could be another series out there just waiting for me.
You can learn more about Allison Cosgrove at http://stanbrookshire.com
Order Sacrifice of Innocence, on kindle, from Amazon.com
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Do not reprint this post without permission. © Alyice Edrich
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