Here in Florida, many of the kiddos have already started another year of school. Those up north are enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer before the school "daze" begins. Football fans are gearing up for another season. Baseball fans are readying themselves for either the joy of victory ("We made it into the playoffs!") or the agony of defeat ("Wait until next year.").
Here, in the Author Behind the Story series, we are readying ourselves for an encore performance. This author visited last summer, and she's back. Please welcome, Lena Nelson Dooley!
Lena, thanks for visiting to our Florida front porch in the heat of the summer again. After one summer of it, you came back for another shower of humidity. Kudos to you!
Last time, you answered several questions, and so we wish to delve into some new questions this time. (Dear readers, if you want to see Lena's first interview, you can visit it here.)
Most of your fans know you live in Texas. Why do you live where
you live?
Actually, when James and I moved to a suburb of Fort Worth,
Texas, from Abilene in farther west Texas in the early 1970s. Our plan was to
live here until he built up enough seniority in his company so that when we
moved back, we’d not have to move again. There were so many more things to do
here with our children in the summer and the church we found that we loved,
that we never left here instead.
The best laid plans of mice and authors, huh? I also know that you are married. What can you tell me about your husband, James?
Spending almost 55 years with the love of my life, James,
has been right up there behind knowing Jesus. This man has treasured and
protected me and is my greatest supporter in this writing business and other
areas. My life wouldn’t be the same without him.
It seems God knew what he was doing when he made man and woman in the Garden.
So, let's shift gears a little. As a writer, if you
had one thing you would do over again, what would it be?
Early on, I received what I considered a rejection of my
book. It was my first one, and I didn’t read it well enough. A few years later,
I reread it. The editor was actually telling me she’d like to see it again
after I made certain changes. I’ve always regretted I didn’t read it right in
time for that editor to still want it.
Oh, my. There's a lesson for new writers, if I ever saw one. If you had your life
to live over again, besides being an author (which we guess would be your
obvious answer), what profession would you choose?
When I went to college, the plan was to become a teacher
like those who helped me so much. Then I had to take one drama course. That’s
why I changed to drama as a major and had history as a minor, even in graduate
school. I’m a good director, and I do love acting.
Interesting. When the words aren’t
flowing, what is your favorite comfort food and why?
One of the things that God promised when He told me to
become a professional writer was that if I was obedient, He would cause the
words to flow. However, I do love to munch sometimes on something crunchy when
I’m writing. M&Ms are a favorite.
Okay readers, now you know what to bring to Lena's author signing parties! Do you ever receive
negative reviews from readers? If so, how do you respond when you see them? (And we assume they DO NOT send M&Ms...)
Interesting question. My most humorous, negative review was
from a woman who said that she loved my writing and my story until she got to
the first kiss. I do like to have several kisses in a romance, but my kisses
are more about the emotional impact than being physically graphic. She said she
wouldn’t let her daughters read my book until they had been married a while, if
ever. And she’d never share it with her mother or grandmother. My critique
group laughed, then someone said she felt sorry for the woman’s husband if my
kisses bothered his wife so much.
Hmm. Maybe fiction, particularly Christian romance, is not what she should be reading. When you are looking
for a book to read, what are the things that are important to you? (And if you say, "kissing," we're shutting this interview down right now.)
My reading-for-pleasure time is limited, so I always read
the description and back cover copy to see if it sounds interesting to me. An
eye-catching cover helps, but it needs to make me have questions about the
story.
What makes you
cringe?
I’m not fond of snakes, so I cringe when I see one, even on
TV. I also cringe when I’m in the company of someone who uses either God or
Jesus or other names of God in a disrespectful way. I love the Lord so much
it’s like a dagger to my heart for every word.
What’s the craziest
thing you have ever done?
(Readers, don’t try this. It’s dangerous.) When I was in
college in Arkansas,
there was a place on the campus property—between the campus itself and the
neighborhood where many of the professors lived—that had a deep, wide gorge. It
was in the Ozark Mountains, so there were lots
of trees, rocky outcrops, and things like that. A pipe that was about a foot in
diameter stretched across the chasm. A couple of my friends and I walked from
one end of the pipe to the other side. Now I realize that if one of us had
fallen, it would have been sudden death.
My goodness. Did your parents know about this? I'm betting no. Well, it's a good thing you didn't fall, because you wouldn't be able to tell us about your next project. Tell us what you are currently working on at the moment.
I’m editing a proposal that an editor is interested in. The
heroine is a woman who came to Texas
on an orphan train and became a part of a family, she thought. The hero is a
lawyer who left his banking family in Now York to come to Texas to be a lawyer. There’s a marriage of
convenience, and one of the craziest stunts in Texas history will be featured at a catalyst
in the story.
Does this stunt involve walking across a gorge? Inquiring minds want to know... :-)
Lena, we thank you for taking time out of your busy days to stop by and answer some questions for our readers.
And don't forget to check out her interview from last September!
Lena, do you have any parting words for our readers?
Thank you, Kevin, for inviting me for the visit. I love to
have readers contact me on social media, and reviews really make my day. I love
seeing them on Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub.
As do all writers/authors. If you are a reader, one way you can support your favorite authors besides buying their books is leaving honest reviews on the sites Lena listed above. Dear reader, you do not know how much credence is placed on reviews by publishers and advertisers these days. It is a new world in the arena of publishing. Your reviews just may cause a book to be published by writers like Lena and me. Then again, no review (although you may have loved the book) may cause a publisher to pass on the manuscript because "it looks like nobody read it," even though thousands of readers may have done so via sites like Kindle Unlimited, which creates a hidden source of readers many publishers cannot see. (Just thought you'd like to know, as many readers do not.)
Thanks to everyone for stopping by!
Until next time, may God bless America, and more importantly, may America bless God!
Study after study has been done in recent years. Such things as “gray matter atrophy,” “compromised white matter integrity,” “reduced cortical thickness,” “impaired cognitive function,” and “cravings and impaired dopamine function,” are all physiological detriments attributed to this malady that now touches hundreds of thousands of people a year. It is a global issue, and not limited to those of us here in America. It is not discriminatory when it comes to gender or age, although it does affect younger folks more than older ones. 
