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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET RHONDA HAYTER
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| Rhonda Hayter |
Nope, not at all. I always wrote but I wanted to be an actress when I grew up. And I was too for quite a while...until I thought it might be fun to start paying the mortgage. Not that I looked to writing to pay the mortgage, I’m not so deluded as all that. But I started a different career, had a family and then when the kids got old enough to leave me five minutes to myself, discovered that writing gave me exactly the same exhilarating rush that acting used to give me. Woo Hoo!
Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?
Some of your more sensitive readers might want to skip this answer. It’s perhaps too terrifying. I sent the first ten pages of THE WITCHY WORRIES OF ABBIE ADAMS to every literary agent alive in America today, and some that might have been only recently deceased. No one would read my manuscript. After months of agony, a friend of mine who was getting published in Canada (I’m Canadian by birth) spoke to her agent about me and from that act of kindness, my lovely agent Lise Henderson took me on. Blessings on her and all her progeny...and my friend’s too. Lise sold it to a Canadian publisher within a month...but just as the book was going to the copy editor, they decided to close their publishing arm and just be distributors. I was orphaned...and very very sad. Fourteen rejections later, Harcourt made me an offer but very soon the business sections of the newspapers were full of dire news about Harcourt restructuring and people leaving and...and...and I got very nervous...especially since my contracts weren’t yet signed. Finally my editor, Kathy Dawson called with the news that she was leaving Harcourt. My heart stopped...but it got jump-started again when she invited me to come with her to Penguin. I’m happy to say that THE WITCHY WORRIES was finally released on April 1st. It’s the prettiest book you ever saw.
How did your life change when you got married? and had children? Did it make it easier or harder to find time to write?
Hmmph. Well the first thing that happened when I got married was I started reading a lot less. That darn guy kept distracting me with romance and stuff. Then when we had kids...there were a number of years there when no one left me alone for a minute!! I was very very happy and grateful for all the blessings in my life but if I had one tiny, secret little yearning it was for some time to myself. Finally, when the kids were seven and ten I was able to get an evening out occasionally and I took a wonderful, nurturing, creative writing class at UCLA extension with Harry Youtt and Judith Praeger. The book poured out of me immediately afterwards.
Have any of your fiction stories been about real people or events?
It’s been so much fun to filter my life and the people I know through my imagination. I don’t always do it completely consciously but all kinds of incidents and characters in my writing are related to things I’ve done or people I know. And I love recognizing it in the writing of my friends as well. The first idea for my book came from the meltdowns that my youngest son used to have before he learned how to process big feelings. He was the sweetest, most angelic child alive until he’d have one of these tantrums and in the middle of one, I turned to my husband and said, “My God. It’s like he turns into a werewolf.” That gave me the idea for a little boy who really did turn into a werewolf when he was mad...and the whole magical family in THE WITCHY WORRIES grew out of that.
Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?
If my Abbie Adams books become a series (from my keyboard to God’s ears) Abbi e’s going to meet a historical character in each one. I have absolutely loved doing the research. In book 1, Abbie meets Thomas Edison, in book 2, Harriet Tubman and in book 3, Susan B. Anthony. It has been an absolute thrill learning about these fascinating people in depth. I’m old fashioned about studying books on my subjects but I’ll tell ya...that Internet thing is a mighty handy tool too.
Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?
Oh how I wish I could say that I do...but now that my first book is out, I’m far too busy checking my Amazon Sales Rank obsessively, to get my pages in daily. I’m hoping that when all the excitement dies down I’ll be better disciplined.
What do you most want the students to get out of your school visits?
I’d like them to come to understand that we’re all creative people and that we all have wonderful stories inside of us.