New Author Blog Hop 2

As part of the New Author blog hop, I wanted to introduce you to another writer I have met recently through the 3rd Writers Platform-Building Campaign. Her name is Bridget Straub and she is about to self-publish her first book: 'Searching For My Wand'.

So tell us, Bridget, what is your book  about?

I think more than anything else it has to do with the challenges we as women, although perhaps men as well, face in trying to get through life’s ups and downs. It focuses on Glenda who has been (incorrectly) named after Glinda the Good Witch, and who has chased after that example of perfection. She wants to be the good daughter, the good friend, the good wife and the good mother, but life throws you curves and sometimes that sends you spiraling off in the wrong direction. She makes a lot of mistakes, but I think the reason people will relate to her is because her heart is usually in the right place.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was listening to a song by my friend Laura Hall, called 'The Moment', which opens with the line: “This is a moment, like any other moment, most ordinary, and every day”. It goes on to ask questions about when a moment becomes a defining moment, and that got me thinking about a character who decides to take control of her life. Where Glinda the Good Witch came from, I have no idea. Perhaps I was wishing I could go see 'Wicked'. Anyway, as with most of what I write, as soon as I had the first line, it just wrote itself.

How long did it take you to complete the book?

Amazingly, the first draft took only three days. I was out of notebooks and honestly couldn’t afford to go buy a new one, so I just scribbled the whole thing in pencil, on computer paper. This was probably the easiest story I have ever written. It just flowed out of me at a time when I really needed the distraction.

Gosh, three days?? Unbelievable! The pages must have been sizzling! And what made you decide to include these wonderful drawings?

I had been looking through one of my daughter’s Clarice Bean books which, like 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid', had a lot of drawings, and I thought it would be fun to have a book for grownups that had silly illustrations in it as well. I’m not much of an illustrator, but these made me laugh and seemed to move the story along.

Why have you chosen to self-publish rather than go the agent-publisher route?

I am not a big game player, and by that I mean I don’t like to guess at what agents and publishers want. The more I have read about how perfect your pitch letter has to be before an agent will even agree to look at your book, the more I questioned the need to go through an agent. Add to that the fact that even if you get an agent they still have to shop your book around, and then a publisher will take another six months to a year to put it out, and you will have to do much of the marketing yourself regardless, and suddenly, self-publishing starts to make a lot more sense.

When and where can people buy 'Searching For My Wand'?

It will be available before Christmas and hopefully as soon as December 12, 2011. Details will be on my website.

I know how much you love writing, and how jolly fast you write, so what's next for you?

If all goes well with 'Searching For My Wand', I have several other novels that are almost ready for publication. The last two years have been incredibly prolific for me. I have also written a musical with the incomparable Laura Hall entitled 'Room to Grow', that we hope to launch in the near future.

Thanks so much Bridget for taking the time to answer all my questions and tell us about your new book. The very best of luck with the launch. If anyone would like to read the first two chapters of Bridget's book, please go here. She is a fantastic writer and I couldn't wait to read more.