18Q Lea Schizas

Lea Schizas

1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you?

It wrangled me in my sleep one day with a neat story I couldn’t get out of my head. I was in the sixth grade and that story made it as first place in the elementary contest. It was a horror story about a dream…go figure.

2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.)

I’m a stylist by profession but that now has been deleted and I now respond to “full-time writer.”

3. When did you ‘know’ you were a writer?

The day I picked up a pen and words flowed out of my head. And they made sense! That’s when I knew writing was for me.

4. How would you describe your style of writing?

Since I don’t write in any one particular genre I would say my writing is ‘mutt’ writing, a breed of a little of this and a little of that.

5. What is your writing process?

I work in a rotating disc method, meaning I save all my stories on single disks. I pull the first disk from the front of the pile, work on that story/book until I come to a brick wall. I then place it at the end of the pile, pick up number two and go on to a new story with a fresh outlook. By the time I come to the one that blocked me, I’ll look at it from a different angle and continue where I left off. This way I’m working on several stories without ever having a time span just sitting and staring hoping my empty page will begin writing on its own.

6. What was your path to publication?

Long story short: I had an interest to publish my YA Fantasy novel The Rock of Realm by a publisher from England. Read the contract and then it hit me: why would I want five percent royalty when I still have to do the promotional and marketing legwork where I can get 100 percent, minus the shipping and printing costs of the book, via a small press publisher. That’s when I was given JadaStar’s name by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and the rest is history. As for my second book: this was a group effort I coordinated with 18 writers across the world and published by Double Dragon Publishing this February. It’s a writer’s reference book titled The Muse On Writing.

7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea?

Making sure to place the appropriate signature depending on who I am emailing. Many writers omit this part of a simple transaction which goes to many folks out there in the internet, especially when you are in a group.

8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?

I can’t say there have been any surprises other than getting praised by fellow writers for my endless passion of opening up my email box to them for any help they may want. And this is a surprise because when you offer something of yourself, you never truly are seeking out praise, so this has to be one of my best surprises in my writing career and one I cherish.

9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity?

Gawd, I inspire myself when I inspire others if you want to believe it or not. Offering help and prompts to fellow writers, seeing them published, just sparks a get up and go feeling within.

10. What is your proudest writer moment?

There have been two amongst many but these two stand out the most:

1- Tri-studio made me cry when the MuseItUp Club had their first anniversary. Several writers got together with the help of Kathe and Ray Gogolewski, founders of Tri-Studio and made a tribute to me. I tell you this was a shocker that I’ll remember forever. 2-This year, Shelagh McNally, one of the writers of The Muse On Writing, presented to me on behalf of all the contributing writers, a collage of stamps, business cards, and notes to me that traveled all around the world before landing in my hands in Montreal. For them to have gone through the trouble to show how much they appreciated my constant badgering for them to edit, edit, submit, submit, well, all I can say touched doesn’t even describe it.

11. What’s the best advice you were given about writing?

Nadda! When I first restarted my writing career after a 23 year self-induced coma of taking care of the family, I never came upon a writer who was willing to share insight with me. Perhaps I wasn’t looking in the right places but this was one of my biggest motivators to make sure my door was always open to others who needed some advice.

12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment?

Considering I place ‘Editor’ after my name, one of the biggest embarrassments had to be when I sent out a release for one of the Muse Marquee’s columns mentioning the Editor’s name and her column “ Self-Publication Know – how” . Just one little omission of a letter turned out to be “self-pubication’ hehehehe

13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer?

There’s a reason why we have the ‘starving’ bit infront of our ‘writer’ signature. Everything costs an arm and a leg; bookmarks, business cards, flyers, etc. So I had to get smart and start printing these off on my own.

14. What is your writer life philosophy?

Never allow a day to go by without penning at least one word or thought down on paper.

15. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun?

Come again? Writing is fun for me. It’s my escape! You try managing a house with five kids, a dog, three guinea pigs, and a husband, not to mention the open door of friends popping in.

16. Who do you like to read?

Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Robert Ludlum, J. K. Rowling

17. What’s your advice for new writers?

Never allow a rejection to stop you from writing. You should be proud of every rejection that comes in because that signals you as a serious writer who has manuscripts out there unlike the wannabe writers who talk about subbing and do nothing about it. At least you’re trying and one day, that acceptance will come in. Determination and perseverance are two elements every writer should possess, remember that.

18. What are you currently working on?

What am I not working on. I have 7 novels in various stages. One screenplay is out there floating for acceptance, two anthology projects I am editing and writing for, and a huge online writers conference to come October 9-13 2006, The Muse Online Writers Conference.

Lea’s 18Q