After an agent gave me some excellent, succinct advice about “raising the stakes,” I realized I had to take the plunge and make the difficult decision to cut several chapters and characters, even though I loved them.

Jill Caugherty – 21 April 2020

The Back Flap

Growing up in a strict Utah farm family during the Great Depression, Irene Larsen copes with her family’s hardship by playing piano. Even when an unthinkable tragedy strikes, Irene clings to her dream of becoming a musician. When a neighbor’s farm is foreclosed, Irene’s brother marries the neighbor’s daughter, who moves in with the Larsens and coaches Irene into winning leading roles in musicals. Clashing with her mother, who dismisses her ambition as a waste of time, Irene leaves home.

During a summer job at Zion National Park, she meets professional dancer Spike, a maverick who might be her ticket to a musical career. But does pursuing her dream justify its steep price?

Alternating between Irene’s ninetieth year in 2006 at an assisted living home, where she struggles with declining health and memory, and her coming-of-age in the thirties, Waltz in Swing Time is a poignant tale of mother-daughter relationships, finding hope amidst loss, and forging an independent path.

About the book

When did you start writing the book?

I began writing the novel in 2008 when our daughter was still a baby.

How long did it take you to write it?

It took me nearly ten years to write and another three years to edit and ultimately find a publisher.

Where did you get the idea from?

My maternal grandparents had an amazing story of how they met and married – something I always believed would make for an exciting novel.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

After an agent gave me some excellent, succinct advice about “raising the stakes,” I realized I had to take the plunge and make the difficult decision to cut several chapters and characters, even though I loved them.  I also spent many hours rewriting chapters to make the action more immediate and exciting, and inserting mini “cliff hangers” to keep the reader turning the pages.

What came easily?

Writing about the main character, Irene Larsen, in the “present” (2006), as she muses about her declining health and memory in an assisted living home, went quickly. Also, describing her adventures at Zion National Park and afterwards was a relatively fast process.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

While most of the characters are fictitious, I borrowed very loosely from my maternal grandmother’s life in creating the protagonist Irene Larsen and the professional dancer, Spike, whom she meets at Zion National Park.

Do you have a target reader?

Adults of all ages who are interested in historical fiction, especially the underrepresented topic of the Great Depression, and people who enjoy coming-of-age stories and strong female protagonists.  Because this novel also examines the process of getting old, aging adults may find the 2006 sections of the novel intriguing.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

​I start with a high level idea about a story: beginning, middle, end.  If the idea excites me, and I can summarize the action in a few concise sentences with a “hook,” in much the way that I would pitch the finished story to an agent, I write a high level outline and take notes about the characters. After I have filled in enough details about the main characters, organized a high level outline, and conducted sufficient research about the time period and setting, I begin writing, chapter by chapter.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

Yes, I outline at a high level, usually by jotting down a few ideas about each chapter and the characters.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I re-read what I’ve written and often edit as I go, and then I do a two-phase editing process after I have written the first draft. The first phase is content editing, which for me consists of examining what works and what doesn’t work, which chapters need more details and which may need to be expurgated. The second phase is copy editing, which is more tedious, but equally important as it requires cutting unnecessary words and phrases, spotting and eliminating redundancy or awkward wording.

Did you hire a professional editor?

No.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

No. I like to work with few distractions.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Yes. I received several agent requests for my full manuscript, and one revise and resubmit request that included excellent advice about raising the stakes.  Many agents provided little feedback, but I took all comments I received seriously, and often spent several days digesting the feedback before attacking the changes I determined I needed to make.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I wanted to establish credibility with my book, and I decided the easiest way to do that was by signing a contract with a traditional publisher instead of self-publishing.  Even before I pitched the book to publishers, I shopped it to agents, but ultimately I decided to work with an independent publisher in Texas, Black Rose Writing.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

Professional.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I do have a high level marketing plan, consisting of giving readings at local bookstores in Raleigh-Durham, NC and a couple of bookstores in the Mountain West; attending local Writers’ Conference where I can bring copies of my book to sell; running at least one give-away; and securing blurbs and reviews.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Be persistent.  It took me over a decade to write my novel, edit it, and publish it.  I received countless rejections, but I didn’t give up or grow discouraged.  Instead, I carefully analyzed any and all feedback I received, and made necessary changes when I agreed with the feedback. I also read heavily, and conscientiously noted the mechanics that worked well in books I admired, along with those that did not. As a perfectionist, I rewrote tirelessly at the macro and micro level – both content and copy editing.  The best advice I received, to raise the stakes, ultimately helped improve my novel by ratcheting up the tension in the novel and making the protagonist’s choices all the more difficult because of what she had to lose.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Los Angeles, California, but my family moved to Fort Worth, Texas when I was two.  We transferred to Littleton, Colorado (a suburb of Denver) when I was ten, and relocated to Houston, Texas three years later, where I completed junior high and high school.

Where do you live now?

Raleigh, North Carolina.

What would you like readers to know about you?

​Although I hold B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science, an MBA with honors, and have worked in the high tech industry for over twenty-five years, my true passion since childhood has been creative writing.  Since I was discouraged from being a writer by my parents, who worried that a writing career wouldn’t pay the bills, I set aside my dreams to focus on analytical classes and studies, like math and science.  All the same, while growing up,  I wrote two mini “novels,” a longer novel, along with plays, which I persuaded my two younger sisters to perform with me by agreeing to play the male roles.

Like the main character of my novel, Irene, I also enjoy playing piano, and often used it as a form of escape and pleasure while growing up in my strict family.

I live with my husband and our twelve year old daughter in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill “Triangle” area of North Carolina. My husband and I met in grad school in upstate New York, and relocated to the Raleigh-Durham area in the early nineties.

 What are you working on now?

A new coming-of-age novel that also takes place during the Great Depression, set in San Francisco and Yosemite National Park.  After a series of tragic events leave the protagonist, fifteen-year-old Emma, desperate and damaged, she flees San Francisco for Yosemite to visit her brother, who is working at a CCC camp.  While in Yosemite, Emma meets real-life historic figure Enid Michael, the first female naturalist/ranger at Yosemite, who together with her husband, takes in the run-away girl and introduces her to the beauty of Yosemite.  As Emma goes on hikes with Enid and her husband and learns about the park’s amazing flora and fauna, she gradually begins to heal and ultimately bloom.

End of Interview:

For more from Jill, visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

Get your copy of Waltz in Swing Time from Amazon US or Amazon UK.