Behind the sweet schoolgirl blonde bangs, the dame had eyes that could bore right through smart-aleck kids like lasers through cotton candy. She might have looked sweet and demure, but the former Air Force nurse had stared down generals and doctors who thought they knew it all. A roomful of high school students on a crisp fall morning? She'd seen harder cases a lot harder cases.
Photographer: Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Roberta Isleib, left, and Lori Avocato, right, listen to questions from Homer High School students at their visit last Tuesday to Homer.
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And her partner was no pushover, either. With her hip horn-rim glasses, tan corduroy pants and short brown hair, she might have looked like a librarian yeah, if a librarian moonlighted as a shrink.
You think you have the chops to make it in the hardboiled world of mystery writing? Think you're ready to take on the alligators of publishing, long-toothed agents and editors who would eat you for breakfast rather than grace you with a six-figure, three-book publishing contract? That's what visiting mystery writers Lori Avocato and Roberta Isleib talked about last week during a visit to Homer High School sponsored by the Authors in the Schools program.
"You have to develop a tough skin and be persistent," Avocato told about 30 students during the Focus on Learning period last Tuesday.
"You need a lot of persistence," Isleib added. "You need some talent and luck."
The two Connecticut writers met through the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime, a national organization for mystery writers. They came to Alaska in late September to attend Bouchercon a convention named after the late New York Times mystery reviewer, Anthony Boucher held in Anchorage.
The 2007 Bouchercon was organized by the Alaska Sisters in Crime, which in 2001 also sponsored Left Coast Crime, another mystery writers convention in Anchorage. Back then, Homer writer Dana Stabenow came up with the idea of sending visiting writers to rural Alaska. Through the Authors in the Schools program, visiting writers in 2001 and now in 2007 have gone everywhere from Tenakee Hot Springs to Savoonga to share their writing skills and experience. This year, with support from the Alaska Humanities Forum, 30 authors went to 45 Alaska communities, said Ann Rothe, Authors in the Schools coordinator.
Isleib and Avocato visited Kenai Alternative High School before their trip to Homer. At Homer High School, they had a full day speaking with classes on the basics of writing mysteries. During the Focus on Learning period, the writers talked about how they broke into print.
Both authors came to writing later in life, after establishing careers. Isleib is a clinical psychologist and Avocato a former nurse careers they've brought to their fiction. Isleib has a series about a neurotic professional golfer and a sports psychologist, with titles like "Six Strokes Under" and "Fairway to Heaven." Her latest book, "Deadly Advice," is about an advice columnist.
Avocato used her nursing career to write a series about a medical fraud investigator, Pauline Sokol, which started with "A Dose of Murder" and continues with "Dead on Arrival," the latest book in the series.
"I thought, what do I know?" Avocato said she asked herself when she started to write. "I know nursing."
How they broke into publishing involved making contacts, being persistent they kept repeating the word and a lot of hard work.
And reading.
They recommended books like Stephen King's "On Writing," but also reading works by other writers in the field.
"Study the craft of what you want to do," Avocato said.
"Reading what you think you want to write is absolutely crucial," Isleib added.
Keep a notebook by your bed to write down ideas, Avocato suggested.
"You pull things from life pay attention to life," she said. "Writers are observers."
New writers have to finish a complete novel before publishers will look at their work.
"They don't know you can write well," Isleib said.
At first, rejections can be harsh impersonal rejection slips addressed to "Dear Author." A good sign comes when editors write personal rejections, Avocato said.
"It you really want to accomplish it, you will do it," she said. "You can't get discouraged along the way."
One secret to success? Approach writing like a job, both authors said. Avocato writes 9 a.m.-2 p.m. five days a week. When Isleib started out, she made time for writing.
"I would write a little bit in the morning and weekends," she said. "I would squeeze it in."
Do they get writer's block? One student asked.
Avocato doesn't believe in it. If you get stuck, you just force yourself to write, she said.
"You have a job to do," Avocato said. "It's not like 'You know, I don't feel like nursing. I have nurse's block.'"
When Isleib gets a book contract, she figures out how many pages she has to write a day to meet her deadline.
"You don't ever want to be late on your deadline," Avocato said.
To keep their careers going, the authors advised developing a readership and fan base. Publishers don't just want books they want writers, Avocato said. Both writers get fan mail from their readers something Isleib advised the students to do.
"If you have a writer you're a fan of, send them e-mail," she said.
One student asked how much money writers can expect to make.
"It varies," Isleib said. For every billionaire like J.K. Rowling, there are thousands who make hardly anything.
"It's not even a living," she said. "That's a good two-thirds, three-fourths of writing."
Hang in there, Avocato and Isleib kept saying to the students.
"If you really want to accomplish it, you will do it," Avocato said. "You can't get discouraged along the way."
"If you love it, and you're willing to get knocked around a bit, it's a fascinating business," Isleib said.
For more on Avocato's work, visit www.LoriAvocato.com. Isleib's Web site is at www.robertaisleib.com.
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
