Interview with Allison Brennan

Jackie Kessler © 2006

Wild Child Publishing.com © 2006

Being a prolific author is very possible, as Allison proves. She's learned a lot along the way, from how much she needs to write every day to promotion to the differences in mass market and hardcover. In August, Allison answered many questions about her books and the industry.

Wild Child Publishing: Three books, loosely connected by having the protagonists know one another from Quantico. Which protagonist did you have the most fun with?

Allison Brennan: Fun? I'm not sure I'd say any were fun per se, considering their backstories. But out of all of them, I think Miranda [from The Hunt] was the most interesting to write about. She was really cut-and-dried about her life and decisions, a little clueless about men, and focused. But I particularly loved threading through the flashbacks about her relationship with Quinn and comparing then and now and how they'd both changed over time.

WCP: Rowan, Miranda, Olivia: who do you relate with the most? The least? Why?

AB: There's a little bit of me in all my heroines. I'm more like Olivia because she's not as physically fit as her friends, and she likes the science and reasons behind the crime. I've always been fascinated by forensics even though I didn't go into the field. (After I had to dissect a fetal pig in school, I decided I couldn't do that to dead bodies.)

But like Rowan, I tend to wait until the crisis point before I deal with something; and like Miranda, I like to do things myself and sometimes make split decisions that I don't know if they're the right choice, but I stand by them. I probably related to Rowan the least of all, because she's a loner and prefers solitude to people. While I dream of a weekend alone writing in a cabin, I think after a couple days, I'd start to lose it!

WCP: Did you thoroughly plot the stories and stick with them throughout the books?

AB: Ha ha ha ha ha. Plot? Like, plan out what's going to happen each step of the way? I don't plot. I have an idea and go from there. I generally start writing when I have at least one character pictured, but often I learn more about them as they are forced to make decisions. This is why when I reach the end of the first act—anywhere from page 120-140—I often rewrite the beginning. It takes me that long to really get to know my characters.

The story itself tends to change as the characters become more developed. I might think I know where the story is going, but because the characters have flaws, goals and motivations, their choices might send the story in a completely different direction. This happened several times in each book.

WCP: Sounds like there are some surprises along the way.

AB: True! The men usually surprise me more. John in The Prey was more protective than I thought he would be. He turned out to have a compelling backstory all his own even though I'd thought he was just another ex-Special Forces officer. With Quinn, what you see is what you get, but when I got into his mind and learned why he'd fallen in love with Miranda years ago and why he felt strongly about doing something he knew would hurt her (for the right reasons), he developed depth and turmoil I was surprised he had. And Zack was a lot more sensitive under his brusque exterior than I expected! The villains also surprise me when I get in their heads. They become more real. (Which is scary!)

WCP: Writing romantic suspense sort of guarantees a "happily ever after," doesn't it? So what do you do to convince the reader that dang it, the hero/heroine really may get killed?

AB: Because there is the story promise in romantic suspense that you do have the HEA, the real question for the reader is how. How are they going to get out of the situation, how are they going to stop the bad guy, how are they going to overcome their problems to make the HEA believable.

In my books, my story promise is that the hero and heroine will be alive and together at the end of the book, and the bad guy will get what's coming to him. Some other "promises" is that I'll get into the mind of the killer so the reader can understand his/her own goals, motivation and conflict. While we wouldn't make the choices a killer makes, if the reader can see the killer's logic, I've done my job. . Other than that, anything goes. Other characters may be killed. There's not always a nice, neat pat ending. Life is messy, and because my characters tend to be involved directly or indirectly in law enforcement and often have tragic lives, that is reflected in their decisions, goals and conflicts.

WCP: How do you sustain the sexual tension throughout the novels?

AB: Sexual tension is a whole 'nother ball of wax, especially in romantic suspense. For me, it's much easier having characters who knew each other in the past, either romantically or professionally. I really love exploring the past and why the choices then might be different than the choices now. Quinn and Miranda obviously loved and respected each other ten years after their initial relationship, but they had a huge conflict (Quinn kicking Miranda out of Quantico) that had to be resolved, and neither expected the final resolution. (Neither did I!) In the book I'm writing now, See No Evil, Connor Kincaid and Julia Chandler didn't have a physical relationship, but they had a huge conflict in the past through their respective careers. How they resolve this is still a mystery, but the sexual tension is definitely higher than in Speak No Evil, the first book of my next trilogy, where Nick Thomas and Carina Kincaid have a strong working relationship on a case but no history together.

For me, I go with what works in the story. I tend to hit more heavily on the suspense side, as that's where my natural voice is.

WCP: Your readers: mostly romance, or mostly suspense?

AB: My books are "romantic suspense" though they lean heavily on the suspense side. I do get lot of crossover readers, and a surprising number (in my opinion) of male readers, but the truth is women buy and read more fiction than men, and they are my base. Romance readers are the most prolific and broad-based of all readers. They'll pick up just about any book. What they really want is a book that delivers on the story promise. The packaging for my book says "suspense" and the back cover copy hints to a romance, but focuses on the suspense element. The story delivers on that promise, so romance readers are, in general, content. If my covers focused more on the characters (that is, a male and female in an embrace) and the story was suspense-driven, I think readers would have been disappointed.

WCP: Do you write to suspense readers more than to romance readers?

AB: I don't write to any specific group. Some of my favorite female authors are Tami Hoag, Iris Johansen, Lisa Gardner, Kay Hooper and Linda Howard. They all started in romantic suspense and moved slowly into more suspense. But they still have strong relationships in their stories. I like having the romantic element in the story because it raises the stakes, strengthens the characters, and the storyline has more tension. When you're in love, everything matters more. I'd love to have both romance and suspense readers enjoy my books! However, my books do tend to be more gritty than some RS books, and I understand where some romance readers might shy away from the violence.

In a nutshell, I write what I like to read. I like edgy suspense and romantic entanglements. So I write for myself first, not a specific group.

WCP: Did you already write The Prey, The Hunt, and The Kill before you committed to having them on the shelves a month apart?

AB: I sold The Prey in March of 2004 as part of a two-book deal with Ballantine. I had already started writing The Hunt but put it aside half done because one, I had a baby in June 2004; and two, I had some minor revisions to The Prey to complete before then. Originally, The Prey was supposed to be out in June 2005, but in September of 2004, Ballantine's team decided they wanted to launch me with a back-to-back trilogy. To give me time to finish The Hunt and write a third book, they pushed back publication to January 2006. I turned in The Hunt in February 2005 and wrote The Kill. I had plenty of time to write and revise the books. In fact, I wasted a lot of time!

WCP: And now, three more books are under way, again with their releases one month apart. Congratulations! What's your schedule like?

AB: With the original trilogy, I had roughly nine months to write The Hunt and six months to write The Kill. Not shabby. But I wasted a lot of time. Now, I have 10 months to write three books.

What I had to do immediately was use my writing time to the fullest. No more email or Internet when I had set aside the hours to write. Because I have to juggle my kids schedule as well, I can't procrastinate. I also learned that while I can write at night, I write higher quality and quantity pages when I write in the mornings. So I might be able to knock out 5 to 10 pages from 9:00 p.m. through midnight that need to be heavily edited the next day, or I can write 15 to 20 pages from 9: 00 a.m. through noon that only need a light clean-up.

During the summer, I hired a babysitter three days a week from 9:00 a.m. until 3 p.m., and I left the house to write. I've found that I write more outside of the house because I don't have as many distractions. It also feels more like a "job," because for years I left the house to go to work.

When school starts, the younger kids are in from 8:30 a.m. until noon. I'm going to drop them off then go to Starbucks to write. Last year when I was at home, I never really got going until 10 a.m., and then was constantly looking at the clock because I was afraid I'd forget to pick them up! I need to write 15 pages a day four days a week. If I start pushing against a deadline, then I'll write in the evenings as well. I give my husband fair warning if I need a couple of nights out to write.

I can't wait until we have time to look for a new home—where I can have my own office complete with a door and a lock.

WCP: What have you learned from this first trilogy?

AB: I could write a book about what I've learned and what I still don't know!

Seriously, I knew next to nothing when I started writing. When I sold, I knew a little more, but only enough to highlight that I knew next to nothing.

From the books, I've learned that I have improved with every book I've written, and I hope to continue improving by writing tighter, better stories that entertain.

From the industry, I've learned that very little is in our control, but we need to at least ask our agent and/or editor questions and become informed as much as we're able. Not that we can change anything that the publisher decides to do with our books; instead we have to work as partners with them. Mass market is different from trade, which is different from hardcover. Each has a different threshold to meet and different requirements. A 50 percent return rate in MM might be considered a success, while a 50 percent return in hardcover is a failure.

WCP: What are your thoughts about authors writing in different genres?

AB: Once you sell, you need to focus on building that audience. Once you have a readership, when you change genres they're more likely to go with you if you've proven you can tell a good story. Juggling two genres is possible, but realize you need to do twice the work. Not just writing, but promoting. The best of all worlds is when you change genres or add a genre, that it has enough of your "foundation" so that your readers feel like they're still reading one of your books.

For example, I have what I bill a supernatural thriller coming out in an anthology from Pocket (tentatively scheduled for January 2008). First and foremost: it's a suspense and it's a romance. But it has paranormal elements. Paranormal suspense? Paranormal romance? Yes to both. I'm hoping that it sounds like me and with the right packaging and back cover copy the paranormal elements will be apparent so my readers won't be caught off-guard. But if I went from writing dark, gritty romantic suspense to light and airy romantic comedy, my readers may not be willing to come over with me.

WCP: You mentioned promotion—can you talk more about that?

AB: Promotion should do double duty. We really can do very little to effect sales on whatever book is currently on the shelves. That's all about print runs, distribution, and publisher support. However, we can do promotion that gives people what they want. Many booksellers like bookmarks, for example—do the research and send them to those who like to hand them out, but make sure you promote your website or blog as well as your title, and spend a little on quality so yours doesn't look like every other bookmark out there.

But the best thing for an author is word of mouth—so sending ARCs [advance reading/reviewing copies] if your publisher isn't, or supplementing their distribution, is one way to potentially grow readers.

WCP: What should writers do more of?

AB: I could spend a lot more time on this, and everyone has a different opinion. But the single best thing you can do for your career is keep writing. Produce two books a year. Promotion should never replace writing. It should be in addition to writing, and not cost an arm and a leg. Be smart, know your market, and know your strengths and limitations.

WCP: Do authors need an agent?

AB: Yes. Not everyone agrees with me, and that's fine. But I feel very strongly that if you want to be published and grow your career, you need an agent in your corner.

Writers need to have goals. Mine has always been to be published by a major NY house. Most major NY houses only take agented submissions. Therefore, I wanted an agent.

Yes, you can sell to a major house without an agent but your deal will be far less advantageous to you than with an agent. A good agent will more than make-up her 15 percent commission. Contracts are complicated and not comparable to most other businesses. Knowing what is negotiable and what are deal-breakers are part of your agent's job. I know too many people who have been screwed in their contracts when they've negotiated themselves. On the other hand, bad agents can also damage your career. So do your research. Know who's selling, who represents who, their reputation, their business practices, anything you can get. Romance Writers of America in particular are very generous with their experience and information. The information is out there. It's our fault if we don't look or ask for it.

There's far more reasons to get an agent and a lot of advice on how to weed out the good from the bad. I have a workshop I give on this and my notes are on my website.

Finally, editors definitely deal with agented authors differently than unagented authors. Not only in what you can get/retain but in business deals. Editors prefer dealing with agents. Agents are your buffer in the business. They should have your long-term career goals in mind, know what you want, know what they can get, and exploit opportunities where they see them. Why should you, the writer, have to put so much time and energy into the contracts and opportunities? A good agent will be doing this for you. And I never want to do business with my editor. Having that buffer helps me be a better writer.

WCP: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

AB: Everyone has their own process and path, and it's hard to give a one-size-fits-all advice. But there's something pretty common among all successful authors: they write every day (or close to it) and they read a lot.

Something I also think is important is to not listen to too many people when you're writing your first draft. I think critique groups are great, but sometimes they can interfere with your voice. As long as you know and understand the so-called "rules," break them. Rule-breaking books sell. This doesn't mean start head hopping every paragraph, but to know when to switch POV and don't let someone (other than an editor who has already paid you!) tell you that you can't do something. You can do anything—as long as it fits the story and the characters, and you have the talent to pull it off. The "rules" are well-meaning, and some people are served well by following them. Knowing when to follow and when to break the rules is the key to successful authors.

More than anything, though, just write. Get the story out. Nora Roberts really said it best: You can fix a written page; you can't fix a blank one.

The other thing . . . keep writing. When you finish one book, revise it once. Maybe twice. Then send it out and start another book. Repeat as needed. Don't get so bogged down in whether this sentence or that sentence sounds right. Editors buy on voice, loving the story, and basic skills. Agents sign on on the same thing. To find your voice you need to practice, but you'll know when you've hit it. Then preserve and enhance it.

WCP: Finally...are you a dog person or a cat person?

AB: I like dogs, but I'm really a cat person.