Featured Interview With Norma Jean Lutz
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I can’t really remember not wanting to be a writer. The longing and desire formed slowly but steadily throughout my growing-up years. But with no guidance, and no encouragement from family, or from teachers, the dream remained far out of my reach. In my 7th grade year, I had a small story published in the children’s page of a local newspaper. A heady experience (seeing my name in print) that would not be repeated for many years.
I was married, and mom to two elementary-age children, when I finally took the plunge. Determined to make my dreams come true I enrolled in a writing correspondence school. (This was back in the day when we used postage stamps and snail mail.) That was the turning point. I learned it wasn’t enough to write well, but to also know how to market my work. That was a new concept to me. The course material supplied market books and taught students how to use them. Before completing the course, I was selling my assignments to magazines.
I went on to enroll in a second, more advance writing course, and again sold several articles that had been assignments. By now, I knew that my preferred genre was writing for teens.
[One added note here: my very first check, from my very first sale, was dated on my birthday! To me, that was God confirming I was on the right track. A second added note: I later served for nine years as an instructor for this same school.]
I’ve been fortunate to not only be a published author, but also a speaker/teacher at writer conferences all around the country. During that same era, I launched a novel consulting/critique service, assisting many writers with their works-in-progress.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was first published when I was in the 7th grade. It was an heady experience.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I am a voracious reader. I read constantly, and have for years. My favorite authors are many and varied. Early on, I read as many books as possible published by Writer’s Digest – writing how-to’s. I inhaled those books. Some of the authors were Jack Bickham, Marjorie Holmes, Richard Peck, Dwight Swain, Dean Koontz, Leonard Bishop, and Robert Newton Peck, just to name a few. I was so hungry to learn the ins and outs of the craft, and from those books, I learned about plotting, characterization, style, pacing, settings, conflict, and on and on.
I have always kept up a steady diet of teen fiction, since that’s my chosen genre. Some of my favorites are S.E. Hinton, Gordon Korman, Cynthia Voigt, Gary Paulsen, Theodore Taylor, Jacqueline Woodson, and on and on. If I listed them all, this would be a long, boring interview.
Of the adult fiction I read, I enjoy such authors as Rosamunde Pilcher, Ann Patchett, Carrie Brown, John Grisham, Ernest J. Gaines. For nonfiction I love books by David McCullough, and biographies.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Brought To You By The Color Drab… This teen action novel was a long time in gestation! I had the germ of the idea many years ago. In 2004, I traveled to Cincinnati to research. Spent the next few years writing the book (off and on because of lack of time). Then spent several years trying to find a publisher. Was unable to land either a publisher or an agent. SO frustrating!
It was at this time I discovered self-publishing. I stepped back from this novel to set about re-releasing many of my novels that I had published in the 80s and 90s. Now that I have many of those up and going, it was time to return to my sweet character in “Color Drab,” Race Paloma. I absolutely love this character. He’s a sweet soul who is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Since Race had to sit on the back burner for so long, I want to do right by him now. He deserves to be known and to have his story told!
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