Member of the Week: Deborah Bouziden

And member since 2002!

Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
A: I think I have always had a desire to be a writer. When I was young I read Jack London’s, Call of the Wild. In second grade, every month, I’d check the book out from the school library and read it. Finally, my grandmother gave me the book for Christmas. That book was the very first book I owned. (I still have that book BTW.) I loved London’s descriptions and the way the story unfolded. As a teenager, I wrote articles and won trophies locally, state wide, and regionally for them.

Then after my children were born, sometime in 1982, I wanted to do something so I could stay home with them. One day, while I was lying on the couch, the sun came shining in through the front door. Like a spotlight, it illuminated one of my writing trophies sitting on the fireplace hearth. I thought, maybe I could do some writing.

Q: How and when did you make this dream a reality?
A: Later in 1982, my husband and I traveled to Branson, Missouri. We had taken several trips there in the past, but this time on the way home, we started talking about how the area needed a travel guide book. I got home and decided I was just the person to write it. I contacted a publishing house and to my surprise they were actually interested in the idea. The problem was I had NO idea what I needed to do.

I went to the bookstore and bought Perry L. Wilbur’s book, How to Write Books that Sell. I read that book from cover to cover and realized I knew even less than what I thought I knew. Through a series of “synchroncity” events, I wound up in a private writing class. I sold the first thing I wrote for the class and was in that class for four years.

Unfortunately, I never did write the guide book on Branson. We visited there five years later and saw a Branson Tour Guide book on the shelf by the particular publisher I had contacted. My husband was angry, but I told him it wasn’t the publisher’s fault. After the initial contact, I never got back to them. They thought it was a great idea. After I dropped off the map, they found someone else who would and did write it for them.

I tell my friends, at times I feel with the writing of the Off the Beaten Path and Insider’s Guide books I write, I have gone full circle. I started out wanting to write guide books and here I am doing just that. I write other non-fiction and fiction too, but the guide books have been my most steady projects by far.

Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your writing career?
A: There are two things every one who ever desires to write a book must know. First, you must sit down, write, and complete a book. I tell my writing students, “you must have a body of work, a product if you will, to sell before you can sell it.”

Second, you’ve got to be persistent. Don’t let anyone shatter your dreams. Keep searching for a market for your book. Keep trying to sell it. You only fail, if you quit.
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: I just finished a guide book on Oklahoma City, titled Insider’s Guide to Oklahoma City, for Globe Pequot Books out of Connecticut. It will be released in December 2009. Between working on promoting it, I’m working on a fiction series called The Grave Hunter. I wrote a short story some years ago using the same title. It was published in an anthology. An editor expressed some interest in the main character and asked me if I had ever thought about using that main character for a series. I’ve got the series plot lines down and now I’m working on the first book for that series.
Q: Name some authors or books that have influenced your writing life in a positive way.
A: Wow! There have been so many over the span of my 25 year career. Of course, Jack London, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Bronte, go without saying. I have so many writer friends now. Jennifer Blake, who is a NY Times Bestseller, seems always to be there for me when I need a little push in the right direction. I interviewd Laurell K. Hamilton some years ago for Writer’s Digest’s Novel & Short Story Market Book. Her story is inspiring. She had a desire to write, but in college, one of her professors told her she couldn’t and shouldn’t write. She didn’t let that stop her. She continued to follow her dream and today she is also a NY Times Bestseller.
You hear so many stories like that. People trying to tear down another person’s dreams and goals. But it’s like I said earlier, a person has to keep at it. No matter what. Writing is not easy. Publishing is not easy. But if you want it, really want it, you can reach your goals.

Being a writer for me is not just what I do, it’s who I am. My writer friends are like that. We are driven. I’ve heard so many of them say, I could NOT write, no more than I could NOT breathe. It’s a part of our DNA.
Q: What have you recently read or what are you reading right now that you would consider an outstanding work?
A: I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice. I read it at least once a year. I love the way Austen transports me to that time period. A few months ago, I read The Shack. It was interesting in the way the author presented God. I like Stephanie Barron’s work. She writes edgy, unique fiction. I started reading her because of her Jane Austen Mystery series, but have read her other books too. She worked as an analyst for the CIA, and then decided she wanted to write fiction. Her husband thought she was a little crazy, but after her first book was accepted, she quit her job and hasn’t looked back. How fun is that?
Q: What excites or ignites your soul?
A: The things that truly excites or ignites my soul are words, books, and great stories. My family laughs at me because I can lose myself for hours reading through the dictionary. I love to hold books in my hand, smell the pages. I love libraries and bookstores. It is a sad day indeed when I go to the bookstore and can find nothing on the shelves I want to take home. That has only happened twice in my entire life. I buy old 18th, 19th century books and ponder who were the people who read them.

Finally, a good story excites me. My daughter came home from work today and told me about one of her patients. He is originally from Yugoslavia. He has climbed mountains around the world and one particular 14,000 footer, 113 times. They now have a five day hiking program in his honor and was promoting in on television last night. He’s 86. My daughter asked him about the program. She said he acted like it was no big deal and told her a couple stories involving his exploits. I asked her if anyone had ever written a book about him. She said, “no.” I told her, “someone definitely should” and am considering calling him tomorrow.

Deborah Bouziden has been writing and publishing non-fiction and fiction articles and books since 1985. She teaches writing and publishing classes when her time allows, holds workshops, and speaks at conferences across the south and southwest. Visit her website to learn more about her work and enter her monthly contest. Visit her at http://www.deborahbouziden.com