Interview Kay Layton Sisk
by
Mariah Legrand
1. How long have you been writing?
I started writing in elementary school. I still have the stories--but not the nerve to reread them. I quit when I went to college then began again about 12 years ago.
2. What authors have influenced your writing?
In high school, I read a lot of plays. I think that more than any single author influenced me to write books that take place over a short period of time and in a confined space, such as A SUITE DEAL, which happens over 4 days in a hotel suite.
3. What helpful tips and advice can you give unpublished authors?
There are books on this, you know. <g> But in a nutshell, I think persistence and belief in yourself would have to be at the top of the list.
4. Tell us about your new June release. It sounds like a great story.
It's a fun story. Two people are thrown together--with assorted families--into the same hotel suite for the duration of a convention. Sparks fly--and love ensues!
5.What sort of research did you have to do to bring this story to life?
A SUITE DEAL takes place at a convenience store convention. We have friends who owned c-stores, so I queried them about their national meetings.
6. Do you write an outline first or are you a seat of the pants writer?
Pure seat of the pants. I know the destination--a happy ending. If I know all the steps to get there then the fire is out of my discovery, just like it would be if someone told you all the surprises along the way before you read them.
7. Do you keep a writing schedule?
I wish I did. I write in the afternoons.
8. Do you have more novels in the works?
Five more are on the schedule with Wings, including a four-part series next year.
9. Do you have other published novels?
ONE YEAR PAST PERFECT was released by Wings in April. I have had 4 others released by another e-publisher and they are all currently in the WINGS queue. A SUITE DEAL is one of them. While it was a 2002 release, it won the Virginia Romance Writers HOLT Medallion for Best Short Contemporary Romance. What an honor for me--and an alternately published novel, as the competition was very traditionally published.
10. How did you feel when you got the contract from Wings?
Thrilled at the chance to work with Lorraine Stephens again and Wings for the first time.