A Conversation with "The God's Wife" author, Lynn Voedisch
Lynn Voedisch is a Chicago journalist and fiction writer with many years experience working for newspapers and magazines. She is a member of the America Society of Journalists and Authors and the Society of Midland Authors, where she is one the board of directors. She started out as editor of her college newspaper at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, and went on to work for WBBM-TV, Chicago; Pioneer Press in suburban Chicago, the Los Angeles Times, and spent a 17-year stint at the Chicago Sun-Times. She was an entertainment reporter and technology reporter there and helped develop the newspaper’s fledgling Web site. The site and staff won Best Innovation from the Inland Daily Press Association and the Dvorak Award for Web content.
She has been on television (“Chicago Tonight”) and radio (WBEZ-FM) talk shows, discussing arts topics that affect the city. After leaving the Sun-Times, she pursued a freelance career where she was published in the Chicago Tribune and in the Industry Standard, Grok and Connect-Time (all technology magazines). She also did arts stories for Dance Magazine and the Tribune. A short story of hers, “Wili,” was published inFolio literary magazine in Winter, 2001. She is now working on fiction. Her first novel, “Excited Light” (ASJA Press, $14.95) is available at Amazon.com, bn.com,booksamillion.com and can be ordered at any Barnes & Noble store. Her current novel, “The God’s Wife” (Fiction Studio Books, $9.99 e-book, $16.95 paperback) goes on sale Aug. 9.
Visit her website at http://www.lynnvoedisch.com/TheGodsWife-LV.com/Welcome.html
A: I’ve been a journalist all of my career, but that need to write fiction was always in the back of my mind. I worked as a newspaper reporter for a large metropolitan daily and was a single parent, so had no time for fiction. But when I was married again, my husband said I could quit and freelance. That freed me up to write fiction. I wrote my first book in under a year, but it got 96 rejections and I realized that journalism and fiction were a bit different and I needed to take classes. I did take classes, and also went to the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City. Eventually I self published that first novel (after much revision), wrote four more manuscripts, and finally a real publishing imprint took my ms. for “The God’s Wife.” Including journalism, I’ve been writing for 30 years.
Q: Can you please tell us about your book and why you wrote it
A: “The God’s Wife” is both a historical fiction and urban fantasy in one. It tells the story of a 16-year-old girl chosen to become the God’s Wife of Amun, an extremely important priestess role in ancient Egypt. The God’s Wife, Neferet, is instantly besieged by political schemers and sexual harassment. Meanwhile, in contemporary Chicago, a dancer who is scheduled to portray an Egyptian onstage, over-researches her role and starts falling into trances where she believes she is in Egypt. Eventually, the two, by some strange magic, begin to see each other and even communicate. What’s most important about the book is that these two are split souls—each is a part of the other. The challenge is for the universe to put these two, separated by millennia, back together as a whole person, still retaining all the elements that make their personalities so engaging.
Q: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced writing it?
A: I had a lot of research to do about the quite real position of God’s Wife of Amun and wanted to make everything as accurate as possible. So I spent a great deal of time reading about it on the Web and in libraries. My husband and I even went to Egypt (although it was partly a vacation.)
Q: Do you have a press kit and what do you include in it? Does this press kit appear online and, if so, can you provide a link to where we can see it?
A: No I haven’t put together a press kit, because Fiction Studio Books is marketing this book solely on the Web. My publisher has opted to make this mostly an e-book, although a paperback is available from Amazon.com. Most mainstream press will not cover e-books. So, I just have a website, www.lynnvoedisch.com that covers everything you need.
Q: Have you either spoken to groups of people about your book or appeared on radio or TV? What are your upcoming plans for doing so?
A: I’ve appeared on WBBM-AM in Chicago, a station that has tremendous reach, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’ll be putting the podcast on my website when it becomes available. I also was on the Internet radio station AngelsandWarriors.org, and I’ve put the link on my Facebook page, but soon will put the link on my website. I’ll continue to try to do readings and other appearances, but these two starters were good ones.
Q: Do you have an agent and, if so, would you mind sharing who he/is is? If not, have you ever had an agent or do you even feel it’s necessary to have one?
A: I never had to have an agent for this book, because the publisher contacted me directly! I know this sounds incredible. Especially since I had so many rejections early in my fiction career. I have had nothing but bad luck with agents, and I’m still not sure if I need one now. I will have a talk with my publisher after the domestic sales of “The God’s Wife” die down and see if I need one for foreign sales or for (fingers crossed) movie rights. Frankly, if I don’t need one, I’m just as happy to continue without one.
Q: Did you, your agent or publisher prepare a media blitz before the book came out and would you like to tell us about it?
A: My publisher planned a blog tour and he has a few tricks up his sleeve about how to distribute the e-books to get the most readers possible. He spent many years in New York as the head of a major publishing house, so I trust him when it comes to marketing plans.
Q: Do you plan subsequent books?
A: Oh, yes. I’ve been spending so much time on marketing, that I have little time to write currently, but I am getting down ideas for a new book that will involve characters from various different times in history from ancient times to the contemporary world. It will definitely be an urban fantasy novel, which seems to be the genre I am most entranced by.
Q: Thank you for your interview, Lynn. Would you like to tell my readers where they can find you on the web and how everyone can buy your book?
A: They can go to my website, www.lynnvoedisch.com, or to my Facebook page, which is under my name, Lynn Voedisch. Try the author page. Also, you can buy my e-book anywhere they sell e-books. That means Amazon.com for Kindle, iTunes for iPad, barnesandnoble.com for nook and so on. If you would like the paperback edition, it’s only available at Amazon.com. Also, go to www.fictionstudiobooks.com for more information about my book, excerpts, and blogs. My own blog, www.bastetslair.blogspot.com is, unfortunately, not updated very often. My twitter is @bastetmax. Also, if you like nonfiction, I write frequently for Technorati.com, where I have been an editor and now do news stories and book reviews.
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