Friday Feature: Journeys Toward Publication and Beyond: Terry Lynn Johnson

Everyone, please, make Terry Lynn Johnson feel welcome today. She's our guest for today's Friday Feature. I love visiting her blog and feeling as though I'm hiking through the Canadian winter with her.

Here's a quick glimpse of Terry:

Terry Lynn Johnson's passion for the outdoors evolved while she paddled Quetico Provincial Park as a Canoe Ranger. One winter she worked for a dogsledding company and 18 huskies followed her home. Terry's writing has been published in Dogs in Canada, Adventure Kayak and many other magazines. Her debut middle grade novel, DOGSLED DREAMS will be published through 4RV Publishing LLC. Terry is a member of SCBWI and Outdoor Writers of Canada and lives in Whitefish Falls, Ontario. Visit her at www.terrylynnjohnson.com

Terry, thanks for being here today! What are you currently working on?

Ice Dogs is a YA novel about 15-year-old Victoria, who gets lost with her dogteam and finds an injured teen with a secret. But she must trust him if they are going to survive.

Terry, your book, DOGSLED DREAMS is due to come out in 2011. Can you share with us your road thus far towards publication--finding an editor and everything that involved?

After I had a polished manuscript, I sent it out to five Canadian agents. I received four rejections and a request for a partial. For the 30 day wait, I struggled to suppress my fantasies of the book tour. Six weeks later, I still hadn't heard. My gentle reminder email was returned with a gentle rejection. To recover from my disappointment, I continued to submit down my list of Canadian agents, then on to some American agents. Finally I started submitting to publishers. I received 32 rejections with a few partial and full requests before I reworked my first chapter.

Then I heard about the Muse On-line writing conference and when I signed up, I also applied for a pitch session with 4RV Publishers. They were the first to read my rewrite. 22 days later, they sent me a contract.

Currently I'm pumped and ready to begin working with my editor Keri Rouner.

If you had to pick one favorite blog, what would it be?

Edited to within an inch of my life, of course!

*blushing* Thanks for the compliment! Now about your blog--what is a favorite blog post that you have written?

I think I like one of my earliest posts about snowshoeing. It just makes me smile.

What online resource have you found most helpful?

Definitely, the Verla Kay boards.
So far on that site I've:
• found a great critique partner
• learned about the free on-line Muse writing conference
• been given great advice on a query letter
• learned from more experienced authors about their hits and misses with submitting, writing techniques, book marketing and promotion
• I've found and joined the Indie-debut group- a fantastic group of authors of small presses with books coming out in 2010 and 2011.

What tricks have you acquired to make you write or create when you don’t feel up to writing?

If I don't feel up to writing, I never write. The rule of writing everyday doesn't work with me. But sometimes when the mood hits, I can write for ten hours straight, forget to eat and drink, tell the family they can make themselves sandwiches for supper, kick the dog out so she doesn't annoy me with her pleading eyes and only stop when the inspiration starts to fade.
One thing I obviously need to work on in my life is balance.

Tell us about a book that has impacted your writing life.

I read Cold Nights, Fast Trails by Dave Oleson when I first started running dogs. He wrote short anecdotes of his life with sled dogs in the Northwest Territories. I loved how he made me feel and how his writing made me look at my dogs differently. He had a philosophical approach to his life that really spoke to me. When I wrote Dogsled Dreams, I hoped to convey to the reader the special relationship between musher and dog, and maybe capture some of the magic that Dave Oleson so eloquently expressed.

Terry, tell us. What is your practical goal with your writing? Do you have a reach-for-the-stars goal that you would like to share?

So far, I write on the side. I have a full time job so my writing needs to be fun. I guess that's my goal - keep it fun.

Of course, as with any writer, my pimped-out dream would be to write books that attract rabid fans from around the world, and see my books made into movies, and have action figures made out of my characters and...wait a minute, I may be borrowing that dream from somewhere.

So far, what has been the best part of your writing experience?

It was very cool when I finally got the call that my book will be published. But I think the best personal experience was when a character from my book did something that surprised me, something I had not planned. Seriously, I used to read stuff like that from author interviews, how their characters argued with them and I would think - whoa, crazy much? But it actually does happen and I was so amazed.

If you could be a character in a book, and live within their world, what character would you be?

Well, I grew up wishing I was Tarzan. I thought it would be so cool to be able to swing through trees, run around barefoot and hang with your adopted family all day.

And, just because I’m curious, coffee or tea?

I've always thought coffee tastes like burnt water. Nothing beats a hot cup of herbal tea with honey.

Thanks so much for the great interview, Terry! Faithful followers, feel free to ask a question or two in the comments and Terry will stop by to answer as her work schedule permits. And, if you want more Terry Lynn Johnson, pop over (after commenting here, of course!) to the Shut Up! I'm Reading blog for a previously blogged interview.