The Royal Treatment Interview with Lindsey Leavitt!

The Royal Treatment Interview with Lindsey Leavitt!

I have the great pleasure of welcoming Lindsey Leavitt to my blog today! I got to ask Lindsey six long form and six short form questions! Lindsey's book The Royal Treatment (sequel to the adorable Princess For Hire) is out now.

-----

What do you do when you are not writing? Do you have a day job as well? 

I'm a mom to three little girls, ages 7, 4, and 1. And they keep me PLE

NTY busy.

Princess For Hire:
The Royal Treatment

Do you work with an outline, or just write? 

I prefer to just write, but when doing a series, I have to outline. Very rough, chapter by chapter descriptions of what needs to happen, characters to introduce, twists to reveal. Sometimes I'll cheat and write until I hit a plot hole, then have to go back, so I've kind of learned my lesson there. 

Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

The biggest challenge was writing a book. Then writing another much better book. Then writing another when that book (Sean Griswold's Head, yes I later went back and revised and sold a year later), failed to hook me an agent. Once I wrote PRINCESS FOR HIRE,  the agent and sale was pretty quick, but I had a lot of time in the trenches leading up to that. I'm VERY grateful for my time as a pre-published author, I think I learned a lot about perseverance and perspective. I wouldn't change that time at all.

If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change?

Ha! See Above. That's not to say I didn't make mistakes--I MADE PLENTY--but I learned from those mistakes, so I wouldn't take them away. Even the humiliating ones, when I accidentally replied to an agent instead of my friend concerning a partial, and the agent then wrote back that, never mind, she didn't want that partial. Okay, maybe I would erase that one. 

Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?

I have some picture books that I really love the heart of, but I recognize they still need some work. I hope to someday figure out what would make them sing and then submit those. Picture Books are such an art form, and in many ways are more difficult than novels.

Do you write consistently or is it sporadic? 

I'm almost always doing something writing, or author, related, like interviews or research or networking or blogging. But I don't write write every day. My schedule is based on childcare, inspiration, and mostly deadlines. I've got a lot to do this summer, so I've been at it almost daily, but come fall I'll probably take a month or so off.

Light or dark chocolate? DARK

Favorite color? Yellow

Tea or coffee? Neither. Diet Pepsi

Pen and paper or laptop? LAPTOP. I <3 technology

Quiet room, music, or what? Total quiet, late at night, when I have lots of energy and fresh ideas.

Dog at your feet or cat on the desk? A cat and dog calendar on the wall. Feet up always.