Merry Goodman

1.Tell us about yourself.

 I’m age 30, single, never married, and I use a pen name and a logo to reserve a little privacy for those around me. I can’t give away all my secrets. I live in St. Paul, MN, now, but spent years in St.      Louis, MO. I’ve also spent time overseas in Romania, so all three of those locations enter into my stories. I’ve owned horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks at various times. Now, as I say in my bio, I have only 4 house plants, which is plenty, as I forget to water them.

     I do have to confess that I cry at happy endings, whether I read or see them from someone else, or write them myself. Weeping at my computer happens often.

2.When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

When I was in Romania, I wrote updates back home to the donors and other interested people. Sometimes I wrote them as a story and enjoyed that more than just writing the facts. Once I came back to the US, to St. Paul, I decided to write some love stories. My first ones were poor, and I discarded them. Then, I wrote 20 more, better, but still not good enough. The ideas are good but need extensive rewriting if I want to publish them.

      Then I joined a program of Write to Publish, which pushed me to write and publish a story within 8 weeks. I had written 8 stories prior to the program which were better, and as I started that program, I wrote more stories, hurter ones, 50 pages or so, one which was published on Sept 19At that point, I felt that I was a writer. The other way I know is that when I write a story, I get excited to work on it, to put my ideas in words. I want to punch the air. To me, that is a giveaway that I am a writer.

3.What has influenced you the most as a writer?

  I have 500 romance novels in my Kindle. I enjoy reading them, watching Hallmark, watching Christmas love stories, anything that brings people together in love and unites them.

      By writing, I learned what part of the Romance genre I enjoy most, which for me, is clean and sweet stories leading up to the proposal.

4.What makes you passionate about being an Author?

Love is the most powerful force that exists between people. It drives people to do things that they never would otherwise. It makes people better, more mature, more giving, more involved, less selfish (if they let it work).

    To write about this is just marvelous, so fun.

5.Who is the most supportive person in your life when it comes to your writing?

I have a best friend who always supports me. I liken a writer to a gold rush prospector. A few get rich at it, the rest never do, but passion drives them on to keep digging, keep searching for their dream. To have a supporter when writing is hard, when I want to quit, is wonderful. Otherwise, I would quit.

6.Why did you choose romance as your genre to write?

Love stories are my interest and my passion. I love to see people find each other and connect, going through hardships, enduring, but love holds them together or brings them back together. To be apart brings pain, which is the evidence that they should be together.

7.Name one thing you love about romance?

• Finding each other, discovering a connection that unites them. The rest is just letting it happen, the zig-zags of life, letting it steep.
• The discovery, the spark, is the key. All my stories have a spark between them at the beginning.

8.You wrote romance series, “Love at first sight,” what inspired you to write such sweet stories?

Recipe for Love was the story that I chose to publish as my first book. It was finished (writing) 2 weeks into the 8-week program. Beta readers and editors consumed the remaining weeks, but I published it on schedule. The inspiration came from a previous story I wrote, 2-3 times longer than that story and much more involved. I gutted that story to make it fit within the time and space I had in the program. What brought the couple together was the same, however, he needed Basil for his Tomato Bisque. That inspiration came from my needing Basil for my own Tomato Bisque.

      At the time, I was actually writing all 5 stories, each one just a little ahead of the next one. It was a round-robin, a couple of days working on one, then working on the next, round and round. That let me publish all 5 within about a month, like dominos falling.

9.Each of the 5 stories in “love at first sight,” has its unique value. Which one is your favorite?

I don’t have a favorite; each one holds a different place in my heart. When I don’t have a story to read, I go back to my own and read them again. To me, they are still enjoyable. They are complete stories, not a hook to buy the next. I’ve read numbers of short romance stories, and some of them are just awful. I tried to make my stories quality both in content and grammar.

10.What did you learn when you wrote the series?

I learned to take what I have experienced and put it into the story. I have lots of adventures to draw upon, but I also have the imagination to invent what the story needs to make it fit the Romance model.

11.What genres have you written besides romance, if any? Is there a genre you haven’t tried yet but want to in the future?

None other than Romance, generally sweet and usually clean. Some have some stylized sex in them, leaving the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks.

      I tried to be more erotic and fell flat on my face. My Beta reader vomited on it (figuratively). I marvel at the cop shows or mysteries, which involve murders and other things. I just can’t imagine a story like that. I can’t get it going. Even further away is fantasy or paranormal. I enjoy watching them, but can’t get a grip on writing one.

12.Where do you find your inspiration? Personal experience, things around you, friends, or is it all pure imagination?

I use anything that I experience to spark a story, though not all of my ideas are from personal experience.  I want to write a story about a young woman, newly pregnant, rejected by her boyfriend/baby father who meets her real love outside the abortion clinic. He convinces her to keep her baby and since she has no place to go, no job, no money, all her belongings in one suitcase, he takes her to his house until she can get her life going. The story proceeds from there, to the natural conclusion of a proposal and adopting her baby as his.

      Found at the Messiah came from my experience with the Messiah at the Minneapolis Basilica, a marvelous performance. As I listened and watched, I saw Penelope and Andre enjoying it (didn’t have their names yet) and then falling in love.

     Can Ice Cream Bring Me Love came from a visit to Stillwater, MN, to the ice cream shop in the story. I stood outside the shop, waiting for my table and imagined a story right there. I was with some others and described the story to them as I imagined it on the spot. They couldn’t believe that I could do that.

    Girls’ Weekend came from an Airbnb I know of, and I once was in a restaurant near a table of 4 young women. One was quiet, wearing red glasses like Laura, and I imagined her falling in love, surrounded by her 3 friends, chosen from among them by her guy.

13.What is your preferred place in the world where you want to go for writing?

I can write anywhere that I have a computer. I type much faster than I write and can barely read my handwriting, so I need a computer. I have a writing cave in my basement, and I do much of it there, though I also write on my IPAD on the kitchen table. Sometimes the basement is too cold.

14.How long does it take you to write a book?

I can write a 50-page book in a week, then spend 8 weeks editing, Beta Reading, proofing, getting the cover (that comes early often).

15.Did you ever face criticism?

You can’t give your work to a Beta Reader, asking them for “Tough Love” on your manuscript and not expect a sea of red ink in return. The first time it happened, I wept and almost quit. I gave her my baby and she chopped it up with a machete. Now, I hope and trust that they have no mercy on my words. I learned to love my editors, and my stories are better. I also learned to love my software editors. I use Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and, most recently, Autocrit. Each has strengths of their own to make my writing better. Love your critics. They make your story better. I get less red ink as my writing has improved, but their insights are so valuable.

16.What is your latest book about? What inspired you to write it?

The Christmas Surprise will probably be my next book published. The cover is done, and it will go to the proofreader soon. Last December (2019), I visited the Von Maur department store looking for jewelry as a gift. I was helped by a sales clerk, visited with her as I wrote in the story, and then imagined the rest, all the way to the proposal. It was so fun. I wrote it in about a week, during a 7-day writing challenge. It went from 2K words to 17K in about 5 days. Three Beta Readers and other edits have pushed it to 17.5K. Next, it will go to the proofreader and then to Amazon. It should be out in early February.

17.Tell us about your future books? What is coming next?

After that book, I have 2 more in the works. One is a paperback of the Love at First Sight, Box Set. I want to be able to offer that book to people who don’t like ebooks. The stories are too short to sell as paperbacks, but a collection of 5 will work. I want one for myself, too, to hold in my hands and flip the pages.

       The other is #3 in the You Found Me and Loved Me series. I am listening to it now, and it might be out by late February. It’s called Encounter in Nashville. Then, I have more ideas that need fleshing out, 3 more stories that float around in my head.