Friday Feature: A Dozen Apologies

Today’s interview involves a variety of writers, each involved in creating one book, A Dozen Apologies, the creative work of Write Integrity Press.

Write Integrity has published several novella collaborations. I read my first of these novellas, A Ruby Christmas, late last year.  Like many readers, I skipped the table of contents and went straight to chapter 1. Later I discovered the book was the collaborative work of 9 writers.

The voice carried through very well and editor extraordinaire Tracy Ruckman of Write Integrity Press accomplished that. A Ruby Christmas was author J.A. Marx’ project. She understood her character very well, and got that across to each of the project authors.

Fay Lamb birthed the idea that became A Dozen Apologies with 12 authors writing one chapter each. Fay, how did you progress from idea to finished manuscript?

Fay: After we began work on A Ruby Christmas, I started thinking ahead to the next Valentine’s Day novella for Write Integrity Press. I was involved very minimally and behind the scenes in the previous year’s Valentine project Heart Bouquets, and I wondered what a Valentine’s heroine similar to our Christmas novellas would look like. I began to study on this and one image filled my mind: The Mystery Dating Game I’d played as a kid.

That image stayed with me, and I thought about a heroine who had a lot of dates. Who were they? Why was she dating so many? Then I realized, our heroine wasn’t perfect. She, in fact, was a bit infamous in her college years. She’d broken hearts—on purpose—to win a game.

I approached Tracy Ruckman with the idea, and if anyone knows Tracy, they know she’s adventurous. So we set out to bring this heroine to life. As I wrote her opening story, Mara became very vivid to me. Yes, she had a past, and she wasn’t very nice, but there’s always a deeper story, and that story developed right before my eyes along with a wonderfully funny young woman who was about to go on a journey that would change her for a lifetime.

When I realized Mara had twelve guys she’d dumped very publicly and that each would require an apology from her, I also realized we needed to have some fun with this. So, I introduced the fact that Mara would have at least twelve different jobs, and we wanted to do our best to bring in the humor.

Then Tracy and I set about finding authors to work with. Between the two of us, we know some talent. Some of the previous novella writers were unavailable, and both of us knew authors who might like to take on the project. We contacted ten of them, and they all jumped on board. Then we opened up a contest.

Contestants received the same information our project writers received (the first chapter along with the story concept), and they were asked to present a chapter for judging. The author that won the contest became the twelfth writer.

And away we went, working for about six months to have the chapters ready for submission in October 2013. After October, we spent time in edits to make the chapters flow seamlessly, in the same way that readers have come to expect from Write Integrity Press novellas of the past.

Debra: Could you share a bit more on how you pulled it all together?

Fay:  Once the team was assembled, we provided each author with the first chapter so that they could get the voice of the story. Then I explained to them Mara’s journey: she would be losing some odd jobs; she would be apologizing to a dozen heroes, etc.

We had learned from previous experience that too much control stymies creativity, so Tracy devised a table twelve rows long and four columns wide. Each author chose the month she wanted to represent, the job Mara would lose, the name of her hero, and the occupation of the hero.We asked the authors to have fun with the job losses and to strive to make their heroes swoon-worthy. That was it.

When the authors returned their chapters, I found it amazing that the ladies seemed to have a sense about what would work. Not all of the job losses were funny. Some actually showed Mara’s growth and maturity, her willingness to help others rather than to run over them. Other chapters were slap-up funny. Every time I’ve read them I’ve laughed. And each of the heroes proved unique while Mara’s voice didn’t change. She grew as a character—another amazing thing we saw happen—but from beginning to end, the book reads like a story written by one author and not twelve. I can only think that God was involved with the project as well.

Debra: You offered Apologies as a free read one chapter a day, and then had readers vote for Mara’s hero. Is this how you also handled A Ruby Christmas? Why this format and was it successful?

Tracy Ruckman: A Dozen Apologies is the first novella we’ve let readers choose the outcome. But this is our third collaborative novella and this format has proven successful for several reasons. On projects like this all the authors work together as a team for marketing. It multiplies the efforts of a single author trying to do the same. We’ve also had some great story ideas, and readers love stories. Our authors create memorable characters and gripping story lines to keep readers turning pages.

Debra: Are more projects of this nature planned for Christmas and Valentines each year?

Tracy: We generally decide one project at a time, but yes, I see more collaborative projects for those holidays. We’re also in the process of planning a summer book this year –  we should have contest details in place soon, so be sure to check the blog.

Debra: You provided each author with the first chapter and story concept. Did that first chapter help the writers keep to the voice and writing style of the book, or was that accomplished through editing?

Tracy: The first chapter does indeed set the voice and tone of the book. We edit to blend, but honestly, we pray all through each project, and trust God to guide the writing of each author. We’ve been amazed at how he brings things together that we hadn’t thought of or realized. It was such fun watching the jobs and heroes develop by each author because without brainstorming together ahead of time, there were no job duplications, no hero names duplicated, and each job, each circumstance, blended together in ways only God could have made happen.

Debra: What was it like to work on this type of a book project, e.g. any struggles, was it fun, meeting word counts, etc.

Betty Thomason Owens (Hero: Dominic Cardano): It was an honor for me to work with so many talented writers. My immediate reaction was fear, since I’d never written anything like this. But once I got into Mara’s character, it was just plain fun. She was easy to love! I always struggle with the word count. Either I can’t come up with enough, or I’ve got too many. Fortunately, in this case I had to cut.

Phee Paradise (Hero: James Green): My biggest challenge is developing a good story. I loved having the back story given to me. But aside from that, the initial writing was in a vacuum, not knowing what the other authors were doing. The best part was seeing it all put together and getting to know the other writers through their work and in our marketing. I loved sharing Mara with so many creative people.

Marji Laine (Hero: Collin Tate): Word counts are always a challenge and so much more important since there were so many of us. (I shaved my chapter three times.) But I love projects like this. Tracy is amazing to work with, and I enjoy so much the enthusiasm that stirs up from working with so many other talented and creative authors.

Paulette Harris (Hero: David Hansen): I enjoyed the whole process. It was fun, entertaining, and thoroughly a project I’d do over and over. A book like this is refreshing not only to the authors who worked well together, but involving the audience was a great idea because it kept the momentum going for each finished piece to come out, but still didn’t give away the final ending. The story built in intensity and audience participation became huge.

My favorite part of the whole experience though became the “unit” of authors as we laughed,cried, prayed and struggled together; this book became a gem to me. It’s awesome to be in sync and all getting the same ideas and thoughts at the same time. I don’t believe this would have happened if we hadn’t been a praying group of authors.

Jennifer Dison Hallmark (Hero: Russ Farlow): I enjoyed working on the project partially because of the structure. I knew what I needed to contribute and could set that as a goal. It reminded me of writing short stories, because every word really had to count. It was also fun making so many new friends.

Theresa Anderson (Hero: Ted Rivers): Loved the team unity and the project wrapped in prayer! Also, loved the team promo and the creativity in general of the project and its leaders. A challenge for me is the promotion, and I could promote the project without promoting myself—genius! I also enjoyed the trickiness of weaving my characters and story into an already established main character and premise.

Elizabeth Noyes (Hero: Elliott Weston): Knowing the back story made it easy to plot what was essentially a one-chapter story. When I received the complete list of characters, their details and order, everything came together. Knowing who, where, the guys’ occupations and Mara’s different jobs allowed me to thread a few references about the others through my chapter. I felt this was important for overall continuity, but I also tried to imagine how the apologies might affect Mara as she plowed through them one-by-one. To the credit of some very talented writers, she never became hardened or jaded. She kept her focus and sense of humor, and held tight to her newly found Savior—and didn’t come off as schizophrenic! Quirky, yeah. A klutz for sure, but totally easy to relate to. In the end, I like to believe she won hearts far beyond the twelve heroes. A million thanks to Tracy, Fay, and the other writers for sharing Mara with me.

Patricia Dyer (Hero: Derrick Howzer): This was a fun project for me, and I loved getting to know other authors, learning from them and from my own mistakes. Since I am SO new, I sometimes felt a little like a fish out of water, but everyone was so positive and encouraging.

Debra Ullrick (Hero: Remy Perone): The biggest struggle for me was staying in only the heroine’s POV. This was sure a unique project and super fun.

Fay Lamb (Hero: Caden/Connor Martin): This is my third collaborative novella involving the same heroine. Marji Laine and I are the only two who have worked together on all three. Marji is the only author who has worked on all four of the Write Integrity/Pix-N-Pens novella projects. I don’t think a publisher has a fluke when they produce three novellas of this kind. I believe our publisher has developed the niche and does this better than any other publisher in the industry. The project was wrapped in prayer, and I believe all of the authors approached it with a very positive attitude. We supported each other. We made friendships, and we presented a story that will speak to hearts, and we even included an invitation to know Christ as Savior, whom we believe is at the center of everything we write. I can’t say enough about the authors, but I do want to say look for them. They are good at what they do, and they have lots of stories to tell.

Debra: Thank you each for sharing here today about A Dozen Apologies. I look forward to more of these enjoyable novella collaborations.

About A Dozen Apologies: (available on Kindle only)

Mara Adkins, a promising fashion designer, has fallen off the ladder of success, and she can’t seem to get up.

In college, Mara and her sorority sisters played an ugly game, and Mara was usually the winner. She’d date men she considered geeks, win their confidence, and then she’d dump them publicly.

When Mara begins work for a prestigious clothing designer in New York, she gets her comeuppance. Her boyfriend steals her designs and wins a coveted position. He fires her, and she returns in shame to her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where life for others has changed for the better.

Mara’s parents, always seemingly one step from a divorce, have rediscovered their love for each other, but more importantly they have placed Christ in the center of that love. The changes Mara sees in their lives cause her to seek Christ. Mara’s heart is pierced by her actions toward the twelve men she’d wronged in college, and she sets out to apologize to each of them. A girl with that many amends to make, though, needs money for travel, and Mara finds more ways to lose a job that she ever thought possible.

Mara stumbles, bumbles, and humbles her way toward employment and toward possible reconciliation with the twelve men she humiliated to find that God truly does look upon the heart, and that He has chosen the heart of one of the men for her to have and to hold.