Interview with Mercedes Lackey

Author Talk with Bonnie Dillabough is proud to present an interview with Mercedes Lackey.

Mercedes Lackey is the author and co-author of over 130 fantasy and scifi books, nearly all of which have ended up on best-seller lists. She is a popular guest at scifi and fantasy conventions as a panelist and speaker.

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Well known for her “Valdemar” and “Elementals” series books, she has also co-written many books with authors such as Larry Dixon, Anne McCaffrey, S.M. Sterling, Jody Lynn Nye, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Robert Silverberg.

Join us as she tells us about her take on the writing life from the viewpoint of a long and successful career. Her newest book, The Bartered Brides, latest in her Elemental Masters series, comes out in October 2018, so she just keeps creating amazing novels for her fans.

Bonnie K.T. Dillabough is an avid “bookaholic”. She started reading before kindergarten and has never slowed up. As a fan of writers from many genres and a student of writing, Bonnie has been writing most of her life in one capacity or another, everything from blogs to sales copy to children’s plays, songs and poetry. She is currently working on her first novel.

This is why she is so excited to be a part of the Fiction Master Class, Author Talk project. The purpose of which is to educate and support aspiring authors and working authors to be their very best by hearing from authors on all levels and in every genre about “the writing life”, including tips and advice about writing from the people who are actually doing it.

Interview Transcription Mercedes Lackey Part 1 (Part 2 follows)

Mercedes Lackey  00:00

Well, welcome to author talk, and I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am. This is kind of one of those fangirl moments where I’m gonna get to talk to one of my absolute favorite authors on the planet. You’re not gonna believe who this is. This is Mercedes Lackey, and this woman has written over 100 books in her lifetime. And every one of them in my personal opinion, because I’ve read, most of them are complete winners. She’s got some things to tell you about the writing life that hopefully will make a difference for you today. So we’re going to welcome Mercedes Lackey. Are you ready?

Bonnie Dillabough  00:55

As I said, we have Mercedes Lackey today, and she’s been around the block a few times, as well published and well known author. I know she goes to like the Gen cons, and like that, and everybody’s aflutter. I definitely would be if I got an opportunity to be in her presence. And so virtually, we’re going to be here today. And so Mercedes, welcome. Very, very happily to author talk.

Mercedes Lackey  01:23

Well, hi there. Glad to be here.

Bonnie Dillabough  01:26

So Mercedes, my first question is, and I know that this is like on your website, and then all of the fan stuff, but could you give us basically a quick rundown of what started you on the path to being a professional writer.

Mercedes Lackey  01:45

I always wrote I when I was a babysitter, I used to make up stories for the kids I babysit. I wrote Andre Norton pasta dishes. Were in in spiral bound notebooks when I was I remember starting to do it about 11 years old. I wrote fanfiction after that. And after about 100,000 words of fanfiction, or more, I decided I was going to try writing professionally.

02:18

Well I know a number of people who are avid fan fiction writers, but aren’t published yet. So I’m sure that that will be very encouraging to them. So one of the things I love about your books is your characters, and and my favorite of your characters are your bird characters. Now you’re one of the few people I know who can really bring a sentient bird to life in ways that I never expected. And I’m actually in the process right now of rereading the black Griffin. And so my question is, Which came first? I know that you do Bird Rescue. And for raptors, which came first writing about the birds or caring for them?

Mercedes Lackey  03:19

Well, actually I was when I was getting my degree in Biology at Purdue I minored. In animal behavior, he followed you. So I had that interest going for quite some time. It wasn’t until just shortly before I quit my day job. Actually, no, it was after I quit my day job that I had the time to do the the actual rafter rehab. That’s when we started getting into it. Our first our first bird we rehabbed out of a spare bathroom because he was a little tiny Kestrel. So that was that was about the right size cage for him to practice in. And one of the funniest things we did with him. He was an adult when we got him he had a broken wing. And to make sure that he was able to hunt. We tried to get him to get live mice, but the only mice we could get were all white, and he didn’t recognize them as being food. So we had to T dye the mice. Oh, no.

Bonnie Dillabough  04:30

That is totally.

Mercedes Lackey  04:37

The mice did not appreciate this, but they were not what they weren’t not around long enough to really object

Bonnie Dillabough  04:44

1. Oh, that’s awesome. So I know that over the years, you have collaborated with many amazing authors including one of my other favorites and McCaffrey and you it. I mean, we could sit here for hours and hours just talking about all the different people that you have collaborated with. But my question for you is, of the authors that we’ve interviewed so far, you’re the first one who co wrote books with other authors. And I was just wondering, first of all, what that collaboration experience was like, and how did you divide the labor when you’re writing a novel?

Mercedes Lackey  05:25

It depends entirely on who I’m writing with. With Annie. We worked out a very extended out form together, it was about 40 pages long. And this was back in the day when there was not anything like the Internet as we know it today. So we emailed the outline back and forth until we were both happy with it. And then I wrote from the outline and center chapters as I finished, and she put in whatever she wanted, and send it back, send it back to me with Andre Norton. It was even earlier, that was the Elven vein book. Plus, she was done at all comfortable with, with computers to speak up. So I we wrote, I went out to visitor and we worked out the outline there. I printed it up when it was when I had it all typed up. And she read it, make notes. And then as I did chapters, I left plenty of space for her to write more notes in the chapters she’d mail. I’ve mailed them to her, she’d mailed them back, I’d incorporate the the notes. She I email the finished product, but the fact of her and we go back and forth until she was satisfied with the chapter. When I collaborated with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton together on Tiger burning bright. We worked out the first couple of chapters where the three characters are together. And then we each split off, wrote our own chapters. And then we wrote an extensive outline that I wrote up into the conclusion. Wow. Now, nowadays, when I work with people, I work in Google Docs. And generally, if I can manage it, we’re all in the same document at the same time. Cool. I have not like when I’m working with James Mallory, since he’s a lark, and I’m an owl. He does. He does the first pass on the chapter and Google Docs will notify you when somebody’s changed something, right. So when I see him, when I see a change, then I go in, and I go in, and I do my thing. And when the chapter is about 20 pages long, we both conclude that it’s done and we move on to the next chapter.

07:52

Awesome. That is so awesome. I I’m in the process of actually writing my first novel, after writing for years on all kinds of other things. And just being in my own head, sometimes is that crazy enough without dealing with, I mean, you do this so beautifully. And all of the books that I’ve read by you and other authors together have always been so smooth, and seamless. And so I’ve just always been kind of in awe of that. One of the things that I noticed about how you write, or I should say, the effect of your writing, is that you do a lot of battle scenes in various of the books that I read by you. And they’re not like modern day battle scenes. I’m a military veteran, I been through basic training, know a little something about, you know, battles and that sort of stuff, but it’s all modern warfare. How do you construct those battle scenes so that they’re so I mean, they’re so vivid, I can see them happening in my head.

Mercedes Lackey  09:22

Well, my I’m was a member of the SCA. So I’m somewhat cognizant of how really over Renaissance shooter, right up to the point of gunpowder, battles mostly took place in a one in a one on one basis. And basically, when you’re in a character’s head in a battle scene, it’s really it’s really one on one. Nobody does the I take on 20 people at the same time, because if they did that they would be good. Right? Okay, that’s, that’s probably the secret to it. Now in the really big battle scenes where there’s an overall picture of the battle that somebody is viewing from, from from outside of it. I’m not really good at that. James Mallory is really good at that. So he usually does those. And a lot of times, well, in the, in the books that I write with Cody Martin. He’s also he’s in HEMA, which is, like SCA with real weapons. Oh. And so he usually does that. It looks I write with him.

Bonnie Dillabough  10:42

All right. Well, no. And the

Mercedes Lackey  10:45

books I write with Eric Flint, and Dave, for Eric is a history major, I think he’s got a master’s in history. And he’s actually forgotten more about history than I will ever know. So he usually puts he usually handles the battle themes in those books. Okay,

Bonnie Dillabough  11:04

cool. So all right. So what are the things that you also do really amazingly well is moving your story along through conversations? It, it’s always, I think, a thing in some people’s heads that the way you move the story, line along is action, action, action, action, action, and all of that as well and good. But I’ve noticed that you managed to actually move the plot along, when your characters are having conversations with one another. And I was wondering if that is that is just part of your style, or whether that’s something that somebody taught you to do?

Mercedes Lackey  11:48

Well, it’s part of my style, but it’s also facing, if you have nothing but action, then you exhaust the reader, you’ve got to give the reader a chance to breathe. And so when you put when you have a conversation, it can’t just be talking heads talking about nothing, it’s got to be something that is going to be relevant to the story. And that’s the way real life works, too. As anybody who’s been in the military knows, being in any kind of worker situation, or something of that nature is 90%, boredom and 10% 10%. Terror. Right? So that’s, that’s pretty much. That’s pretty much what happens in the books with maybe 10%, terror and 25%. Other kinds of action, and then the rest is, is conversation and things that are not necessarily actually but are, are moving the

12:52

story along. Right. And and I know that there are some authors that are known very much for their really intense descriptions of, you know, what the woodland looked like, as they walked into it and stuff. And I’ve noticed that you seem to just fit that in as part of the experience of the character. And I think that that’s really, really awesome.

Mercedes Lackey  13:18

Well, I do I have an analogy for that. Actually, I have two. The one is that if you’re going to give the new Ensign the tour of the enterprise, you better be having something happening while they’re doing it. Otherwise, it’s just a travel. Right. And the other is that you should never lump all your description in one place. So it stands out like a raisin and oatmeal.

13:49

Yeah, actually, I think that that’s really, really good advice. And I know a few raisins and oatmeals. And even with some of my favorite authors, there are some of them that get a little overly descriptive sometimes. And it’s so refreshing to have something that it moves and breathes. Like, if you are actually having an experience, you’re not just moving through space, there’s things going on in your mind. There are things going on around you. And it’s not just a description of what color the walls of the room are. So I really, really appreciate that description. I think that’s really cool. All right. So bearing in mind that this will be edited as necessary. I have a question and you can choose to answer or not, but inquiring minds mind wants to know so which came first the romance of the writing with Larry Dixon.

Mercedes Lackey  15:01

simultaneously, we met at a science fiction convention and began plotting our first book together at that convention.

Bonnie Dillabough  15:12

That’s cool.

Mercedes Lackey  15:14

It was a pretty funny meeting too, because he was in the van that was on the way to the television studio to do the little interview with as part of the nightly news. And they had just picked me up at the airport. So my, my suitcases were still in the van. When we went to this television studio, this was, this was way pre internet, there was no Internet, there was very little cable in rural areas. So it was whatever your local tiny TV station was, sort of like was the TV show with the little radio station in in Alaska? So this was a station in Meridian, Mississippi, and they brought us on to do a little TV interview with us during the nightly news. And they brought us on right after the report about the tool, boys. It’s UFO or the swamp that night.

16:17

Oh, wow. That’s cool. Oh, that’s fun. And so it was love at first right then?

Bonnie Dillabough  16:28

Yeah, kinda.

16:29

That’s cool. I love it. So my oldest son, when I told him I was going to interview you, he said, I want to know, who does her covers? And does she get to choose those? Or do the publisher choose them? Because your publishers, he says, just jump right off the shelves at him?

Mercedes Lackey  16:50

Well, the publishers choose them. Unless you’re somebody like Stephen King, you don’t get a choice in your cover. Oh, and I’ve just been very lucky, mostly getting excellent artists. My daughter has just always been Jody Lee. As she does all those beautiful covers in war in in colored pencil, I couldn’t believe it when I saw my bein cover artist is often Larry, my, my editor there Tony Weisskopf figures that as long as I’ve got the artists right in house, I can do all the corrections right there. So there you go. That would be good. That would be Larry. And then the rest of them have just been who was liver was assigned to.

17:38

Okay. Okay. And, and working with a publisher. So many of the authors coming along right now, are doing self publishing through Amazon, or whatever. And don’t have that experience that comes with working with a publisher to publish your book. What are your thoughts about self publishing? Is there is there any kind of real future there? Or do you still think that traditional publishing is going to continue to be the majority of the books that are published that are well known?

Mercedes Lackey  18:24

Well, the problem with self publishing is that you are one tiny little speck in a sea of other self published authors. And unless you have some other kind of book, for instance, you have a very popular blog, or you have a very popular view to follow in, you’re not immediately going to jump out of the sea of other self published writers. And as Lawrence, what happens recently told somebody on Quora, your expectation for your new first book is that it’s not going to do very well just get used to it. Right? Traditional traditional publishers, or at least gatekeepers, they wait out, I’d say 98% of the crap. And the stuff they do allow to get through is very often, again, somebody that had other means of self promotion, and got to their interest. And they’ve been burned very, very badly on some of these people. So they’re more cautious now about picking people out of the self publishing scene than they were before. For every Andy Weir, there’s a couple of other authors that had big blogs that they thought were going to translate over well into a book and the book failed disastrously.

19:54

There you go. Okay. So how fun was that? I am really enjoying this wonderful opportunity to speak with Mercedes Lackey. And wait, there’s more. But we’re going to do it in a second episode. So tune in for part two of this magnificent interview with Mercedes Lackey. I know you won’t be disappointed because in our next segment, she’s going to talk about what you need to know, as a writer, and she’s going to lay it all on the line like you’ve never heard before. So, I suggest for you the next episode, you take the notebook out and you take some notes, because she’s got some things to say that are important. Okay? So please remember to like, comment and subscribe. Alright, because that’s going to mean that you have the opportunity to know when we’re doing other authors that you might really want to hear from

Interview Transcription Mercedes Lackey Part 2

Bonnie Dillabough  00:07

One of the things that I know that you’ve done over the years is you’ve mentored a number of authors. There are a number of people out there who are writing books right now because that you’ve inspired them. And I was wondering, and I know that you probably have answered this question a bazillion times. But what would you say to someone older Young, who has decided they’re ready to write a novel?

Mercedes Lackey  00:51

Well, it depends on on on entirely what their expectation is, if they expect to publish this novel, I would say hire yourself a damn good editor, because you’re going to need it. The truth? Plain and simple fact is you need to write about a million words of crap before you’ve got enough practice in before you can write well, I besides all the fanfiction and everything else that I did, I still rewrote my first novel 17 times under the tutelage of CJ cherry and then remaining. What about six times twice for each book? Under the direction of my editor at dA? So, so hire a good editor,

Bonnie Dillabough  01:40

right? Well, you know, I took a writing course years ago, it was actually called the famous writers course, it was a correspondence course back before the internet. And the one thing that my instructor kept saying, and the one thing that totally got through my head was that writing is rewriting. Do you agree with that?

Mercedes Lackey  02:07

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you can’t. You can’t work with something that’s not on the page.

Bonnie Dillabough  02:16

I love that. That’s, that’s a great quote, you can’t work with something that’s not on the page. So you’ve been to Gen cons and like that you’ve got a kazillion fans that they that you’re awesome. But I know that you do some other things besides writing. You’re on Quora. And I have only recently been introduced a core. It’s what attracts you about Cora?

Mercedes Lackey  02:48

I like being able to share mostly my expertise in in writing and discouraging people from having wild animals as

Bonnie Dillabough  02:56

pets. I know that you’re have been actively involved in raptor rescue over the years, and other things. And let’s face it, you write these amazing books about birds. And what actually started me thinking about wanting to interview you was I reread the owl flight series, again, about a month, month and a half ago. And it was on my mind When your name popped up on Quora. And what do you say to somebody who wants a baby owl for Christmas?

Mercedes Lackey  03:44

If you’re in the US, it’s not legal. And you can end up with a five to $50,000 fine and 10 years in prison if you’re caught with one.

Bonnie Dillabough  03:55

Well, that’s so that’s pretty clear.

Mercedes Lackey  04:00

outside of the US, it depends upon your country, your country, but while but owls are terrible pets, they are as dumb as a box of bricks. They are not social. They don’t like being petted.

Bonnie Dillabough  04:17

They have very unpleasant habits. And they weren’t you are not a Disney princess, nor are you Harry Potter.

Mercedes Lackey  04:33

The sad the sad fact is that during the Harry Potter craze, a lot of people bought pet owls in the UK big where it is legal. And the real rehabilitators there are practices that kills them with surrendered I will so people found out how bad they pet they were and they fear that 1000s More it’s just starve to death when they were Are we released by by owners that decided they didn’t want them anymore?

Bonnie Dillabough  05:04

Yeah, that’s the problem. Anytime you’ve got a wild creature that’s intended to be in the wild, isn’t it that, that they’re not. So it’s wonderful to imagine these things. They’re awesome. And ELLs are some of my favorite birds, I own son, Connor, and loved my gurgi, he was one of the sweetest little guys.

Mercedes Lackey  05:32

But in your head, 1000 times more brain than a European ecolabel. That stands that tall.

Bonnie Dillabough  05:43

Yeah, well, and he was really smart, and very sweet and very cuddly. And like that. But the fact of the matter is, is pet ownership, whether it’s a bird, or a bird, animal, or whatever, is such a responsibility. And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate how vocal you are about making sure that people understand that particular thing.

Mercedes Lackey  06:11

Thank you. On the one hand, I understand that because you see these lovely animals and you think, Oh, God, I just love to touch and cuddle and love them. But the fact of the matter is, we’re putting so 1000s and 1000s of lovely cuddly dogs and cats to sleep every year, because you’re not wanting to just stick to a dog or a cat or maybe a guinea pig or a rat or something like that something that has been reliably domesticated.

Bonnie Dillabough  06:48

There you go, there you go. So as we discussed, our audience are people who are writing who want to write some of them are struggling along and have the potential to be used someday. So I guess the last thing that I would like to have you talk about is the writing life, what does it mean, to be a successful writer?

Mercedes Lackey  07:23

well defined success.

Bonnie Dillabough  07:27

A writer who has published books that lots of people are reading, and can feel like they finished and completed, either a book or many books, and that they’re doing I mean, when you write a book, it’s your baby, and you send it out into the world. And it’s like your children, you want to see your children, you know, have a happy life and be successful, and people like them and all those kinds of things. As far as being a writer, what is it about being a successful writer that you love the most?

Mercedes Lackey  08:05

I can’t say that because right now, what you’re talking about is someone who in general was published a few books, and you can’t live on that. So the first thing I would say is if you want to be a successful writer, get yourself a day job that doesn’t suck your soul dry, and doesn’t make you want to open a vein rather than go to work. Because that’s the job you’re probably going to be having for the rest of your life. Very, very few. All right. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America periodically does surveys of its writers, and consistently, only 5% of the membership of that organization has ever been able to go as a full time writer 5% half of those people write something other than in their chosen genre, which is science fiction or fantasy. They’re journalists they write for. They write software manuals, they write some other genre, mostly they write something other than fiction. So that means only two and a half percent make a living writing fiction. Chances are, you’re not going to be able to so the first thing you need to do is get a day job that doesn’t make you want to commit suicide.

Bonnie Dillabough  09:31

Okay, that’s pretty clear. So but what about that 2%? I mean, what what is it that people can aspire to? If perchance they end up being Mercedes Lackey or? Anne McCaffrey?

Mercedes Lackey  09:49

That’s first thing you have to have is hard self discipline. I’ve written when I’m sick. I’ve written when my mother had died. I’ve written When I was deeply, deeply, deeply in depression, I’m a chronic depressive. So that’s an ongoing problem. I’ve written when the power was out, and the house was freezing cold, and the only power I had was coming from the generator, and I’ve left my laptop in and I wrote, I’ve written under every possible the only time I didn’t write was when we were on a cruise. And we were caught in the middle of that perfect storm situation that the book was about that huge. Wow. Yeah, we were caught with the crash. Fortunately, the cruise ship was a former North Sea military cruiser that had been converted to a cruise ship, so I could handle that kind of stuff. But the only reason I didn’t write was because my laptop would have been flying off my lap every call valid once every two minutes. So I didn’t write class, we were ordered to be alert at all times for the fact that we might have to abandon ship.

Bonnie Dillabough  11:09

So obviously, it didn’t happen. But we definitely had to had to be prepared to do that

Mercedes Lackey  11:19

having a laptop around would have been just one more thing to get in the way. So that’s about the only time I haven’t read that you have to be self disciplined, you have to set yourself a absolute goal of no less than x number of words every single day, no matter what you have to meet that goal. You have to have, you can’t think that the book is your baby. And anybody who is mean to it is a nasty rotten person, and you never want to hear from them again. Because once that book leaves your hands and goes to the editor, it’s no longer yours. From that moment, it becomes something else, somebody at some, some other person is going to do whatever they’re going to do with it, that includes readers, and you just don’t, you just don’t think about it. And you don’t worry about it, and you move on to the next book. Don’t read your views. They’re either going to make you depressed, or angry, or give you delusions of grandeur. It’s wise, it’s doubly was never gonna read the reviews on Amazon. If you become very successful, there will always be people out there who are just going to cut you down for the sake of cutting you down, or because they don’t like their politics. You know, it’s going to happen. So don’t read reviews. The only people you need to listen to are your editors. Don’t get too distracted by shiny objects or hobbies. If you get passionate about a hobby, unless you can do it really well. Please don’t stick it in every book.

Bonnie Dillabough  13:15

So this is this, it’s just been so lovely to get the opportunity to speak with you. Now, that being said, all the everything that you said, I know is absolutely true. As far as the discipline and the hard work. I think in any craft, that’s absolutely vital that you have that self discipline, things don’t happen by themselves. Magic only happens in novels. But that being said, what do you like best about being a writer?

Mercedes Lackey  13:57

Well, well, obviously, it’s a fact I can work in my pajamas if I want. But that’s the honey, behind me is all this stuff for my dog costumes. So what I’ll do, obviously, yeah, I can I can do whatever I want whenever I want as long as I get my pages in for the day. That’s the plus. And the fact that you know, I can work well, but if it said why was he day, then the worst I have to encounter is when I go out to let the peacocks out of their pan or go out to put the peacocks back. Otherwise I don’t have to leave the house if it’s a lousy day. Yeah.

Bonnie Dillabough  14:49

So okay, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time. I really do appreciate it. I do if this really is a kind of a fan girl moment for me, I know that you have known, many amazing authors that you’ve dealt with over the years. Can you tell me one more thing? Tell me about your fans.

Mercedes Lackey  15:17

Oh, they are awesome. And they are an endless resource for me. Because after I’ve written, I’ve written 136 Books 134 are published, the other two are coming out sometime soon one, one of them’s coming out in October. It’s another one of the elemental masters books. They haven’t scheduled the next one. That’s, that’s another one of the ills on the road for pain. So the, I forget things. And if I need to know something that was in one of the other books, all I have to do is a web search on one of their wikis, and they’re hideous. They’re awesome.

Bonnie Dillabough  15:56

That’s great. That’s great. So as one of those fans, we really appreciate you and what you do. And if any of us aspire to, to hopefully get the opportunity to have that experience of putting a book out there that may or may not do anything wonderful. I know. There are a number of authors that have started writing at my age. And so I’m not giving up on that idea. I’ve got a ton of books in my head and whatnot. But I really think that it’s important for us to encourage those out there who have the gift, the desire and the work ethic to make those kinds of things happen.

Mercedes Lackey  16:46

Well, plus the, the to get into a traditional publishing and anything other than genre, you need an agent. But that doesn’t mean that agents are not reading unsolicited manuscripts they do all the time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get new clients, right. So most of them most of the genre publishers, some if not all of them are accepting unsolicited manuscripts. So just because you’re writing, and it looks daunting with all the self published people, that doesn’t mean you can’t get to go through a traditional publisher.

Bonnie Dillabough  17:23

That’s actually what’s kind of in my mind in my heart is I want to do that. I mean, I, like I said, I took that writers course, like years and years ago and learned how to write a query letter and all those kinds of things. And I think a lot sometimes it just takes that little bit of extra gumption. But right now, I’m working through it. I’ve got some beta readers that are kind of helping me and it’s small installments. Because I’m more than willing to take in advice and information from people and then I’ll probably still do mostly what I want, but that I try it that way. And see. I don’t really want to write by committee, but so I’ve got higher good editor. I will. That is That is definitely my plan. I somebody said something about while I was saying that I really felt like I could have the book finished by the end of the year. And they said, Oh, great, I can get it for Christmas. It No. You can maybe preorder it but it’ll be an editing and proofreading and all that kind of stuff. And there’ll be a professional designer of the jacket and whatnot. So if it got got done by spring, I’d be excited. And they were kind of a little puzzled by that. But I’ve been listening and paying attention to these interviews that we’ve been doing with various authors. And I think that’s the one thing they stress is once you’ve written the last chapter, you’re not even close to

Mercedes Lackey  18:58

know you’re not even close enough.

Bonnie Dillabough  19:01

So that’s, that’s good to know that and if you know that and you don’t have that unrealistic expectation, then it’s a lot easier, I think maybe to be patient with the process. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I am just so incredibly grateful Mercedes that you took the time to do this with us today. So there you have it, Mercedes Lackey, and we are so excited that she was so gracious and willing to take the time to talk to us and talk about the writing life and hopefully, all the writers out there are taking this to heart. This lady knows what she’s talking about. She knows what she’s doing. And she has the track record like very few writers can say they have so pay attention. Listen, and then get out there. And write write today and write tomorrow and the next day because As writers write when they’re not reading so thank you very much and we’ll see you again soon on author talk

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Richard Lowe

Owner & Senior Writer at The Writing King

Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He's written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 48+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.

Latest posts by Richard Lowe (see all)

• Unlock 10 🔥Plot Devices: Write with Passion! - September 22, 2023
• Master Citations in 5 Simple Steps! 📚🌟 - September 19, 2023
• Avoid Plagiarism: 7 Awesome Tips for Authentic Writing - September 17, 2023