Today's post features an interview with Jennifer Comeaux, author of the Edge figure skating series. The Edge series includes Life on the Edge, The Edge of the Past, and Fighting for the Edge, as well as additional bonus material. Jennifer also maintains a blog about skating and writing. A huge skating fan, she just returned from a trip to the 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

KJV: I enjoyed getting to experience a bit of this year's Nationals in Boston through your blog posts. There were a lot of high moments, but which of your memories from this competition make the podium?

Jennifer: It was such an incredible event – one of the best I’ve ever attended! Some of the moments that stood out the most were Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir’s short program (they had the home crowd rocking!), Felicia Zhang & Nathan Bartholomay’s free skate and their kiss and cry reaction to their scores (my friends and I were screaming like crazy people when they went into second place), Meryl Davis & Charlie White’s free dance (stunning perfection!), and Jason Brown’s free skate.

KJV: You started writing stories when you were seven years old, but Louisiana isn't known for wintry weather. How and when did you fall in love with figure skating?

Jennifer: I fell in love with the sport watching it on TV as a kid. The first Olympics where I remember being totally engrossed was the 1988 Winter Games. I was all over the Battle of the Brians and the Battle of the Carmens! From then on I watched every single skating event that was on TV. I liked watching other sports, and I loved the way skating was the perfect combination of sport and art.

KJV: In addition to being a figure skating fanatic, you're a CPA. What suggestions can you offer fellow writers regarding fitting in time to write?

Jennifer: I think the most important thing is scheduling time to write and sticking to it, which I need to do a better job of doing! With limited time to write at night and on the weekends, it’s very important to make the most of the blocks of time you have, so outlining your scenes and chapters ahead of time is a big help. When I sit down with blank paper and have no idea what comes next, I get totally freaked out and feel so overwhelmed. But an outline, no matter how simple it is, helps me feel like I have some guidance on where to begin.

KJV: Reflecting on your experiences in becoming published, do you have any advice to help smooth the ice for aspiring authors?

Jennifer: With so many options for authors these days, I think you just need to look at all the different opportunities and decide which one fits your needs and helps fulfill your dreams. One of my dreams was to have my manuscript accepted by a publisher, so I found a publisher that was a good fit for me and learned everything I could about them and their authors. If you just want to get your work in front of readers without going through a publishing company, then you can definitely go that route. There have been so many success stories in self-publishing.

KJV: Now that the Edge series is complete, you're working on a companion novel featuring Courtney. Can we get a rink side preview of her story?

Jennifer: I’m very excited about this new story! It’s a lot of fun to write because I can still keep some familiar characters around, but I also get to introduce some new ones. Here’s a little peek at the story: Courtney and her partner Mark haven’t enjoyed the same success Emily and Chris had. They have only one shot left to make the Olympic team, and they vow not to let anything get in their way. Enter Stephanie and Josh, talented siblings with the same dream. Courtney knows she should keep her distance from the rival team, but as she gets to know handsome, quiet Josh, she becomes more and more intrigued. Will their blossoming friendship become more or will the competition tear them apart?

For more on Jennifer's books, the 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and other reading, writing, and skating fun, visit Jennifer at http://jennifercomeaux.blogspot.com/.

During my recent residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts, a classmate kindly lent me her ice skates so I could use the outdoor rink on campus. I hadn't skated on pond ice in years and it had been about that long since the borrowed skates had seen a sharpening, but I was desperate. Life doesn't always come with Zamboni smooth ice or sharp blades, and the experience was a potent reminder of how much I've learned about writing from skating.

Skating outdoors in Vermont brought back favorite childhood memories of building a backyard ice rink with my father. Our city yard was tiny, and our rink was about six swizzle pumps wide and only a little bit longer. Bumpy at best and treacherous at worst, it was ice. That my father cared enough to help me with this time-consuming and, in fickle west Michigan weather, often futile effort, gave me the seed of the idea that skating was something I could do. It's the same for writing. Even one frozen drop of water can be enough if you really want it. For me, this was when I dared to show my mother, a writer and librarian, the beginning ramblings of my first book. She had lots of advice and areas to improve but, “Sure, this could be a novel,” were the words I took with me as my droplet of hope.

However small your start, you must put in the time. It's about repetition. With good daily practice routines, the elements on ice come. With good daily writing routines, the words flow. Listen to your coaches, aka your trusted critique group, because whether you like it or not, they're right most of the time. Accept criticisms with a “thank you” and give yourself time to reflect on them. Use whatever advice you can to make your writing stronger, but know that sometimes you have to follow your heart. I once completely changed programs three weeks before a competition, much to the chagrin of my coach. That new program won me a national gold medal. So go ahead, re-write that novel in first person. Cut those scenes. Start over with a blank page. And take comfort in the fact that least in writing you can save all your old versions on the computer and pull out an old routine with the click of your mouse.

On the ice or on the page, you will fall down. A lot. All you can do is pick yourself up, the sooner the better. You must try again. It took me almost five years to learn a lutz. I'm still working on that Axel and I won't even tell you how many hours I've worked at writing but I try to remember that everyone is afraid sometimes, that everyone struggles with some things.

Take advantage of camps, clinics, and retreats. Fresh opinions can help you get over a rut. I had been struggling with a loop jump for months when I attended a skating camp in Aspen. New phrasing and the trick of jumping out of a backspin helped me master the element that week. Likewise, I am forever indebted to the help and encouragement I've received from my fellow SCBWI members.

Just like skating, writing is also about acting. To make your characters real to your audience, you need to feel them, get inside their heads. Wear your heart on your sleeve and keep a box of tissues nearby for the tears and runny noses. Because in skating, you only need to do one character per program but in writing you're going to need to do them all.

And finally, sweat the small stuff. Yes, pay attention to details in your routines and in your novels but don't forget about life outside the rink and off the page. I used to have one of those t-shirts proclaiming that “figure skating is life, the rest is just details!” I gave it to Goodwill. Skating, writing, whatever your passions – life is in the details, and not the sequin-covered, rhinestone-studded variety.

I had the pleasure today of listening to Lucy Christopher, author of Stolen and The Killing Woods, as she shared her writing process and how setting drives her writing. Her remarks about her research trips reminded me of how powerful my experiences with setting were during the writing marathon at the Lake Michigan Writing Project. During the writing marathon, we walked the streets of Grand Rapids, letting settings such as Veterans Park, The Cottage bar, and even the police station rev our writing engines. At each setting, we paused for a 20 minute free write: sensory observations of the space, story ideas inspired by the surroundings, descriptions of memories triggered by the area, or anything else. Writing marathons can be done alone but for an extra challenge, take a friend or even your writer's group and share part of your work after each free write. (Nothing keeps the pressure on like the buddy system!) Next time you find yourself stuck, give it a try. My essay that follows emerged from a free write session at the Grand Rapids Public Library.

I sit looking at the silver gray stairs and balconies soaring up. Behind me, the neon orange sign flashes, “Teens.” I sit in the corner, against the wall. I don't belong in the teens' section. I didn't as a child when, though my reading level was easily there, the books with teenage problems and *gasp*, sex, were too mature for the eleven-year-old girl and scared her away from ever venturing to those shelves. I don't now, as an adult, trespassing on the teens who want to read about sex without me looking over their shoulder. Perhaps this is why all of my teen novels contain what the publisher refers to as “romantic elements.” Meaning, of course, sex.

I say that I am not embarrassed about my stories, but I must be because every time I begin to tell someone about one of my novels it's only a matter of time before I feel the need to confess that there's sex in them. I'm not even Catholic.

Do you know what I want? (No, not that, I'm not a teenage boy after all.) I want someone to come up to that eleven-year-old girl. To point her in the direction of A Wrinkle in Time and its companion novels. To say, “You'll love these stories about this wizard.” Maybe even to encourage some Dickens or L.M. Montgomery. And when she is headed to high school at thirteen, I want that someone to come back. To show her Flipped and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice books, that will grow her into fourteen and the crush that will be her first boyfriend. I want those books to echo what her mother always told her about sex. That we're all curious, that it belongs in a caring, committed relationship because that will make it beautiful. That waiting is good but the world won't end if she doesn't.

And when she is sixteen and has already been kissed and this might-be-love feels right and not right at the same time, I want someone to show her my books. To let her take on those feelings through someone else, to make the waiting maybe not so hard. To ease the tension as she wonders all those years if love will keep. (It will.)

Most of all, I want her to realize that no one feels at home in the teen section. We can skirt around it or avoid it. Hang out in it, revisit it, or even sit in the corner with our backs pressed to the wall. Beyond those shelves, the adult section awaits and those silver stairs are ready to take us whenever and wherever we want to go.

My love of writing started at a young age when I began inventing stories and writing them down on scraps of paper scattered around my bedroom. All of my dolls had a back story (usually a sad life at an orphanage) which I faithfully recorded on their behalf. I enjoyed reading as well, and would often read a book I particularly liked over and over. When I switched schools in 5th grade, I confessed to my new teacher that I’d read Little Women at least ten times. I still remember the look of horror on her face. With her help, I branched out and found many new authors to love.

In my mind, English class was never work. Reading and writing was the fun part of my day. When I entered college, I decided to major in business, but discovered I had enough space in my schedule to squeeze in a second major. I chose English Literature.

After spending time in the corporate world and then several sleepless years caring for three young children, it seemed as if I only blinked and my youngest was starting preschool. Suddenly, I found myself with some long-awaited free time. One day, I was rooting around in the basement and I found a battered trunk my parents had dropped off the second I’d moved into my first home. Inside, I found many of my old stories, diaries, journals and notebooks. For over ten years, I’d buried my love of writing, but it was now time to begin again.

When I sat down to write as an adult, I decided to take a serious approach. I read books on writing. To refresh and improve my skills, I attended local writers’ workshops. At one writing seminar, a published author advised the attendees to gain experience working with an editor. To accomplish this, I began freelancing, mainly writing blogs for a variety of clients. Blogging has taught me how to write with a deadline looming like a storm cloud over my head. It’s also taught me how to work with editors and accept criticism without taking it personally (most of the time).

I also enrolled in the Children’s Institute of Literature Writing for Children and Young Adults Program, where I was paired with a young adult author who has also given me great writing advice. I tend to write a lot of back story into my first drafts, and she advised me to plunge right into the first chapter using action or dialogue. She also encouraged me to loosen up my dialogue and strive to make my characters sound like authentic young adults.

Writing is a process, sometimes glorious, sometimes painful, and sometimes coming to a dead stop in the middle of a pesky chapter. But as writers, we keep going until there is an end in sight. And then we go back and revise until the end is in sight once again. Along the way, don’t forget to ask for advice from other writers to ensure that you keep moving forward.

What’s the best piece of writing advice that a mentor has shared with you?


Jennifer DiGiovanni is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about business, real estate, home design and healthy living. Her most recent novel, The Hurricane, is currently available on Swoonreads.com. She is also a two-time winner of the Writerstype.com First Chapter Submit contest. She lives with her husband and three children in Pennsylvania.

Connect with Jennifer DiGiovanni on Twitter or Google+.

With the season of resolutions upon us, my vow is to find more time to devote to writing this year. To help commit to this resolution, I've been reflecting on what brought me to writing and why I write.

I skated my way into writing. At first reading, this may seem to imply that writing glided to me, as natural as sleeping and waking. It didn't. Writing came with the bruises of repeated Axel attempts: soaring jumps of hope crashed by rejections from agents. Writing came with the ice burn of editors' criticisms, the pulled muscle torture of a high school English teacher reading the short stories of our entire class aloud. (Two minutes in, I became painfully aware that mine would have been better targeted to a middle grade audience; half a class period later I was scrunching in my seat with the realization that I had written not a short story but a novella.)

No, when I say I skated into writing, I mean it literally. My passion for skating cultivated my passion for writing. Though I played with writing as a child, my heart belonged to skating. I acted out entire competitions with my dolls, scrutinized the biographies of top competitors, and longed to try it myself. I took ballet and piano lessons, but the nearest ice rink was fifty minutes from our house and skating seemed an impossible dream.

With the help of adult learn to skate classes, I came to skating as an adult and fell head over skates...in love. I thought I loved skating before; now, I breathed skating. This sounds perhaps like something that might happen to a character in a novel, but the passion was so overwhelming that when I was pregnant with my first daughter and became too pregnant to skate anymore, I came home and cried for two hours. What was I going to do? Pouring the intensity of that emotion onto the page, I rediscovered my passion for writing.

What brought you to the page and what's your writing resolution?

There's something about the new year that makes everything look shiny again, new ice fresh from a Zamboni run. I'm excited this year to be debuting my author web site, attending Vermont College of Fine Arts, and premiering my work on the Swoon Reads web site. Though what happens in Vermont stays in Vermont, watch this blog for inspiration as I blog about reflections on good writing.