AN INTERVIEW WITH MELODY CARLSON

 

For this last month of the year, and the Christmas season, Melody Carlson has stopped by to chat with me. Melody is the author of over 200 books in various genres. Her most recent is The Christmas Dog, a novella.

Welcome, Melody, I’m excited to have you visit.

Melody, what is your favorite type of genre to read?

Contemporary fiction is probably my favorite thing to read—especially novels about women and relationships. I enjoy realistic stories about the “normal” struggles of everyday life. Give me a few well developed characters (people I can relate to) and an interesting setting, add some challenges, and I’m hooked.

Do you have a favorite Christmas story or book that has particularly touched your heart?

I’ve always been an O. Henry fan and The Gift of the Magi is a poignant Christmas tale that I’ve loved for years. In fact, it was the inspiration of one of my own Christmas novellas (All I Have to Give). O. Henry (a pseudonym) had some interesting life challenges (including doing some prison time) which might explain his unique ability to write so realistically and movingly about human behavior and problems—and yet his stories were always laced with hope.

You have written numerous Christmas novellas – what do you like best about this type of story?

There’s something about a Christmas story that invites “magic,” creativity and the unexpected. Because I never outline, writing is an exploratory journey for me, but it’s especially so with a Christmas tale. So I always look forward to when it’s time to write another one. Ironically I end up writing my Christmas stories right in the middle of summer—it might be close to 100 degrees outside and yet I’m writing about snow falling, hot chocolate and jingle bells. Fortunately my air conditioned writing studio looks out over a pine forest, but I’m often caught by surprise once I step out the door.

Do you have a special Christmas memory that stands out as extra-special?

The Christmas of 1964, Oregon experienced a major flood which closed schools and roads and made the holidays miserable for a lot of people. Because my mother was single, the need of an extended family (particularly during the holidays) was extreme. But my sister and I talked our mom into making the three hour trek to our grandparents, where we actually drove through a flooded river (watching a VW bug floating away) to get there. Then, once we were there, my grandfather told us that due to the flood we couldn’t go to the woods to get the usual tree. Naturally, this was a huge disappointment. But with a twinkle in his eyes, Grandpa took us out to the front yard where he proceeded to chop down one of his own beautiful holly trees. Decorating the tree was a prickly affair that year, but the end results were stunning. Worried that he’d be sorry about chopping down his tree, I later asked him about the sacrificed holly tree and he informed me that the city had told him to remove the holly trees from the parking strip because they obstructed the view for traffic.

Do you have a favorite Christmas tradition you can share?

My favorite tradition is simply being with family and friends. Does it get any better than that? But because my husband’s birthday is also on Christmas Day, and because he got tired of having turkey for his birthday every year, I asked him what he’d prefer. “Lasagna,” he proclaimed. So for the last fifteen years, we’ve had lasagna on Christmas Day and everyone seems to enjoy it more than turkey.

Last question, Melody. You’re known to write extremely fast. What’s your secret – as far as your process?

I’m one of those people who does almost everything fairly fast—I’m not even sure why, maybe I’m just wired differently. But when I first started writing, my “free” time was extremely limited (running a home business, two grade school kids…and life) so, out of necessity, I had to write really fast. Early on I taught myself to write a chapter in one sitting (at that point in time, I had only a few hours to write and not even daily). Then, the next time I sat down to write, I’d give myself about 20 minutes to read through the last chapter I’d written (while doing a very brief edit) and then I’d launch right into the next chapter…and so on until the book was finished. I wrote about ten books like this (while working etc.). When I finally became a fulltime writer, I didn’t even know how to write slowly. I tried it and got frustrated, I kept dropping story threads, and then I’d got bored. So I went back to writing quickly…and I continue to do so.

Thank you, Melody; it’s been fun having you visit my Web site. All the best to you with The Christmas Dog, and each future project.

If you’d like to win a copy of The Christmas Dog, just use my contact page, and type “drawing” in the comments box. The deadline to enter is December 24th.

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