Interview with Writer C.H. Lindsay

1. Have you always been a writer?

In one way or another. As a kid, I made up alternate lyrics to my favorite songs and would sing them as I played outside. I always liked writing stories for school classes. I also had a vivid imagination and would make up stories in my head. Sometimes they were stories set in the worlds of my favorite books. Sometimes they came from ideas those books generated.

2. When did you realize that maybe writing was actually a "thing" you could do, get published and even sell?

High school. I had the same English teacher for three years. She was my AP English teacher my senior year. She liked giving writing assignments. She submitted the best of them to the school’s literary journal. That’s where I first got published. She also helped me edit a short story I wrote so it could be entered in a school contest. I think it won second place. She was the first person who encouraged me to be a writer.

At the end of my junior year, she recommended me for the creative writing class. I took it my senior year and enjoyed it so much I took more writing classes in college.

3. What was your first sale as a writer and how did it feel to sell your work?

The university I attended had a student literary journal that published science fiction and fantasy. I had several poems accepted for publication. One of those was sold as a reprint to a major sci-fi magazine.

Those first couple of sales helped me feel like I could actually do this. That my work was good enough for someone to pay me for it. It gave me the courage to keep submitting.

My first short story sale came a few years after college. One of my college friends put out a call for an anthology. I submitted a story that fit the theme. It wasn’t accepted at first, but he liked it enough to ask for some changes. He worked with me for a couple of drafts, then accepted it. Editors rarely do that, and I’m grateful to him for that help. The anthology had some incredible writers and did well enough that it stayed in print for over a decade.

He later became a poetry editor for a literary magazine and bought one of my poems.

4. How has writing helped you in other areas of life besides being something you could earn money from?

It’s a creative outlet. There’s nothing like the feeling of working on a poem or short story and knowing that it’s finally right. I’m working on novels, but I’m still in the stage where I want to tweak one thing or another, or add another scene. Even so, crafting a longer work has its own challenges and rewards. I feel an inner peace and happiness when I’m creating that helps me deal with some of the stresses of everyday life.

I’ve been on a number of panels on writing—especially writing poetry. I’m passionate about helping other people learn how poetry can strengthen your longer fiction, or to realize that writing is hard but also rewarding. I love helping other writers get excited about the process or see how they can make their Work In Progress better.

Because of my involvement with writing groups, I got to be part of a round robin novella. The money went to helping a small writing convention get off the ground. Even though I get nothing for it, I loved being able to take what another writer started and add something to it. It was a fun process and all the writers involved loved seeing how we could make the story work.

I’ve also made a lot of good friends through the writing community. I’m part of several organizations and they help me stay energized and excited about writing. It’s also a great opportunity to network.

5. What was your biggest accomplishment as a writer?

Ooh, that’s tough. My first short story sale. That was huge because it was a local book publisher and not a campus journal.

My first poetry sale to a professional magazine. It was a national magazine and I was so excited when I got the letter (this was before everything went electronic).

Third was getting first place in a writing contest. It was a state-wide writing organization and the first time I entered. Even though I’d been writing off and on for a while and had several sales, that really helped me moving forward. I’ve won other awards for the contest, but that first one when I was new to the organization, and the contest, was huge—especially as it was open to anyone. I’ve published a number of the poems that won awards.

6. Who has inspired you the most in the writing field?

SO many people. First and foremost, Joyce Oldroyd. She was my English teacher for at least three years in junior high and high school. I don’t know if I’d have had the courage to keep writing and submitting my work without her. I also loved the way she’d always teach us about the author, the world he or she lived in, and the world the story was set in before we ever studied a poet, author, or novel.

Orson Scott Card and David Farland (Dave Wolverton). I’ve attended a lot of their writing workshops and have read a lot of their books. They are both kind and encouraging. Both became friends and mentors over the years. Both have also published wonderful books on writing. I’ve learned so much about speculative fiction and writing from them.

Marion K. “Doc” Smith. He taught the science fiction class and science fiction writing class at my university. He was also the faculty advisor for the literary journal and an annual writing symposium, both focused on speculative fiction. His knowledge and understanding of the genre were incredible. I think his office was actually a Tardis for the number of books he had in there. So many incredible writers came out of his classes and the programs he mentored.

All of them were teachers in one way or another. I owe my love of writing and my love of fantasy and science fiction to them.

7. What are some of the challenges you have faced as a writer and how did you overcome them?

The first was being a mother. I know a lot of women authors who’ve managed to raise a family and keep writing. My writing slowed down a lot. It didn’t help that I was helping to organize and run science fiction, fantasy, and horror conventions at the same time. I also spent a few years acting in community theatre with my husband and kids (they would always do a summer show with us). There’s only so much time in a day, and mine were pretty packed. But in spite of that, I did keep writing, but slowly.

The biggest challenge, however, was going blind. I have a degenerative eye disease and have been going blind for most of my life. That caused me to stop doing theatre and to stop helping with conventions. That was the best thing that happened to my writing as I had all that time to then put into my craft. Or my first craft.

That also brought a lot of difficulties to overcome. I went from writing by hand (there’s definitely something to be said for writing poetry by hand) to writing on a computer to not being able to read what I write.

I can see some of it, but not enough. I think I’m up to a 12x zoom. It might be more. I can read a word or two at a time if it’s white text on a black background. That does not work well for stories and novels. It can work for poetry.

My computer reads one line or one paragraph at a time. That lets me know how it sounds and where I need to fix it. Then I have to find where it needs to be fixed, which can be difficult in paragraphs.

It’s also hard to edit when you’re only going paragraph by paragraph and don’t get the bigger picture.

When I’m going through final edits for a short story, I’ll have my Word document opened on one side of my screen and a text opened on the other. I start my computer reading the Word doc to me and make notes in the text of what I need to fix. Then I will search for those three or four words I typed to tell me where to find the paragraph that needs work. If I can go through the entire short story without typing anything, I move on to my husband. He then reads the story out loud while I listen. I will stop him if I hear something I think should be changed.

For poetry, I go line by line having my computer read to me.

I get a feeling of rightness, of peace, when the story or poem is as good as I can make it.

For novels, I go paragraph by paragraph and chapter by chapter. I will treat each chapter as a short story in the editing process. I’m not done enough with that to be able to go to a beta reader, but that will be my next step in the process.

It takes me longer than most people because I have to find ways around my disability, but it is also helpful as I have to rely on what I hear and think.

When I’m doing a first draft, I just type what comes out and fix it later.

8. What is the best writing advice you have ever received and why do you feel it is important?

Never give up. There is no age limit to being a writer. I’m so much better now than I was in college. A lot of that is because I have more life experiences to help me and I’m in a better mental place to write. Part of it is that I now have the time to write.

My father published his first book at the age of 75. When he passed away, he had four books published and was working on two more.

I figure I have another 20 years to put into my work. I’m working on four books that are in the editing phase and I’ll write another before the year is out. My plan is to have at least one published by 2025. I’ve had more sales for my short stories and poetry this year than any other. I love writing more now than I did then. I don’t look back and think, “Man, I wish I’d kept writing.” I look back and see all that I’ve accomplished and how it has enriched my life and given me so much more I can put into my craft.

9. What sort of writing do you do now?

Fantasy and dark fantasy, with some light, humorous horror. I mostly write and publish poetry, but I have written and sold a number of short stories to anthologies.

My novel-length WIPs are mostly fantasy. Last year I discovered cozy mysteries and went through way too many audiobooks. Now I have a first draft of a cozy mystery waiting for a rewrite.

10. Where can we find some of your work online?

I have a list of anthologies with my work on my website (www.chlindsay.net). I also have an Amazon author page.

11. What advice do you have for aspiring writers thinking of taking the leap of getting their work published?

Read a lot in your genre so you understand it well. Read outside of your genre so you gain a wider appreciation of literature in general. Read poetry, fiction, nonfiction, histories, biographies, etc.

Take writing classes and workshops. Attend writing conventions and conferences to learn your craft. Network with other writers. Join a writing group.

Most of all, write and keep writing. You won’t publish your first book, story, or poem. It may take a while, but keep at it. Some of the most famous authors were rejected over and over. Some of them never sold their first books. But they did sell eventually.

Don’t quit because you don’t sell. You will get far more rejections than you ever get sales. That’s the way it is for most writers.

If you’re an indie author, pay for an editor, or get some very good beta readers to help you get your novel as polished as you can. Then send it out. When it’s rejected, send it out again. You can also publish it yourself.

If you write short fiction or poetry, get feedback from a writing group to help you polish your work, then send it out.

12. What are your final thoughts about being a writer?

I love being a writer. I love the process of writing, of using a dictionary or thesaurus to find just the right word if I need to. I love the feeling of satisfaction when a work is done and I send it out into the world.

I love learning more of my craft from other authors. It makes me happy to write and it makes me happy when people like what I do.

The writing community is so generous with their time to help other authors. You’re not alone. Writing organizations and groups give you a network of support and a way to improve your craft. We’re all learning and we’re all growing. What’s great is we don’t have to do it alone.

ABOUT CHARLIE:

C. H. Lindsay (Charlie) is an award-winning poet, writer, housewife, and book-lover—not necessarily in that order. She currently has short stories and poems in twenty-one anthologies (so far). Her poems have also appeared in magazines including Amazing Stories, Space and Time, Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, and The Leading Edge. She is working on four novels, six short stories, and at least two dozen poems (although the numbers are always in flux).  

In 2018 she became Al Carlisle’s literary executor. She now publishes his true crime under Carlisle Legacy Books, LLC.

She is a member of SFWA, HWA, SFPA, LUW and is a founding member of the Utah Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. Mostly blind, she lives in Utah with her “seeing-eye husband,” library of books, and a bossy cat. You can learn more about her at www.chlindsay.net.