Monday 4 February 2013

Musa Monday: Wench Marci Boudreaux


Today, I have fellow Wench, Marci Boudreaux. Marci has a wicked sense of humour and is someone who is as busy as I am.


Welcome, Marci!



Your latest release is Unforgettable You published by Musa. Can you describe this book for us?

Unforgettable You has several layers to it which I just love. So many of my books focus primarily on the hero and heroine and the supporting characters are just that, but with Unforgettable You, there are three main characters. Will Walker, an actor who is simply sleepwalking through his life, Carrie Gable, a widow who is doing whatever it takes to keep her mother-in-law in her family home, and Doreen, the mother-in-law who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and doesn’t realize how much she needs Carrie to take care of her.

I started writing this with the plan of delving deep into the relationship between Carrie and Doreen but as soon as I introduce Will to the story, it became a romance. My books tend to do that. 



Please tell us a little about your road to publication.

It was a long one. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write but never really thought it was possible to get to the point where I am now. I wrote for an online group for years, honing my craft and trying to work up the courage to try to get published. In 2002 I submitted an unpublished manuscript to a Texas Writers’ League contest and won third place. That set me down the road to submitting but after a dozen or so rejections I put the book on a shelf and wrote another, The Messenger. It also was met with a barrage of rejection. After that I put writing aside as a hobby.

Several years later, with writing still just something I did for fun, I started working on getting a degree in Journalism. Between raising kids and working, it took seven years, but I graduated last spring with a double bachelor’s in Journalism and Public Relations. I’m now working on my master’s in Publishing.

That opened the door to getting several freelance editing jobs, which helped me further understand what I needed to do to get published. I was editing for Musa for just under a month when they contracted Unforgettable You





You also write erotic romance under the name Emilia Mancini. Is it easy to keep the two sides of writing separate? 

I make it a point to do so. Not everyone wants to read graphic sex so I make sure if they pick up an Emilia book, they know that’s what they are getting. Marci’s love scenes are mildly graphic, but with Emilia, they’re getting the whole play-by-play.

Emilia’s The Rebound was my first ever publication and I had to find a balance on promoting her and keeping my professional life separate. It was a challenge, but it taught me so much about self-promoting that now I’m really glad Emilia’s book came out before Marci’s. 



You also make videos. How did this come about?

Being a journalist is much more than snooping out and writing a story. It’s doing a video, photography, and sometimes graphics. My education prepared me well for this. I had a radio show for a semester, learned radio production, video production, photography, graphic design, and so many other things.

Many of those things I thought I would never use. Then I got published and realized I had to promote my own work. I saw a lot of book trailers that I felt weren’t the highest quality and realized people where charging authors a lot of money for them.

There was no way I was paying that when I could do it on my own. I contacted a local band and got permission to use their music for The Rebound and a lot of people loved it because it was different, the song had lyrics and a life.

Then with Unforgettable You, the book just called for more than a sad musical melody. I went to a recording studio and narrated the slides for that one instead of flashing text.

I was asked by a couple authors to do trailers and found that I have a knack for it. Now, it’s something I offer on a freelance basis.

Being an author, I know how hard it is to recover the money spent on promotions. I’d much rather do it them for small fee and ask that they promote my videos and books on their blogs and videos. I feel we both get more out of it that way. 




Are you a plotter? Pantser? Or somewhere in between?

I try so hard to be a plotter. Sometimes it kind of works. But my mind is always going in a million different directions. I tend to write random scenes because something inspires a section that I’m not quite to yet, then I have to go back and tie them together.

Also, doing it that way, means I often take a different path halfway through.

I fear I can be a bit of a nightmare for an editor if I don’t go back and carefully read a my work. 





What are you working on now? And what’s in the near future for Marci Boudreaux and Emilia Mancini?

If you recall, I said I wrote a book called The Messenger way back in 2002. After Unforgettable You was released, I knew I should get something else out there soon to keep the promotional ball rolling. I pulled The Messenger off the shelf, reworked it, submitted, reworked it again per my editor’s request, and resubmitted.

By that time I had another book written and submitted as well. It was felt the content was too similar to accept both, so The Messenger was once again facing rejection. I love that book, probably more for sentimental reasons than content, so I took its wounded ego and presented it to another publisher. They snatched it up in two weeks. 

In The Messenger, Evelyn Thomas is determined to prove that she has what it takes to be an investigative reporter. When she overhears her brother-in-law saying he suspects insurance fraud at the hospital where she works, she thinks this is her big break. However, when her source is nearly killed, Eve has no choice but to turn to Wes to help her uncover the truth. The pair find themselves in multiple sticky situations and in the end fighting for their lives to break the story.

It will be available in May through Secret Cravings Publishing and I couldn’t be more excited! It has had a rough road to get to this point and I really hope people enjoy it. 


As for Emilia, I am desperately trying to wrap up a book I’ve been writing for some time for her. Seducing Kate is another erotic novel in which a young man, Kyle, finds himself infatuated by his college roommate’s mom, Kate, when his friend takes him hometown of Minneapolis for Thanksgiving break. When Kyle lands an internship in Minneapolis for the summer, he moves in with Kate and…well, you can figure out the rest. 



What is your favourite part of the process of writing?

I love all of it. I’m a writer and an editor so I see the process from so many different angles. I love that the characters get in my head and won’t let me rest until I tell their stories. I love that even after their told, I think of new scenes that I wish I had included and I love that I now get to share those stories with other people.




What are you currently reading?

As I mentioned, I am an editor so most of what I read hasn’t been released yet. I get to work out the kinks in a manuscript before setting it free for others to read, which is great. Right now, I have a new Holley Trent manuscript sitting in my to-do box and I am so excited because she is one of my favorite authors to read and to work with. She has a brilliant dry wit in her writing that I love.

I am also taking a Young Adult Genre Studies class as part of my master’s program. I just finished reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Spoiler alert: This story is about a girl who upon entering high school becomes so self-isolated that she eventually barely talks. We are seeing the world through her eyes and she has this great fear of IT. We later learn that IT is a boy named Andy who raped her at a party over the summer and her isolation is a result of that. We see through her eyes as she overcomes her fears and finally speaks out about what happened to her.

It is an amazing story and one that many schools have tried to ban from class reading because of the rape aspect, even though there is no graphic violence in the book. 



~~~
Thanks for joining me in the Taverna, Marci.


You can find Marci at marciboudreaux.com


You can find Emelia at emiliamancini.com






12 comments:

Unknown said...

I found Speak to be a very moving, very wrenching story. Marci, you are a woman of many amazing talents!

Rhea Rhodan said...

I have a question for you Marci. Does your inner editor ever get in the way of you getting a rough draft out? Or does working as an editor train her to be quiet when you're writing?

Suzanne G. Rogers said...

Great interview! I learned a lot about Marci I did not know.

Unknown said...

Rhea,

Part of why I never get a WIP done these days is because I keep editing.

My husband even lectures me on this habit. He'll say, "Just write it! You can edit when it's done."

I wish I'd done some editing before submitting this to our lovely Eleni. I hang my head in shame seeing all those typos. Ah, it's okay. This was Marci the writer speaking...yeah, that's it!

Anonymous said...

Great interview; I enjoyed it. I have to admit, photograph-wise, you look like a rather innocent wench! Have fun and I hope you have great success with your writing.

Stan
(SS Hampton, Sr., Musa author)

Unknown said...

I am completely innocent, Stan. I keep telling these women this, they don't believe me!

Lizzie said...

Enjoyed the interview, Marci. Learned some new things about you...LOL

Eleni Konstantine said...

Oh, goodness, Marci. I didn't even notice. It read all fine to me :) Thanks for being on my blog.

Thanks everyone for joining Marci here.

Rita Monette, Writer said...

Eleni's interviews sure do dig deep. Loved all the information about your extensive background, Marci. You are such a well educated and talented person. Next time, she'll have to interview Emilia. LOL

Sharon Ledwith said...

Wow, Marci you are certainly a Wench of many talents! I'm bad when writing my first draft too as I tend to self-edit, which slows the process. Go figure - great minds think alike! Wink! Best wishes and all the success in your publishing journey! Cheers!

Unknown said...

Thanks for having me, Eleni!

Rita, I'm not sure we should let Emilia out of her box around decent folk. LOL

Eleni Konstantine said...

LOL Rita, I've never been called deep. Ditzy yes. :)

Marci - LOL - Emilia is welcome ANY time. :)

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