Lou Turner is an unforgettable woman who wears many hats. As co-founder of Coffee and Critique, she dispenses candid and unvarnished suggestions to help writers become better at their craft.
In 2008 Lou and her husband Bryan started High Hill Press.
High Hill is not a self-publisher or a vanity press, but a small publishing business to offer writers a small niche between the huge New York publishing houses and the often high-priced print on demands.
Since becoming CEO, editor, and publisher of High Hill Press, Lou has nurtured scores of writers in navigating the publishing process to turn their writing dreams into reality.
Along with her team of five acquiring editors, Lou takes a personal interest in any book published by High Hill. While High Hill is a small press, it stresses quality in submissions. Only 25% of submissions are accepted for publication.
Lou took time from her busy schedule to respond to the "Take Ten" interview questions:
1. What inspired
you to become a writer?
Lou:
It has to be my childhood. Mystery
author, Agatha Christie, said in the introduction to her autobiography, “One of
the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy
childhood.” When I first started writing my parents were my only readers. I
thought I was creating fiction, but every time my dad read one of my short
stories, he would say, “I didn’t know you remembered that.” So between
alligator wrestling Uncles, a grandpa that gambled for Al Capone, and
everything in between, I’ve never had to grasp for something to write about.
2. What
is your writing specialty?
Lou:
I’m not sure. I hate it when I hear an
editor or agent telling people to stick to one genre. How boring would that be?
I like to stretch and try new things and new styles when I write. I love the
“what if” game. What if Scarlett O’Hara found her beloved Tara overrun with
Zombies? Wow, that would be a great story…guess I’d better get busy on that
one.
3. How would you
describe your writing process?
Lou:
I used to challenge myself
and sit in front of a blank screen to see if I could come up with something
new, something I’d never thought of writing before. Now I just wait until an
idea comes to me and head to the computer. Recently I was told to write about a
specific topic. And although it was a great topic, I found it hard to work like
that. My most recent essay is called The First Gray Hair, and I wrote it after a younger woman
commented that older people are often behind the times. Anger, I found, is a
great place to start when writing an essay about aging. The actual process is
constantly changing for me. I don’t feel as though I have to write every day to
accomplish what I want, but there are times when I will literarily write for 8
or 10 hours a day for days on end. I’ve worked many times right through the
night.
4. What
is the best part of being a writer? What is the worst part of being a
writer?
Lou:
Best: It’s all good. But
probably just knowing each time you start a new project that your brain is
still able to work is the best.
Worst:
Having a great story rumbling around in your head and not finding the time to
get it down before it flees.
5. What is the best
writing advice you’ve received? The worst?
Lou: Best: Just write. If you come to a dead end in one story, start
another one.
Worst:
I’ve probably never had any really bad advice. I can always tell when someone
comments about my writing whether they’re doing it from a place of real
helpfulness, or whether they’re just throwing out advice to be throwing out
advice. I’ve learned to know the good advice from the bad…and I ignore the bad.
I did have an editor put a zillion semi-colons in an article I’d written for a
newsletter once. She didn’t discuss it with me, just plopped then in all over
the place. It turned my humorous and conversational article into something
unrecognizable. Which made me realize how dangerous a bad editor can be.
6. Which books on
writing can you recommend for other writers?
Lou: Reading is the best advice I can give you.
Buy all the writing guides you can pick up off the sale table and keep them at
your fingertips for when you run into a specific problem…like grammar or
punctuation. But for learning how to write and develop your voice, you have to
read the work of authors who did it well.
I started reading before the first grade. I grew up on Mary
Shelley and Charles Dickens, and then Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty. I
don’t read as quickly as I used to, but I keep a book with me all the time.
What amazes me now is that I can read a good book and see why it’s good. I can
see how the author put just the right amount of imagery in his prose. How he
put suspense in just when it was needed. How his dialogue flows, or sometimes
doesn’t flow. But I can see what that writer did to make his story good.
7. How has
belonging to Coffee and Critique affected you as a writer?
Lou:
I think being with other writers has made
me want to learn more about the craft. There’s nothing like being almost ready
to take a piece in to read, and then after going over it that one last time,
realizing it still needs work. Reading in front of a group will make you
humble, that’s for sure. But it’ll also make you try a little harder.
8. If you’ve been
published or have won awards, which are the most special to you?
Lou:
All of them are special. I think the most
special was the first publication, and probably that first, first place. But
the last one is special too. I changed my expectations greatly after learning
more about the craft. When I first started I was simply being a businesswoman
and trying something new to make money. After a while I realized this wasn’t
like running a gift shop, or even painting for a living. Writing was completely
different. So instead of needing to make money, I changed and simply needed to
be able to tell a story that could entertain, or bring about a laugh, or a
tear, or make someone check the shadows before they jumped into bed at night.
9. What three words
best describe you?
Lou:
Eager to learn.
10. What is your
writing dream?
Lou: I’m not sure I have a writing dream. Years ago I would have told you it
was to be interviewed by Charlie Rose because of my bestselling novel. But now
I simply pray that I won’t run out of things to write about before I die. Or
that I die with a thousand more stories yet to tell.
I don't know about you, but I hope Lou will be sharing her stories for years to come.
