Blog Tour and Author Interview: Dancing and Doughnuts by Rachel Kovaciny

Howdy-doody on this fine Tuesday! Today, we have a new guest to the blog, Rachel Kovaciny! She has a blog tour for her new book. You can find all of the other posts here. Be sure to read through the whole post so you don't miss the interview OR the amazing giveaway!

About the Book

Fifty dollars just for asking a few questions? Jedediah Jones figures it must be his lucky day. What dancing and doughnuts have to do with anything, he neither knows nor cares. He’s only interested in earning that money so he can finally eat something other than the apples he's been living off for days. Once his stomach and his pockets are filled again, he plans to move on.

But answering the advertisement plunges him into a forest of painted trees, twelve pretty sisters, trouble, and more trouble. And, yes, doughnuts.

So many doughnuts.

Can Jedediah Jones solve the mystery and earn that fifty dollars when the whole town has failed? Or will the twelve sisters lose their family's business no matter what he does?

About the Author

Born only a few miles from where Jesse James robbed his first train, Rachel Kovaciny has loved the Old West all her life. She now lives in Virginia with her husband and their three homeschooled children. Her western retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, Cloaked, was a finalist for the 2017 Peacemaker Award for Best Young Adult/Children’s Western Fiction. In her free time, Rachel writes for the Prairie Times, reads, bakes, blogs, watches movies, and daydreams.

Author website:  http://www.rachelkovaciny.com/

Facebook author page:  https://www.facebook.com/RachelKovacinyAuthor/

Goodreads author page:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15099546.Rachel_Kovaciny

Goodreads page for this book:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40200640-dancing-and-doughnuts

Amazon author page:  https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Kovaciny/e/B01GMBS48K/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1466194232&sr=1-2-ent

Blog:  https://hamlette.blogspot.com/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/rachelkovaciny/

Author Interview

Good morning and welcome to my blog! I’m excited to have you here and hope you have some fun with these questions. Since this blog is about and for writers, most of the questions will be about writing with a few optional, fun questions at the end.

1. What is your writing process? Do you outline before you start?

I don’t outline because it feels too much like rules I have to follow.  I’ve actually tried outlining a few times, and it’s great for nonfiction projects, but for fiction... it doesn’t work for me.  One of the things I love best about writing is the sense of discovery as the story unfolds before me.  New characters crop up, the story takes twists I wasn’t expecting, and that’s a lot of what keeps me writing.  The few times I’ve outlined a story or book, I’ve never finished the book because I knew too much about how and when things happened, and I got bored.

What I like best is knowing the beginning and the end, and having a general idea of how the characters get from one to the other, but letting the middle section be a bit hazy so that I can let it come into focus as I write.  I do my first draft entirely linearly—I begin at the beginning, and when I get to the end, I stop.  In rewrites, I can jump around in time a bit more, but not that first draft.  Because the way my brain works, everything builds on what has come before, so I can’t just write a piece here and there and have them turn out as a cohesive story in the end.

2. How do you develop your characters? Do you use images found online, a Pinterest board, character sketches, or develop them as you write?

My characters tend to pop into my head first, before the plot forms, and I spend a lot of time getting to know them in my imagination.  Just having imaginary conversations with them, trying them out in different combinations to see who reacts how to whom.  A lot of times, I’ll start with actors and actresses I’m familiar with, actually.  Like, “What if Bobby Darin and Lauren Bacall made a movie together?”  And then the characters gradually peel away from the actors until they become their own people.

I do tend to save ideas to Pinterest boards.  The one for Dancing and Doughnuts is here: https://www.pinterest.com/hamlettethedame/dancing-and-doughnuts/  I use those a lot for saving images related to landscapes, props, and period-correct clothing.

3. What is your best advice for getting rid of writer’s block?

Read a book or watch a movie.  In my experience, writer’s block forms when my creative well is running dry.  So dumping stories into my well fills it up again, and then I can proceed.

4. If you could share one piece of advice that you wish someone else had told you to an aspiring writer, what would it be?

Don’t wait for inspiration, chase it.  If you sit around waiting to be inspired before you write, you will never complete a book.  Or, if you do, it’ll take you a decade.  If you sit down and start writing, the words will come.  Not always easily, but even just putting a hundred words down is forward progress.

5. What is your favorite genre?

To read?  Mysteries!  To watch?  Westerns.

Fun (optional) questions:

Pizza or Pasta?

Pizza.  Especially with extra pepperoni and cheese.

Favorite movie?

The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Favorite Bible verse?

“Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

Coffee, tea, or water?

Coffee during the day, tea at night, and water whenever I think about it.

Favorite movie adaptation?

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Giveaway

Rachel will draw one winner for the giveaway on Sunday, September 9 and notify them via the address they provide to the Rafflecopter widget.  That winner will receive an autographed copy of Dancing and Doughnuts, a copy of Log Cabin Cooking, and a Once Upon a Western tote bag that measures 15"x18"x6" with 22" handles.  People can enter in a variety of ways, including by visiting different tour stops each day.  Here's the link for the giveaway:  http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2b4f811754/?