Crafting Stories and Connections: Writing and Reader Loyalty | Lana McAra

0:00Something amazing is happening in data management. Even though storage needs are constantly changing, companies are only paying for what they need now. That's because CDW customized an EverPure Evergreen 1 SLA-driven storage as a service solution, delivering hybrid cloud storage that's easy to manage, efficient, and continuously evergreen. Simplify storage administration with EverPure and CDW. Make amazing happen. Find out more at cdw.com slash EverPure. Hello and welcome inspired podcast community. This is your new episode. My name is Caroline and my today's guest is Lana. Make Kara and I'm so happy that she said yes to our interview. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. I'm excited for a conversation. Oh, yes. I'm excited too. And I would like to introduce you to the audience, of course. You have spent over 30 years turning a single book into a career, an award-winning million-selling author of more than 40 titles,

1:03under your own name and as Rosie Dow, who now teaches other writers, the foundations that did last the momentum, not just a first launch. Welcome to the inspired podcast, wow, Lana, make Kara. Thank you so much, Caroline. Oh, I love that. My first question for you is, you've published 40 titles across three decades. What's the difference between the author you were with your first book and the ones you are now? Oh, wow. What a difference. When I started, I was 24 years old, young mother and I had small children. And I had one book in my mind and that's it. I didn't have any idea that I would keep writing. And it took me two years to get an idea for my second book. And eventually I did, but I saw myself as just a hobby writer.

2:03So it was just a little hobby I did on the side while I was raising my children. Today, I see myself as a career author and writing is a lifestyle for me now. Writing and marketing my books, it's a lifestyle. I loved your lifestyle and I'm so inspired already. Thank you so much for sharing. Yes, it's a difference between the first book and who you are today. Yes, my next question. You talk about writers needing a body of work, not just a single launch. What is the moment a book stops being a book and starts becoming part of a career? When you start to get a bigger picture of your place in the world and where you get a different perspective on your books because we all have books that do better than others.

3:06Some even bestsellers. I mean, Stephen King, Nicholas Sparks and all of them, they have books that do better than others. And so I think one of the main differences is that when you are a career author, you see every book launch as just another launch. A new author that has only one book or maybe two books, they see the book as life or death. Every book signing, every event, it's life or death. And that's really not the way a career author sees it. They see, oh, this one worked better. Okay, what did I do that worked? Or this one didn't do as well. What did I do that made it maybe not do so well? And it's all learning. Everything's learning. And if you have an event that doesn't do so well, you see?

4:08Well, I guess I won't go back to that place again. I'll go somewhere else. So it's not life or death. Wow, I understand. Even though I don't understand because I don't have as much books as you published, of course. But I would like to ask you what's your favorite book? That I've published. Oh, boy. I know I should say the Christie Award-winning book that I wrote in 2001, it's called Reeping the World Wind. That is the one that actually put me into a different category for my writing. But I have to say, my favorite book is this one, Terace D'Alemma. Because it's the first book I wrote. And this is the one that became a reader's favorite that year. And then it was bundled into a four-set volume.

5:11And it sold 250,000 copies. I love this little story. It's so heartfelt and sweet. It's a cowboy western romance with a mystery in it. And the girl is such a sweetheart. So, yeah, that's really my favorite. Oh, I understand. Thank you so much for sharing. Yes, of course, I have other questions for you. You've built a real fan following over the years. What actually earns a reader's loyalty? Is it the story or something else? It's when I started teaching. Once I won the Christie Award, I was inundated. I was bombarded with authors asking me to help them. And because I am a teacher, my degree was an education with an English minor. So, English teacher, I put together a course.

6:14And I started teaching fiction writers how to do better. How to write better stories and structure in all the different pieces. And that's when I started to really get loyalty from the people that were connected to me. And so, I have two tracks. I have my readers who love my books. And then I have the authors that I work with and help. And I have, I've got like river tracks going. They're parallel. Yes, I guess, but I also think the authors you, you teach or can one say this, the authors that work with you. They also rent your books. Oh, yes. Yes. Sure. And the other way around the readers started writing.

7:16Yes, that's true too. Some readers want to be a writer as well. That's very inspiring. Oh my goodness. You've said writers shouldn't do this alone. What did having a support network give you that talent and discipline alone couldn't? Oh, that's huge. Because we get lonely. And this, I find, is like an epidemic among writers. Now, we write alone. We don't write in a group. We are in our own office or wherever we hide. Where we hide from the world to do our writing. But when we're in the middle of editing, when we're having a problem, and we have a story at a certain place, and we don't know how to get it going again, and that kind of thing. And this goes for nonfiction too. I mean, nonfiction writers, you know, they can get stuck just like anybody else.

8:16We need feedback. We need other people to talk to about these things. And when we're out there doing book signings, book events, and all of this, it's so good to come back to a group and say, oh, I had a great library event this weekend. This is what happened. And everybody's like, oh, great. Because that means there's hope. There's hope for me too. Or maybe it didn't go so well. Nobody came to my event, and I didn't sell a single book. And everybody's like, oh, that's so natural. We've all had that happen. And then you leave knowing that, you know, I'm not unusual, or I'm not a failure, or a loser, because I didn't have anybody come. It's just part of the game, and we encourage each other. And now that I have a publishing company, we meet every Monday night, and I did a poll of the authors, and I said, what's your favorite part of working with us as a publisher?

9:21And they all said, oh, the Monday night meetings. The Monday night meetings are definitely our favorite. From college send-offs to retirement dreams, life is filled with many important milestones, and making sure you have a plan in place to protect the people you love can give you confidence for whatever comes next. State Farm Life Insurance can help protect your family's financial well-being through life's milestones. Your State Farm agent can help you choose flexible coverage you can adjust as your family's needs change. Contact your local State Farm agent today, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. We're living through one of the greatest shifts of wealth in history. Whether you're building wealth, exiting a business, or preparing to pass on your wealth, the decisions you make today can shape generations. A UBS financial advisor can help you with personalized advice, global capabilities, and long-term planning to help you move forward with confidence. This is a new era of wealth. Find out what's possible at UBS.com slash new era.

10:23UBS Financial Services Inc. Member Finra SIPC. When you partner with CDW, you get more from your devices with solutions that take modern work to the next level. CDW experts are delivering powerful productivity with Lenovo AI PCs. Helping users block out distractions, access virtual support anytime, anywhere, and share content seamlessly between devices. Make amazing happen. Learn more at CDW.com slash Lenovo. I love that. And where are you hiding when you are writing? What's your favorite play? When I was raising children, I raised seven children. When I was raising children, my husband put a little shelf in the closet.

11:23It was right underneath the clothes. I would push the clothes aside and pull up my little chair, and I would sit in the closet with my computer and write. That was my very favorite place because there was a door between me and the children. I actually had a space for me because, believe me, with seven children, the whole house was overtaken with kids. I loved writing in the closet. I know that sounds really weird. Very strange. I just love my closet. Wow. Thank you so much. We all have special places to go to. I never heard of this one. Do you have a writing routine? I have a different writing routine now that my children are grown. Back in the day, I used to get up at five o'clock and write until seven,

12:27two hours, about four times a week. That was before the children woke up and before it was time for school. I would write early in the morning, and that was the only time during the day that I had to write. Sometimes rarely. I would get some time on the weekends. Usually the weekends were taken up with children too. There's all these activities and stuff going on. So my early mornings were very precious to me. But now, now I am an entrepreneur, and I've got a lot of other things besides children. I will block out three days, and I will write for three solid days. I'll write until my eyes start closing, and then I'll get something to eat and go to sleep. I'll sleep a few hours, and I'll get up and go back and write again. I'm not looking at the clock. I'm not looking at how many hours of sleep I'm getting. I just sleep until I'm done, because what happens in that immersion,

13:31that's like going underwater, right, for days. During that immersion time, I start dreaming the story. And so when I'm sleeping, and I'm sleeping in the daytime, I might be sleeping at night, I always sleep in any time, and work at around the clock, I will dream. And when I wake up, I've got the scene in my mind, and I'm rushing to get to my keyboard, so I can write it quickly and not lose it. Oh, I love that. So we have two different approaches. The five to seven approach, and then the three days immersion. And I love both, because you allow yourself to do what's necessary, and also let by intuition, I would say. Yes, yes. I tried to follow some writers that I respect, and they said, you should write every day and set a goal.

14:32Like, I'm going to write a thousand words a day, or I'm going to write five thousand words a day, or whatever it is. Set that goal and write every day. And I tried to do that, but it didn't work for me. Because some days, I had a lot on my mind, or maybe one of the children was sick, or something happened, I didn't feel inspired to write that day. I had heavy weight on me, and I couldn't write. And one time I tried to write anyway, when I felt heavy, and it was terrible. I threw away all the days writing, and I said, no, I'm not going to throw away writing. I'm not going to throw away writing anymore. When I wake up at five, and it's my day to write, I feel excited. I get out of bed happy, and feeling all this energy, because it's my time. But when I wake up, and the baby's been awake, or something has gone on,

15:35maybe I had a hard day yesterday, and I don't feel good, I feel tired. I don't want to force it, but it just doesn't work for me. I want to feel energized when I write. And by the way, I never missed a deadline, even with all those children. So, follow your body, follow your inspiration, your excitement, and you'll do much better. I can get so much more done on days when I'm inspired. And I'm trying to force it, and then I end up throwing it out anyway. Yes, that's so true. Thank you so much for sharing this. This is exactly the place we talk about the inspired choice, of course, and without inspiration. It's something for the bin. I don't know if I can say this. It's not my mother language, as you heard, or so. But I have another question about, because one of my favorite authors of all time

16:39is Ernest Hemingway, and I have to mention it when I interview an author, of course. So I heard the sentence of him. It's not, yeah, something like rewriting is about revising. What do you think about the process of when you wrote everything down, and then revising stops? Yes, and actually my second draft is my favorite. My first draft is when I'm doing the immersion. I'm really into it, and I'm working very hard, because my mind is having to create all of the details and the conversations. It's all got to come out of me, and it's really like giving birth. It's hard work to get that down, but once that first draft is finished, then I will let it sit for a couple of weeks, and then go back,

17:43and I'll start at the beginning, and I will dig into what I have there, and massage. I call it massaging, because you could take this block of text and move it over here. You could take this conversation, and slow it down, or speed it up. You could just work with it, and just mold it. While I'm doing that, I'm learning my characters better. I'm getting myself fully into the story. Yes, it is revising, rewriting, but it's fun. It's fun for me to pick this up, and move it over here, and just back and forth, and then I read it front to back to see how it's flowing, and move on to the next chapter. I really love second drafts. Thank you so much.

18:43You are an inspiration to me as well for my next book. Thank you so much, and I would like to know where can we find you when people want to reach out to you, after listening to this episode. Yes, my website, lawnamacara.com, and that is L-A-N-A, Amazon Mary, C-A-R-A.com. You'll see up there, book a call or contact. It's all right there on the website, and I'd love to hear from you. Wow, I love that. I have one last question for you. It's about your goals. Do you set goals for yourself, or intentions, and what is one of your next projects? Oh, wow. I just got ten of my titles back from the traditional publisher that has held them before. Right now, my goal is to have all of those ten books re-released by early 2028.

19:47Two of them have already come out, one is coming out in January, so I'm doing quick release on these. But I went through all of them, all ten of them, to bring them up to the level I'm writing at now. Because that was early work. And so I wanted to bring in my experience and my wisdom from today. And so that's really what I'm after. It's called Cowboy Romance series. And you can look it up on Amazon, Cowboy Romance series. And it's every one of the books has a mystery in it. And number three is in the works, as far as publishing goes right now. Oh, I like that. So we are looking forward to 2028 and before, of course, maybe we will have another interview when it's published, of course. I'm open to it. Yes, thank you so much for our interview and now it's time for your final thoughts to the audience.

20:49If you have a book in your heart, just do it. Sit down, make some notes, pick a spot to start, start at the beginning, start at the middle, start at the end, wherever. But just do it. It's so rewarding. Yes, thank you so much. I'm inspired now to grab my pen. And see you in the next episode. You know it's not a great use of time. Getting data ready for AI. That's why IT leaders turn to CDW. We help unify data and govern it, building the foundation for your AI and agents to deliver results. Because when your data is ready, AI stops being an experiment and becomes an advantage. We configure, optimize, and deliver the tech that runs business. CDW, make amazing happen. And see you in the next episode.